Why Books for Children and Young Adults?

When talking with other parents about what books we’re reading or recommending to our children or recommending to our middle-grade kids, it seems that many of them are either simply overwhelmed by the quantity of great books available, and either fall back on problematic things they may have loved as children, or to more contemporary popular series with their own issues also by problematic authors.

I try to take a more active approach: I do a fair bit of research and read a lot to my child, and have come to appreciate books for which children are a primary audience but also are delightful for adults.

While I loved the film adaptation of The Wild Robot I found the writing style of the book overly patronizing and simplistic. I didn’t enjoy reading it, and my child picked up on that. The books I recommend here are ones both my child and I enjoyed.