Day 5 of Armchair BEA is about "Keeping it Real" and Children's/Young Adult Literature.
Our final genre focuses on the younger crowd: children's picture books and young adult literature and everything in between. What are your top 5 (or more) books that every child should have on his shelf? If you are an adult who reads YA, why do you keep going back for more? If you are not a reader of these books, think back to your childhood and share your favorites from your younger years.
I've done a Top Ten Tuesday post where Childhood Favorites was the topic. You can see the full list here. But of those, my top 5 are: The Berenstain Bears by Jan and Stan Berenstain; The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown; Six Months to Live by Lurlene McDaniel; Angels Watching Over Me by Lurlene McDaniel; & Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan.
I've also done this post about why I love YA. But I'll try to summarize it for you here. 1) The YA genre deals with a time period that was very awkward for most of us. Thus there is a variety of subjects that can be addressed for this period of time and age range. 2) First love/really intense first crushes. My favorite to read about. 3) Re-experiencing cloud 9 euphoria that comes with new love.
I also address that YA has it's "faults" in the same post mentioned above. But we must learn to look past the faults of others (in this case YA lit) because we know we have our own. But here's where it really breaks down...
"YA allows me to relive my own teenage years time and time again but with a completely different outcome each time. Sometimes I'm the cool, hot girl. Sometimes I'm the nerd. Sometimes I'm the outcast. Sometimes I date the gorgeous football player. Sometimes I don't date at all. Sometimes I move to live with my dad and fall in love with a sparkly vampire what originally wanted to drain my body of it's life source. Sometimes I get to fight demons. Sometimes I run from zombies. Sometimes I find out my parents have lied to me my entire life. Sometimes I get to be a dude too--what! Sometimes I get to be a witch/wizard and go to awesome boarding schools. Sometimes a loved one dies. Sometimes the guy I fall in love with, who also happens to be my teacher, gets carried off and turned into an evil vampire and I have to hunt him down to kill him. [Sometimes the guy I fall in love with, who also happens to be my teacher, turns out to be husband.] Sometimes my best friend becomes a queen. The possibilities are endless (I could seriously keep going here) and I get to journey to each one."
Those are my favorite children's books and why I love YA. What are your favorite childrens books? Do you love YA like I do or hate it with a passion? Let me know!
I loved the Berenstain bears books! They were great!
ReplyDeleteI know, right! We didn't have EVERY one of them, but we had a ton of them. And I loved them! Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteAww, The Runaway Bunny! I forgot about that one. Such a great book. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my post!
~Sara @ Forever 17 Books
I love good children's books, and I love some YA. I agree, it has its problems... including, recently, an overload on the dystopian stuff (not my favorite, although there are some terrific exceptions) and an over-reliance on love triangles (also not my favorite, although there are some terrific exceptions there as well.) As for my favorites... well, I too did a
ReplyDeletefavorite children’s book post recently, though I limited my picks to classics. And I've reviewed a fair number of children's, middle-grade, and YA books over the years. :-)
My husband actually introduced me to The Runaway Bunny--very symbolic. Thanks for stopping by as well!
ReplyDeleteI haven't quite gotten tired of dystopian, and you're right, it really just depends on the love triangle that we're talking about. But typically love triangles are overdone. Thanks for stopping by! I'll have to check out your post about your childhood favorites too!
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