Happy Children's Book Week!

Join the Hop! Your hosts:
Mother Daughter Book Reviews
Youth Literature Reviews

I love young adult fiction. It can grab you tighter, pull you in deeper, than perhaps anything else. Think of The Fault in Our Stars or Thirteen Reasons Why or Before I Fall or a hundred other fantastic books. (You'll be adding C.J. Flood's Infinite Sky to that list, I promise you, if you've not read it. Wow.)

But while great YA makes my head spin, great middle-grade fiction tugs at my heart. It's where I live; it's home to me. There are wonderful adult books and great YA books, but deep down, I think middle grade books are my very favorite. They do so much with so little. They run the gamut from goofy-funny to heartbreaking. And perhaps the most heartbreaking part of even the funniest books is that, to the adults around them, kids' worries just aren't that big a deal.

But we all know they are. If you can remember what it's like to be ten years old, you recognize those feelings when a writer reveals them through character. And if you can't remember what it's like to be ten years old, I pity you. Read a few MG books and see if you can't get that back. Because it's important stuff we learn when we're ten, and it's important because we're ten. And no, I'm not talking long division here.

So celebrate Children's Book Week! Dance around the Maypole, if you didn't get a chance to do that on May 1. Go to the library and fill your arms with books like you did when you were little (or, bless you, like you ought to have done). Delight in their bright colors and their noble heroes. Take them seriously, because no one else takes a ten-year-old seriously. Then report back! What's on your middle-grade TBR shelf? Here's mine:

And anyway, what better way to celebrate Children's Book Week than with a cool giveaway and blog hop? Book bloggers extraordinaires Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews are cohosting the fabulous Kid Lit Giveaway Hop referenced above. Hop  here, hop there, like good little blogfrogs, and enter to win kidlit books and gift cards!

And Yeah, a Giveaway Right Here
But first, don't think you're leaving here without a chance to win a free autographed hardcover copy of The Key & the Flame. Because that just wouldn't be right. Then scroll down to hop around to the rest of the sites!

a Rafflecopter giveaway