Y’all, April is the cruelest month. Eliot said it, not me, so don’t shoot the messenger. The month started out super awesome, with me traveling to USM for the Kaigler Children’s Book Festival, but real talk: I kind of don’t know what I’m doing at this point in the semester/year. According to my log, I read 16 books this month, but since I quit reading on April 25, that means I read 4-point-something books a week, and since one of those weeks I was in Mississippi, I wasn’t really reading. And I’m not magic. But they’re written down for April so I’m going with it. Mostly, I’m just glad to be done reading for my YA book log! It is officially turned in and finished and I am happy to report that I survived the reading of 46 Young Adult novels.

Top Pick(s): Well, this month I went kind of Jacqueline Woodson crazy. She was the Southern Miss Medallion winner, and since I loved Brown Girl Dreaming so much (Feb? March?), I felt the need to prepare to be a festival ambassador by reading as many of her other books as possible. So: Behind You; Locomotion; Peace, Locomotion; Feathers; After Tupac and D Foster; and Beneath a Meth Moon. They are all 100% worth your time. If I had to choose just one though, it would be Feathers. Absolute Fave.

Y’all I love every single word this woman says and writes.

Despite Jacqueline's limited time frame for being at the festival, we were still able to get a picture!

Surprising Books: I was pleasantly surprised by Holly Gold Sloan’s Counting by 7s, and surprisingly disappointed by Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. I felt like a sham librarian not having read any Gaiman, and while it was good, I didn’t think it lived up to the hype.

I did try to diversify my reading in terms of genre this month, hitting up some poetry (Enchanted Air), mystery/suspense (The Boy in the Burning House), and even some short stories (Athletic Shorts). I also read an absolutely terrible book called I Know What You Did Last Summer, which upset The Chocolate War as worst book I have read this year. If you want a poorly updated story about generic, WASP Americana with flat characters, pointless conversations, a predictable plot and characterizations of women based solely on their looks, then this book is for you! For anyone who swears at audiobooks that try to build suspense by having a character locked in a bathroom, unable do anything because she’s surrounded only by “flimsy feminine products,” (because men’s shampoo is definitely sturdier than women’s…), then this book may hinder your ability to drive in traffic.

I will say that my opinion has swayed slightly from absolute hatred to general dislike but tolerance of books for Young Adults, though I have realized that I am a general fan of middle-grade fiction, with an intense drop-off for older YA lit. Most of the books I enjoyed were geared towards slightly younger audiences. And I am definitely ready to dive back into my personal reading list – which is already about 15-20 books long for summer! We’ll see how much progress I make next month…