I should quantify that. I did read children's fiction that I didn't realise was aimed at kids--CS Lewis, Willard Price, Tolkien, stuff my parents read as well. The books I had no interest in were anything that dealt with the real-life, everyday stuff that young people have to deal with, like school and homework and other kids. Even now, stories with a heavy bias towards that sort of thing leave me cold. I never cared for Harry Potter, for example. Why would I want to read about a not-very-smart student and his struggles to get through school unscathed? We have enough of that in real life, thanks.
In case you haven't already guessed, I'm an idiot. For years I've assumed children's fiction (and here I'm lumping together everything up to and including Young Adult) is not what I want to read. Obviously some people like those books, but why should I bother when there are proper grown-up books to read?
Again: idiot.
I've belatedly realised my error. Frankly, not only do I feel like a wally for dismissing thousands of stories out of hand, but I'm also mad at myself for excluding all those books from my life, due to nothing more than pure snobbery.
One of our two local libraries is the Family Library in Douglas. It's a lovely place and is completely filled with children's books. And yet the "Children's" section (the bit I would've considered being for kids; the bit with the picture books, where our youngest son instinctively goes first) occupies one corner of the big room. Everything else is stuff I want to read.
It makes me a bit giddy to go in there. Where the heck do you start? For someone who's avoided Middle Grade and Young Adult books for so long, where do I jump in? In our local libraries (I'm not sure if this is standard or not), the children's sections are divided up by age range rather than genre. For adult books, I know exactly where my comfort zone is: right at the centre point between the horror, crime, and sci-fi/fantasy sections. Why would I need to go anywhere else?
But in the YA section there're none of these familiar boundaries. Everything is lumped together, horror and fantasy rubbing shoulders with gritty drama and sweeping historical epic. I'm already at a disadvantage because, a) I don't know which YA authors I like (due to my own ignorance, I'll admit), and b) I don't read back-cover blurbs. So, much of the time I'm choosing at random. I like this cover, I recognise this name, this illustrator is amazing, I saw someone reading this on the bus... it's a whole new thing for me.
Obviously I haven't loved everything I've read at random, but I'm having a pretty good success rate so far, and I've discovered a bunch of authors who I absolutely love. None of whom I would've ever read if I'd kept thumbing my nose at "kids' books".
I suspect I sound like one of those people who suddenly realise they can get internet on their phones, when else everyone in the world has known for years, but I don't care. I'm having a blast. When was the last time I was so excited to be in a library? Oh, right, when I was a kid. Gotcha.
