By Joan Passarelli

Blue Jeans & Jelly Beans

Recently I’ve been disappointed by some of the books I’ve checked out of the library. They’ve had elements I don’t want to read about: child abuse, extreme violence or a nihilistic worldview.

Life looked bleak last week without a good book to read. Then my daughter brought home from school the books we’d ordered from Scholastic.

We got a bunch of Newbery books and books by Newbery authors. The Newbery Medal annually honors the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. So the books that receive it, or are runners-up for the award, are usually a good bet.

This time they were more than a good bet. We hit the jackpot.

My 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son dived in eagerly. Both the kids’ first choice was “The Wish” by Gail Carson Levine. In it, a shy, awkward girl has a wish granted: to be the most popular girl in her school. The book got a thumbs-up from both of them.

My daughter then started “Harriet the Spy” by Louise Fitzhugh. Harriet Welsch is a loner who “spies” on everyone she knows and writes her findings in her notebook. This was the only one I’d read myself as a child, and I was delighted that it was as good as I remembered. My daughter started trying for later bedtimes every night, because “I’m at an exciting part! I have to find out what happens to Harriet!”

I got smart and followed my kids’ example. I picked up “A Year Down Yonder” by Richard Peck. A teenage girl from Chicago has to go live with her fearsome grandma in the country during the Depression. Each chapter is like a short story about an event from the year she spends there. The exquisitely right writing chronicles the growing love between the two of them without ever making it obvious.

Mmm, I thought. This is good stuff.

I went back to the book pile and grabbed “Hope Was Here” by Joan Bauer. Hope is a 16-year-old waitress who lives with her aunt Addie, a cook. They travel from diner to diner following jobs. Hope’s take on food service, professional pride and life without parents is witty, trenchant and spot-on. The night I started it, I stayed up until nearly midnight to finish.

Maybe, I thought, these so-called young adult, or YA, books are what I should be reading, even if I am over 18.

Los Altos resident Mary Feliz, a children’s book author herself, figured this out long ago. She keeps up with the YA literature and reads it for herself as well as to her children. Feliz recommends “Boston Jane: An Adventure” by Jennifer L. Holm. Jane goes to a young ladies’ academy to learn how to be a lady, her dearest wish. Later, when she travels out West, she finds that she’s learned all the wrong things.

We’re onto something here. When I need a good book, I’m going to turn to the best of the YA literature. You can too. Visit the wonderful people at the Linden Tree bookstore downtown, who will help you find just what you need. Or use your child’s Scholastic book orders, or ask the children’s librarian for recommendations. Then curl up with a really, really good book.

Passarelli is the mother of three and values a good book right up there with food and shelter. Her column runs the fourth week of the month.