Books for 3s and 13s

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I met this morning with a group of local women and Wall Street Journal columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon. Cox Gurdon, a children's literature critic for the WSJ, might best be known to some for her controversial article in June 2011 about contemporary teen fiction and whether it's too explicit, graphic, troubling, etc., and just a bad idea.

While I mostly went to speak with Cox Gurdon to find out what I should be reading my 3-year-old (because I'm ignorant of anything beyond the Little House books), the article mentioned above got me thinking about my work. Specifically, whether my author should focus his most recent detour from psychological suspense, a "horror" novel (maybe thriller...I'm not yet sure which genre we're entering into, as I've only read a third of the book), and aim it at the YA audience.

My first inclination was, "Yes! Good market. Let's do it." I even pushed it on him. It hadn't crossed his mind. But almost immediately I started questioning my initial reaction.

"Do I really think he should push such a scary story on teens? Do I like YA fiction? Do I want him to be a part of what is going on in this genre? Would I let my teens read this?"

Definitely things to think about. I'm leaning more toward NOT hitting YA with this book now. Mostly because my author writes books for adults, so why should I have him shifting? Too confusing. And then also because of these questions.

So many more thoughts going on today, but no time to blog. Must. Get. Working.

But before I go, if you have a three-year-old: what books do you read him/her? I have a good new list going, but I'm always up for adding more.