As a former classroom teacher and reading specialist as well as a parent, I have had more than the average amount of exposure to children’s books. In another lifetime, I would be a children’s librarian. Here are my favorites – some I read as a kid, some I loved as a teacher, and some I love to read to my kids.

There are so many books in this category, but I am limiting myself to my top 10 next reads.

People know I read a lot. Consequently, I am frequently asked “What have you read lately that you have loved?” and “What are your favorites?” This post is a compilation with no comments. In gathering the list, I loved finding the covers of the versions I actually read. I will follow up with a post about favorites from 2013, since it is drawing to a close.

These are in no particular order…

Well, I do love bagels, and Georgetown Bagels are some of our family’s favorites. Not only is the shop close to our home, but also we truly believe these bagels are the best in town (not that there are many good ones to choose from). Having heard vague stories of the demise of the marriage of “the bagel lady” and her husband who is the owner of Palisades Pizzaria (another place we frequent), I thought this would be an interesting read. I was fortunate that a friend purchased the book and loaned it to me –  glad I didn’t pay for it – but I get ahead of myself.

I began Who Scooped My Bagel having just finished Me Before You (see previous post), so the bar was set high. Perhaps that made this read even worse, but I am not sure that is possible. [Caveat inserted here: I do feel sympathy for Adler. If even 1% of what she claims is true, she has had a terrible time of it. HOWEVER…) Even though Adler claims to be a writer, I am sorry to say that it is not her writing that makes this a page-turner. It is the train-wreck that was her life and having a sense of the place and the players that made me finish the book. Nothing more.

Adler jumps from past to present to cooking lesson in a jarring fashion. She also skips through 20 years in a few pages. However, the book only takes about an hour to read. Thank goodness, because I will never get that time back. Ask someone who has read the book to summarize for you. And, buy her bagels, not her books, should you choose to support her.

Me Before You sat on my bedside table for a while, tempting me. But, I had library books and other important matters to attend to before I could manage it. Wow, I should have made this one a priority. It was such a good read that I read it in two days. My only complaint was the change in voice that surprised me and snuck in too long after I was used to hearing Louisa’s perspective.

Overall, however, this story is one that is worth reading. I began thinking it was going to be predictable. Of course they were going to fall in love. But, what was going to be the hook? How was it going to happen? Moyes wrote the book in such a way that you had to read to find out, even while having the inevitability in the back of your mind the whole way through.

While reading, I was able to shut out everything else happening in life. And, by the end, all I could do was weep.