When you don’t like a book?

That’s what I’m going to discuss today. Why? Because I took two picture books out of the library yesterday and I chose them solely based on their covers. (I know, I know.) I had high hopes. Both books had kind of a fun, friendly vibe. Both books appeared, on the outside, to be something that they very much weren’t on the inside.

The long and short of it is: I didn’t like them. Either of them. I wouldn’t have read them to my kids (if they were still picture book aged), and I wouldn’t buy them for our home library. They were strange in a not-good way, and both stories were really, really shallow. I. Didn’t. Like. Them. At. All.

So, as a reviewer, I wouldn’t have many positive things to say about them. But those not-positive things would be honest. And maybe they’d stop someone from choosing these books in the future.

Which, I don’t know. Is that fair?

There have been books that I have absolutely LOVED that others have not. And vice versa. An example? You know I’ve got one.

I’ve recently been reading The Professor and the Madman (it’s about the making of the OED), and I’ve gotta be honest…it’s a slow read for me. I’m a huge word-nerd, so I was excited to read this one…but…I’ve had to set page goals for myself each day. I WANT to get through it, it’s just taking forever. So, in hopes of finding some like-minded friends, I checked Goodreads and found that many, many people felt the same way as I did. Whew. I’m not alone. But OTHER people absolutely loved it. Like, adored the book.

In terms of reviewing kid-lit, it feels more personal to me. As a writer myself, I know how hard it is to actually GET a book to the publishing stage, to go through the editing process/waiting process/more waiting…and then to get the book reviewed! It’s scary. It’s nerve-wracking. A bad review can make your day so, so awful.

So, to that end, I’m going to do what I’ve always done: I’m going to review books I like. I’m not all about ‘positive vibes only,’ (I hate that saying, actually), but I also don’t believe in giving a totally negative review. If there are one or two things I dislike, sure. But if the whole book is a no for me, I’m just going to load it back in the car and ship it back to the library.*

*The one exception to this is my really old, really crappy picture book collection. Those books are from at least 30-40 years ago, and they’re all objectively terrible.