I Only Care . . .

I couldn't think of a better title.

So, I feel, as of late, that there is only one genre that I care about: Children's Literature. I know that this is mostly a "section" of a standard library (ahem, at least for now), but I mean all of Children's Lit. Picture books. Graphic novels (especially adapted from OG stories--I see you Long Way Down). Middle grade novels (especially these). I discovered this realization about six months ago when I was asked to teach this class.

I mean, yes, I have written a children's picture book (but really, shout out to Brian, the illustrator. He brought it to life. He deserves all the credit), and I studied this specifically in graduate school, and I think children's lit should be taught everywhere at every age of education (do I smell a dissertation?), but it wasn't really until I got into the nitty gritty of teaching this course when I realized my passion for it.

I am a "why" person, if you didn't know that already. I need to know how things work, the reasoning behind how we fall in love with something (or don't). Teaching students about the Lexile Levels and the milestones of children's literature made me feel something, the "why", to where I am supposed to be doing what I'm doing. I always wanted to teach, but I found another genre of what I love.

On a side note, I want to start writing again. I had a push to write more for this blog in January '25, and then the semester hit. Now that the academic year is over, I want to start again. I checked my socials and found a post from my MFA program about how things are if-y right now. So I went down the rabbit hole of our program, and re-discovered all my loves again. I'm so lucky that I keep igniting tiny flames that were once so bright. I keep lighting candles on my passion menorah (yep, that's what I'm going to call it). I think I still have a few that need to by lit, but I'll act as the Shamash and eventually light those, too.

So, "I Only Care . . ." was an act of I need to come up with a title for this post, but I only care about so much. That's lovely, isn't it?