Branching out with the kids

Recently, in my day job as a librarian, I decided to do some blog posts on kids fiction for one of the blogs I contribute to. This particular one is about family history, and given that the library runs a holiday reading programme, I decided to read some of the titles taken from one of the brochures on young adult family history novels. It seemed like a fun thing to do - plus we needed new and hopefully exciting content for the blog. Much as we work in family history, there are only so many posts about shipping lists and tracking down dead relatives one can do.
Well!

I just discovered a whole bunch of new authors.
I don't read much kids literature - I don't work with teens beyond the odd school visit to our research centre - but wow, I just loved reading these books. It turns out there is some pretty neat teen fiction being published, and while we all love our sweet romance, I imagine most of us also read outside the genre, whether it be fantasy, science fiction, crime or more literary fiction. Teen novels aren't something I'd considered beyond the odd, random book I'd occasionally read. Interestingly, adults reading teen books created some controversy last year in an op-ed piece, following the success of YA books being turned into movies. True, it probably isn't good for any adult to just read YA - but variety is surely a good thing.
The books I read for the blog were smart and funny, with amazing characters and plots and were just so well written. Teen fiction? As they say... who knew...
Are there any other genres you're tried - and discovered to your surprise, you really quite liked?

Joanne's latest book is Dating Daisy, a romantic comedy set in New Zealand. You can follow Jo on Twitter https://twitter.com/joanneauthor and check out the website at www.joannehill.com