My Catch The Hell Up Reading Personal Reading Program

Since I mentioned this over at Leila's blog I figured I might as well explain myself. I've realized that I've been reading so many new books and so many YA books that I've missed a lot of the classics.
Let me explain my own personal definition of classics: I do NOT mean stuff like H. G. Wells and Mark Twain and all the books which were originally written for adults and have wheedled their way into reading lists. I mean the juvenile books that are most often associated with reading lists. The books by the authors who have been pioneers in the juvenile and YA fields, like Judy Blume and Lois Lowry. I mean the Newbery winners and honors. I mean all the stuff we would all recommend.
In other words, I missed a lot of good stuff. I am trying to rectify that.
I made this decision a while back when Leila had mentioned Avi on her blog. I realized I had never read anything by Avi. This to me is not good. I wondered how many other authors I had done this with. The list was surprisingly long. I also realized that I've become enough of a geek that I don't like recommending books that I have not read. Who knows, there may be other Francesca's out there and I could not have that on my conscience.