Just last month, I packed up all of my belongings and moved from Portland, Ore., to Highland Park, N.J. It is a big change in many ways, as any relocation is bound to be. I’m farther away from my family now. There are no independent bookstores within walking distance of my new apartment. And next week, when my children’s literature book group meets to discuss “Sprout,” a young adult novel by Dale Peck, I will not be there.

Each month, a group of my Portland friends meets in one of their homes to eat snacks, gossip about work and discuss the book they’ve chosen to read. In most ways, this group is like any other book club I’ve participated in — except that it is all about books for kids, and we actually talk at length about each and every book. What follows is a selection of best reads from my year and a half with this group.

“The Book of Everything” is a deceptively slender novel packed full of humor, philosophy and a gritty but beautiful story about family, fear and the relationship between imagination and resilience. In the first chapter, 9-year-old Thomas, living in Amsterdam in 1951, writes in his notebook, “When I grow up, I am going to be happy.” For a child with such an awful father, this will be no small feat. When Thomas forges a friendship with the witch next door (or so the neighborhood children believe her to be), he takes the first step toward creating a safer home for his mother and sister. Add to the mix bits of magical realism and regular conversations between Thomas and Jesus, who asks in one scene whether Thomas’s father has “gone completely off his head,” and this book becomes increasingly difficult to summarize. My friends and I spent a lot of time articulating why such a startling and beautiful book is so hard to sell at the bookstore where we worked. We had a lot of theories: The writing is too good. Teenagers don’t want to read about a 9-year-old. Nine-year-olds can’t make any sense of it. Kids see the word “God” and run. It doesn’t have vampires in it. “The Book of Everything” may not have that trendy appeal, but it’s the kind of novel that is bound to impress readers who are willing to take a chance on it. And if a skeptical teenager needs convincing, well, at least the book is short.

Time and again, my friends and I questioned the extent to which an adult can fairly judge a book written for children, but never so deeply or with such self-doubt as when we discussed “Mandy,” by Julie Andrews Edwards. This middle-grade novel tells the story of a 10-year-old orphan who discovers a small, deserted cottage in the woods and makes it her own. She breaks the orphanage rules, endangers her friendships and risks her health all for the sake of having and maintaining this secret haven. I don’t care for Edwards’ writing style. This novel is filled with clichés, the plot is predictable, and while I’m told what the characters are feeling, I can’t seem to feel it myself. Every member of the book group had similar complaints. But here’s the catch: kids love this book. Lots of kids, anyway. Many of us knew someone or had spoken with a customer for whom “Mandy” was one of the key texts of her childhood. One girl was reading it for the fifth time. Another wanted help finding a book just like it. Within the book group, even, “Mandy” continues to be adored by those who first read it when they themselves were young. So who are we to judge? Reading “Mandy” with my book group provided an excellent reminder that “good writing” is not the only mark of a good book, and that what adults value in literature for children is not necessarily what children value. Before I left Portland, I began recommending “Mandy” to children interested in realistic fiction with an imaginative, independent main character and a slightly old-fashioned tone. Children who enjoy “Betsy-Tacy,” by Maud Hart Lovelace, “All-of-a-Kind Family,” by Sydney Taylor, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden” might want to take a look at “Mandy.”

I will forever admire my book group for agreeing to read “Yotsuba&!” by Kiyohiko Azuma, my favorite graphic novel series about an energetic, green-haired girl of mysterious origins who specializes in happiness and hilarity. Most young readers these days won’t be phased by the challenges posed by manga, which, originally published in Japanese, maintains the back-to-front, right-to-left format, even in its English translation, but for many members of my book group, this was a whole new world — and one worth the effort. Yotsuba, whose name means four-leaf clover, represents everything I love about young children. She is fascinated by the world, confident in herself, eager to learn, and excited about ordinary, everyday things. She also has vulnerabilities: a short temper, a need for naps and under-developed instincts for etiquette. She is 100 percent child, and, whether chasing after cicadas, swimming at the beach, or riding a bicycle in a department store, 100 percent fun. And while she is only 5 years old, children and teenagers, boys and girls, seek her out. Thank goodness the sixth installment of “Yotsuba&!” is coming out this month. I don’t think I could have waited much longer.

It’s hard to give up a book group that so perfectly satisfied the children’s literature geek in me. But I’ve traveled across the country with countless, lifelong gifts from that group: long reading lists inspired by our conversations, a more open mind about definitions of quality literature, and new favorites to add to my personal canon. It’s better that I miss them than to never have known how good a book group can be.

Island native Galen Longstreth holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and a master’s degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She lives in Highland Park, N.J.