Heartbeat by Sharon Creech is one of my all-time favorites; and I loved Because of Winn-Dixie so much that I named my dog after the book. I feel like the literature I read as a child was so focused on character development and catharsis and I've struggled to find it in books as an adult. I don't particularly like to read super sad books, but I love the way children's lit. deals with difficult topics. They're present but there's a note of hopefulness in them. They just felt like beautiful stories about humanity.
As an adult I've enjoyed We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin and For One More Day by Mitch Album (I'm sure there are others but I can't think of them right now)!
Happy to add any additional information that might be helpful but would really appreciate some recommendations! I have been in a slump!
by Elegant-Lunch-7398