I’ve re-read Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder recently for the first time in many many years and I’m almost embarassed how much I’ve enjoyed them. Even though the main character’s a little girl and the plot and writing are simplistic, it’s fascinating reading from a historical standpoint. Any number of history books will tell you how many people settled in Wisconsin or on the Indian lands of the Great Plains or migration patterns, etc., but what’s cool about these books is it zooms in on just one such family. Reading about hog slaughtering, or Christmas in a poor (but not impoverished) family ca. 1870 or descriptions of the larder and how potatoes were roasted in the ashes, etc., is something you’ll never get in history books.
I also read Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt recently, which is technically a Young Adult’s book though I don’t really understand why as it goes in with my favorite Civil War novels with no asterix beside it. For those not familiar it’s the story of a farm family (like the Ingalls far from rich but not impoverished by the standards of their time & place) in the southern tip of Illinois during the Civil War. Four of their menfolk fight for the North, one for the Confederacy, and what I particularly love is the use of dialect and the complete absence of Greek columns and hoop skirts. It’s another great slice of life (closely based I understand on the experiences of the author’s grandfather).
What other children’s/YA books would you recommend for adults as good reads in and of themselves?
It’s not covered when it happens; one of the books opens with a recounting of all the things that went horribly wrong since the last book – very startling to open the book and read that.
I love The Phantom Tollbooth anytime; it has great word- and idea-play that’s fit for any age.
“The Wind In The Willows” is a wonderful book at any age…
“Summer Of My German Soldier” is also worth re-reading as an adult.
(I guess it goes without saying that “The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn” is something that improves upon each subsequent reading)
I never read these as a boy. I guess I thought of them as “girl books” (and the TV series did nothing to convince me otherwise), but when I read Little House on the Prairie as an adult, I really liked it and thought it would have been the kind of thing I would have loved as a kid. And I think these books (or others like them, if there are such) ought to be required reading for all kids, to give them a sense of historical perspective and show them how everyone routinely lived without so many of the things they take for granted.
Sure, why not! It may be better appreciated by adults than by children.
Charlotte’s Web is one I re-read as an adult, and was struck then (as I hadn’t been as a kid) by how well-written it is.
The Bunnicula series. I loved these in elementary school, but sold a lot of old books to a used book store a few years back. I remember how amusingly absurd they were and bought myself a copy of Bunnicula. Still highly entertaining, although fine literature they’re not.
The Prydain Chronicles. They were my favorites as a kid, and I recently picked up a set off Amazon. They are still my favorites.
Lisa and Lottie, the original source for The Parent Trap. I read it as a young girl before I had ever heard of or seen The Parent Trap. When I finally did see the movie, I thought it was a far inferior ripoff of the earlier book. I searched for years for the original, but couldn’t find it because I had the wrong title. When I finally found it and reread it, I liked it even more than I had originally, because I could understand all of the nuances related to WWII.
When I was younger and visited a friend’s house, I would always read this one book she had. When I grew up, I forgot the title and thought it was lost to the mists of time. Fortunately, my sister remembered the title, and now I have it sitting on my bookshelf.
I also liked the Little House books, and I have all of the L. Frank Baum **Oz **books. Rereading them now, I can see how Shaggy Man would be arrested as a child abductor, but they’re very enjoyable books.
A couple of years ago I read Winnie the Pooh in Bulgarian. Since it’s a children’s book, I was surprised at how many words I needed to look up, but there’re a lot of descriptive words that I didn’t use as part of my daily vocabulary (which is pretty conversational; I’ve never taken a proper class where we read and wrote things) and it was slow going. The result was that I was often hugely delighted to come to a mystery word, look it up, and find that the sentence I was reading was so clever and amusing, like the moment you’ve figured out a crossword clue that’s been baffling you.
Anyway, I was surprised at how deep and philosophical it was. I resolved to live my life more like Pooh Bear and less like Eeyore.
I read The Dark is Rising series again recently. My favorite is the the second book, with the same name as the series. I particularly enjoy how Cooper weaves the feel of winter and Christmas into the storyline.
I also enjoy Madeleine L’Engle’s* Kairos* (a.k.a. A Wrinkle in Time) series.
Little Women and Little Men, I still think this is great. I probably like it even more now, when I read it as a kid, I was frustrated by some of the attitudes that I thought were terrible, for example the different expectations for girls and boys, and the girls had to be all prim and proper. As an adult, I understand the context and can put things in perspective.
Also the Anne of Green Gables series, which I was startled to realize is now over 100 years old. Compared to other books for children of that time, AGG is amazingly fresh and funny. I do think this has more girl appeal, though.
I love all of Elizabeth Enright’s books, Thimble Summer and Gone Away Lake and the sequel, and the Melendy series (starting with The Saturdays). The writing is top-notch, and deceptively simple. A lot of the events, especially in the Melendy books, are laugh out loud funny.
Daniel Pinkwater’s books have held up extremely well, in my opinion. I’m still reading them as they come out. The titles from my own childhood are among my favorite books ever: Lizard Music, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, and Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy From Mars are surreal gems.
A title that is rather recent that I think all sorts of adults would enjoy is The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. This is about two girls growing up during WWII, and their parents are scientists and so they live at Los Alamos. Great for science and/or history geeks. (Although it doesn’t really count for the OP – it is new so I did not personally read it when I was a child … but it’s so good I wanted to mention it)
Sampiro, you’re definitely not the only adult to dig the Little House books. My mom collects all the books related to that family; I believe the latest ones are written by a descendent of Laura’s.
I missed out on a lot of books meant for kids and young adults when I was growing up (My folks were impressed that whenever schools tested reading comprehension, I scored six grades ahead of whatever grade I was then in. I think I’ve mentioned my dad buying me John Jakes’ books when I was seven before) because I was encouraged to read books meant for adults as soon as I could understand them. So, there are a lot of kids’ books I’ve only read for the first time as an adult. Of the few I read growing up and still like Cynthia Voigt and Katherine Patterson’s books continue to resonate with me. Try Homecoming by Voigt and Jacob I Have Loved by Patterson. And I have to agree about Bunnicula - I re-bought all of those books for myself a few years ago
Oddly enough, I didn’t much care for the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a child, though I did read a couple of them in class. A couple of years ago, though, I picked up LHotP in a used-book clearance section for a buck. Now I am slowly tracking them down and reading them. I was particularly impressed by how the girls were expected to behave. They were allowed a lot of freedom in some ways, but were expected to give things up for the baby sister, things like beads that they’d found at an abandoned Native camp. And the girls were very excited to get very small gifts at Christmas, things like having a mug of their own (they’d previously had to share one mug or cup), small cakes, and a penny.
I’ve just re-read Farmer Boy, and I am somewhat bemused at the fact that Father Wilder uses and advocates only positive reinforcement and gentleness when he trains his horses and oxen, yet he thrashes (or at least, has thrashed in the past) young Almanzo, the POV character. Again, it’s interesting to see how kids were expected to behave in that time. I’m gobsmacked that the girls habitually wore hoop skirts to do farm chores. I would think that the chores would be burdensome enough to do in simpler clothes, never mind trying to do them in skirts that are held out by wooden hoops.
Pretty much anything I enjoyed as a kid I’ve picked up as an adult and enjoyed, even really kiddie stuff like “The Monster at the End of the Book”. Also:
The Rainbow Goblins
The Night Rainbow
Michael Ende stuff - Momo, Neverending Story
Anything by the “Young Adult Novel” guy
Anything by the “Interstellar Pig” guy
