Beloved stories from childhood that hold up in adulthood

Cafe Society
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During a time of great stress a number of years ago, a librarian friend suggested reading beloved books from childhood as a way to get me through. She was right. I got the big, giant complete BORROWERS tales and read them straight through. They were wonderful.

I also still love Anne of Green Gables, which I first read when I was 10. I’m pretty sure it made a big impression on me; I am huge reader, majored in English in college, adored her “story club” (today I am a writer) and have a fairly optimistic outlook – just like Anne! No red hair, though.

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Another shout-out for Beverly Cleary. I didn’t read her books as a kid, but in the 1990’s I started reading them to my daughter before bedtime.

We went through more than 20 of her books without hitting a single dud. Most of them were written in the 50’s and 60’s

Beverly Cleary (born April 12, 1916) is an American author from the state of Oregon. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children’s books. Cleary has written over 30 books for young adults and children. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice (“Beezus”) Quimby, her sister Ramona, and Ralph S. Mouse. She won the Newbery Medal for her book Dear Mr. Henshaw in 1984.

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*My Side of the Mountain

Chronicles of Narnia

Little House on the Prairie

Where the Wild Things Are

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Wrinkle in Time*

Beverly Cleary books

I could go on. I love children’s literature so very much.

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You mean J. M. Barrie? I agree, it was very good. Funny and deep at the same time.

Agree on Harriet the Spy. I also liked the same author, Louise Fitzhugh’s, book the Long Secret.

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Most children’s science fiction holds up well.

I wish that the Time Machine series from Boy’s Life Magazine was in print.

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I still love “Goodnight Moon”! Since I have a two year old, I get to read this almost every day and I just love it every time. I love the colors, I crack up every time we get to “Goodnight nobody”, it just works.

“Anne of Green Gables” seconded. It’s like opening a window and having fresh spring air flow into my head every time I open it (by which I mean the whole series).

Also “Harold and the Purple Crayon”, “Where the Wild Things Are” “In the Night Kitchen” and “Teddy Bears Stay Indoors” (you probably haven’t heard of that last one, but check it out! author Susanna Gretz)

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A vote for Anne of Green Gables from me as well.

The Monster At the End of This Book is a joy to read to a small child, the giggles from the child and the potential for great vocal dynamics in the text always make it a fun read. It’s not quite so fun to read silently to yourself, though.

The Secret Garden is another of my childhood favorites. I love how the two main characters change themselves each other in a positive way.

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I went back and reread Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time, and it’s just as good now as it was back then.

Almost all of her writing holds up, and I was surprised how much I had absorbed without remembering where it came from.

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Is Treasure Island considered a children’s book? If so, that’s mine.

I third or fourth A Wrinkle in Time. That’ll never get old.

Most of Roald Dahl’s books for children have held up pretty well. I haven’t re-read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all the way through yet, but I’m sure I’ll like it.

I’d tell you that I don’t tear up just a little bit at the end of The Velveteen Rabbit anymore, but I’d be lying.

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One of joys of parenthood was reading Dr. Suess to my kids.
I enjoyed them as much now as I did as a child.

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The writer M.E. Kerr is one of my faves. The book “Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack” is a YA novel that gets even more entertaining when you read it as an adult.

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I’ve been meaning to reread The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - the wordplay tickled me to death! Especially the part where the boy literally jumps to Conclusions (where Conclusions is a place). How clever is that?

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Seven Little Australians. It’s still a classic.

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And on the way back you can swim in the sea of knowledge and, in the Humbug’s case, not get wet.

My instant thought on seeing the thread was Half Magic. It’s still an almost perfect story. A book I wish I had read as a child is Wolf Story, which is extremely good, and almost impossible to find.

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One of my favorites to “read” to little kids is No, David! by David Shannon. Although there are only the words “no, David!”, it’s a great book to get the kids to point out what it is that David is getting in trouble for and how he could have avoided it.

My great nephew and niece especially liked that the kid that was always getting in trouble had the same name as their dad. :slight_smile:

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Okay, let’s see. Some favourites that are still favourites:

[ul]
[li]Norman Juster: The Phantom Tollbooth.[/li][li]Tove Jansson: the “Moomin” series.[/li][li]John Christopher: the “Tripods” series. Actually, just about any of John Christopher’s books.[/li][li]Lloyd Alexander: the “Prydain” books. And a lot of his other books![/li][li]James Thurber: The Thirteen Clocks; The Wonderful O.[/li][li]Nicholas Fisk: “Trillions”. It took me years to track down a copy, but it was just as good as when I first read it, decades ago.[/li][li]Bertrand R Brinley’s “The Mad Scientists’ Club” and its sequels.[/li][li]Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising” series (5 books).[/li][li]John Wyndham: just about anything, but “The Day of the Triffids” and “The Chrysalids” especially.[/li][li]Diana Wynne Jones: just about anything.[/li][/ul]

Then there are some of my secret vices (well, not so secret now, I suppose, if I mention them here): the books which I’d rather not admit to, but which I still happily pull out, now and then. For example:
[ul]
[li]The old, old “Billy Bunter” books by Frank Richards.[/li][li]The “Jennings” series by Anthony Buckridge.[/li][/ul]

And then there are books which I would have expected to hold up – but which, last time I read them, had disappointingly lost their charm. YMMV (and perhaps this would be a good topic for a separate thread). For example:
[ul]
[li]The “Oz” books.[/li][li]The “Danny Dunn” books.[/li][li]The “Narnia” books.[/li][/ul]
I don’t actually dislike any of these. But … they’re not what they used to be when I was young.

Do Leonard Wibberley’s “Mouse that Roared” books (all five of them) count as children’s or as adult?

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Tintin
Asterix & Obelix (at least the ones that Goscinny and Uderzo did together)
The Great Brain

I haven’t re-read any of the following in years but I want to pick them up because I have very fond memories:

Freddy The Pig series
The Mad Scientists’ Club (which I see was just mentioned)
The Bagthorpe saga

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LeGuin’s Earthsea books (the first three) are still excellent. I recently read Tehanu for the first time, and went back to re-read A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and the Farthest Shore, which I first read when I was about 8 or 9. Her earlier writing was much, much better. More resonant, great use of language, and no blatant feminist screed embedded in the story.

The books of the True Game, by Sheri S. Tepper are very good. I’m currently re-reading the three books about Mavin Manyshaped that I came across in a used book store a couple of weeks ago. I appreciated them as a kid for the adventure, and I’m appreciating them now as well-done stories that tap into the same kind of depth that fairy tales have.

I’ve read the Prydain Chronicles a few times, and they still held up well as of a couple of years ago. Suppose that’s not all that surprising considering that they’re a retelling of the Mabinogen, but still, they’re a good retelling.

I loved The Hobbit as a kid, read The Lord of the Rings when I was a bit older. Obviously, Lord is good enough to spawn serious scholarship, but Hobbit is by any standard an excellent book in its own right.

Just about anything by Heinlein. It took me from childhood to early adulthood to track down and read most of what he’d written, and I’ve read some of his books and stories multiple times. Even his “juveniles” are darn good for an adult reader.

Most of Madeleine L’Engle’s stuff, though now that I’m not a Christian anymore, some of the intent falls a bit flat. The writing and message are still good though, even if you’re an atheist.

I actually didn’t read the Oz books when I was a kid. I read the first one a couple of years back and actually wasn’t all that impressed. I might have liked them when I was very young, but was already reading and appreciating adult-oriented literature when I was in grade school.