# Good kid/adult books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177 "2013-01-05T17:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/41 "2013-01-08T03:37:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > James Thurber’s two children’s books, _The Thirteen Clocks_ and _Many Moons_. But not _The Wonderful O_? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/42 "2013-01-08T04:26:46Z")
> [@Sevencl](#): > > Oh, yeah. I read and enjoy them to this day. I just think they don’t deserve to be considered particularly special, and like you say, aren’t especially relevant to adults - except for the fact that many people on this site will have grown up with them and have special fondness for that reason. > > I wouldn’t think the next generation will feel the same way about them because they’ll pick them up, read them in a marathon rather than with years between episodes, go “Huh, why’s my mum always going on like these are so awesome?” and go back to reading whatever the Twilight or Hunger Games of their day is. My generation were adults well before the HP series started coming out. Without exception, every person I know personally of my generation or older that has read the books thinks they are fantastic. And we did not grow up with them. My children - and those of my friends - were born too late to have grown up with the books, yet now that our children are old enough to read the books, they love them despite not having grown up with them, having read them in a marathon, and without years between episodes. You are speculating out your ass, and nothing you say isn’t contradicted by what facts I have available. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/43 "2013-01-08T11:48:29Z")
> [@half-elf](#): > > Several of my favourites have already been mentioned, so I will submit: any book by Michael Ende . > [Momo: Ende, Michael: 9780140079166: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Momo-Michael-Ende/dp/0140079165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357600642&sr=8-1&keywords=momo) > > (Momo being one of the best known ones). Momo is great, but his best (IMO) book is a bit better known: The Neverending Story. Great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/44 "2013-01-08T14:14:02Z")
> [@](#): > > My generation were adults well before the HP series started coming out. Without exception, every person I know personally of my generation or older that has read the books thinks they are fantastic. And we did not grow up with them. I’m 55, so I was an adult when the series came out. I bought and read the first book. My daughter was working in a used book store at the time, and she brought home the others in the series as they came into the shop. I read several more of the series, but they weren’t books that I would have bought. I’d have checked them out of the library, maybe, but I’d never have paid for them. Lisa brought home some of the later books, and I just didn’t read them, even though they were FREE READING MATERIAL BROUGHT INTO MY HOME!11!! I’m still not interested in reading the rest of the series. I like science fiction/fantasy, and I like fiction written for kids. I especially love fantasy that’s written for kids/YA. And I LOVE Diana Wynne Jones. The Harry Potter series just didn’t do it for me. I just didn’t think that the stories were fascinating enough, and I didn’t think much of the writing. Probably I would have liked the series a LOT if it had come out when I was a kid myself…I mean, a secret society of magic users, a way to get into secret locations, etc. As an adult, though, I want something better. And believe me, there’s better YA fantasy out there. Now, maybe if I hadn’t been reading fantasy and science fiction all my life, I’d have enjoyed the HP books more. But I have, so I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/45 "2013-01-11T10:49:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But not _The Wonderful O_? The kid’s having a hard time getting into that one, and I have to admit it gets off to a slow start. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/46 "2013-01-11T10:56:10Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > My generation were adults well before the HP series started coming out. Without exception, every person I know personally of my generation or older that has read the books thinks they are fantastic. And we did not grow up with them. I was north of 50 when I picked up the first Harry Potter book. Other than her sudden fetish in the last book about keeping kids under 17 out of the action, which is problematic on any number of levels (but fortunately only comes into play in parts of the book), the series was pretty amazing. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/47 "2013-01-11T15:56:55Z")
RTFirefly: > [@](#): > > Other than her sudden fetish in the last book about keeping kids under 17 out of the action, which is problematic on any number of levels (but fortunately only comes into play in parts of the book) What’s weird about that? The ones keeping the under-agers out of the action are the faculty of a school, the parents have entrusted them with their minor children. I think it’s totally in character for the teachers to insist that their first responsibility is keeping the students who aren’t (by wizard standards) old enough to make their own decisions out of harm’s way. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/48 "2013-01-11T16:01:01Z")
\*The Chronicles of Prydain \*by Lloyd Alexander (best known for the one book, The Black Cauldron). I first read these when I was 10, and had my dad read them as well. Good coming of age books based loosely upon Welsh mythology. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177/49 "2013-01-11T16:22:23Z")
My first thought was _The Wind in the Willows._ I almost have a hard time considering it a children’s book due to the level of the writing (i.e., the literacy level required to understand some of it). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-kid-adult-books/646177.md?page=2)