It's just a kid's book!! Well, so are these.

Cafe Society
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Incidentally, I also recommend the sequels to Hatchet, Brian’s Winter and The River. Neither are as good as the original, but both are good in their own rights.

There was also a sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins that I think I read, called Zia , but I don’t remember if it was any good or not (I read a lot of books as a kid, it seems)

Another couple of books that come to mind for me are The Cay by Theodore Taylor, and The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, both of which I read in the 6th grade.

Oh, and speaking of the 6th grade (a time in my life when I didn’t read books, but rather consumed them as quickly as I could get my hands on them) there is also Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink.

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Maybe not all. :slight_smile:

Most of my picks have been named already, but I would add the Heinlein juveniles like Have Space Suit-Will Travel and Starship Troopers.

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The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber

The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (I still get choked up when I read it…)

Books by Edward Eager

Books by E. Nesbit

Books by Elizabeth Enright

A hearty second to The Chronicles of Narnia, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Lewis Carroll.

And of course, by Karle Wilson Baker…

plynck

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Treasure Island

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Beat me to it :slight_smile: The Uncle Oswald stories aren’t for children, either.

plynck

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You are all now exclusive members of a club–

You are all friends of mine! (hope you don’t mind being friends–you have no choice in the matter! heh)

I am surrounded (or so it seems) by people who only like to read the latest best seller or critically acclaimed book.
I say, there’s alot to be found in “kid lit” (I read the other stuff too, but get funny looks when I say that I do read and reread kid lit. I still read aloud to my kids, too, when they’ll let me).

Hatchet, Red Fern, Phoenix and the Carpet (Nesbit), Pullam—ooh, I feel like I have come home.

Don’t forget The Wizard of Oz or Half Magic and the rest…

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

ooh, gonna go look at my shelves now.

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If Starship Troopers is a juvenile I’ll eat my p-suit.

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Oh, Yay!!! I’m in a club! :slight_smile:

I loved all the Oz books by Frank L. Baum. I read most of them during one blazing hot summer in El Dorado, Kansas. My dad was working on the pipeline, and mom moved us all up there to spend a month with him. We rented a tiny house with no air conditioning, but the very cool, quite library was two blocks down the street. This whole town took the Wizard of Oz very seriously. There were life size mannequins of the characters in the library, statues in the town square, and some of the streets were even painted yellow brick! The library had a whole section set aside for the Oz books. I think I was at the library from the time it opened until they locked up for most of that month.

I will now take this opportunity to add all the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to our little list, and in addition to Alcott’s *Little Women *and An Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Men and Jo’s Boys were excellent reads, as well.

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The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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What about To Kill a Mockingbird?

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It was written as a “boy’s book” (as the genre was called at the time), but the publisher determined it was an adult book.

Joan Vinge’s Psion, OTOH, was written as a book for adults, but was marketed as a YA book.

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline also was marketed as a children’s book.

I’d also say that Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is better appreciated by adults. Same with Winnie the Pooh (the original, not the Disnified version).

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I don’t think Tales Of The Unexpected was intended for children either, though I did read them as a child, after watching them on TV.

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Well, this guy listed it that way. But then this guy says, “Starship Troopers was originally to have been one of Heinlein’s juvenile books, but the violence made it unfit for that duty.” So, I suppose I’ll accept his and your view on the matter. I guess it was a bit violent. I don’t remember it being over the top like the movie, though. I just remember people jumping around in armored suits throwing nuclear grenades, but it’s been a while since I read it.

I also thought about including Ender’s Game, but I looked around, and it didn’t seem like anyone thought it was a kid’s book to begin with.

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I’m not talking about the violence. I’m talking about the lectures that nearly rival 1984 for sheer length.

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Ah, I found quite a few goodies in this thread – in fifth grade our readings were based around a theme, one of which being survivalism. Island of the Blue Dolphins (Trivia: the real-life Karana is buried at the Santa Barbara Mission Cathedral) and Hatchet were two on the list already mentioned, and I’ll add one of my favorites, My Side of the Mountain.

Themes of persecution: the only one I remember was Witch of Blackbird Pond also already mentioned.

I also remember reading Summer of my German Soldier in class which was a pretty good one as I recall. Oh and Bridge to Terabithia!

Wow, I’m going to have to break back into these again! Thanks for this thread, Zyada!

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::Flounders around in dim memories::

Two books that I used to check out of the library together were Black and Blue Magic, and another one that sat right next to it on the shelf. I cannot remember the title, (maybe The Secret Room ), but it was about a girl whose parents were migrant farm workers who end up on a place with apricot trees and an abandoned house. I’ve been thinking about these books quite a bit lately. I may have to search for them.

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I absolutely adore Chaim Potok, but I don’t think The Chosen is a kid’s book. It’s a coming-of-age-novel, certainly, but not for kids.

Lilith, by George MacDonald. Also The Princess And The Goblin.

Calico Captive, also by Elizabeth George Speare.

The Egypt Game.

I see your The Hero And The Crown, and raise you The Blue Sword, Spindle’s End, Rose Daughter, and The Outlaws of Sherwood.

Winnie the Pooh is incredibly funny and cynical, if you read it as an adult.

John Bellairs is a great writer, although I spent a lot of time hiding under a pile of pillows, waiting for the mummy (or ghoul, or ghost) to eat me.

Has anyone mentioned L. M. Montgomery? The Anne series, the Emily series.

Dicey’s Song and the rest of the Tillerman books, by Cynthia Voigt. Also her fantasy novels.

Yay! All Hail Garth Nix, Robin McKinley, Diana Wynne Jones, C. S. Lewis! For anyone who doesn’t know, Garth Nix’s latest book is called Across The Wall, it’s a collection of short stories, and the first one is about what happens to Nicholas after the end of Lirael. If you haven’t read the Old Kingdom trilogy, go buy it now!

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Ewwww. Make sure to get an insulin shot first. Mr S tracked this one down (along with its sequel, “The Girl of the Limberlost”) because his mother had always talked about what a wonderful book it was.

“Sappy” doesn’t even begin to describe it. I have never read so much treacle in my life. This orphan kid who lost a hand as a baby grows up and gets a job in a logging camp. He sees a girl in the woods and falls in love with her from afar, then spends the entire book mooning over her, among other things (1) referring to her only as his “swamp angel” and (2) kissing her footprint in the dirt and then putting a board over it so nothing would defile the mark that she had made.

Barf city. I wouldn’t inflict these books on a child OR an adult, and I still reread “Little Women” every now and then.

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How 'bout The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier?

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Little Women overloads my glurge reflex now. I still reread it, but boy, is it heavily moralistic.