Right. For instance, I don’t really think of Little Women as a children’s book.
A favorite of mine was “Beastly Rhymes” by Jack Hanrahan and Phil Hahn.
I was a voracious reader as a child. We couldn’t afford to buy books so I only read library books. Somehow I missed out on a lot of classics like The Velveteen Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh and Anne of Green Gables. One series I remember vividly is the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - Wikipedia
I never forgot about one book I’d loved and a few years ago I tracked it down. All I could remember was that it involved a little girl, a witch and a glass mountain. I found it and ordered it. Got to love the internet. The Witch Family: Estes, Eleanor, Ardizzone, Edward: 9780152026103: Amazon.com: Books
Many of these are not books aimed at child readers (which is what I interpret “children’s books” to mean). Some are teen or young adult, some are fully adult.
My favorite books when I was little were whatever I could get from the library or the school library. The only thing we had at home for kids were fairy tales, which I read through a few times. The only library-derived kid’s book I remember was “Here’s a Penny” by Carolyn Haywood, not because of anything except one little drawing in it. A few years later I devoured the Hardy Boys books, plus everything I could get from the library. By the age of 10 I was reading some books written for adults, not always understanding them, but ploughing through. When I was 12, my aunt and uncle gave me a big illustrated edition of A Tale of Two Cities, which I loved both for the illustrations and the story and characters. So I didn’t spend many years loving children’s books and don’t remember many favorites.
Roy A. Gallant, Exploring the Moon (illustrations by Lowell Hess)
James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks
D’Aulaires’, Norse Gods and Giants
The D’Aulaires also did a Book of Greek Myths.
Yeah, off the top of my head, The Lord of the Rings is definitely adult, and Oh the Places you’ll Go is aimed at recent graduates, so at least 18ish.
Other especial favorites of mine:
The Monster at the End of this Book
A Wrinkle in Time (and maybe the first sequel, The Wind in the Door)
The Chronicles of Prydain series
The Danny Dunn series
Blueberries for Sal (and also Make Way for Ducklings and One Morning in Maine).
Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising really struck me when I was a young teen. Years later, grown to adulthood, I found out there were three subsequent novels in the series. They were also very good.
Wende Devlin’s Old Black Witch series, about a witch who lives in a dilapidated old house that is bought by a single mother and her son, and turned into a tearoom, is a fond memory. Wonderful illustrations, and I was fascinated that the back leaf printed the recipe for whatever foodstuff - blueberry muffins, coconut cake - featured in the story.
On the other end of the spectrum, my mother-in-law, who is currently in memory care with severe dementia, is fascinated by Press Here, by the French author Hervé Tullet. It’s rather like The Monster At The End Of The Book in that it doesn’t have a story; instead, it’s an interactive work where pressing, twisting, and shaking the book itself makes colored dots multiply, grow larger, or slide to one side. My MIL likes to count the dots and sound out the letters. Very good for preliterate and brand-new readers.
I’ll add on any and everything by Judith Viorst. Best known perhaps for Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day but to me most of all got The Tenth Good Thing About Barney. Best book ever for opening a conversation about the death or impending death of a loved one. Approaching the subject obliquely makes it safer for kids to approach some difficult emotions and concepts they are often dealing with, much more than head on.
In that same vein I see I am one of the few with love for Stella Luna, but in my case it is for that same reason. We are parents in a trans racial adoption and it is oblique enough to not hammer the child over the head that that is what we are talking about.
Love You Forever though is one of those more for the parents books. I’ve never known a child to be very moved by it, maybe a giggle or two, but many parents can’t get through it without crying.
Lots of Shel Silverstein is really adult stuff in kid book form. The Giving Tree for example is a dysfunctional relationship parable. No kid really gets that when it is being read to them.
Her book My mama says there aren’t any zombies, ghosts, vampires, creatures, demons, monsters, fiends, goblins, or things scared the dickens out of me as a kid. Mostly due to the illustrations by Kay Chorao, but I will say the text didn’t help.
Well sometimes mamas are wrong. But sometimes they’re not!
It was one read to my kids but never read as a kid. I loved the that’s how eggs got on that woman.
I guess I would have to click “Other” and add these titles:
The Phantom Tollbooth
The 21 Balloons
The Captain Underpants series. I realize many will scoff, but they’ve been around for a quarter of a century and are still going strong. The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963 is better than Bud, Not Buddy in my opinion.
Definitely the Moomintroll books.
I loved Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski.
I also loved The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs.
This was a big favorite of my daughter, born in 1995. It made a big impression on her at school at a time when she really wasn’t into reading yet. I think it was the first book she asked me to buy for her.
Read any of these when you were in elementary school?
Cinnabar, the One O’Clock Fox, by Marguerite Henry.
The Mad Scientists’ Club and its sequels, by Bertrand Brinley.
Andy Buckram’s Tin Men, by Carol Ryrie Brink.
Project: Genius, by William D. Hayes
Ten Beaver Road, by Isabel Couper McLelland.
Terry Sets Sail, by Louise Lee Floethe
Me and Caleb, by Franklyn E. Meyer.
Caboose on the Roof, by James Sterling Ayars.
Mary Poppins, by Mary L Travers.
101 Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith.
Plus all the Beverly Cleary, Carolyn Hayward, Alvin Fernald, and Encyclopedia Brown books, of course.
I also read Witches, Witches, Witches (Helen Hoke, editor) when I was four, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it for children. It sure scared the hell out of me!
Missing (and egregious oversights, at that):
The Wind in the Willows.
Any Enid Blyton. No Noddy, no Faraway Tree, no Famous Five…
Luckily someone else mentioned Swallows and Amazons and Moomin series, or they would be here too.
Terry Pratchett’s kids books- The Nomes Trilogy, the Johnny Maxwell series, Carpet People
Not egregious, because a little obscure:
Stewart and Riddell’s Edge Chronicles
Mine is The Hero from Otherwhere, by Jay Williams (half of the duo who wrote the Danny Dunn series).
I also love the Three Investigators and Trixie Belden series.