What children's book did you first enjoy as an an adult?

I first read A Wrinkle in Time as an adult. Loved it, so read the whole series,

The Velveteen Rabbit. I was aware of it but viewed it as an American thing and only read it when I had my own children. It's so bittersweet and poingnant!

@elkiedee I also missed out on Joan Aiken and Diana Wynne Jones - the only DWJ book I read as a child was Witch Week and for me the Wolves series stopped at The Stolen Lake. I am reading the others to DS at the moment - we are on Is Underground - and loving them just as much if not more than if I had read them as a child. But much as I enjoyed reading the Chrestomanci books in my 40s I think i would have adored them even more as a child.

I came to Harry Potter when I was 25, when there were only four books, and again I would have loved them much more as a child. I find it hard to get into modern children and ya books now - probably because I am not their audience - so while my kids loved How to Train your Dragon and Percy Jackson I just left them to it. I did enjoy the Grishaverse books though, don't know if they count as ya.

Also agree with the Percy Jackson books....very entertaining if you haven't tried them OP

The Harry Potter books sent me off in a search for other kids/YA books and that's been going on for 20+ years now

I discovered the Narnia books for a start - I had never read them as a child. Then the floodgates opened when I had my own children and we read all the Little House books (wonderful), the Secret Garden, the Nym's Island books (also wonderful)....I've got Treasure Island cued up to start next.

I honestly think it's been one of the most enjoyable bits of parenting - all the books we have read and discovered together.

The Arthur Ransome books. Never got them at all as a child (to the great disappointment of my DF who taught me to read and who adored them).

However, when I came to read them with DS my eyes were opened. They are great stories but he manages to put in so many things about growing up, friendships and their difficulties,disappointments, learning responsibility and shows how to learn to deal with it all, but he does it in a very subtle way. Very clever!

Also Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Fantastic books!

Moomintrolls.

Skullduggery Pleasant series. DS loved them so I gave them a try.

Second (or was it third) the How to Train your Dragon books by Cressida Cowell. Also her Wizards of Once books. I think she's great.

Also enjoyed reading the Hero's Guide books to my son recently. They are really good too. Think someone on here recommended them but they arent easy to find anymore.

My guilty pleasure is Katy by Jaqueline Wilson. Loved the original but love this one too!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was a little older when it came out and my DSis, who is rather younger than me, loved it so much I thought I should read it.

The Percy Jackson books

@elkiedee I only discovered Diane Wynne Jones as an adult when I borrowed an audio DVD from the library to play on a long car journey. I was an avid reader as a kid and would have loved all her books so not a clue how they passed me by. I've since read most of them to DS. I don't reread many books, but her books are some of the few I come back to multiple times. I held off Howl's Moving Castle for ages as I loved the film so much and wasn't sure what extra the book could bring, but loved that one too.

I spent years as a children's bookseller, so read most well-known children's books published in the 21st century as an adult. I only discovered Tamora Pierce at university, and I still love her books. Some more recent favourites are the Percy Jackson (and Magnus Chase) books, the Reeve and McIntyre Adventures, the Skulduggery Pleasant series, You Should See me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, Alice Osman's books and comics and The Murderer's Ape by Jakob Wegelius. I'm also a big fan of The Phoenix comic and the books that were first published as comic strips there, especially Pirates of Pangaea and Mega Robo Bros.

Harry Potter and the Northern Lights books. They came out when I was already an adult so I didn't have the chance to read them as a child.

I really got into Horrible Histories as an adult and bought the whole set off ebay.

Harry Potter for me!

I remember reading them on the tube on the way to work. At one stage, 75% of the tube carriage were reading the same thing! 🤣

I've revisited the Chalet School books after reading them as a child & fallen in love with them again. I have bought all the fill ins as well.

The Borrowers, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, and a few by Alan Garner that I hadn’t read when young.

Harry Potter in my 20s for me too.

Also the King of the Copper Mountain and Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NiMH which I only discovered after I had kids.

Harry Potter for me.

As an aside, I loved Anne with an E - didn't think I would as I loved the TV series as a child, but it's great. I'd give it more of a chance.

I only discovered Penelope Lively as an adult and really enjoyed 'The House in Norham Gardens' as well as 'A Stitch in
Time'.

One of my absolute favourites (also discovered later in life) is 'A Traveller in Time' by Alison Uttley.

I Capture the Castle isn't written for children at all, though it is about a teenage girl. I read it and the Cazalet Chronicles, along with anything from lots of YA and anything from James Baldwin and Colette and lots of poetry to Jackie Collins, in my teens,

Ones I missed out on until much later - several later books by Diana Wynne Jones and Joan Aiken - I am in my 50s with teenagers, so didn't even see the later Wolves books like Dido and Pa until my 20s, later Chrestomancis and many others until 30 I think.

Goodnight Mr Tom - I would have been the perfect age for this at 10 or 11 when it was published though I might have moved on to the teen shelves in the library and charity shop by then.

Philip Pullman, Northern Lights - again, I was an adult though i took me a few years to read it. I remember a friend and her daughter (quite young) both reading and enjoying in the mid 1990s but it took me a while to catch up.

L M Montgomery, Emily of New Moon and Emily's Quest - I had devoured the Anne books and had a copy of the first of these but probably as I was reading more books not for children at 14 up. I have read the whole trilogy and would not say don't read it but #3 is a disappointment.

See, I think this is a book for anyone, not specifically adults. Like The Wind in the Willows.

anyway to answer the question - Louis Sachar’s Holes.

Ooh, will have to check out the Garth Nix ones.