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As an Adult, What Children's Books Have You Enjoyed?

214 replies

SprinkledGlitter · 25/03/2024 11:43

I've seen an old thread about this and I thought I'd create a new one.

What would you recommend? I love discovering new books!

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Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 11/04/2024 17:05
Flowers
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CandleMouse · 09/04/2024 17:59

2mummies1baby · 09/04/2024 09:31

@Natsku , @CandleMouse - I've read both of her new, WW2-era books and I loved them! Would definitely recommend.

I have also read and loved all of the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Oh dear, now I'll have to add to my ever growing to-read list! 😂

2mummies1baby · 09/04/2024 09:31

@Natsku , @CandleMouse - I've read both of her new, WW2-era books and I loved them! Would definitely recommend.

I have also read and loved all of the Murder Most Unladylike series.

Selttan · 09/04/2024 05:30

I tend to love kids fantasy books and regularly reread them.

Harry Potter of course.
Isobelle Carmody Obernewtyn series - I started that when I was 13 and I think I was over 30 when she finally finished writing the series.
Tamora Pierce Wild Magic and Song of the Lioness series
Jennifer Estep Mythos Academy and Black Blade series.

Some of these I only discovered as an adult.

Natsku · 09/04/2024 05:06

CandleMouse · 08/04/2024 20:11

Which was your favourite? Have you read any of her new books set in WW2? I'm tempted but unsure if they will be as good!

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Hard to pick a favourite but maybe A Spoonful of Murder. Haven't read any of the new books, they're not in my library system.

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 08/04/2024 22:25

TimeandMotion, I cross posted with you earlier. I didn't realise that Lynne Reid Banks had died. Sad

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.

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CandleMouse · 08/04/2024 20:11

Natsku · 08/04/2024 18:28

I enjoyed the Murder Most Unladylike series, nice light crime!

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Which was your favourite? Have you read any of her new books set in WW2? I'm tempted but unsure if they will be as good!

Natsku · 08/04/2024 18:28

CandleMouse · 05/04/2024 12:47

I read that a few years ago, couldn't put it down! I couldn't get into the second book though unfortunately.

The Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens is a lot of fun. She is heavily inspired by Agatha Christie, so if I would recommend if you are a fan and fancy a light whodunnit.

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I enjoyed the Murder Most Unladylike series, nice light crime!

cariadlet · 08/04/2024 14:25

I'd divide children's books that I enjoy reading into 3 categories:

Books I loved as a child and reread occasionally with a nostalgic kind of enjoyment:
A little princess
The lost prince (by the same author)
The diddakoi (which I first fell in love with when it was shown on the bbc in the 70s)
Half Magic
A traveller in time
loads of books by E Nesbitt, Leon Garfield, Rosemary Sutcliff, Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease, Cynthia Harnett,

Books I enjoy reading to children but wouldn't read otherwise:
the blue kangaroo series
Daisy picture books
worst witch books
Mr Gum books

Children's books and YA books which I discovered as an adult and enjoy:
Artemis Fowl (and sequels)
Alex Rider books
The Power of 5 series (Anthony Horowitz)
chaos walking trilogy
Skulduggery Pleasant (and sequels)
Terry Pratchett's discworld (I love the adult books and the ones aimed at younger readers are just as good)
Dodger (by Terry Pratchett but not a Discworld book)

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 08/04/2024 14:06

TheIcecreamManCometh, funnily enough that book was mentioned on an old thread here. I've read it and liked it too Smile Flowers

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TimeandMotion · 08/04/2024 14:06

A piece in the Guardian today reminded me about The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks, who recently died age 94.

TheIcecreamManCometh · 08/04/2024 11:31

I recently enjoyed Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin) which is a YA short novel about the afterlife.

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 06/04/2024 12:37
Flowers
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RedHelenB · 05/04/2024 17:56

OneHeartySnail · 02/04/2024 12:17

Have you read The Edge of the Cloud, part of the Flambards series? Also very good about just how fragile and cutting edge planes were in those days!

All.the Flambards books were great, but that was my favourite too. You got that sense of freedom and excitement for females with having bikes and flying across the channel.

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 05/04/2024 17:46
Flowers
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CandleMouse · 05/04/2024 12:47

Bassetlover · 03/04/2024 22:56

I enjoyed Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I also liked The Girl With All the Gifts.

I read that a few years ago, couldn't put it down! I couldn't get into the second book though unfortunately.

The Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens is a lot of fun. She is heavily inspired by Agatha Christie, so if I would recommend if you are a fan and fancy a light whodunnit.

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 04/04/2024 14:16
Flowers

Thanks

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Bassetlover · 03/04/2024 22:56

I enjoyed Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I also liked The Girl With All the Gifts.

Original poster
SprinkledGlitter · 02/04/2024 17:53

Many thanks, everybody, for taking the time to respond. Flowers

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EBearhug · 02/04/2024 13:36

I reread all of Biggles in lockdown (at rather great expense in some cases.) Some of the interwar ones are interesting, too, especially when they head off to an island where it's unclear whether it actually exists or not, because we forget how recently much of the world has been explored. Some of the attitudes are a bit colonial I places, though. I mostly prefer the ones with von Stalhein.

I also read WE Johns's Worrals and Gimlet books, which I hadn't come across before.

Also, all Robert Westsll. Devil on the Road. The Wheatstone Pond (that was done as a R4 drama 10 or 15 years ago.)

TimeandMotion · 02/04/2024 12:19

A favourite book I discovered as a tween but came back to as an adult is Futuretrack 5 by Robert Westall. Dystopian fiction written in the eighties.

TimeandMotion · 02/04/2024 12:18

ohfook · 25/03/2024 12:00

I honestly think holes by Louis Sachar is the most amazing children's book ever written. The way all the separate storylines weave together is just fantastic.

I'd love to be a children's author but I could never write anything half as good as that.

The Wayside School series by Louis Sachar is also very clever.

OneHeartySnail · 02/04/2024 12:17

Have you read The Edge of the Cloud, part of the Flambards series? Also very good about just how fragile and cutting edge planes were in those days!

110APiccadilly · 02/04/2024 12:02

@OneHeartySnail I'm very pleased to find someone else appreciates how good they are! And yes, tonally so different to the later ones. I have a feeling that I read somewhere that the first ones were in fact written for an adult audience and that's why they're much more honest portrayals of the psychological effect of war flying. But even in Flies East (which is not quite like the other WW1 ones), the real suspense is whether he'll manage to sort everything out before he has a nervous breakdown.

Have you ever been to the Shuttleworth Collection? Well worth a visit, but an interesting thing is that they won't fly the WW1 planes unless the weather conditions are perfect. And then you realise that Johns and his contemporaries were in fact flying these things day in, day out, with people shooting at them.

Sausagenbacon · 02/04/2024 11:02

Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, and The Dolls House by Rumer Godden.
They are children's books, but I'm actually hesitant to give them to my grandchildren as they are pretty dark . I think children used to be more resilient.

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