Reading Children's Books as an Adult

I love Starlight Barking. Read it as a tween and it stayed with me so I had to go and seek out a copy as an adult. I just loved the idea of dogs being alone in the world (the plot is that all the humans fall asleep and the dogs have to save the day) - I think I prefer it to 101Ds!

All the Noel Steatfeild books plus all the Michelle Magorian books.

Apparently, C. S. Lewis (who could read Ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Old English and Old Norse) re-read Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin every September to get him in the mood for Autumn. He also adored Wind in the Willows and Tolkien's The Hobbit. This was a man who read War and Peace three times and could practically recite the whole of Milton's Paradise Lost from memory.

I love the fact that tolkien and Lewis, who were Oxford professors, and who used to read Dante to one another in Italian, both retained a love for children's books and for simple adventure stories. I just love the image of them in that pub in Oxford (can't think of its name), on a winter evening, pipes in their mouths, swigging beer and reading their stories about Narnia and Middle Earth out loud.

The Eagle and Child, nicknamed the Bird and Baby. Would love to have eavesdropped.

Ah, yes.😀

Totally agree.

@Dappy777 I have heard a story that once when Tolkien was holding forth to a group of students on his latest chapter of LOTR that one was overheard saying “Not another fucking Elf…”

Yes, these are wonderful.
I too have read and re-read the Anne of Green Gables books as an adult, and the Laura Ingals Wilder books.

I didn't read Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan until I was in college. And I'm glad I did, finally.

Curiously, the best classics seem to be British - except for Little Women, which you might want to try. (I prefer Little Princess over Secret Garden.)

Curiously, the best classics seem to be British - except for Little Women, which you might want to try. (I prefer Little Princess over Secret Garden.)

On the ReadingtheWorld blog once she asked folk about the best children's books in different languages. I was surprised that the majority of suggestions were fairytales rather than chapter books. I think in the UK the suggestions would be things like Tom's Midnight Garden, Narnia, Alice in Wonderland etc so books aimed at what we now call tweens.

I think the US has more than Little Women. There are the Little House books, Charlotte's Web, The Oz books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (are these still read by children?), Pollyanna, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Rats of NIMH. I read and loved a lot of US children's novels as a child in the 70s and 80s.

Elisabeth Enright books are American, too - the Melendy series and Gone-Away Lake.

LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables, Emlyn of New Moon, Jane of Lantern Hill) was Canadian.

And Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books were some of my favourite- Australian.

There have always been lots of English language writers, so we haven't had as many translate authors as other countries. I don't think I've seen Karl Mey in English (haven't looked, to be fair,) which many German children would have been brought up with.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies yes to Cue for Treason. It has influenced my life in several ways.

Oh, the Silver Brumby books were amazing. I'd never read anything like those before, they really fired my imagination as a kid.

And Cynthia Voigt for brilliant American writing - the Dicey series is wonderful.

I still have Gone Away Lake in my bookcase (aged 58.5). I think i last reread it during the pandemic.

Oh yes, loved Silver Brumby too. Glad to see that getting a mention

I reread Swallows and Amazons as an adult .

I recently read the famous American children's science fiction book, A Wrinkle in Time. It's got a bit of a CS Lewis vibe (Christianity). It's excellent.
I read children's books all the time. Why not, if they're well written? My favourites from childhood are the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie books - a brilliant series. And Ballet Shoes, of course.
A few more - Children on the Oregon Trail, Cue Treason, The Cay.

I am currently on holiday in Kent. Winchelsea - first learned of it in a children's book,possibly Eleanor Farjeon. I had previously visited Rye with my parents, because my mother was a huge EF Benson fan. Romney Marsh - not really like the Romney Marsh in my head from Monica Edwards (probably just the pictures in my head were wrong.) Currently at Dover Castle, with it's Roman lighthouse - i only read Eagle of the Ninth as a child, but I read the rest as an adult, and in the second or third, he's at a lighthouse.

There is a lot of my life influenced by reading children's books, I realise - they are often the cconnections I make with places.

@EBearhug I loved the Monica Edwards Punchbowl Farm books. I think at one point they would have made a good children's TV series but I think that ship has sailed now. I didn't read so many of the Romney Marsh books, maybe I need to.

I loved Eagle of the Ninth, didn't think the film really did the book justice

Didn't know there had been a film (we didn't have a TV when I was a child, which is partly why I read so much.)
I didn't read all the Monica Edwards when I was a child, but I filled in the gaps i had during lockdown, when I wasn't spending money on petrol.

Oh, and later, I'm goingto the Bleriot memorial, because I first learnt about Bleriot in Flambards.

The film is called The Eagle, and was released 2011 with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. I must admit I thought it was a more recent film, I find I do that a lot lately - thinking a film is more recent then shocked to see when it was made😂

The BBC once did what I remember as a good version of Eagle of the Ninth. I think it was in the Sunday teatime slot - they used to do adaptations of classic books aimed at family audiences.

I first learned about Rye, Winchelsea etc from Malcolm Saville. Didn't come across Monica Edwards until I was older. I don't know if my local library didn't have them, because I think I'd have been attracted by the Geoffrey Whittam covers if I'd seen them. I prefer the Romney Marsh books to Punchbowl Farm, though Meryon does become a bit too good to be true.

I sometimes read Enid Blyton's Book of Fairies for a bit of comfort. Also my old Secret Seven books.