Reading Children's Books as an Adult

I mostly got Monica Edwards from jumble sales, nit the library. I was reading one of the Lone Pine books earlier in the week (Shropshire, though,) and am slightly regretting not having brought the next one or two. (I am home on Sunday, so I will survive the wait.)

2011 is recent...

Looks as if the BBC Eagle of the Ninth is on YouTube, for anyone who wants to check it out. I'm only on a small screen at the moment, but it looks like the whole serial is there.

I tried re-reading Malcolm Saville a while ago, but couldn't get into them. A shame, because I loved the books as a child.

I never read the original Gone Away Lake, but I still have ‘Return to Gone Away’ which is a lovely book!

It's showing on C4 at 02:45 tonight, which probably means it's on All4 currently.

A good book is always worth reading, as long as you do read. I worked for a time as a school librarian, so I made a point to read some of the more recent books. I'd recommend books by Sally Gardner and Annabel Pitcher, especially Maggot Moon and My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece

At primary age, I was captivated by the US author Edward Eager. I found his Magic series in the library myself. I've never heard of anyone else who has read them. Half Magic - what a brilliant idea!

I never stopped reading children's books... mainly because there was more variety in the plot than in YA fiction and books aimed squarely at women (I was not, and am still not, into romance). Also, there is a magic about them that is missing in books aimed at older audiences.

Oh, and as a fair chunk of MN seem to still read The Chalet School books, I think you'll have the backing of a lot of people on here!

I have read them - favourite was Knight’s Castle… they are okay but I preferred E.Nesbit - who certainly influenced him in his writing… e.g. magic city is her book which we can assume inspired Eager write Knight’s Castle

I liked the Bastable Children stories but I didn't know about Magic City. I don't know what the Nesbit books would read like now?

I tend not to be bothered by stories that are out of date / not in tune with the modern world - I am happy to read them as if their time… so I am probably not a good judge… but still enjoyable from my perspective…

I think it was them that I remember being in a house that had an overwhelming smell of mutton cooking!

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest." - C. S. Lewis
"There are good books which are only for adults, because their comprehension presupposes adult experience, but there are no good books which are only for children.” - W. H. Auden
There's many many more quotes expressing the same sentiment :)!

Hm. Never even heard of him. Thanks!

I was reading another thread about atmospheric books for Autumn - it made me think of a children's book, I still have, The House with the Twisting Passage by Marion St John Webb. I was always intrigued by the title, for a start.

Jenny stays with her aunt, who is the caretaker of a manor house, and entertains herself by exploring the corridors and imagining who could live behind the doors. When later, she returns to the house, it has been populated with characters like her pretend ones - but not quite! What is exciting is that she gradually visits them, one by one, and they each tell her a story - The Yellow Silk Dress, The Tattooed Man, The Crack'd Mirror ...... it fascinated me and it was a bit creepy.

His dark materials

Some other childhood favourites I have reread in the last few years

• The Little Grey Men and it's sequel Down the Bright Stream by 'BB'. I still have this silly wish I will one day catch a glimpse of a gnome.
• The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong. So thrilled a few years ago on a walking holiday in Bavaria to actually see storks nesting on a cartwheel on a roof.
• The Otterbury Incident

No, but the reading level might well be higher. Not joking. I'm not just talking about the style being different-a lot of popular books now I could have understood more easily as a child, while some of the classics had words I didn't know and had to guess.
So there's no reason you shouldn't read them. Or reread ones you've read already. IKt's interesting how your opinion can change, and your appreciation of subtext.

@5foot5 I think I still have a copy of Down the Bright Stream somewhere. I kept most of my DC's books and some of mine as well. My Chronicles of Narnia has sadly fallen into bits.

I’ve just bought the following three Michael Morpurgo books

War Horse
Shadow
and one now I can’t remember the name of.

waiting for them to come from Vinted. Believe they are all children’s books. Can’t wait !

I still have copies of all these. My favourite BB book is Brendon Chase which I loved ( still do) even though at the time I first read it it was regarded as a ‘boys’ book’. BB was a great naturalist. His illustrations are wonderful.

I have never heard of Brendon Chase. Thanks @pollyhemlock I will look out for it

Just popping up to say that I shared this, on another book thread, recently

The House of Sixty Fathers, Meindert Dejong
Read to me at primary school, many decades ago. A Chinese boy displaced, when the Japanese occupy, is by himself with just his pig. The cover says: could be the story of any child in any war.

I have been re-reading Tales of the Greek Heroes, Roger Lancelyn Green - which was a set book in the first year of senior school.

I've read several of Edward Eager's books - he wrote 7 before dying in 1964 aged only 53. Some are quite easy to find secondhand, others less so, but they were clearly quite popular here, and I'm sure I originally read them in 1970s Puffin Books copies. I have a box set of all 7 books which I found In Oxfam in Deal a few years ago.

I've collected children's books since I learned to read and haven't really stopped. My sons never read the way I do but they did enjoy reading between about 7 and 12. I bought a lot of Michael Morpurgo books, many from a discount mail order company TheBookPeople who sold astonishingly good value box sets.

My favourites are, I think, Private Peaceful and War Horse, but I've enjoyed all I've read - perhaps 8-10 titles.