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Children’s books as adults

94 replies

Numberonecook · 29/09/2018 14:29

I read some research in a magazine which suggested reading children’s books by yourself as an adult can be good for the soul. Taking the edge off stresses and strains of adult life and bringing a bit of fun back. Of course I read to my children when they were small but as soon as they because confident readers they just liked taking a book and reading by themselves. This study was about reading the book by yourself though for fun and not to your children.

I was a very keen reader as a child but once I got into my teens I stopped. I remember secret seven, rold Dahl, my naughty little sister etc back in the 80s but realised there was many classics I’d not read. My parents were very much ‘what do you want to read books for? Go play out’ Kind of people. The kind of people who scoffed when I said I was going to university because ‘people like us don’t do that’

So I’m just in the middle of the famous five series, I thought I’d give the reading children’s books a go. I can’t believe I’ve not read these before I’m hooked! I come away from the book with a warm fuzzy feeling. Maybe there is some truth in the study after all.

Maybe we should take some time to read a children’s book by ourselves from time to time. It felt a bit silly getting out my ff book on the train, I got some perculiar looks lol. But now I love them and I don’t care.

So I challenge more people to make the next book in their list a children’s book they havnt read before and see how it makes you feel. Let me know what you have read/ will choose to read.

OP posts:
wrapsuperstar · 08/10/2018 23:26

The best cross post @RustyBear! So awesome seeing the Mennyms love.

sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea · 09/10/2018 00:11

I was always a voracious reader until a few years ago and then I just couldn't (difficult personal stuff). I just lost the ability to be able to sit & read. DD's suddenly got into Enid Blyton, and I've started reading them too. It feels so right to have a book in my hand again, and I don't really care if it's not an adult book. I'm spoonfeeding myself books again. I've even managed a couple of Agatha Christie* ones

*Jesus, what a bloody writer though. She can sum up an entire character in about two sentences.

SpoonBlender · 09/10/2018 00:39

Oh yes, all the time. Usually more in the YA regions than childrens books, though. Diana Wynne Jones, L Frank Baum, Monica Hughes, Robert Fisk, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett's younger stuff, Catherynne Valente, and anything by Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher (pen name) who is utterly wonderful.

silentcrow · 09/10/2018 00:58

I am a children's librarian, so I read kids' books constantly. It is a huge part of my job because the children know that when I make a recommendation, I really do mean it specifically for them because I think they'll enjoy it, not because it's "good for them". It makes an enormous difference to their engagement with reading for the sheer joy of it. Kids love sharing stories and talking about them to someone who's also read it.

Reading through the thread, a lot of you are going back to the books you loved as kids - that's wonderful, and can be very healing Smile but can I make a plea for you to look at modern books too? This is a golden time for children's books, it's really not about the famous comedians and Youtubers you can pick up in the supermarkets. There's a vast and wonderful world of mysteries, fantasy, contemporary, sci-fi, humour, historical - everything you could want. Snaffle what your kids bring home from the library. Go to the library yourself and raid the shelves! See if your library has ebooks to borrow - there's a great range at mine. Wallow in the children's section of a big Waterstones and talk to the staff - lots of them are really passionate and can guide you. Try graphic novels, too - there's so much more than Superman out there.

Arkengarthdale · 09/10/2018 02:04

Monica Dickens Follyfoot books. Lovely language.

jeapurs54 · 09/10/2018 10:59

I love childrens books, they are happy, adventurous and funny. I loved the Milly Molly Mandy books. But also have just parted with all my Enid Blyton books over 100. I passed quite a lot to my Grandaughters and the ones that were yellowed pages due to them being my original ones from the 60's. Need more space for other great books. Dr Seuss books are always fun. Narnia is a big Favourite of mine. But would really love to read some of the Dickens Books the print is just too small. Hope this is useful.

sassolino · 09/10/2018 11:08

I love Moomins, loved them as a child, and read several times as a grown-up, I just find its gentle humour and wisdom so inspiring.
From the recent reads I thoroughly enjoyed The house with chicken legs by Sophie Anderson. It is based on the Russian fairy tales, but such an original interpretation.
As for Roald Dahl, I find his books very unpleasant. He was clearly very talented, but it feels like he absolutely hated people. I could never understand why he is such a cult author.

KisstheTeapot14 · 09/10/2018 11:26

Rumer Godden - The Doll's House. One of my all time favourites.

Just read her biog too - interesting to see who she was after all these years.

crabapplecrumble · 09/10/2018 16:04

I've loved Philippa Pearce's Minnow on the Say, A Dog So Small & Tom's Midnight Garden since childhood and re-read them every so often.

SusanWalker · 09/10/2018 18:04

If you're enjoying Agatha Christie sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea can i recommend the podcast 'all about the dame'? They are reading and discussing all of Agathas novels and short stories. I love reading along and feeling like I'm in a book club.

I also love Rumer Hidden but my favourite is The Story of Holly and Ivy. I just love the feeling of everyday magic running through.

bookmum08 · 09/10/2018 18:21

I am currently halfway through the new Jacqueline Wilson book. I am sharing it with my ten year old but she wasn't interested in the last two Jacqueline Wilson books (Rose Rivers and Wave Me Goodbye) so I bought those for myself.
I love the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz and I enjoyed the Robert Muchamore Cherub series (although the last few weren't that great). His prequel series The Henderson Boys was amazing. There is a series (can't remember the author) that is called the 'Fayz' series. That is a pretty intense series.
I also recently read a series of books that are all set in a Georgian House in Chelsea but at different periods of history and the main character is always a 12 year old girl. They are an interesting way to learn history. I like the Scholastic My Story Diaries too.

Medianoche · 09/10/2018 18:41

I’m loving all the suggestions here - and it’s so nice to find some other Mal Peet fans.
I do want to echo Silentcrow’s comment. There are so many great children’s books coming out at the moment. Pages & Co by Anna James is a lovely one that bottles the sheer joy and magic of getting immersed in books (and references a whole bunch of children’s classics in the process). I also really enjoyed Emma Carroll’s Secret’s of a Sun King.
I justify my children’s book obsession by saying I’m checking whether my 8 year old might like them, but frankly I just read what I enjoy most.

babybythesea · 09/10/2018 21:52

Two of my favourite authors have been mentioned.
Michelle Magorian who wrote Goodnight Mister Tom. Someone beat me to mentioning Back Home which is one of my all time favourite books. But she wrote others, Cuckoo in the Nest, A Spoonful of Jam - all brilliant.
LM Montgomery - I loved Anne but I also loved Emily of New Moon which hasn't been mentioned.

One that hasn't come up at all - Susan Cooper - the Dark is Rising series. Utterly amazing.

I find that I like to listen to kids books. I have lots on audio and they are so soothing. Tom's Midnight Garden, The Harry Potters, Ballet Shoes - you have to get the right recording (I have Goodnight Mr Tom but the reading is dire so I don't listen to it. I have the Chronicles of Narnia read by Michael Horden, on the other hand, which is utterly magical with some fantastic music - I can even forgive that it is abridged it is so well done) But my favourite is Just William. My daughter and I listened to it together on a long car journey for the first time recently and she loved it almost as much as me.

I am finishing my current book and then there are two books I want to borrow from DD. One called the Dreamsnatchers which she started to read but she says it's scary so I can read it first, and then one called The Palace Library which looks brilliant.

silentcrow · 09/10/2018 23:21

Medianoche funnily enough I'm halfway through Sun King and Pages & Co is on the stack! Have you read Letters From The Lighthouse? I'm running a book award panel at school and it's one of our choices, I was so pleased - WW2 fiction in an acessible modern voice is hard to come by and Carroll does it so well.

I'm also re-reading Northern Lights (partly to check for my daughter, partly because I have The Book of Dust), it really is still remarkable writing. So unusual to have a children's book written from both the child and the adult characters' points of view.

For the mystery lovers, you have SO much to choose from - may I recommend the Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens, and The Sinclair's Mysteries/Taylor & Rose by Katherine Woodfine. Both are historical fic; for a modern mystery try Kat Wolfe Investigates or Agatha Oddly. My upper juniors are absolute suckers for mystery stories, it's all I can do to keep them supplied! Grin

Ixnayonthehombre · 09/10/2018 23:26

As a parent I find most of the books I read belong to my 11 year old. I'll be tidying her room and absentmindedly start reading one. Or I'll buy one and then check if it's suitable and read the whole thing. I'm currently (re)reading 'Are You There God, Its Me Margaret' and don't think l'll actually allow her to read this one. Christ. The one I've enjoyed the most is My Name Is Mina. Just beautifully written. Breathtaking. It's the prequel to Skellig which I haven't read yet.

KisstheTeapot14 · 10/10/2018 09:48

A Traveller in Time (Alison Uttley) and the Green Knowe series are also truly magical books.

Medianoche · 10/10/2018 12:31

I haven’t read Letters from the Lighthouse yet, Silentcrow. I’ve heard good things about it. It’s on my (ever-growing) list. Today’s library haul included The Lost Magician, Armistice Runner and The Outlaw Varjak Paw, so that should keep me busy for a day or two.

silentcrow · 11/10/2018 21:00

Excellent selection Smile I've got Dan Smith's Below Zero up next, along with finishing Knights & Bikes and Sun King off. Plus a long road trip coming up over the weekend, so I'll be finishing off Does My Head Look Big In This? and then The Boy, The Bird and the Coffinmaker.

Arkengarthdale · 11/10/2018 21:04

Oo yes Moomins! I was so delighted to find they are still current and still popular. I adored the books as a child

strawberrisc · 11/10/2018 21:04

I loved Daddy Long Legs.

Helenluvsrob · 11/10/2018 21:08

Husband is the reading Jennings books again....
after a binge on Arthur ransome

PrivateParkin · 11/10/2018 21:10

I've posted about this on here before, but I read The Children of Green Knowe last Christmas, and I honestly felt so happy afterwards! It was such a lovely feeling. Like being a kid again in a way.

Like PPs I read children's books with my DC but it is lovely to read them by yourself. I'm totally with you on that OP.

A woman I was sitting next to on the train into work the other day was reading Anne of Green Gables Smile

concretesieve · 11/10/2018 21:27

tawdry More About Mandy is the one I don't have - yet Grin - sounds lovely!

KisstheTeapot14 · 12/10/2018 09:19

PrivateParkin, Greenknowe is amazing - must be my number one book of all time, and I read a lot!!

You can visit the house, its where the author lived.

Her biographies - 'Peverse and Foolish' and the later 'Memories in a House' are well worth reading too. The house came to her in quite a coincidental way. A good tale in itself. She didn't publish anything until after the age of 60! Late bloomer :)

www.greenknowe.co.uk/history.html

PaintBySticker · 12/10/2018 13:37

@silentcrow - I’d love modern recommendations for an 8 yo who is stuck in a Captain Underpants / Dirty Bertie rut? I read The Phantom Tollbooth to him a year ago and he loved it to my huge surprise but he seems less adventurous with his own reading and won’t let me read to him anymore. He enjoyed a football graphic novel but it was old from the school library and I haven’t seen any quite the same.

Thank you.