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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!

OP posts:
MissyB1 · 25/03/2024 17:32

The Chalet school books - Elinor M Brent Dyer. I’m currently re reading them again, today it’s “A Chalet girl from Kenya”.

mouche202 · 25/03/2024 17:34

I read the Harry Potter ones as a youngish adult and read them to my DS again between ages 7-11. Enjoyed them both times. Love the Chalet School and Trebizon series from childhood and reread occasionally.

Books I discovered as a mum - The Grunts and the Eddie Dickens series by Philip Ardagh. Loved them! I enjoyed the Kid Normal audio books. And though I love Terry Pratchett, I hadn't read the Bromeliad trilogy and I loved that. I also liked a few of the Eva Ibbotsons I read though they do get a bit samey.

Young adult stuff - I am enjoying The Hunger Games series that my 12 year old insisted I read. I am looking forward to reading him The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan when he's a bit older. I also enjoyed the The Hobbit very much.

Chickenrunning · 25/03/2024 17:34

Another vote for Swallows and Amazons and series. Reading them as an adult the peril seems much greater than as a child. No ‘this is clearly a story’ peril such as guns/kidnapping/smuggling etc like Enid Blyton, but truly terrifying ‘this could easily happen’ peril of fog, snow storms, fire etc.

husbandcallsmepickle · 25/03/2024 17:38

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (I recommend it to everyone)

KnitnNatterAuntie · 25/03/2024 17:40

The Secret Garden

Little Lord Fauntleroy

We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (my favourite of all the Arthur Ransome books . . . none of my DB's agree with this choice!)

Benjaminsniddlegrass · 25/03/2024 17:45

Katherine Rundell - Impossible Creatures - read before Christmas and it was beautiful.

Obviously the Phillip Pullman Dark Materials/Book of Dust trilogies but also I love the Sally Lockhart series - Ruby in the Smoke is the first one.

KohlaParasaurus · 25/03/2024 18:01

Harry Potter. My children were the right age to be caught up in the madness when the books were released and I read them all to keep in touch but also because I loved them too.
Noughts and Crosses and its sequels, by Malorie Blackman.
The Twelfth Day of July and its sequels, by Joan Lingard.

tigerhippy · 25/03/2024 18:06

The Moomins

Natsku · 25/03/2024 18:27

I read the books that DD reads so she has someone to chat to them about so I've read a lot of childrens/teenagers books in the last couple of years. Really liked the Alex Rider books, quite liked the Percy Jackson books (was less keen on some of his other series though), loved His Dark Materials trilogy, the 5 Children and It books, the Narnia books.

I want to reread the Swallows and Amazons books, they were my favourite as a child and I want to see if they still hold up to my memory of them but can't find them in the library system, going to have to get my old books from my parents' attic.

Natsku · 25/03/2024 18:28

tigerhippy · 25/03/2024 18:06

The Moomins

The Moomin books are excellent, read them in my 20s, started reading them again recently to read to DS.

colourblindrainbow · 25/03/2024 18:29

Room 13 - Robert Swindells. It’s amazing!

stargirl1701 · 25/03/2024 18:32

Geraldine McCaughrean for 12+. Where the World Ends is astounding. Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur is great for this age group too.

Ruta Sepetys for 16+. Salt to the Sea is just so good. Mal Peet for that age group too.

Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls and David Almond's Skellig are THE modern classics.

Siobhan Dowd was such a great loss too early. Bog Child is heart-wrenching.

Tanya Landman is fantastic as is Anthony McGowan.

Caravaggiouch · 25/03/2024 18:35

Neverpostagain · 25/03/2024 12:14

The Christmas Pig JKR

Yes! Loved this when reading it to DD in January.

Longtimelistenerfirsttimecaller · 25/03/2024 18:37

Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.

CatChant · 25/03/2024 19:50

All Diana Wynne Jones,
Lucy M Boston’s Green Knowe series,
Antonia Forest’s Marlows series,
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series,
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer,
The Ghosts/The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber,
Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes,
Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co series and Bartimaeus series,
Garth Nix’s Sabriel series and Shade’s Children,
Cynthia Harnett’s historical novels,
Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels,
All Laura Ingalls Wilder,
A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley,
Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart series and the two Dragon Rider books,
The Rainbow Opera and The Dream Quake by Elizabeth Knox,
Tove Jansson’s Moomin’s series,
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr,
Watership Down by Richard Adams,
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame,
All Edith Nesbit,
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett,
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery,
Ballet Shoes, The Circus is Coming and White Boots by Noel Streatfeild,
Mardie’s Adventures and Mardie to the Rescue by Astrid Lindgren,
The Borrowers series by Mary Norton,
The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh,
The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden,
Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights’ trilogy,
Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy, Johnny trilogy and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents,
Cold Christmas, Well Met by Witchlight, A Visit to Folly Castle, and Under the Enchanter by Nina Beechcroft,
Barbara Willard’s Mantlemass series,
Tom’s Midnight Garden, A Dog So Small, and Minnow on the Say by Philippa Pearce,
The Ghost of Thomas Kemp, and The Voyage of QV66 by Penelope Lively,
All Nina Bawden, but especially Carrie’s War and The Peppermint Pig,
Smith, Devil in the Fog, and Black Jack by Leon Garfield,
The Tripods series and Empty World by John Christopher,
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein,
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling,
A Bag of Marbles/Un Sac de Billes by Joseph Joffo,
A Pocket of Silence by Barbara C Freeman,
Penny’s Way by Mary K Harris.
Hilary McKay’s Casson Family series, the Exiles series, The Skylarks’ War, The Swallows’ Flight, and The Time of Green Magic.
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders,
CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia (and I really, really want to read Francis Spufford’s eight chronicle, The Stone Table, which is supposed to fit seamlessly but the Lewis estate will not give permission to publish it).

And probably a lot more that have slipped my mind and I will kick myself for forgetting.

SprinkledGlitter · 25/03/2024 20:08

To read to yourself or your DC? - Either really. I do love reading with the dcs. It's one of the perks of parenthood!

Thanks for all these suggestions Flowers

OP posts:
Firefly993 · 25/03/2024 20:27

The summer I robbed a bank by David o Doherty. Really funny!

HPFA · 25/03/2024 20:28

Don't think anyone's mentioned Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce yet - that's a wonderfully written book.

Agree about Sylvia Waugh's The Mennyms series - not sure how easily available it is now though?

One all time fave is Penelope Lively's The House in Norham Gardens - some of it is a bit dated now but it's immensely evocative of a time and place.

Anyone mentioned Nina Bawden's Carrie's War?

A bit off topic but anyone who's on this thread might enjoy Lucy Mangan's Bookworm - a brilliant account of her childhood reading

UnalliterativeGeorge · 25/03/2024 20:33

The phantom tollbooth is excellent.

AmeliaEarhart · 25/03/2024 20:46

I’m reading the Lockwood & Co series to my tween and young teen, and I’m really enjoying them. I love the vivid, atmospheric descriptions of haunted London, and some scenes are as scary as any “adult” horror fiction I’ve read.

RishiSunak · 25/03/2024 20:51

Whilst not the simplest task I've had to deal with to-date, I do like the Dot-to-Dot books. They are really clever and sometimes when you think your going to be drawing an elephant it turns out to be a lion devouring a snake!
It does make me laugh, and it can
lighten a whole Cabinet Meeting when we are all.puzzling what the final picture is going to be and it turns out to something completely different - a bit like the economy, I suppose!

alphabettispagetti · 25/03/2024 20:55

I read Little House on the Praire and the other books in it as a child and enjoyed them. I started reading it to DD a few years ago but she found it too slow. I re-read them all and found them fascinating as an adult.

Needmorelego · 25/03/2024 21:03

@alphabettispagetti if you haven't already try and get a copy of "Pioneer Girl" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's the original (previously) unpublished version of her books. It also includes explanations and historical information about her life.
It's a massive heavy hardback - but a brilliant read.

newroundhere · 25/03/2024 21:10

I'm so pleased a couple of people have already mentioned The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper - that is hands down my favourite set of books ever. Please read them if you haven't already.

I should probably try to read some Diana Wynne Jones based on the recommendations here - her son was my English teacher at school but I don't think I've ever read any of her books.

stargazer02 · 25/03/2024 21:14

Pretty much everything by Emma Carroll.