Reading Children's Books as an Adult

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I was a fairly avid reader as a child but feel I missed a lot of the children’s classics like Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables etc.

I’m thinking I might read them now as a (fairly mature!) adult. Has anyone else done this? It isn’t too weird is it?!

And if you have done / would do it, are there any books you’d recommend?

Thanks.

I often do it. Especially old pony stories from the 1950's.

I was desperate for a horse as a child/pre-teen! It was never going to happen and deep down I knew and accepted that, but I used to spend hours daydreaming about my family winning the pools and me being able to have one... 😄

I first read Arthur Ransome’s books in my 40s and I love them too @squashyhat. I’m with @sittingonabeach though, Winter Holiday is my favourite. I was thrilled to come across the North Pole when I visited the Lake District a few years back. They are my go to books when the real world is just too much.

Our P5 teacher used to read to us for about 15 minutes at the end of every day. Do they do that nowadays? Calmed everyone down, meant that even those who weren’t confident readers could enjoy more interesting books. She read us The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler, I loved that but haven’t read it since so I might look for it. The same teacher read us Mrs Frisby and The Rats of Nimh and I did find that on Kindle. It took me back to sitting on scratchy carpet listening to Miss Malcolm. Lovely!

@squashyhat My favourite is The Picts And The Martyrs. Absolutely brilliant! Winter Holiday is my second favourite.

DS is read to as a class. They've just read Malamander.

Our teacher read TTTT to us too! And Carrie's War and Stig of the Dump.

I was desperate for a horse but working at the stables we all had a favourite pony/horse which was seen as "ours" and I was allowed to help in the breaking and training of "my" pony. What days they were, hard work out in the fresh air can't beat it

I reread this and it’s sequels frequently!

I remember that being one of my reading books in primary school! Can't remember anything about the book, though, except there were rats...

I was first introduced to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe via carpet story time in primary school. I remember being very confused when the teacher closed one session on 'They say Aslan's on the move', as for some reason I had heard it as 'Aslan's on the moon'. Had to wait a whole day to realise I'd misheard! 😄

Oh, I'd have loved that. At various times I used to hang out at stables with horsey friends and help them with their horses (or probably ponies, looking back), but it never gelled into any regular time spent around them, I lived for my riding lessons though.

Shadow the Sheepdog , Show Jumping Summer and anything by Enid Blyton especially the 5 find outers with Fatty and PC Goon ❤️

can be hard to find classic children's books in English in the library system where I live

Have a look at fadedpage.com (or Project Gutenberg) for ebooks.

Yes, and Internet Archive. Last summer I read straight through the entire My Friend Flicka series on there.

(Is anyone else a fan of those? My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and Green Grass of Wyoming from the 1940s, by Mary O'Hara?)

Love them - the films were a disappointment - the books are superb

I've never seen them. I can't imagine how they could be anything other than disappointing, the novels are so strange and vivid, and hop about from Ken's POV to Nell's to Flicka's, to Paulie the cat to random gophers and back to humans!

I LOVE Eva Ibbotson, as a person not just an author. She's going to become my best friend when I get to heaven, I've decided!

I am an avid reader (did Russian literature for one of my undergrad degrees). But i love reading my old favourite children books

I've just started Voyage of the Dawn Treader again.
I constantly re-read pony books- the Jill books, the Jinny books, and Linda Craig mysteries.
The Harry Potters are a comfort read.
The Secret Garden is another comfort read for me. I used to re-read Little Women as well often but went off that recently, Too pious for me now. Also love A Little Princess.

Happy days.

I bought that for my DCs and read it relatively recently to my Ds when he was about 13. he thought it was 'childish' as Anna was aged 10 and he was 13. But we sobbed through it. The deaths of Pumpel and Onkel Julius undid us.

I have just bought The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, The Diddakoi and Which witch? for a friends children. All favourites!

I adored Lucy Mangen's book, most of our obsessions were the same except for her missing out Helen Cresswell's Bagthorpe Saga - the funniest three books of all time.

have you read her 'adult' book 'Madensky Square? This is actually my all time favourite book. It's so funny, the characters are so warmly drawn. I bought it in a charity shop, finished it and booked myself a trip to Vienna (twice) thanks to this book.

The Little White Horse is a lovely book I read many times. Will now look for a copy to read again. The film with Colin Firth is awful so don't let that put you off.

I also loved The Children Who Lived in a Barn, read it a few years ago and it was tosh.

I read most of the classics as a child but often re-read them especially The Children of Green Knowe, The Dark is Rising and A Country Child (Alison Uttley).

Some that I only read as an adult (not counting some I read to the DC but wouldn't have read myself like Swallows and Amazons)

• the sequels to What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School and What Katy Did Next - can't remember what they are called
• all the sequels to Wolves of Willoughby Chase written after The Stolen Lake
• Diane Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle and sequels, all the Chrestomanci books (apart from Witch Week which I did read as a child), Archer's Goon
• A few of the Susan books I hadn't read like Susan's Trying Term
• Of course, Harry Potter

A Country Child by Alison Uttley was the book that drew me away from Enid Blyton and onto more diverse reading. I still have a copy and reread it.

I re read that a couple of months ago. Along with The Silver Sword

@UnusualOtter what a coincidence!

I read the December and Christmas chapters every Christmas!