Children's books I wish I had read as a child.

[Sydney]

Little Women. Here's a book I did read as a child and never did like! Could be I was not ready to read it or too young to appreciate it.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

I understand that thought process Sydney. Some of the YA books I have read now, I wish I had read as a child so I can compare my experiences.

[Susan]

I didn't read The Neverending Story until I was in my 20s, even though I saw the movie in my teens. It was the same with The Princess Bride, which I thoroughly love. I've read them to my kid.

Btw, I have a Little Free Library, and please, please use them, especially new ones -- and tell your friends! No one came to my library for the first month because it was the first one in our neighborhood, so people didn't quite know what to make of it. I was heartbroken and started telling my family that I must have inadvertently created a Someone Else's Problem Field around it. I've done some local and online advertising, and now it has a pretty good flow of visitors, but the beginning was rough.

[Manybooks]

Susan wrote: "I didn't read The Neverending Story until I was in my 20s, even though I saw the movie in my teens. It was the same with The Princess Bride, which I thoroughly love. I've ..."

I read the Neverending Story in German in 1979 (Christmas gift from one of my aunts and totally appreciated and loved, especially since all of the German language children's books I had taken with me when we immigrated to Canada in 1976 were getting boring and the historical romances my mother read were still a bit too much love making for me). But that certainly spoiled me for the movie, which is one of the only times I have actually walked in the middle of a film.

Still have not gotten around to reading The Princess Bride.

[Manybooks]

Susan wrote: "I didn't read The Neverending Story until I was in my 20s, even though I saw the movie in my teens. It was the same with The Princess Bride, which I thoroughly love. I've ..."

Would love to visit your library.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

In 5th grade The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was required reading for my teacher. I remember reading it and loving it. I have since several years ago donated the book and never yet read all of the books (or any others) in The Chronicles of Narnia. I really would like to, though.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I didn't read The Narnia books until after I graduated from university and loves them. We are never too old to read kid books. I started high school in 1966, and so many wonderful books have been written since then. I really like The Dark is Rising sequence of books by Susan Cooper.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

Absolutely, anyone can read children’s and YA books. I thoroughly enjoyed The Hunger Games books in my mid-20’s. Just because I’m an adult when great children’s or YA books come out, that does not mean I miss my chance to read those! I also have the Wrinkle in Time series on my list. I read the first one, coincidentally at the end of 5th grade but on my own, and own the second book. Some of the concepts with time and space almost seem too complex for children, if I remember the first book correctly. Parts of it were confusing. I think I’ll enjoy the whole series more as an adult, even though they tend to be marketed towards children.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

I agree, I loved the A Series Of Unfortunate Events Pack (Books 5-8) when I was in my mid-thirties they came out. I bought one book at a time! Enjoyed the earlier ones more than the later...

[Sydney]

The Bridge to Terebithia and Tuck Everlasting are wonderful YA books. Especially the latter.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

I may have said this somewhere before, but I read Tuck Everlasting for my 9th grade English class. It is a beautiful story and one book I cannot part with.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I have just finished reading The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner and would have loved this as a child. It is sweet and charming little book.

[Tr1sha]

I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit today. It was so cute, with beautiful illustrations. I’ve seen some of the original Beatrix Potter illustrations on display in the V&A Museum & love the designs. But I’ve no idea why I didn’t have the books when I was a child, especially as I always loved animals.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

One of my favourite Beatrix Potter books is The Tailor of Gloucester.

[Tr1sha]

Rosemarie wrote: "One of my favourite Beatrix Potter books is The Tailor of Gloucester. "

I’ll have to try it. I want to read more of these books.

[Samantha, Creole Literary Belle]

I remember borrowing Beatrix Potter books from the children’s section of the library when I was a kid. I loved them. I don’t remember much if anything about them now, but they are cute stories. Fun for kids.

[Patrick]

Lesle wrote: "I agree, I loved the A Series Of Unfortunate Events Pack (Books 5-8) when I was in my mid-thirties they came out. I bought one book at a time! Enjoyed the earlier ones more than the l..."

I read all 13 volumes in a rush, and really liked the later thicker ones, because just when I thought the pattern of the books was becoming a little repetitive, Daniel Handler starts to change the game. There are real moral dilemmas in the latter half of the series, and some shocking moments.

[Patrick]

Samantha wrote: "I remember borrowing Beatrix Potter books from the children’s section of the library when I was a kid. I loved them. I don’t remember much if anything about them now, but they are cute stories. Fun..."

Beautiful for adults, too; some of the later ones such as The Tale of Ginger and Pickles are surprisingly complex and even unnerving. The critic Roger Sale has a brilliant chapter on these in Fairy Tales and After.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Rosemarie when we read a book like Heidi that I did not read as a child. I so wonder how I would have felt when I was 10 or 12 reading it?
Would I have loved it more? Would the meaning be so different?
What would I miss that I understood now?

[Manybooks]

Lesle wrote: "Rosemarie when we read a book like Heidi that I did not read as a child. I so wonder how I would have felt when I was 10 or 12 reading it?
Would I have loved it more? Would the meaning be so diffe..."

I have the same questions, but I also have similar questions about books I have read both as a child and now as an older and more critical adult. And with Heidi, when I reread the novel for the first time since my childhood about ten years ago, I did realise that while I loved the book when it was first read to me (in German) when I was a child (and I also read the book on my own when I was about eight or nine years of age), I loved it equally but for different reasons as an older adult, delving more deeply into what is (in my opinion) below and between the lines (such as Johanna Spyri making Heidi into somewhat of an incomplete novel of development, an incomplete Bildungsroman, and also showing the juxtaposition of her health and happiness in Switzerland compared to how utterly miserable and emotionally fragile she is in Frankfurt, she basically is anywhere but on her grandfather's alpine meadows). And I think this shows why Heidi is still going strong and why it is still in many ways so universally loved, namely that one can read it on multiple levels and enjoy it on multiple levels and that children can and do enjoy it the same as adults even if perhaps for different reasons.

[Sarah]

I wish I had read The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid. There were so many plays on words that I would have loved so much. I still got a kick out of them, but it’s a shame it took me so long to get to it.

[Rosemarie, Northern Roaming Scholar]

I didn't read The Phantom Tollboth until I was 40, so I know what you mean, Sarah.
It is a fascinating little book.

[Pam, Southwest Enchanter]

I don’t remember reading classics as a kid. I remember loving mysteries, Judy Blume, and Joan Aiken’s books- Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Nightbirds on Nantucket, etc. I wish I would’ve read Anne of Green Gables and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I read Anne recently but didn’t appreciate it so much, as an adult. But, I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and I think I would have enjoyed it in junior high or high school. I have no idea what Phantom Tollbooth is but I’ve seen and heard it mentioned. Maybe I’ll read it some day with my grandkids.

[Manybooks]

Bluegrass Pam wrote: "I don’t remember reading classics as a kid. I remember loving mysteries, Judy Blume, and Joan Aiken’s books- Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Nightbirds on Nantucket, etc. I wish I would’ve read Anne of..."

I wonder if you might like Montgomery's Emily of New Moon trilogy better as an adult because it is in my opinion much more nuanced and grown up than Anne of Green Gables.

[Pam, Southwest Enchanter]

Thank you Manybooks for the suggestion!

[Manybooks]

Bluegrass Pam wrote: "Thank you Manybooks for the suggestion!"

Hope you enjoy the series once you get to it.

[Jazzy]

I read everything i could get my hands on. I read from the age of two and had my library card at 4. There's nothing I could have read but didn't and used to read the books my parents hid in their nightstand, even if i couldn't quite understand them. :)

When I was 5 and in first grade the teacher wanted us to list all the books we read. My poor mam had to help gather together every book in the house and books from memory and i was very upset we couldn't write them all down. She wrote down over 100 for me. I told the teacher we couldn't write them all down and she said that's alright. Now go sit down.

[Lesle, Appalachian Bibliophile]

Unfortunately, while growing up we only had a handful of books.
Ribsy
Madeline
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Sammy the Seal

We had salesmen that came to our door and Mom would buy the first set that the person was selling. Sammy the Seal came with 4 others.

Madeline came with 2 others and for the life of me I cannot remember the book title. I can see the cover in my head. He was a shoemaker with cats? and wore a hat on the cover and glasses. The cover was maroon in color and was a large book like Madeline :(

[Jazzy]

Lesle wrote: "Unfortunately, while growing up we only had a handful of books.
Ribsy
Madeline
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Sammy the Seal

We had salesmen that came..."

I read Ribsy til it fell apart and the pages were falling out.
I read all of them they were marvellous.

I will help you think of the other book.

Did you read Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business - Esphyr Slobodkina?

Might your book be The Rich Man and the Shoemaker ?