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Favorite children’s books you still reread again and again as an adult

TheGreyKingTheGreyKing Forum Champion Williams College Posts: 1,965 Forum Champion
in Parent Cafe
The Laura Ingalls Wilder thread suggested this thread idea to me.

Anyone have any favorite books you first encountered as a child, prior to high school, and still reread frequently?

Here are mine:

I reread these once a year every year without exception:
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (first read The Hobbit in grade 5, and the trilogy in grade 7)
The Dark Is Rising series by Cooper (first read in grade 5)- whence came my CC name, “The Grey King”
The Little House series by Wilder (first read in grade 2)
Little Women by Alcott (first read in grade 2)
Watership Down (first read in grade 8)
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Replies to: Favorite children’s books you still reread again and again as an adult

  • Mom2jlMom2jl Registered User Posts: 626 Member
    I typically don't reread books, but now that I'm in a book club focusing on Young Adult fiction, I have reread a few favorites from my childhood. These are Anne of Green Gables, A Wrinkle in Time, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Heidi. I reread The Little House series many times as a child, but not since then. I loved Watership Down when I read it as a teenager and would love to reread it--maybe I'll suggest it the next time it's my turn to pick a book!
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  • intparentintparent Registered User Posts: 36,153 Senior Member
    Hmm. Some of those aren’t really considered children’s books... at least, LOTR, Watership Down, and maybe the Hobbit aren’t. But I know what you mean. I am an adult who was sorely disappointed when I moved to the adult section of the library. I don’t reread every year, but occasionally:
    - Enid Blyton (especially the “Adventure” series
    - Snow Treasure
    - The Green Knowe series
    - LIW books - I just reread The Long Winter & Farmer Boy, not the rest
    - Sylvia Engdahl’s “Enchantress From the Stars” and “Journey Between Worlds”
    - My Side of the Mountain
    - From the Mixed Up Files
    - Mrs Frisby & The Rats Of NIMH

    I’m sure there are a few more. :) I read new YA and children’s chapter books occasionally, too. I actually wanted to be a children’s librarian when I was a kid. Haven’t totally let go of that!
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  • makemesmartmakemesmart Registered User Posts: 987 Member
    These are not children’s books per se but I first read them when I was in junior high and had re-read them a few times when I am older, not every year maybe every decade. Lol.

    Jane Eyre: loved the first time and still love it every time afterwards
    The pride and prejudice: hated the first time then love it when I am older
    The great Gatsby: didn’t feel much the first time around but start to appreciate it a lot more as I grew older.
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  • Mom2jlMom2jl Registered User Posts: 626 Member
    I forgot that I've also reread The Chronicles of Narnia multiple times, though not recently.
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  • rosered55rosered55 Registered User Posts: 4,288 Senior Member
    There were some I was happy to reread as an adult, when my children were still at home, but generally I don't reread books. Too many books, not enough time!
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  • austinmshauriaustinmshauri Registered User Posts: 8,071 Senior Member
    The Dark Is Rising series is one of my favorites. I also like The Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan. I didn't care for Laura Ingalls Wilder but I liked James Fenimore Cooper and Jane Austen. I liked some of the Narnia series, but not all of them. I liked The Borrowers, Pippi Longstocking, and Runaway Ralph, but as I got older I preferred ghost stories, historical fiction, and biographies.
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  • takeitallintakeitallin Registered User Posts: 3,378 Senior Member
    I don't re-read them regularly, but the ones I have picked them up as an adult are
    "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Up a Road Slowly"- my all time favorites. I read "A Wrinkle in Time" again as an adult but it has been years. I refused to see the movie as I still have clear images of how I envisioned the story in my head, and I do not want to ruin them.
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  • mathmommathmom Registered User Posts: 31,616 Senior Member
    I read The Lord of the Rings once a year from the time I was 12 till about 30. I still pick it up from time to time.

    I like and own The Dark is Rising, but don't feel particularly compelled to reread it.

    The books I probably reread most often because they are such comfort reading are Arthur Ransome's Swallow and Amazon books.

    My younger son's girlfriend went off to the camp in Vermont with all of Tamora Pierce's Alana books, and I have to admit, it made me really want to reread them.

    I've read K.M. Peyton's series with Pennington and Ruth. (Horses and piano playing) many times.

    I've also read Cynthia Voight's books about Dicey more than once.

    I recently reread A Wrinkle in Time and would love to reread the rest of the series along with all the Meet the Austins books and the various adult and YA books that have overlapping characters.
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  • HImomHImom Registered User Posts: 33,552 Senior Member
    I really like Georgette Heyer, Ann McCaffrey, and Dorothy Gilmore. I’ve probably re-read their books more than most other authors. GH did a lot of research and used as authentic descriptions of the period she was writing about as possible.
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  • garlandgarland Registered User Posts: 15,911 Senior Member
    @Himom--I read Georgette Heyer as a teenager, but as far as I know, those are adult books, not kid or even YA. Liked them at the time. Never reread.

    @intparent ---OMG, Snow Treasure!!! I loved that book; must have read it scores of times as a kid. Always wanted to be a member of a resistance (though I'm sure I was romanticizing heavily!)

    Two I need to reread are Secret Garden and Black Beauty.
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  • intparentintparent Registered User Posts: 36,153 Senior Member
    Add me to the “Meet the Austins” group. If there is one fictional family I wish I’d grown up in, it is that one.
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  • AboutTheSameAboutTheSame Registered User Posts: 3,033 Senior Member
    Arthur Ransome Swallows & Amazons through We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea. I thought the tales fell off after those seven. Those who like My Side of the Mountain should like the tales of these adventurous, competitive, pre-WWII English kids who are allowed to do things [mainly around the Lake District in the north of England] that would probably in a parent losing custody these days. Best to read in sequence, although We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea is my absolute favorite. I spent a bundle on an early hardback after my paperback fell apart on the umpteenth rereading. Hmmm, it's been a few years. Thanks for the reminder @TheGreyKing
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  • greenbuttongreenbutton Registered User Posts: 2,664 Senior Member
    I'm just so happy so many people love The Dark is Rising. I think I've read those 40 times. I wrote Madeline L'Engle a fan letter after my mom gave me Wrinkle in Time, and she wrote back a very short thank you note.

    Witch of Blackbird Pond, also. Llyod Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, and my Dad used to read to me -- Tarzan, of all things, but I loved it.
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