Favorite kidlit you appreciated as an adult?

[L.Zihe]

Fish in a Tree is a book that features on almost every "top MG books" list I find, and I strongly believe it deserves that spot. Everything from the trim prose, charming but not on-the-nose characterizations, and intertwined messages just fascinated me. But the more I think about it, the more I doubt I would have appreciated it as much in the fourth grade. Surely there were young kids who enjoyed it, or it wouldn't remain so popular, but I now wonder if there are unique benefits to reading children's literature as an adult.

So, out of curiosity, has anyone else had this experience with kidlit, and if so, in what ways and with what book(s)?

 

[kitkatt33]

I'm currently reading Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods by Cathrynne M. Valente. I'm about a third of the way through it and what sticks out to me is the prose. It's dense and I think the story suffers for it. The word Valente has created is very whimsical and she's got some very pretty, albeit very lengthy descriptions of fantastical creatures and places. I'm enjoying it as an adult who loves long books, but I can't help but wonder if a kid reading this would get bored with it and drop it.

 

[dickson]

I enjoy well-written YA stories, and occasionally stuff aimed at younger audiences. A recent example of one I enjoyed greatly as an adult, that I might not have liked so much as a kid, is Mary Chase’s Loretta Mason Potts (NYR Children’s Classics, IIRC).

Truth to tell, my favorite books from about eleven years old and on were things like Sherlock Holmes, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Once and Future King, or To kill a Mockingbird.

I’m in a bind these days. When I’m writing, I don’t read much, because of the grinding of gears and black smoke attendant on being a chaotic pantser. I leave so much draft on the cutting-room floor I might as well be in the movie bidness.

If I had the chops for it, I’d love to write for a younger audience. Two difficulties with that: One, I’m old enough that normal childhood experiences from that part of my life could well seem incomprehensibly strange to a young reader. The past is a foreign country. Two: I didn’t have a normal childhood in the first place.

 

[mccardey]

the grinding of gears and black smoke attendant on being a chaotic pantser

I love you

 

[frimble3]

If I had the chops for it, I’d love to write for a younger audience. Two difficulties with that: One, I’m old enough that normal childhood experiences from that part of my life could well seem incomprehensibly strange to a young reader. The past is a foreign country. Two: I didn’t have a normal childhood in the first place.

Nonsense! Kids love historic fiction! 'Little House on the Prairie', anyone?
And, stories set in foreign counties and strange environments.
In the end, what is 'normal'?

 

[Infinimata]

Daniel M. Pinkwater.

 

[MaeZe]

I'm an adult Harry Potter fan. I can ignore the author's issues.

 

[Brightdreamer]

The best kidlit is the stuff that can be (re)read as a grown-up and still resonate, the stuff that doesn't write down to its audience.

Though I think the tendency of book awards to praise tragedy-tinged kidlit (lookin' at you, Tuck Everlasting and Where the Red Fern Grows, etc.) shows a bit of a grown-up bias, marveling at the depiction of pain and loss and the Important Lessons learned about mortality while forgetting that, as a kid, you knew darned well that bad crud happened and didn't really need to the dog to die in all the books to remind you...

As for whether a kid would enjoy a story set in the childhood of an "obsolete kid"... as the saying goes, history may not repeat but it often rhymes. The settings and specifics may change, and societal expectations of childhood and family may shift, but kids still face a lot of the same emotional struggles and development steps as they always have. As a quick bad example, the pioneer kid uprooted from their old life and drug to a new and strange frontier town is the kid whose parents' dotcom jobs busted so they have to leave the city for some spot-on-the-map is the space colonists' kid arriving on a new planet: coping with circumstances and decisions far beyond their control, trying to make new friends and figure out how things work and how they can fit in (maybe hoping for an opportunity to reinvent themselves, and discovering that it's not that easy), struggling to cope with the loss of old communities and routines, watching parents try to make a go of a new life (and probably being too busy to help the kid who may also be struggling)...

As for me, I enjoy many of MG and YA books (and even a few children's books). Bruce Coville, Jonathan Stroud, K. A./Katherine Applegate, Jessica Townsend...

 

[L.Zihe]

If I had the chops for it, I’d love to write for a younger audience. Two difficulties with that: One, I’m old enough that normal childhood experiences from that part of my life could well seem incomprehensibly strange to a young reader. The past is a foreign country. Two: I didn’t have a normal childhood in the first place.

I mean, I should think if books about warring cat clans in the woods can resonate with young audiences who are presumably not feral cats (as much as children are decidedly feral), then there is no experience too alien to explain with the right approach. And who said you had to write about your own childhood? The literary world would be an infinitely more boring place if we only wrote what we experienced.

I am with you on enjoying "older" books as a child though. Ten-year-old me had arguably more mature tastes than current me.

 

[L.Zihe]

Though I think the tendency of book awards to praise tragedy-tinged kidlit (lookin' at you, Tuck Everlasting and Where the Red Fern Grows, etc.) shows a bit of a grown-up bias, marveling at the depiction of pain and loss and the Important Lessons learned about mortality while forgetting that, as a kid, you knew darned well that bad crud happened and didn't really need to the dog to die in all the books to remind you...

Yes!! I was looking for the words to describe this phenomenon. I think you described it perfectly. On one hand, as a kid, I did enjoy the more grim or tragic stories where the dog died (sometimes literally, Old Yeller being the obvious offender), but on the other, good old entertainment is a perfectly valid motivation to read. Most kids aren't picking up books for the deep life lessons anyways and it's a little silly to hold that as the standard.

watching parents try to make a go of a new life (and probably being too busy to help the kid who may also be struggling)...

The older I get, the more I understand the parents of kidlit. I think this is honestly one of biggest reasons to read children's books after childhood. I only watched the movie, but in Coraline, I found the parents frustrating and apathetic when I watched it as a young child. But on a rewatch a few years back, I was struck by how the parents weren't really in the wrong. Being annoyed at your kid is a perfectly normal response after being pestered for hours! Overall, I find age really brings perspective in the case of adult characters.

 

[mccardey]

Not for nothing, but Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding has been in print since 1918 and is still a hit with <people who have to read to> Australian kids. It has so many adventures!

'For Sam an' me an' the cook, yer see,
We climbs on a lump of ice,
And there in the sleet we suffered a treat
For several months from frozen feet,
With nothin' at all but ice to eat,
And ice does not suffice.

 

[honeynotjam]

I'm an adult Harry Potter fan. I can ignore the author's issues.

Other MG authors whose work I can’t put down include Judy Blume, CS Lewis, and Philip Pullman. There is a recent Netflix documentary on Blume, which I highly recommend for any bookish people.