Hello there!
A friend and I are starting an international book club, where we will be reading children's and YA books (including picture books!). A) For nostalgia reasons or B) Because for whatever reason you didn't have the chance to when you were little! I'm currently writing a reading list of books to suggest for our first session!
if you have any recommendations please comment below! ALSO if you're interested in joining, LMK! I'll make a subreddit.
by coinkydnks
11 Comments
*The Thief of Always* by Clive Barker
*Un Lun Dun* by China Mieville
*The Cats of Tanglewood Forest* by Charles de Lint
There’s tons of great Newbery books! Maybe A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
I’m also a big fan of classics such as:
A Little Princess
Swallows and Amazons
Heidi
Blueberries for Sal
A Secret Garden
Narnia
The Hobbit
The Island and The Ring by Laura C Stevens (my favorite)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea
Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson
Newer children’s books have really changed the genre, so I’ll recommend some of these that are sort of different.
Flora and Ulysses (sort of a graphic novel)
The Eyes and the Impossible (interesting main character point of view)
Inside Out and Back Again (a novel in verse)
I’ve also done some nostalgic (re)reading as a parent this year, and these have been the favorites for me and my kiddo:
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler
My Side of the Mountain
The Westing Game
Harriet the Spy
You could do quarters of the year around themes: books that changed KidLit, Newberry Award Winners, books with animal MCs, kids’ mystery or SciFi, kids’ historical fiction, retellings of fairy tales or mythology, books to movies, adult books with kid MCs, etc.
Mrs. Rumphius
The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes
Holes
Classics:
* From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
* Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
Newer books that make me happy for kids growing up today:
* Melissa/Rick/Green by Alex Gino
* Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
* Olivetti by Allie Millington
[Nevermoor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6a6d5ca1-b2f5-47be-828c-018144d3bbc7) by Jessica Townsend! It’s my favorite series even as an adult 🙂
As a librarian, my favorite recent foray into middle-grade fiction was the Britfield series by C. R. Stewart. It’s good for adults because it’s full of twists and turns of adventure even if it’s aimed at middle-grade children.
Another suggestion I haven’t got a chance to read yet is a new graphic novel called Ash’s Cabin. It sounds really good. It’s about this kid that’s going through the struggles of growing up different deciding to go searching for this cabin their late grandfather supposedly built in the wilderness.
Also one of my favorite books I read as a child was The Thief Lord, so I recommend it. It had this air of adventure that seemed magical when I was 11 or 12 when I read it.
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues by Ellen Raskin
Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones