I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.
This week's topic is books we wish we'd read as a kid. Some of these are books that were around when I was a kid that I just didn't happen to read until I was an adult, and some are books that weren't published until I was older but I wish they'd been around when I was young.
1. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Maybe I would have been into the Little House books if I'd read them as a kid, but as an adult I wasn't super impressed. I liked this story of prairie life much better, and it would have been great to read a true story of a brave young girl when I was young.
2. El Deafo by Cece Bell
I don't think there were a ton of graphic novels and memoirs when I was a kid other than comic books, but it would have been great to have that option. I loved books that were told in unique formats, like those with diagrams that had lots of extra parts to read, and it would have been fun to read a memoir told in a kid-friendly cartoon format. I also didn't know a lot about Deaf culture until I started taking ASL classes as an adult, and getting that introduction earlier in life would have been nice.
3. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
I remember when the Ella Enchanted movie came out when I was in high school, but I didn't read the book until I was an adult. For a long time I was afraid it would be uncomfortable to read about Ella being made to do things against her will, so I wish I'd read this earlier, as it's nothing like that! It's an empowering and fun read.
4. George by Alex Gino
This is a book that wasn't published until I was an adult, but I wish there had been more books when I was growing up that showcased trans and gender-nonconforming characters, especially kids. I'm glad my son's generation has these books!
5. Greenglass House by Kate Milford
This is another one that was only published in the last decade, but I would have loved it as a kid. I loved mysteries (still do), and this book is much better both as a mystery and as a representation of diversity than the Babysitters' Club mysteries I devoured as a kid.
6. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
This one was around when I was a kid, but I never read it until I was an adult, and I still haven't seen the movie. I think I would have greatly enjoyed this cute fantasy story as a kid and might have gone on to read the sequels as well.
7. Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
I didn't discover any of Julie Andrews Edwards' children's books until I was an adult, but this one definitely resonated with my memories of being 10 years old like the protagonist and discovering for the first time the pride of putting in work on projects of my own making.
8. A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
This book made me feel deep feelings, which I'm sure would have been even more intense as an emotional kid! I also didn't know anything about synesthesia until I was older, but I loved finding out about the diversity of the human experience when I was a kid and this would have been an introduction to yet another interesting characteristic people can have.
9. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
This book didn't come out until I was in college, but man would it have resonated with me as a kid who thrived in my school's gifted program. Some of the wordplay in this book also reminds me of The Phantom Tollbooth, which was a favorite read of mine as a kid.
10. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
I always bring up this book as a better alternative to To Kill a Mockingbird and the one I wish I'd read in school instead. I wish the introduction I'd had to racism in the American South in the 1930s had been through the perspective of a black family rather than a white one, and one where the black man is the hero rather than the victim.
What books would your childhood self have liked?
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: N or M? and Storytelling with Data
Five years ago I was reading: Angle of Repose, How to Train Your Dragon, and Finding Your Own North Star
Ten years ago I was reading: The Children's Book
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