Six children’s books that are still great reads now you’re a grown-up
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Loading... - Moore Julia
- 15 Mar 2023
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Do you read children’s books, even if you don’t have children of your own? “Of course not”, I hear you say, “I’m a grown-up. I have left behind childish things”. But go on, secretly, you really want to, don’t you. Because what is a children’s book but a map of the world, a life-altering experience distilled into a perfect package: a galloping story that leaves your hair swept back and your heart beating faster, or a gentle cajoling breeze that takes your hand and shows you magic hiding just out of sight? And don’t we all need a bit of magic right now?
W. H. Auden declared that if a children’s book isn’t good for adults as well, it just isn’t a good book. More recently, S. F. Said, author of the wonderful new Blakean fantasy Tyger, said on Twitter, “We call them children’s books, but really, they’re written for an audience that includes children, but excludes no-one. Children’s books are books for everyone.”
If that doesn’t convince you, stop what you are doing and go and read Katherine Rundell’s sparkling ode, Why You Should Read Children’s Books Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. It puts into words everything I’m thinking as I merrily strain my eyes over my old, jaundiced Puffin editions.
Going back to your childhood reading offers not only comfort but intellectual joy – you will pick up on things that you didn’t as a child, because good books are multi-layered and offer a different experience for every reader, no matter what their stage of life. When Katherine Rundell writes for children, it is to satisfy both her child self (“autonomy, peril, justice, food and… a density of atmosphere”) and her adult self (“acknowledgements of fear, love, failure; of the rat that lives within the human heart”). Read More…
