Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Want Youth to Discover

It’s time again for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. Today’s topic is: Books I Want Youth to Discover
Because I never seem to be able to address the topic directly, instead doing some kind of runaround, allow me to change this up slightly to be: books from my youth I shared with my daughter.
Kind of the same, right?
I’ve read stories to my kid since she was in utero. She learned the alphabet before she was a year old (funny story: we fought about W and M — she would grab the board book we used when we’d get to W and flip it over, emphatically saying M!!) and when she was three, she threw a chapter book into my lap and exclaimed, “I can’t READ this.” … and so I taught her to read at 3 y.o. She’s never looked back… she currently has five bookshelves in her place, loaded to the brim with books.
Despite learning to read at such an early age, she still loved being read to at night and we did that until she was probably 8 or 9 years-old. And when I read to her, I typically read books I loved at her age. Here are a few (sort of in chronological order):
1. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss — probably my favorite ever Seuss book. We read this when she was tiny until she could pretty much recite it from memory.
2. The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss — also a big favorite. Because what’s not to love about Seuss?
3. The Monster at the End of This Book (featuring Grover) — This was one of my favorite ever books when I was small, and one of the first books I ever read to her as a toddler. So clever, so fun, so thrilling! I highly recommend it to any parents (or grandparents) of toddlers.
4. ANY of the Magic Treehouse books. — This is actually the only book series I’ve listed that I did NOT read as a child myself. It didn’t exist then. I wish it had. I’m fairly sure it is the fault of these books that my kid is madly in love with history. These are some of the most entertaining and interesting books to teach history to younger readers. Get some!
5. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander — I loved this series. It likely fueled my fantasy obsession for years to come. I crushed on Taran, wanted to BE Eilonwy, and craved a bestie like Gurgi. Of all the books from my childhood that I shared with the kid, this was her favorite. She still has my copy on her bookshelf. I hope she shares it with her kids some day.
6. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell — this book holds a special place in my heart. It was my most read book of my own childhood. Its impact is immeasurable and the way Beauty looks at the world is such a wonderful lesson.
7. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis — I read these all to the kid, some more than once. We also saw the movies (which, contrary to popular opinion, I mostly liked and wished they’d finished the whole series). Some strong lessons here, told in entertaining ways.
8. Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene — I have dozens of these books, some from my own childhood and some I picked up when I was pregnant. The kids hasn’t read them all, but she has read many. They’re such an amazing tribute to a bygone era. I hope she shares them with her own little ones some day.
I could go on and on… I suppose I should list some of the classics like Animal Farm or Oliver Twist, but I really think most schools still teach these. I do wish school literature classes would make reading more fun. My kid was blessed with a teacher who brought books to life. She’d make food from the era, or play music, or dress in the clothes, etc. She made the stories real and fun instead of a chore.
There is so much to learn from older books. They’re not always easy to read. They tend to be heavily descriptive and short on action, which most kids crave anymore, but they are such solid and interesting stories.
I’ll be interested in seeing what others have to say!