I’m what one would call a rather voracious reader. As a kid, I remember racing to finish a book I’d just checked out at the library near my babysitter’s house in order to head back to return it and select another by the time my parents came to pick me up. My love of written word has never waned, and though I like to think I’ve breezed through a good many reads in my 38 years on this planet, there are a few from my childhood that made a lifelong, lasting impression: books I just can’t help but smile at when I see them on a shelf and remember how much they meant to me.
After coming across a few of my old favorites and getting insanely nostalgic, I decided to take a full-blown trip down memory lane to round up all the rest. The 16 below finds are works I absolutely cherished as a young adult and would willingly read 100 times over again today. Who knows? Maybe they’ll spark something in you, too.
Happy reading!
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I’ve never been much of one for poetry, but between The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends, the fantastically weird Shel Silverstein always managed to hold my attention. I recall especially delighting in this particular set of rhymes as a young girl, and it’s no wonder — when revisiting it as an adult, a line from “Invitation” struck me so much I wound up having it tattooed on my ribcage: “If you are a dreamer, come in.”
2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, are, without a doubt, my favorite books of all time. Everything about them, from the mome raths (I still can’t tell you WTF a mome rath is, TBH) to the sneezing baby that turns into a pig, is complete nonsense, as even Alice herself will tell you (“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t”). And yet, Lewis S. Carroll’s tales of whimsy and magic as told through his extraordinarily cleverly crafted prose managed to reach me in a way that no other book or film ever has. Who wouldn’t want to spend an afternoon among the singing flowers or conversing with a smoking caterpillar (until he got angry, that is!)? Take me to Wonderland any day of the week!
3. Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys Be Your Own Detective
While I enjoyed Nancy Drew of her own accord, I don’t think the subject matter was as of much importance as the “Choose Your Own Adventure” element of these genius reads. Like a pop-up storybook for older kids, the “Be a Detective” series allowed you to interact with the plotline as you made decisions for Nancy and the gang that would ultimately affect their fate. Not only was it thrilling to feel like you were an actual, live part of the book, it gave you multiple reads in one (a huge plus for a nerd like me who loathed playing outdoors!), as you could always go back and choose a different adventure. Whoever came up with these little gems was a goddamn hero, and I’d like to personally thank them for providing me with hours of childhood entertainment.
4. Little House on the Prairie
Look, I couldn’t tell you what it was with me and the canvas-covered wagon life, but between the Oregon Trail computer game and the Little House on the Prairie series, I was ALL about settlers. These books, for all their simplicity, were utterly captivating to me in my youth. Maybe it was the thrill of danger, with a new hardship awaiting the Ingalls family at seemingly every turn as they struggled to survive in their sparse, isolated way of life, or the steadfast characters that became as familiar as friends as the series progressed, but I was never mad about receiving one of these as a Christmas or birthday present. Clearly, I wasn’t alone — Time ranked it as one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. (Alice, Harriet and Charlotte’s Web also made the cut from my list.)
5. Sideways Stories From Wayside School
Never mind that fact that I can’t recall what any of the Sideways Stories actually entailed. What I do remember is that everything about this school, including the crooked, leaning building itself, was a just a hair … off. Of course, that’s why I loved it so — I’ve always been drawn to the strange and eccentric, and strange and eccentric, Louis Sachar’s tales most certainly were. The teacher had a nasty habit of turning her students into apples, the school was missing an entire floor and the kids? Well, they were are all-around freaks — a.k.a. my kind of people.
6. Weetzie Bat
Weetzie was kind of like My So Called Life in book form. All the quintessential elements of a teenage dramedy were there, from sex and love to eternal friendship — Weetzie even had a gay BFF named Dirk. And yes, sure, I was probably about 12 years too young to be reading it when I did all those years ago — she did have a tryst with Dirk and his lover Duck in order to have a baby, after all — but even seeing its cover all these years later gives my heart a little flutter — a sure sign that a book has made a lasting mark.
Let’s be real: Harriet was a little creep, spying on all of her classmates and acquaintances, but there was also something hugely relatable about her. While I wasn’t a voyeur like Harriet, I think we’ve all done f*cked up things as a kid that we felt like we couldn’t fix at one point or another. The tween angst she felt upon being discovered was REAL and I got it, ’cause I had been there, too. For all her faults, Harriet was genuine — she was me, she was you, she was the mixed-up kid in all of us exposed for her true, raw self.
8. Fear Street
While most recall reading the Goosebumps series in the days of their yore, I much preferred the ever-so-slightly more grown-up Fear Street series, which graduated from the likes of haunted masks and ventriloquist dummies to full-on actual murder. Why? Well, because I’ve been a horror freak since roughly the age of 4 (see my guide to underrated scary movies here), and reading an R.L. Stine novel was, essentially, equivalent to a Stephen King starter kit.
I’ve reread this classic tale about a little girl, her beloved pet pig and the clever spider who selflessly saved his life more times than I can count over the years Maybe it was my early animal crusader being activated as I silently rooted for Wilbur not to be slaughtered for food, or my inner wordsmith that was delighted by Charlotte’s stellar vocabulary, but I found E.B. White’s’ tale of friendship, bravery and life utterly enchanting. There’s also the book’s tie-in to the fair, which, as anyone who knows me knows, I have a secret and somewhat bizarre obsession with. TBH, I kind of want to read this again, like, right now.
The Baby-Sitter’s Club members were like the OG Spice Girls—there was a character for just about everyone to relate to (or aspire to be). I myself, for example, though so clearly a nerdy Mallory type, desperately longed to be a city-savvy fashionista, like Stacey, or even a laid-back California hippie, like Dawn. While the girls were always getting into crazy situations on the job while looking after their “charges,” it was their personal lives that were the real draw. Would Claudia flunk out of high school? Would Stacey fall in love with an older man on her big date? Would Dawn find a ghost in her old ass house? Teenage intrigue at its finest!
11. Baby-Sitter’s Little Sister
This series, which I devoured throughout my elementary years, was like the segway to the older, hipper Baby-Sitter’s Club. With both written by one Ms. Ann M. Martin, it had all of the same relatable angst as the more “adult” series, albeit on a much more limited scale (think fights over spelling bees and meltdowns over bad haircuts instead of high school rivalries and first boyfriends). Its heroine, Karen Brewer, in particular, appealed to me, because, well, she was me: Dorky? Check. Bossy? Double check. Pop bottle glasses? In full effect. Her everyday calamities spoke directly to my 12-year-old psyche, really. *Shrugs*
12. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Long before Ben Stiller was creeping around after hours in 2006’s A Night at the Museum, there was the Mixed-Up Files, in which protagonists Claudia and Jamie Kincaid run away to the Met. I’ve still never been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I know, I know!), but the thought of exploring a place that’s typically forbidden once the lights go out and discovering hidden secrets has a kind of universal appeal, no? Who knows? Maybe I’ll attempt to pull my own Kincaid and sneak into next year’s Met Ball or something — you know, when Anna turns her back. *Wink, wink*
13. American Girls
While most of my wealthier peers were obsessing over their ridiculously overpriced American Girl dolls, I was content to merely revel in their accompanying books, which told their backstories as settlers (again with those damn pioneers!) like Kirsten, or Victorian dwellers, like Samantha. Dweeby Molly was my favorite, natch, but all of the girls had something intriguing to offer. Their stories were written as historical fiction, meant to teach little girls all about different time periods, but I only remember them as being really good reads.
14. In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories
This might have been a part of an “I Can Read” series for kids, but there’s a reason I still distinctly remember it at 33 years old — it was f*cking scary! I’d be willing to bet that any girl in my age bracket shudders just a little bit at the thought of a green ribbon around someone’s neck (spoiler alert — this woman wore it everyday to keep her head on and when she finally untied it years later, it just lolled right off.) If that’s not enough to give you nightmares as a ’90s preteen at the height of choker fashion fandom, I just don’t know what is.
I didn’t need Harry Potter in my day, because I had Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny —a.k.a. the four little orphaned Alden children who lived in an abandoned train car in the woods (at least until their rich grandpa came to rescue them). They couldn’t fly on broomsticks or cast spells and what have you, but they were always going on exciting adventures and running amok without adult supervision — two highly appealing traits to a fiercely independent middle school reader!
16. The Saddle Club
Though I wasn’t exactly a horse fanatic (that would be my little sister Samantha!), the adventures of Carole, Stevie and Lisa — three besties who bond over their shared love of the animal — had me turning pages in a hurry. Would they let Lisa join the group? Would the girls forget Stevie’s birthday? Would Carole’s date remarry? The excitement was never-ending!
Which books did I miss that you loved as a kid? Remind me in the comments below!
Xoxo, Nicole
