Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

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This week’s topic is “Books I Wish I Had Read as a Child”. I could only come up with a few, so I Googled “best books for kids of all time” and found quite a few. Some of these books I read as a grown up, and some I never read at all! So let’s take a dive in and see what I was missing out on

The Anne of Green Gables series

Status: Still on my TBR

This series looks like it would have made me fall in love with historical fiction EVEN MORE. American Girl, the Royal Diaries, and Little House were all series that established my love of historical fiction, and I also loved Karen Cushman’s books. I don’t know why I never checked this one out. I think I thought it was ~classical~ and therefore difficult to read or something.

Will I ever read it? I don’t think so. I plan to check out the Netflix adaptation at some point, however.

 

The Baby-Sitter’s Club series

Status: Still on my TBR – kind of

I never read these books because I thought they were the sort of books “less smart” girls read. I know, that was super judgmental of me – and you’re going to hear more that in this post. “Placing” kids based on test scores might be necessary in a degree in school, but telling me my reading level definitely stopped me from reading books that I thought were too baby-ish for me, which is a shame. Anyway, I recently read the first of the graphic novel adaptations of this series and thought it was great. I definitely missed out on some good stories about friendship between young women.

Will I ever read it? I plan to read more of the graphic novels, but not the original chapter books.

 

 

The Captain Underpants series

Status: Still on my TBR

Again, when these books came out I thought I was too smart for them! I also thought they were for boys, because what sane tween girl wants to read about a grown man running around in a diaper? Well, now that I’m a children’s librarian, I know Dav Pilkey is a genius and I regret never reading them.

Will I ever read it? Probably not. I love recommending them to kids who are disappointed that we don’t have the latest Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries in, though. I’m like, “Guys, this one started it all.”

 

 

 

 

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Status: Read

Dude, where was Mo Willems when I was a kid? This man is another genius. His humor is my favorite part of his books. However, as a kid, I would have appreciated his illustrations. Mo has said that he makes sure his illustrations are relatively simple because he wants kids to feel like they could draw them. And when you look at Pigeon or Gerald or Piggie or Knuffle Bunny, you know he is doing his job right.

Will I ever read it? I already have and I continue to read anything I get my hands on that Mo Willems has touched.

 

 

The Giver

Status: Still on my TBR

I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who hasn’t read this book. I’m also pretty sure I don’t even know what it’s about. I went to Catholic school until sixth grade, then switched to public in seventh. The Catholic school kids read it in eighth grade and the public school kids read it in sixth so I never was forced to. And because it was the sort of book one was forced to read via school, I had no desire to read it independently.

Will I ever read it? At this point, it’s a matter of pride. I’ve gone almost thirty years without reading this book. Not sure I want to cave in now. Stick it to the man!

 

 

 

 

The Goosebumps series

Status: Still on my TBR

This was another series I thought was too baby-ish for me. My elementary school friends joke about it because we mostly all felt the same. One of our friends had big brothers who loved it, so she read it, but the rest of us did not because we thought we were “better than that”. Insert eye roll at our pretentiousness here. Whenever our friend brings it up we laugh at her in a fake rich person voice and say, “Goosebumps? How droll.” But she insists we were missing out! And truthfully, I believe her. I sneaked a glance or two at their “choose-your-own-adventure” style books – Give Yourself Goosebumps – growing up and they looked really fun. I just was too ashamed to admit it.

Will I ever read it? I don’t know. One of my coworkers says even as an adult she finds them creepy, so they could be worth checking out around Halloween. I like adult horror movies but find the books to be either too scary or completely boring, so maybe I should try kids’ horror.

 

Julián is a Mermaid

Status: Read

I wish this book had been around sooner. It is a great story and shows that boys can want to be mermaids, too. This book won the Stonewall Book Award for a great reason. The pictures are so gorgeous and whimsical, and the story is heartwarming.

Will I ever read it? I’ve read it and will again.

 

 

 

 

Little Women

Status: Still on my TBR

I have seen the 90s movie version of this and love it, and I really want to see the recent remake. The cast is so amazing! However, I never read the book. I think I own a copy somewhere… The story is so cute and I really think even as an adult I would enjoy this one because it’s more YA/coming of age.

Will I ever read it? Yes, I hope to!

 

 

 

 

 

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Status: Read

I love this book! It’s so fun. I’ve done a themed storytime and frequently bring it out for read-alouds. It’s a lovely book that teaches cause and effect and colors. The Groovy Buttons sequel is great for talking about subtraction and counting, too. Personally, I’m a Litwin purist, and don’t touch the Dean books.

Will I ever read it? I have, and I plan to again and again.

 

 

 

 

 

The A Series of Unfortunate Events series

Status: Still on my TBR

I actually owned a few of these as a kid and may have read one or two, but I never really made the effort to get into them. I think it was only because none of my friends were reading them, and I’d just gotten off the Harry Potter high of reading a series everyone was talking about. (Well, I was still on that high, as Harry Potter was published over the course of my childhood, until I was seventeen). I haven’t seen the movie or TV show of these. I think I want to give the books a try first.

Will I ever read it? I don’t know. I still want to but I have so many books on my TBR.

 

 

So there you have it! Some of these books I read in adulthood and adore, and some are still on my TBR – though I may never get to them. Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

via GIPHY