kids books – Christy Grace Scarlet Pen

Here we go again! There were so many classic children’s books that I had to split this list and come back again!

There are so many books that I hear about all the time, or watched the “Disney” version of and had never realised they were based on books – so I’m thinking it’s about time to read. I have a few hot takes so let’s get into the grit of it…

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

This book was so chaotic, like an acid/hallucinogenic nightmare. I don’t know how this was for kids. The ideas and philosophies explored are very mature and adult – like Alice having an existential crisis… like, what?
There was such chaotic oddity and it was difficult to follow the train of thought amongst the rubbish.
Alice is just such a brat. She’s rude, easily angry and a know it all. She also LIKES being two people – hello mental health red flag?
Not only does she act like she knows it all, but she also tells herself to stop being silly or sad… those are totally normal emotions when you’re facing the craziness she was.
The audiobook I will admit, was fun to listen to with all the voices.

Stuart Little – E. B. White

Odd little story.
It had no really plot, just a bunch of things happening to a mouse who was supposedly part of a human family… odd, like I said. And everyone seems perfectly satisfied that animals can speak, be substitute teachers and own cars, paying for gas.
It was cute but kinda weird.

Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie

This book is straight up a parents worst nightmare. At least in the Disney movie, the kids were only gone one night, while the parents were away so they didn’t know they went missing… but THIS – they are gone for a long time. Long enough for us to see the parents basically losing their minds at home because all three of their kids have basically been abducted… ummm okay
So right off the bat, this book was so much darker than any other iteration I have seen, and it was pretty disturbing. Peter is both completely oblivious, and manipulative and sadistic. He likes to see kids in pain or trouble, casually suggests and follows through with killing people, and kidnaps kids with no regard to their wishes.. I hate him.
There was a lot more focus on Mr and Mrs Darling than I would have thought, but it made it all the more heartbreaking when their kids essentially disappear. Although I will say, Wendy told her mum that a strange dude was watching them sleep and she did basically nothing about it, except interact directly with Peter and steal his shadow. I thought the whole point of PP was that kids basically dreamt or imagined someone like him, not that he was REAL and that parents actually saw him. Either that, or everyone in the Darling family is Schizophrenic.
Hearing a little bit about how Fairy magic and life works was interesting, but the rest of this book was un-savable for me.

Nim’s Island – Wendy Orr

Cute book, with an unusually brave kid and animals that have a lot more awareness than real seals and lizards. Still, I enjoyed the story and it was good for the proper demographic (not an adult haha!).
I would let my kids read this and hope they got a sense of adventure too!

Well, that was PART TWO of the kids books – and I think I’m done for now… If you want to see more let me know by liking this post or sending through a comment.

Do you enjoy these “classic” children’s books and think my opinion is rubbish? Comment below your FAV of the books I read above and let me know why.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

What does it say about your childhood that you haven’t read the classic books that people recount with fondness when they consider their own? Does it say that it was worthless? That you missed out on the brilliant genius that WAS created in simpler times? Or that you were preoccupied with other things so much that you were deprived of those little pleasures.

Either way, I set my mind to reading those “classics” we often hear about, see in movie or television adaptions and more… but I am an adult now, so I don’t know if these books will hit quite the same. Let’s find out!

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia) – C.S. Lewis

Reading this as an adult made no difference. I still really liked this story.
The writing had so many fun aside comments (often in brackets which were more a forth wall break or funny commentary) that added a light element to the book.
I knew the story, but had never read the novel and im very glad I did. I will definitely read all the others now!

Charlotte’s Web -E. B. White

It was lovely to hear about Wilber and Charlotte again.. I only ever watched the film but it was nice to hear the words originally written.

Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomory

This series was a sentimental read for me, having watched the movies with my family when I was a kid. I’m glad I finally read the first book, because I was transported to the world of Anne and Green Gables again!
Written quite some time ago, it was interesting to see the change of culture.
I thought it was quite funny that Matthew was frightfully shy of girls but ended up adopting one. He was always such a love.
Mirilla was a lot nicer than I recalled, and I loved the relationship she had with Anne. It was actually quite nice to see both of them mature and grow with each other.
The writing is beautiful, though I will admit to smiling or rolling my eyes a time or two when something quite outdated was used.
I will say that I don’t quite understand how people so casually called kids ‘wicked’ when they did something they didn’t like or agree with. What do you genuinely think a kid will grow up to be like if you continuously tell them they’re no good..? But anyway..
Anne Shirley with an E, and good old Gilbert – it was such a nice trip to the Lady of Shalott.

Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

Written from the perspective of a horse… if we imagine what horses actually think about. But we also got different owners of BB and the author tried to throw in short and random feeling emotional or plot driven moments of the humans. The problem with this was I didn’t know enough about those characters to care about them. They weren’t the main character. Why would I care about their problems when I barely heard much about them?
On top of that, BBs life was boring.. just so very boring.

The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

Very sweet. Such a cute little story about the toys we love and what happens when we grow up and change.

Well, there are the offical results of PART ONE. There were so kids books that I had to split this list up. If you want to see my thoughts on some other classics like

Do you enjoy these “classic” children’s books and think my opinion is rubbish? Comment below your FAV of the books I read above and let me know why.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace