Think back to your childhood… which books did you LOVE to read? Which ones were you extra excited to see at story time? As you got older, which books captured your attention the most?
I have ALWAYS been a reader and can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love books. Instilling that passion in my kids is something I’ve always tried to do. This means that I buy them books at any chance I get, and if I see an old favorite of my mine, we’re reading it that day for sure.
From books I loved as a young child, to the adventures of big kid books, and then continuing into my teenage years, I literally buy them all. Now, I’m sharing some of our favorites with you! These are ones that I absolutely loved as a child and that my kids enjoyed, too!
Ok, you all should have known that I couldn’t just choose little kid books, big kid books, or books for teenagers, so I made one list of each. I have 3 littles (ages 5, 3, and 2) and 2 big kids (ages 11 and 15), so I have to have a wide range of books for all different age groups.
If you don’t have kids, no worries!! You could use a little nostalgia in your life, anyway! Go ahead and choose a book or two, and relive your childhood.
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Nostalgic Books For the Littles
- Green Eggs and Ham
- Where The Wild Things Are
- The Giving Tree
- Corduroy
- The Gruffalo
- The Little Engine Who Could
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
- The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear
My personal favorite: The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
Books for Big Kids
Bonus: Every book on this list counts toward AR tests and points. Since school is coming quick, it’s best to be prepared!
I’ve included the recommended grade levels for each book, but remember each child is different. If you want to read a book with your child, it’s OK if it’s a little higher than their grade level, because you’ll be reading with them to help with unknown words and meanings.
- Matilda: Grades 3-6
- The Witches: Grades 3-7
- The BFG: Grades 3-7
- Box Car Children: Grades 2-6
- The Baby Sitter’s Club: Grades 3-7 **Check out this retro set!!**
- Amelia Bedelia: Grades K-3
- Ramona Quimby, Age 8: Grades 3-7
- The Watson’s Go to Birmingham: Grades 5-8
- Junie B. Jones: Grades 1-4
- Holes: Grades 4-6
My personal favorite: This is too difficult to answer!! I’ll have to choose three – The Witches, The BFG, and Box Car Children.
Books for Teenagers
Depending on the reading and maturity level of your child, these can also be books for preteens. I read many of them when I was a preteen myself including numbers 3, 7, 9, and 10.
I find that it is more difficult to get our teenager to read books than it is to get my younger kids to read, so reading with her or sharing my favorite books with her seems to be the best way.
- Anything written by Sarah Dessen – all of her books are nostalgic to me, honestly. I read and loved them all!
- The Great Gatsby
- Harry Potter
- Romeo and Juliet
- The Scarlet Letter
- In Cold Blood
- 1984
- The Bell Jar
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
– This may be the best one on the list to read with a preteen or teenage girl. It makes for an awesome movie night after! - The Outsiders
- To Kill a Mockingbird
I’m sure you noticed that there are 11 here… just count that as a bonus, because I couldn’t bring myself to eliminate any on this list!!
My personal favorite: The Great Gatsby, for sure!! It’s still my favorite book!
Final Thoughts on Nostalgic Books To Read With Your Kids
As adults, we oftentimes find ourselves over-stressed, over-worked, and over-tired. We rarely take the time we need to relax and enjoy ourselves. Having kids, however, allows us a few moments to sit back and pretend we are a kid again while reading books that we used to love ourselves.
So, go ahead and pick out a few books to purchase that you loved as a kid. You won’t regret the time spent with your own children, reminiscing over your own childhood while creating new memories that will last forever.
What were some of your favorite books as a child? What about as a teenager? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!!
We are big Harry Potter fans in our house!!! One of the best children’s books is Little Miss Spider! We also are already of the Giving Tree as well!
I’m not sure I’ve heard of Little Miss Spider! I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for reading!
It might be called Miss Spider, lol. It’s been quite a few years ago that we read them to Ari, lol.
Love the books!
Thank you for reading!
So many great ones on here! Stinky Cheese Man is one of my all times faves!
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Yes, it’s hilarious!! Thanks for reading!
Thanks for sharing these! My kids are all grown up but I’m looking forward to reading to my grandchildren one day.
My mom says reading to her grand babies is even better than reading to her own kids!! Probably because grandmas have much more patience! Thanks for reading. 🙂
This is a great list of books! We do a lot of reading in our home. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you for reading!
You’ve got some amazing books on this list! Highlights from my childhood include Green Eggs and Ham, Matilda (have you seen the musical?) and Harry Potter (read alternately by my mother and Stephen Fry). I actually read The Great Gatsby for the first time really recently and loved it – it wasn’t on the curriculum at school, and I’d never got around to it before. I really want to re-read some old favourites now…
I’ve never seen the musical Matilda before! Is it amazing? I read the Great Gatsby for the first time in 11th grade lit and I’ve read it several times since then. So good!
Chica Chica Boom Boom and Stinky Cheese Man were my favorite books when I was a kid. I also love the Box Car Kids. I always remember going to the library getting does books with my mom.
I wasn’t sure how popular Stinky Cheese Man was, so I’m glad to hear you love it, too! Thanks for reading.
I grew up listening to Where The Wild Things Are, and still think it is a lovely book to encourage children to dream and embrace their little monsters. Green Eggs And Ham is so easy to read and is a great book for teaching children to read.
I know the Gruffalo so well, I can sing it now . . .
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It sounds like you had an awesome childhood!! Thanks for reading!
Gosh, do you know how many books of these I’ve read? We are a huge book loving family and I adore this post.
Thank you!! We read lots of books here, too. ❤️
This is such a great list! I haven’t read a lot of these since inwas a kid!!! How do we not own Green Eggs and Ham, definitely getting some of these ASAP. Thank you for reminding us of these oldies but goodies!
Yes! Your kids will love it! Thanks for reading!
Wow! So many good ones here! Reading through and my nostalgic smile got wider and wider with each book!
I’m so glad!! Thank you for reading!
Very good books! My boys had to read The Watsons Go To Birmingham in school and next month we’re actually going to visit Birmingham, AL. So exciting!
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I read it with my 11 year old this past year! We read together each night, and he was literally laughing out loud during that one, and pretty shocked by some of the history he learned.
How cool for your boys that they get to see it in real life now! It’ll really help them remember all that they learned.
Great list of books! I love that you even organized it into different age groups! I loved the Boxcar Children as a kid! There was also a similiar series (older than the Boxcar Children) that I really enjoyed, but I can’t remember what it was called.
Other great books that I would add to my own nostalgia list would include: The Velveteen Rabbit, the Beatrix Potter books, A Wrinkle in Time, Treasure Island, any of the Clifford the Big Red Dog books, Anne of Green Gables, and Winnie the Pooh. Oh! And Robert Munsch! His books are literally my favourite thing EVER! lol.
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Yes, those are awesome books!! There are SO many that I’d be excited to read again. Lol!
Did you ever read Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day? I think I got the title right… anyway, that was another favorite of mine!
Aw the box car children! I love that series so freaking much
Me too! Thanks for reading!
Reading through this post brought back memories! My son loves books as well so this list gave me some great ideas for story time.
Thank you for reading!