Here are 30 books that Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise fans have personally recommended if you like
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise.
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This is a brilliant, clear, refreshing and fabulous book. It is the kind of book that only comes along every decade or so. The Dawn of Everything draws on recent archaeological evidence and anthropological insight to say highly salient things about human history.
The authors, David Graeber and David Wengrow, say: most accounts of pre-modern human history âsimply arenât true, they have dire political implications, and make the past dull.â This is interesting, not least because this book is also about the future.
The authors are willing to call out many contemporary commentators who believe in linear evolution of human ideas and cultures (the ecological determinists and evolutionary psychologists, for example), and who say that modern life must be superior to all that has gone before. Graeber and Wengrow call these âdismal conclusionsâ, and âprejudices dressed up as facts.â
For this book is about freedoms, not the âweird argumentsâ madeâŚ
A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolutionâfrom the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequalityâand revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlikeâeither free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reactionâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
This is a wonderful and beautifully written book about the power of story. Story is not just about information and persuasion. It is about rehearsal for life; it is about creating confidence and agency. It is about transformation.
We face huge crises of climate, nature and social inequality. What people don't need is more data, more facts. We know the problems; we actually know many of the solutions. So how to do that thing that wakes us up with excitement and the desire to make a difference? The Red Queen said, "why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Lisa Cron tells us to forget the facts, and give people what their brain craves: story in which we can become immersed, the sense of flow, and something to remember (and maybe pass onto others). We don't remember a thing about what that person said, says aâŚ
âA practical, heartfelt manual for anyone who needs to change minds and actions. Lisa Cron shares the art of practical empathy with leaders who care enough to make a difference.ââSeth Godin, author of The Practice  A step-by-step guide to using the brain's hardwired need for story to achieve any goal, from the author of Wired for Story  Whether you're pitching a product, saving the planet, or convincing your kids not to text and drive, story isn't just one way to persuade. It's the way. It's built into the architecture of the brain, and has been since early humans gathered aroundâŚ
I write books about feisty girls who follow their dreams and donât let fear stand in their way. Growing up in London I was an extremely shy child with a full-blown fantasy life, but at eighteen decided it was time to channel my inner âfeisty girlâ, take charge of my destiny, and travel to America to pursue my dream of becoming a writer. Now, many years later I am the proud author of five middle-grade novels, and the mother of four amazing children who are all off following their own dreams. When Iâm not writing books about feisty girls, Iâm reading other people's. Here are some of my favorites.
âOn the morning of its first birthday, a baby was found floating in a cello case in the English Channel.â From the opening line this is a story you will fall in love with! Sofie, the orphaned baby in the cello case, is rescued from a shipwreck by an elderly gentleman called Charles who decides to raise her himself. He does an excellent job and I adore Sofieâs bravery, her love of knowledge, and her passion for adventure. Certain that her mother is still alive, Sofie and Charles set off for Paris to look for her, believing that you ânever ignore a possible.â This is a fabulous book about pursuing your dreams and the power of hope. Plus the writing is just gorgeous! Â
Go on an adventure with Katherine Rundell...
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Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal
From the winner of the Costa Children's Book Prize
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'I enjoyed it tremendously ... The next time I go to Paris I will be looking up at the rooftops' - Jacqueline Wilson
'A writer with an utterly distinctive voice and a wild imagination' - Philip Pullman
'Read everything she writes' - Daily Mail
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Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck - found floating in a cello case onâŚ
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother hadâŚ
As a child I loved reading detective stories, and I still retain strong memories of Tintin and Sherlock Holmes, after which I graduated to Agatha Christie. As an adult my tastes changed and I lost interest in mysteries (with the exception of Edgar Alan Poe). However recently my interests have reversed, partly because I became a grandfather, and partly for the reason that I teach ethics to primary school children, as a volunteer. So itâs possible that Worcester Glendenis is a re-incarnation of me, but as the 12-year-old I wish I had been (as far as my memory can be relied upon to go back 60 years): more emotionally mature and more extrovert.
Katherine is a super-talented writer who has written adult books as well.
In this case she brings her amazing skills to bear on a strong mystery with a female protagonist, a grandad, and a bunch of talented circus performer types. Great use of words, complex plot, good resolution, spooky locations.
âA dazzling tale of wild hope, lingering grief, admirable self-sufficiency, and intergenerational adoration.â âPublishers Weekly (starred review) âVita tests her own limits, and readers will thrill at her cleverness, tenacity, and close escapes.â âBooklist âA satisfying adventure.â âKirkus Reviews
From award-winning author Katherine Rundell comes a fast-paced and utterly thrilling adventure driven by the loyalty and love between a grandfather and his granddaughter.
When Vitaâs grandfatherâs mansion is taken from him by a powerful real estate tycoon, Vita knows itâs up to her to make things right.
With the help of a pickpocket and her new circus friends, Vita createsâŚ
When I was young, I used to ask every new person I met if they believed in magic. No caveats, no explanation of what I meant by that. Their response â generally either an unequivocal no, a tentative what does that mean, or a delighted yes, cemented the direction of our relationship.
One of my favorite quotes is Yeatsâ statement that âthe world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.â This conviction fuels my writing and my life. Whatever genre I write is informed first by magic, and there is no higher form of magic than the natural world and the science that explores it.
First of all, how could anyone not love a book with an authorâs name like that?
This book was on display mere inches from me while I was signing books at an exceptionally enchanting indie bookstore called Sudden Fiction in Castle Rock, Colorado. I couldnât wait for the signing to be over so I could get a copy for myself. And it did not disappoint, the contents being as beguiling as the cover.Â
Sheldrake describes not only the incredible and seemingly irrepressible capacity fungi have for survival and thrival (yep, I made that word up), but also encourages us to practice the same spells. I may have to become a mycologist in my next iteration â itâs good to remake oneself every few months, I think.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â˘Â A âbrilliant [and] entrancingâ (The Guardian) journey into the hidden lives of fungiâthe great connectors of the living worldâand their astonishing and intimate roles in human life, with the power to heal our bodies, expand our minds, and help us address our most urgent environmental problems.
âGrand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.ââEd Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARâTime, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday
When I was young, I used to ask every new person I met if they believed in magic. No caveats, no explanation of what I meant by that. Their response â generally either an unequivocal no, a tentative what does that mean, or a delighted yes, cemented the direction of our relationship.
One of my favorite quotes is Yeatsâ statement that âthe world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.â This conviction fuels my writing and my life. Whatever genre I write is informed first by magic, and there is no higher form of magic than the natural world and the science that explores it.
I discovered it and its author by listening to David Oakesâ nature podcast Trees A Crowd, which I devoured religiously every day while living in Alaska during the second year of the pandemic. I only intended it as research, but this book changed the composition of my soul.Â
Itâs a fascinating and genuinely captivating exploration of one of the most evolved lifeforms on Earth. Their survival is essential to our own, and if we wonât learn from them, weâll fall beside them. But more likely, theyâll outlast us!
"A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement that will make you acknowledge your own entanglement in the ancient and ever-new web of being."--Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast Are trees social beings? In this international bestseller, forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. WohllebenâŚ
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man sheâŚ
I am, first and foremost, someone who cares deeply about the world, people, and learning. I have been passionate about ideas, curiosity, and innovation since I was a child and since starting our company and writing four books, have had the privilege of helping over 400 organizations and 700,000 people to unlock their genius by not being experts but by being curious about the world around them and other people. I am also a teacher, speaker, and community volunteer who is keen to help people find their own unique brilliance.
This might be my favorite book ever, and while it is not about business, career, or personal development, it speaks to me about the power of opening our eyes and seeing a world filled with possibilities.
I believe in our ability to explore, wonder, and imagine what could be possible.
With almost 5 million copies sold 60 years after its original publication, generations of readers have now journeyed with Milo to the Lands Beyond in this beloved classic. Enriched by Jules Feifferâs splendid illustrations, the wit, wisdom, and wordplay of Norton Justerâs offbeat fantasy are as beguiling as ever.Â
âComes up bright and new every time I read it . . . it will continue to charm and delight for a very long time yet. And teach us some wisdom, too.â --Phillip Pullman
For Milo, everythingâs a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through onlyâŚ
I have been a schoolteacher for over thirty years, the last ten or so in school leadership positions. In that time, I have learned that all good teaching is storytelling, and that all good storytelling is teaching, and that the most important thing we all need to learn, is to think. We need to think about courage, friendship, value, music, dance, and nature, and what is important to us, and yet thinking is hard. That is why stories, from the most ancient of fairy tales and myths to modern-day fantasy and science-fiction, are so important. They can set us to thinking without us thinking that we are thinking.
Although I read this book as a child, I only began to appreciate it when reading it again as an adult. The sheer beauty of the English prose makes it, I think, the best-written book ever, if only in terms of the mastery of words.
Some of the underlying themes are rewarding to explore, such as friendship, nature, the importance of home, and forgiveness, and the idea of a threat to a peaceful idyll from the encroachment of modernity now touches a chord, as does the message that people (or animals) with wealth and privilege have a choice over how they behave.Â
Spend a season on the river bank and take a walk on the wild side . . .
Spring is in the air and Mole has found a wonderful new world. There's boating with Ratty, a feast with Badger and high jinx on the open road with that reckless ruffian, Mr Toad of Toad Hall. The four become the firmest of friends, but after Toad's latest escapade, can they join together and beat the wretched weasels?
PLUS A behind-the-scenes journey, including author profile, a guide to who's who, activities and more.
Iâve always felt myself to be different, odd, and a bit of a loner. As a child, people said I was "too clever by half," and I both hated and loved being able to understand things that other kids did not. Being good at maths and science in a girlsâ boarding school does not make you friends! Escaping all that, I became a psychologist and, after a dramatic out-of-body experience, began studying lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, psychic claims, and all sorts of weird and wonderful experiences. This is why I love all these books about exceptional children.
I was a clever child too, ridiculed at my horrible boarding school and constantly afraid of showing off and being laughed at.
But I did not have it half as bad as Roald Dahlâs desperately abused Matilda. Perhaps this is why I loved this book, for taking a child I could so closely identify with and getting her to suffer and overcome it all in the magical ways Matilda does.
A fabulous read, to be read many times and enjoyed again and again.
13
authors picked
Matilda
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
8,
9,
10, and
11.
What is this book about?
Puffin Audiobooks presents Roald Dahl's Matilda, read by Kate Winslet. This audiobook features original music and sound design by Pinewood film studios.
Matilda Wormwood is an extraordinary genius with really stupid parents.
Miss Trunchbull is her terrifying headmistress who thinks all her pupils are rotten little stinkers.
But Matilda will show these horrible grown-ups that even though she's only small, she's got some very powerful tricks up her sleeve . . .
Kate Winslet's award-winning and varied career has included standout roles in Titanic, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Finding Neverland, Revolutionary Road and The Reader, for which sheâŚ
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the worldâs most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the bookâŚ
I was once a little girl who loved reading, and now I'm a mother who shares that passion with my kid. Over the past few years, I've been revisiting my own childhood favorites with him (it's been a serendipitous mix of work and pleasure as I was also researching a book on one of the all-time great children's book authors, Judy Blume). The novels I've recommended here are ones that seemed to spark pleasure in the most discerningâand honestâof audiences: an 8-year-old. And unlike some old books that will go unnamed, they didn't make me cringe as a 21st-century parent.
Pippi is the queen of the quirky kids, and I was one of her tribe. But it turns out you donât have to be a bookish little girl in glasses to appreciate her antics.
My son thought Pippi, with her zany outfits and absurd tall tales, was fantastic. Sure, I had to take a moment to make sure he knew that parents donât generally leave little kids alone to fend for themselves in big Victorian houses. Once we got that point out of the way, Pippi was an absolute pleasure to read together.
This flagship gift edition illustrated by Lauren Child is a glorious celebratory tribute to the strongest girl in the world.
Pippi Longstocking is nine years old. She has just moved into Villa Villekulla where she lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey, and a big suitcase full of gold coins. The grown-ups in the village try to make Pippi behave in ways that they think a little girl should, but Pippi has other ideas. She would much rather spend her days arranging wild, exciting adventures to enjoy with her neighbours, Tommy and Annika, or entertaining everyone she meetsâŚ
