22 Books You Should Read Now, Based on Your Childhood Favorites

8/11/2019 22 Books You Should Read Now, Based on Your Childhood Favorites

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1. If you loved The Giver, you should read Kazuo Ishiguros Never Let Me Go.


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Both novels tell of sheltered future societies gone wrong: the Sameness paradise of The Giverand the isolated boarding school of

Never Let Me Go, Hailsham. But each of these supposed utopias harbor secrets, and the significance of Hailshams own sameness

is the darkest of all. What happens when the residents grow up and figure it out?

2. If you loved Redwall, you should read George R. R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fireseries.


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Rich, generation-spanning histories. Magic and mythology. Epic warfare. Feuding families. Badass ladies. So many feasts. Both series

are chock-full of all of it. The world of A Song of Ice and Firejust happens to be inhabited by humans, not mice.

3. If you loved Sideways Stories From Wayside School, you should read JosephHellers Catch-22.


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The brilliant and hilarious Catch-22, which follows Captain John Yossarian as he f ights in the U.S. Air Force, is all about the absurdities


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of bureaucracy. And while the themes of the war novel are understandably darker, the shenanigans are similarly inane from a

bomber pilot holding rubber balls in his hands as a way to distract from the crabapples in his cheeks, to the Wayside School student

who cant count in the correct order but always lands at the right number.

4. If you loved the Harry Potterseries, you should read Lev Grossmans The

Magicians.


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Brooklyn teenager Quentin Coldwater of The Magicianslikely grew up reading about Harry Potter. Its the reason he spends his days

wishing magic were real, and the reason hes so excited when his fantasy is seemingly fulfilled by acceptance into the Brakebills

Academy for magicians. But the magic world of The Magiciansis a bit more tempered by reality the studies are tedious, the

practice is mired in bureaucracy and even when Quentin discovers how far-reaching this magic is, hes still not immune to some

standard post-grad disillusionment.

5. If you loved Anne of Green Gables, you should read Edna OBriens The CountryGirls Trilogy.


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Kate and Baba of The Country Girlsare like bosom friends Anne Shirley and Diana Barry, but if Anne and Diana eventually made their

way out of the country and into the city. In this controversial trilogy, the girls romantic, adventurous, and rule-breaking leave theiridyllic hometown for Dublin, where they pursue their passions side by side.

6. If you loved Ramona Quimby, Age 8,you should read Sloane Crosleys I Was ToldThered Be Cake.


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We all loved Ramona Quimby because she was relatable, a little strange, and always hilarious. Same goes for Sloane Crosley, whose

sharp, endearing, and laugh-out-loud personal essays tell stories of angry bosses, misadventures at the Museum of Natural History,

baking mishaps, and more.

7. If you loved Holes, you should read Junot Diazs The Brief Wondrous Life of OscarWao.


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Both Holesand The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waoread as modern mythology, featuring two curse-afflicted protagonists who

cant catch a break. Theyre tales of misfits and survival, and the cruelty that Oscar faces as an overweight Dominican-American teen

obsessed with sci-fi is just as harsh and alienating as that of Stanley Yelnats prison camp.

8. If you loved Bridge to Terabithia, you should read Meg Wolitzers The Interestings.


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At its core, Bridge to Terabithiais about friendship, especially the kind that is strengthened by shared creativity and imagination. In

The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer explores that bond focusing on six teens who meet at a summer camp for the arts and looks at

what happens when it extends into adulthood.

9. If you loved Enders Game, you should read William Gibsons Neuromancer.


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If you were drawn into the apocalyptic cyberpunk future depicted in Enders Game, youll eat Neuromancerup. Ender is at times a

reluctant hero, and Gibsons has-been hacker Case is similarly unlikely but when a dangerous artificial intelligence threatens Earth,

its Case (working with a dead man and a street fighter) who has the power to save the world.

10. If you loved The Devils Arithmetic, you should read Octavia E. Butlers Kindred.


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Both novels use time travel to illuminate horrific moments of history The Devils Arithmeticsending its protagonist to the Holocaust

and Kindredsending Dana to the slave quarters of antebellum South. The 26-year-old Dana travels back and forth, though, jumping

between her happy life in California and life-threatening experiences as a slave until she figures out what shes being sent back to do.

11. If you loved Walk Two Moons, you should read Gabriel Garcia Marquezs OneHundred Years of Solitude.


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Walk Two Moonsis a story within a story, told by a girl longing for her missing mother. The tale she weaves is fantastical, tinged with

spirituality, mysticism, grief, a bit of romance, and rich descriptions of the land. Marquezs epic masterpiece widens the scope of each

of those themes. In a long and entrancing history of the mythical town of Macondo, he writes about love, revolution, prosperity, loss,

and the tragic rise and fall of a family.

12. If you loved The Phantom Tollbooth, you should read Neil Gaimans Stardust.


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Its the playfulness of The Phantom Tollbooththat wins over its readers (and, really, its one of the childrens books that warrants


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So it doesnt have any hobbits or wizards, but what Gentlemen of the Roadlacks in fantasy it more than makes up for in action,

adventure, and enthralling characters. Zelikman and Amram, physican and ex-soldier respectively, make their way through the

Caucasus Mountains in the year 950, fighting and stealing and somehow getting in the middle of a full-scale revolution.

14. If you loved Harriet the Spy, you should read Muriel Barberys The Elegance of theHedgehog.


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Twelve-year-old Ava of Swamplandia!doesnt travel through space and time, but she does travel through the Floridian swamps all on


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her own and, like Meg Murry of A Wrinkle in Time, her bravery is for the sake of her family. As Ava sets off to save their alligator-

wrestling dynasty, she travels deep into a beautifully surreal and somewhat mystical landscape, encountering dangerous strangers

and creatures alike.

16. If you loved Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, you should read Melissa

Banks The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing.


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The troubles that Margaret Simon experiences in the Judy Blume classic romantic anxiety, body confusion, the awkwardness of

fitting in with new friends are especially potent in the preteen years but by no means limited to them. Melissa Bank proves this as

she follows protagonist Jane Rosenal from age 14 to her mid-twenties in a series of hilarious and heartbreaking stories of navigating

love, work, and life.

17. If you loved James and the Giant Peach, you should read Haruki MurakamisKafka on the Shore.


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Roald Dahl was the master of bringing the surreal to life, peopling his world with talking bugs, cartoonishly evil adults, and a peach

large enough to live in. Murakami is similar in his ability to fill his readers with metaphysical wonder, and he is most successful in

Kafka on the Shore. Teenager Kafka Tamura sets off on a search for his mother and sister, with the elderly Nakata as his unlikelypartner. Together the two encounter a slightly altered reality, full of riddles, talking cats, a rainstorm of fish, and a mysterious murder.

18. If you loved A Series of Unfortunate Events, you should read Adam Johnsons TheOrphan Masters Son.


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In The Orphan Masters Son, Adam Johnson tells a tale that could very well be described as a series of unfortunate events, and in a

similar vein as Lemony Snickets series. It follows the young and motherless Pak Jun Do as he makes his way in North Korea, coming

up against harsh demands and arbitrary violence in a thrilling and at times harrowing tale of lost innocence.

19. If you loved Hatchet, you should read Bonnie Jo Campbells Once Upon A River.


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Brian has his hatchet and Margo has her rifle, and both are fending for themselves in these stories of survival. Their isolations are

different though; where Brian is alone in the wilderness after surviving a plane crash, 16-year-old Margo is traveling along the Stark

River in rural and sparsely populated Michigan in search of her long-lost mother. The dangers she encounters are real and and often

disturbing, but her perseverance is legendary.

20. If you loved When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune, you should read ToniMorrisons Sula.


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Both When Kambia Elaine Flew in From Neptuneand Sulahave at their cores stories of children who are forced to grow up too fast.

They tell of violence in the household, the effects of poverty, experiences of racism, and above all the way that two friends can carry

each other along. Toni Morrisons classic Sulabegins in childhood, and follows young Sula and Nel as they survive life in the Bottom

(which shares a name with Kambia Elaines hometown, though the former is in Ohio and the latter is in Texas) and test their friendship

as they go separate ways in adulthood.

21. If you loved The Westing Game, you should read Robin Sloans Mr. Penumbras

24 Hour Bookstore


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24-Hour Bookstore.


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What was great about The Westing Gamewasnt necessarily the mystery, but the characters involved in it. It was suspenseful, for

sure, but it was fun and at times even funny. Robin Sloan captures that feeling in Mr. Penumbras 24-Hour Bookstore, a fast-paced and

heady mystery that follows a former web designer who suspects theres something more to the bookstore hes taking shifts at. As he

delves into analysis with his eclectic friends, he uncovers a world of secret societies, mysterious literati, and a web of technologicalriddles.

22. If you loved the Goosebumps series, you should read John Ajvide LindqvistsHarbor.


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John Ajvide Lindqvist is the master of old-school horror, and his eery ghost story Harborwill have you sleeping with the lights on for

weeks. Set in the icy desolation of a fictional Scandinavian island, Lindqvist creates a world of mysterious disappearances, dark

magic, stalking phantoms, and an angry and insatiable sea.

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22 Books You Should Read Now, Based on Your Childhood Favorites

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