My daughter loathed Little House. Said it was incredibly boring.

She also wouldn't touch:
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Witch of Blackbird Pond

She *does* like:
Nancy Drew
Harry Potter
Judy Blume

My daughters loved The Secret Garden, so that made me happy.

None of them were as obsessed with The Boxcar Children as I was.

They all read vintage Archies and Peanuts books, which I loved as a kid.

There are so many new awesome picture books, but my old ones, that live at my mom's house, were beloved while they visited there anyway, including: (go find these! so good)

The Sweet Pickle Series
https://www.amazon.com/Pickles-Alligator-Elephant-Iguana-Unicorn/dp/B075CVM1ZX/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sweet+pickles+books&qid=1668633648&s=books&sprefix=sweet+pic%2Cstripbooks%2C135&sr=1-1


Come Over to My House
https://www.amazon.com/Come-over-House-Read-Myself/dp/B001M5D2U2/ref=sr_1_3?crid=22PCIDHG5NTPI&keywords=come+over+to+my+house+book&qid=1668633468&s=books&sprefix=come+over+to+my+house+book%2Cstripbooks%2C99&sr=1-3

Who's Got the Apple?
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Random-Pictureback-English-Danish/dp/0394829263

The King the Mice and the Cheese
https://www.amazon.com/King-Mice-Cheese-Nancy-Gurney/dp/0394800397

I'm currently reading the Borrowers and dd (6) loves it. But it's a much harder book to understand than I realized. So much in there is outdated and needs explained to dd. Gas lamps, coal stoves, cigar boxes and the words they use are a bit old fashioned.

I LOOOVED trixie Belden a a pre-teen and young teen. My daughter wouldn't even entertain the idea of me reading them to her.

My son who is generally the better reader absolutely rejected the Chronicles of Narnia (too boring!) and it has crushed my heart.

My daughter loved The Hobbit (son was just ok with it) and that almost made up for everything else.

When they were young I tried to read The Wind in the Willows to them and they both found it very boring. When they were in elementary and we were driving to various kid events we went through a lot of audio books and they really enjoyed it read aloud. They also liked The Jungle Book on audio (though I felt the reader wasn't very good) and I know they wouldn't have tolerated reading it to them. I kinda wish I had pushed audio books earlier or tried more audiobooks - maybe I'd have a Narnia loving family.

I really wanted them to love the Babysitters Club, but they had no interest whatsoever. It broke my heart a little.

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek and Book of Norse Myths. I read those books so much as a kid, I'd practically memorized them. Aside from being incredibly well written and illustrated, they're an accessible intro to the foundation of so much of western literature. Being able to recall the 12 Olympians, Heracles, Theseus, the Minotaur, Jason and the Argonauts, etc. served me really well in college (I was an English lit major). The Norse myths are darker, but still easily readable for an elementary or middle schooler.

Also - I hope at least one of my kids ends up being as much of a Tolkien fan as I am and is happy to sit through the entire LOTR trilogy + the Silmarillion.

zero interest A Wrinkle in Time, which I recalled as a favorite. To be fair, when I revisited it it was weird and boring.

Anonymous wrote:For me, as a kid in the 80s, it was all the Little House on the Prairie books and Anne of Green Gables- they were formative. I'm excited to introduce them to my daughter when she's a few years older, but also secretly worry that they'll be boring compared to whatever the Harry Potter of today is.

None of my kids liked Anne of Green Gables, and it made me so sad.

Anonymous wrote:Thankfully, my kids also loved Corduroy.

The Little House books did not age well, though. Landed with a thud.

Try the Birchbark Canoe series.

Anonymous wrote:Little Women, Caddie Woodlawn, Anne of Green Gables, Ramona books

Check out the new book Marmee by Sarah Miller. It's the events of LW from Marmee's point of view with some other things added. Diary format. It's really lovely.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60091367

Anonymous wrote:I loved Enid Blyton books. I grew up in England and wrote so many books. I tried my kid on one when she was 8 and she didn’t like it. Trying again now at 10 and she likes it so far.

Having grown up in India, we had a steady diet of Enid Blyton books as well. I have a bunch I bought for myself as an adult. DD was pretty ho-hum about them. I still love them.

Frog and Toad. I am still obsessed with them and anything by Arnold Loebel frankly.

My kids did very much like these books. Shel Silverstein books too like The Missing Piece. Oh how I love those books.

Little Women, Caddie Woodlawn, Anne of Green Gables, Ramona books

It was really disappointing when my kids had no interest in my favorites, Little House on the Prairie and Nancy Drew!! Dd loved the Narnia series. She and ds liked many others like Roald Dahl, Charlotte's Web, Beverly Cleary. One they still talk about being boring and I loved was The Borrowers.

I have a grandson now so we'll see. He likes Dr Seuss, especially the Lorax and Horton books. He likes Amelia Bedelia and really laughs at how literal she is.

My kids liked the Little House books up through By the Shores of Silver Lake and then got bored with them. I did do some editing while reading and we discussed how and why the settlers had some of the views they did about Native Americans. They also both really like Caddie Woodlawn, which is set in a similar time period but a little less problematic.

Other old favorites that they've enjoyed:
Edward Eager *Half Magic" and others
The first 3 Narnia books (we'll have to get back to the rest at some point)
Pippi Longstocking
The Great Brain

Hoping to read the The Dark is Rising soon, and if they don't like those I'll be heartbroken. And maybe some Cynthia Voight books soon to.