The Anne books and films relate to people of all ages. And the level of interest that adults seem to take in them rises beyond passion. Having read the books when I was a young girl, they struck a chord with me then. But they resonate even closer to home as I read them now with a more adult point of view. It makes sense that adults would take great delight in a children’s book – it was written by an adult whose favourite world to live in was the one they created on the page. Who wouldn’t want to follow them there?
In a recent article from Kansas State University, Philip Nel, a professor of English and director of the children’s literature graduate program, said that just as adults have loved following Anne’s adventures, or Alice in Wonderland’s or Jonas from The Giver, the trend of adults reading “children’s” books still continues today.
“It should come as no surprise that more recent young adult and children’s literature – such as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline – are also popular with adults,” he says. “Children’s literature is literature. It may be written for people with less height and less vocabulary, but it’s still literature.”
However, this does not mean that authors who write for children have an easier time. In fact, it may mean the opposite. “I think if you’re writing for children, it’s harder because children are more demanding,” Nel says. “Adults will read a book even if it’s boring after the first 50 pages if the reviews say it’s a good book. I don’t think children will. I don’t think they should either.”
It is the high demands of young readers that help authors fashion a truly appealing story, Nel says. They have to evoke wonder, develop characters, pay attention to the narrative and overall, create a strong story. In some ways, Nel believes that adults become invested in children’s literature because it is all about the “pleasure in reading”. These books contain personal stories that reflect universal or cultural issues that adults like to read about from a different perspective.
Here are some other children’s books listed in the article that have been read by adults for years:
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss (which is a bestseller during graduation season because it is traditionally given to adults)
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
What are some of your favourite classics from childhood that you would add to this list?
