Transcription
If you think children's books are just for kids, I get it. But I think you're missing something. Some books are written for children. But others are written for something much deeper. They're written for the human soul. These kind of books are books you come back to at different points in your life. You find yourself returning again and again and somehow finding something new every time. Some of the most meaningful reading I've ever done has come from books that look incredibly simple on the surface. Books that some people might even laugh at. And if you're trying to get into reading or just find your way back into it, here are five children's books to get you going.
The first one, okay, so this is a book about friendship, but in a really quiet and unassuming way. It's the kind of story you might expect to be light and breezy and fun based on what you've heard of it. But if you've never read it, you don't know that it's actually much deeper. It slowly turns into something much more honest, a much more reflective look at life, and it doesn't try too hard. It's simple. It's just what it needs to be. This book is Charlotte's Web by Eie White. He's just incredibly good at saying exactly what needs to be said, not more, not less. He even wrote a book on writing for writers, uh, where he talks about keeping language simple. And as a kid, this book is about friendship and animals, and it's very fun. But reading it later, it becomes about time. It becomes about loss and what it means to be here on this earth at all. So, first book.
Second book here, and this is one about a man doing something very small over and over again, a repeated action, something that seems insignificant. And for a while, it feels like nothing's happening, but then you step back and realize something enormous has changed. This book is The Man Who Planted Trees, or Lom Kiplante Dalb in French, by Jean Giono. And I actually found this one because EMCC libraries recommended it after I mentioned Loving the Little Prince in one of my earlier videos. And I hadn't even heard of it before, but I loved it. It's an incredible story, more like a fable than a novel, but it's just one of those really quiet, simple children's stories that's just so much deeper than that. As a kid, I imagine this feels very hopeful, but as an adult, you read it and it feels like a reminder to show up every day and do the small things, the consistent things that really matter. Beautiful book. Highly recommend.
Third one here. This is one of those books where nothing super dramatic happens, but somehow the whole point is the calmness. It's the, it's the sense of life here. You spend time with characters, and that just ends up being more than enough. And this one is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham. I've talked about this one before, uh, multiple times, I think, at this point, but it's a really precious book to me, and I thought I had to bring it up. Uh, talking about children's books here, this one is calm. It's, it's just a really plotting, patient book. Very, very quintessentially British in that way. It feels like you're sitting in a familiar armchair out in the garden on a sunny day. It's a beautiful book to lead, uh, to read. But, uh, later on, it, you realize it's really about home. It's about people around us who make our lives feel grounded, and it's a beautiful read. Highly recommend The Wind and the Willows.
Number four here. This one feels almost like a dream. And that's really what it's about. It almost makes sense. Everything almost makes sense when you're in it, but you realize this can't make sense. All this stuff is crazy. As soon as you try to explain it, it, it sort of, um, evades your grasp. It's a very playful book. Uh, it's really a lot sharper than it appears. I think a lot of people, uh, have mixed opinions. This could be a polarizing one, but this one is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or Through the Looking Glass, which is the sequel, by Lewis Carroll as well. They're both worth reading. Many of the stories that we associate with, uh, with Alice, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, actually come from the sequel as well. So, you should read both of them. They're very short. Um, Carroll was a mathematician, which explains why everything is kind of a little off because what he studied was, uh, he loved chaos. He loved, he loved the weird, right? And so he was really exploring this, um, uh, which is funny that he's an Oxford mathematician, super academic, and wrote one of the most strange children's books, I guess, is, is a word you could use. Fun. And, and that's really what it is as a kid, right? It's strange and it's fun. But when you get older, you start noticing there's a sort of structure. Makes sense, given his mathematician background. There's logic to it. There's a certain beautiful wordplay in the way he, he writes, and, and he's saying some interesting things. It's one of those books that can, you can read it a lot of different ways depending on when you read it and how you, uh, bring yourself as a reader to contribute to making this book. So, it really depends on how you read it. Highly, highly recommend, um, the work of Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the, the Looking Glass as well. Highly recommend.
Now, before I get to the last one here, just a thick, a few quick honorable mentions. Um, there are so many children's books that I wanted to include in here as well. So, I thought I'd just add five more that, uh, that I have that I love, um, that I'm not going to talk too much about, but that absolutely can highly recommend as well. So, the first one here is Stuart Little. This one is small, but it really lingers, just like the character. Beautiful book. Another E.B. White. Highly recommend. The Giving Tree is the next one here. This one, beautiful book by, uh, Shel Silverstein. Um, it's really simple but devastating, I would say, in a way. This is just a gorgeous book. Highly recommend. All of these can be read in, you know, an hour, very short, or less. Right. Third one here, Something from Nothing. Uh, making something out of very little. Beautiful book, uh, by Canadian author as well. So, uh, this is a, maybe a more lesser-known children's book. Very simple, very beautiful, very short. Highly recommend as well. Gives you a sense of life. Uh, another one here, Where the Wild Things Are. This one is a gorgeous work as well. Um, just a book about imagination and emotion. You can read all these in one sitting again, and be thinking about them years later.
So, the last one. This is a story that most people know about never growing up. When you're younger, kind of sounds perfect, but when you come back to this later in life, you don't see it the same way. And this book, of course, is Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie, or the inspiration for Peter Pan. Now, on the surface, it's about adventures, flying, pirates, Neverland, but we use this in, in our, in our language. Even the idea of Neverland has come to take a much more sinister, uh, uh, meaning in a lot of ways. It's, it's not only this joyous place. And that's because when you read it as an adult, you realize this isn't just a simple children's book about a fun Neverland. Neverland is not just that, but neither is it just a simple parable for, you know, never growing up. It's both those things, and it's more. It can be read both ways. I think underneath the surface, this book is really about time. That's one of the really beautiful things about it. It's about what happens when you try to avoid the passing of time. When you try to stay stuck, you try to stay in the same place because, whatever reason it is, because it's fun, because it's enjoyable, because of you love it, it doesn't matter. When you stay stuck in a place, it has serious consequences. So, as a kid, you want to be Peter Pan. And later on, you start to understand Wendy, and you start to understand the importance of taking on responsibility and growing up. But the reason I love this book, it's just so well written. It's just a beautiful story. It's not what you think of, um, when you're a kid. It's just, it's, it's a beautiful book, and, um, J.M. Barrie is, is a great, great writer. Uh, it's, it's darker than the Disney version that you remember, um, as well. And I think a lot of times the classic fairy tales are like this as well. A lot of books that are children's books, we realize were actually much deeper than that.
So, I don't really think great children's books are things you grow out of. I think they're things you return to again and again. You read them once for the story, and then later for everything you didn't quite see when you first read it. And if you're trying to get again into reading, or you just have that feeling again, this is a really great place to start. So, I hope you guys enjoyed. If you like this video, please do like, and if you will consider subscribing, I'd appreciate that as well. That really helps support me and what I'm doing. And I really appreciate all the support. Please do leave a comment below of children's books that you love that you come back to, that you feel have moved you, and will you will continue to be moved by, uh, throughout your life. Um, and as always, take care and God bless.