the magical world of children's books

using my favorite childhood stories to escape for a bit

The urge to revisit childhood always comes at times of emotional upheaval for me. When I’m feeling particularly sad or anxious, I will put on music that evokes a certain magic for me. “In the Still of the Night” or “Earth Angel” are stalwarts of this and bring me back to the days when I was small enough to stand on my father’s feet as he “led” me in a dance to these songs. There are a slew of songs that take me back to feeling free, loved, weightless. I strive to get those feelings back, I float on the memories those tunes provide.

I’ve been traveling back into my childhood a little more lately, retreating to a place where I had no worries, where every day brought new adventure. I’ve been feeling bogged down by life. There’s a serious lack of magic happening in my world these days. So I’ve taken that problem into my own hands and came up with a solution: I would reread my favorite childhood books.

I spent a lot of time in the library as a young child. Sometimes my mother would drive me there and drop me in the children’s room where I could explore the shelves while she lingered in the adult fiction section. Most times, I would take the bus the library provided my community. It stopped right in front of my house and gave door-to-door service to the library. Those days I would spend hours in the stacks, reading book jackets, deciding what sounded fascinating enough to take home. I was into stories that took me away; knights, princesses, magic, witches, ghosts. I loved stories about little kids like me having fantastical adventures. I took home seven books on each visit, read them within a week, and went back for more the next Saturday.

Years ago, I bought copies of all my favorite books from that era of my life. I will reread them when I feel like life is overwhelming me, when I want to get back to feeling like magic is in the air, when I want to go away on an adventure. It doesn’t matter that I know what happens, it doesn’t matter that the vocabulary if for children. The best children’s books are timeless. They will transport me every time.

These are the books I remember the most. They are the ones that provided adventure, an escape from the boring world of school and chores. I bought them all and reread them and I will never regret spending time reading kids books when I have a stack of grown-up books waiting to be read.

Reading each one was like reading for the first time. I saw myself sitting on the library floor, hidden in the stacks, turning page after page, unable to wait long enough to get home and read. I retreated to the world of the late 1960s, early 1970s, every sensory memory triggered. I could smell the books, hear the sound of the librarian shushing the rowdy kids, feel the cool air conditioning. I remembered reading outside under the tree in my parents’ yard, and I took to my breezeway, to read again in the heat of the summer.

I felt a small thrill when Jane found the weird coin in Half Magic. I was entranced by the witch family’s ordeal. I got nervous and excited when Claudia and Jamie were hiding in the museum. I envied the freedom that the boxcar children found. I traveled through strange worlds with Milo (I even have a Phantom Tollbooth tattoo).

Each book took me back, but also held me in the present. I saw the magic in each through adult eyes, and marveled at the deft writing that would enchant me at 60 the way it did at seven. I felt relaxed and at ease while reading; I was completely taken away to other worlds, other places, places where fantastical things happened to ordinary people. These books brought me absolute pleasure, a happiness in the same vein as listening to “Earth Angel” and reminiscing about dancing with my father.

I try not to live in the past, but it’s important to once in a while find that childlike wonder you had when you were a kid. Reading these books did that for me. I am starting in on my pile of new books, and they will take me away also. But not like that. Not with the unfiltered delight of being a kid again for a little while.

Feel free to recommend any grown up books that deal will take me away on an adventure.