Trip down memory lane: do you still remember these children's books?
Because sometimes it's just nice to take a trip back to your childhood, time for a round of nostalgia. Bet you the ‘ooh's’ and ‘aah's’ and ‘oh yeah's' will fly around you? These were the books from our childhood and teenage years that we will never forget.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Do we still remember him, my spirit animal? With those pages full of holes? The obesity caterpillar that just keeps eating and eating? HAHA. A caterpillar crawls out of an egg, with an insatiable hunger. When all the leaves are gone, he starts on cake, sausage, candy, fruit, and chocolate. Every day of the week he gets a little fatter, until he gets terrible stomach pains. He builds a little house around himself and at the end of the week he comes out as a butterfly. Awh.
About a little mole who wants to know who pooped on his head
I almost wish it was lying on my nightstand now to flip through one more time tonight. The title says it all: you follow a little mole who one day sticks his head above ground, after which a poop is placed on his head. The mole is furious and goes in search of the culprit. Every animal he encounters must show their droppings and eventually a few dung flies help him take grand revenge. Sorry, but this is the first book I will buy for my children later. Brilliant.
The BFG
A.k.a. the Big Friendly Giant. About Sophie, a girl who can't sleep and suddenly sees a giant standing there, which forces him to kidnap her, because no one is allowed to see giants. Every night they go out to munch on sleeping people (‘human snacks’). Sophie is lucky, because the BFG turns out to be the only good guy in ‘giant land’ who doesn't eat children but ‘snozzcumbers’. Oh, how funny it is to read this back. This later became one of the most famous children's books by Roald Dahl. Maybe I just looked up a clip of the movie on YouTube. Please do!
The most beautiful fish in the sea
Oh, how funny this is. This book was about Rainbow, the most beautiful fish in the sea with all shiny scales. Because he is so proud and vain, he has no friends at all. Only when he gives away one of his beautiful scales – and later even more – do they find him nice. And then he realizes that it's more important to have friends than to be the most beautiful. How good is it actually to give children these kinds of life lessons?
The ‘How do I survive?’ series
HAAAA, I almost forgot this one. The ‘How do I survive?’ books! Once in puberty, I suddenly started reading like crazy. Especially the HOI series by Francine Oomen was the shit in my class (you know, about Rosa van Dijk, a girl who enters puberty and gets older in each book. She has a boyfriend, Vincent van Gelderen, whom she affectionately calls ‘Neuz’ because of his big nose). How do I survive my vacation?, How do I survive the year 2000?, How do I survive the first year of high school?, my first kiss?, myself?, a broken heart?, with/without you?, my parents?; the whole shebang. I would almost read it all again, I found it so brilliant.
Eighth graders don't cry
And cry I did, CRYING at this book, oooooh. Unbelievable. About a group of elementary school students and especially Akkie, the coolest girl in the class who gets leukemia. She sends letters about her experiences in the hospital to her classmates, who all intensely empathize with her. A sad, beautiful, and raw book about friendship and death. And honestly: if it were up to me, a book that every ‘eighth grader’ should read instead of binge-watching Netflix.
