5 Best Children's Books that Impacted Me as a Child

These are the 5 fabulous children’s books made a lasting impact on me as a child (and probably they will on your kids too!). I’m pretty sure you or your kids will enjoy it too.

The thing about children’s books is that you don’t always have to read them in your childhood and then forget all about them as you grow up. Nah, I think the lessons we learn from the books we read in our childhood stay with us forever, and so do the characters and the storyline.

The best thing about children’s books is that anyone can read them. Anyone.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive right in!

Let’s take a look at the…

5 Heartwarming Children’s Books

#1 See You At Harry’s, by Jo Knowles

I remember reading this book and feeling like this was what I’d been waiting for all along. This was a treasure. I remember highlighting patically every part of it because of the depth and emotions I felt at every single page. The characters were wow. The setting—an ice-cream parlour named, of coruse, Harry’s—was a really great place, owned by the narrator’s family. And I remember all of the kids going there after school and just having that sweet treat.

Fern, the narrator, was a great character, sweet, kind, and so awesome. And everything semed to be fine, until one day, a disaster seemed to strike Fern’s family.

This book made me laugh and cry along the way, because there were some great parts when I felt so blessed for having found this book, but there were also some parts when I was genuinely upset for Fern and her family and was just counting on them to save themselves from the sorrow and start to heal.

Even though it pointed out some mature topics like bullying, and more, as you’ll see, I think it would still be safe for kids to read this to get an insight of the problems in the outer world.

If I had to summarize in one sentence, I would say that it was one roalercoaste ride, surely. And Jo Knowles delivered a punch with all her diverse characters and a dozen different storylines working all at once, and still not creating a mess.

It’s a must, you know, for everyone.

#2 Wonder, by RJ Palacio

I just recommend this book to everyone. This is a book for every child. I just can’t stop recommending it because it’s fab. It tells the tale of a kid August who was says in the book how he looks different than everybody else. In fact, he was observed making this comment:

My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

All throughout the book, witnessing various forms of bullying and humiliation, the only thing I could do was cringe whenever someone said something bad to him. And I was impressed because he showed up at school everyday, and he was so brave for coping through all of that crap they made him feel. And in the end of it, I was sure that August was a really nice kid, and I was ready to knuckle-punch anyone who dared say anything mean to him.

This book will teach your kid to stand up for himself or herself in the world out there that is so cruel and such a bad place. There are jerks around every corner. August stood up to those jerks, he didn’t give up, even when he was just ten years old.

I mean, we can learn something from him.

This book might also give you some lessons too, or it might help you think back in nostalgia to the day when you were a kid yourself. No matter what, it’s a great book to read whatever age you are. You might just end up knowing the awesome story of an awesome kid.

#3 From Ant To Eagle, by Alex Lyttle

Okay, maybe this was the first book I cried about. (No, I just realized it was Fred’s death in the Harry Potter series. I mean, everyone cried for that). But this children’s book came pretty close.

Like, wow. One word, wow. It has been some two or three years since I last opened this book, but the memory’s as vivid as ever.

My name is Calvin Sinclair, I’m eleven years old, and this is a story about my brother.

This.

I didn’t know at that time that by the end of this book, I would be crying both for Calvin, and for this little brother he writes about. The relationship this author showed between the brothers was really amazing, and so truly described. Like siblings often don’t, they didn’t really show their love to each other, until a situation brought them together and reminded them of what it truly felt like to have a brother and a family you depend upon.

The emotion at the end was raw and devastating. And I am sure it would keep your heart throbbing all along, waiting for the conclusion and wondering what would happen then. Nonetheless, you would all along be praying for the book to end on a happy note.

I’m not gonna spoil it for you, so go get it yourself.

I am a teenager reading children’s books, and i would easily say its the best one out there. You’re not going to regret this.

#4. Denis Ever After, by Tony Abbott

This book is truly a masterpiece, in my eyes, mostly for portraying the deep, heartfelt relation between two twin brothers, one of whom is dead.

Matt is alive and twelve now. I’m one of those, but not both.

The book mainly revolves around the mystery that blankets the death of Matt’s twin brother. I was guessing all along. I remember writing this review of the book on the app I was reading it on. (Thought I’d share it with you!):

“It’s so beautiful! So, so beautiful.

The way the mystery untangles is mind-blowing, and I loooooved the relation between the brothers.

How can Tony Abott always write the books I want to read?

It’s really beautiful. It’s really awesome.

It’s pretty. It’s sad. It’s happy.

It’s perfect.”

So, you can pretty much see what I was feeling at that moment. I was feeling elated at finding such a beautiful tragedy. It was the utter sorrow to watch one of them go on living without his counterpart, while the other one walking around lifeslessly in the land of the dead. People die and then fade away, but Denis wasn’t fading away, mainly because his alive brother Matt on the planet was still keeping him alive in his memories. So it was like Matt wasn’t letting him go, and thus, Denis couldn’t move on either.

It was sad, seeing Denis convince Matt to let him go, seeing him long for his best mate, his twin bro. It was so utterly devastating that maybe I shed a few tears too.

But it was beautiful in the end. Absolutely beautiful. Children’s books are the most beautiful. This one showed me the pain of letting someone go and having to move on without them.

#5 Ten Thousand Tries, by Amy Makechnie

No words. Seriously, I don’t even want to write anything here because I think whatever I’d say would just end up being insufficient praise for this piece of work.

This book has already features into so many of my other book lists posts that I don’t even know what to write anymore. This book was practically full of tears and laughter and sadness and joy and happy days and bad days and friendships and love.

“You can overcome anything, if and only if you love something enough.”

That’s Golden for you.

Soccer is why he’s living and breathing on earth. With his mother being the coach, and his father having been a pro soccer player, Golden was obviously supposed to be fanatic for the sport too. And he’s doing it all, thinking about getting a growth hormone prescription (Messi did it too!), putting in all his ten thousand hours to be the master, practicing hard to be his school team’s captain.

And nothing’s going right.

Golden notices that he’s losing everything. His dad, his team, his best friends, even the game. And he’s doubting whether his love for all of them can even save them or not. As his father’s disease worsens and a game results in an injury, Golden just decides to let it all out. He cries. In front of the whole team, he lets out his frustration for all that should’ve happened but didn’t.

What happens when things go wrong and there’s nothing you can do to stop it? You put in ten thousand tries before giving up on anything. But what if those ten thousand tries aren’t enough either?

This book made me cry.

So here it was! The post, including, but not limited to the five best middle grade/ children’s books I’ve ever read. Even though I’m still discovering more and more stories every day, these still remain at the very top of the ladder.

Comment what you’d like to see next!

5 Best Children’s Books that Impacted Me as a Child