Rereading Novels First Encountered in Childhood

If you’re a writer who, like me, is old enough to remember rotary telephones, then the novels you enjoyed reading as a child are not, unfortunately, a useful gauge of what’s selling these days.

But rereading them now, decades later, can be fascinating and instructive from a writer’s perspective.

You can analyze the author’s choices to see how compelling fiction was made AND ponder what attracted you to it back then.

This year I reread A Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson just to see how well it holds up after 45 years. It was published in 1977 and won a Newbery Medal in 1978.

I remember being disappointed when I read this novel as a kid because I expected from the title that it was going to be a portal fantasy. Instead, it is realistic contemporary and Terabithia exists only in the kids’ imaginations.

Decades later, I can appreciate Paterson’s storytelling skill. She creates characters and setting with a light touch. At the same time, she gets inside kids’ heads and hearts and explores how they really feel.

SPOILER ALERT

If you haven’t read this novel, you may want to stop reading because I reveal a crucial part of the plot.

I don’t remember how I felt after reading this book when I was a kid. Was I sad for Jesse?

As an adult rereading it, I felt Jesse’s grief and the shock of Leslie’s sudden death. Paterson handles that masterfully.

Another piece I appreciated as an adult was how Paterson portrayed the socio-economic situation of Jesse’s family compared to Leslie’s, which was much better off. Jesse’s family reminded me of my own and those I knew in Oklahoma and Wyoming growing up.

Rereading a novel that I wasn’t particularly attached to as a kid was simple. I could see a great deal now that I couldn’t then.

But if you’re considering rereading a novel you adored as a kid, there’s a real danger that your adult sensibilities will taint the memory of a beloved book.

So choose wisely!

I loved Nancy Drew novels when I was 9 and 10, but I haven’t reread any as an adult because I know too much about how they were conceived and written. I’d rather preserve my memories of them.

One novel that I should reread but haven’t yet is Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White, which was published in 1952 and won a Newbery Honor. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, read this novel to our class.

That year my family was living on a farm in northeast Iowa where we had milk goats and chickens and a calf or two, though no pigs. Nor any talking spiders as far as I knew.

What childhood novels have you reread as an adult? And what was your reaction?