In a recent brief foray into Facebook, I happened to see this challenge: read twelve books in twelve months recommended by twelve friends.
Easy-peasy, right? Except I read very little fiction these days. I look at my current pile of books. I’m rereading Pascal’s Pensees. I’m starting over on Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, a book I started years ago and never finished. Then I have unfinished books by John O’Donohue and Brian Doyle that I want to tackle. Again. I’m mostly stuck slowly reading thought-provoking books.
12 books in 12 months? I saw that and thought, Pshaw. Literally. That’s what I thought.
Except there’s this. In the post-election numbness, I stumbled across a years-old recommendation from a friend to read a young adult book. (Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow recommended by my friend Leah) I zippity-doo-dah-ed through that book and was glad I had.
The truth is I LOVE children’s books, early chapter books, and young adult books. 12 children’s books? Yes, that I could do.
So my question for you is, do you have a book you remember reading as a child that you loved? Or a book you recently read to your child or grandchild that you thought was amazing or even just worthwhile?
I’ll take the first twelve that I haven’t yet read and make a list for 2025.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 
Songberd’s Grove by Anne Barrett
an old book. Might find it.
I loved the Happy Hollister series as a child. I remember getting two books each month in the mail and reading them within the week. My mother kept all the books, but when she moved shortly before she died, they disappeared. I was devastated.
I’m throwing a few out there since the styles and subjects are SO different.
Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo if you like a bit of magic, mystery and hijinks.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Michaelson
Magic Treehouse Series by Mary Pope Osborne
Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull
I could keep going, so feel free to reach out if you want more ideas.
I am huge fan of children’s novels, so it was a delight to receive this post in my inbox. I can’t recommend the How To Train Your Dragon novels highly enough, but the series is 12 books long so it might not be the best fit for a challenge like this. It does have some excellent audiobooks narrated by David Tennant if you’re interested, though. I mostly read serialized fantasy as a kid (still do, actually) so most of my recommendations fall in that category, but I do have have a couple stand-alone favourites as well. If you do end up choosing any of these books, I would love to hear your thoughts when you finish 🙂 Enjoy!
Series
Elsewhere by Jacquline West
Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Rule of Three by Eric Walters
A Tale of Magic by Chris Colfer
Stand-alones
The Curse of the Dream Witch by Allan Stratton
Saving Houdini by Michell Redhill
Restart by Gordon Korman
UnGifted by Gordon Korman
Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Ooh — this looks like a great list. I’ll definitely check these books out! Thank you!