What to read as an adult based on your childhood favorites
We all have to grow up (sorry, Peter Pan!). But that doesn't mean that we have to give up the genres and themes that we loved as children. Do you remember loving any of these books as a kid? If so, hopefully this inspires you to pick up something new as an adult!
(As a warning, this entire post is millennial coded. Since I’m a millennial, my go-to "remember when" things are all going to be from my childhood.)
So, grab your device, pop open Libby, and see which of these memory lanes you want to travel down!
If you liked your books with a little bite...
King of Battle and Blood
by Scarlett St. Clair
This could also work if you were a Twilight person, but I'm always been a Vampire Diaries girlie as they are BETTER (I said what I said). So, if you want a multi-book saga with lots of romance and more than a bit of blood, this is the exact grow-up glow-up that you are looking for in a new book series obsession.
If you don't trust what you see...
The Passage
by Justin Cronin
Did you also play Animorphs with your friends or were you a well-adjusted person watching American Gladiators in syndication after school? One guess as to who I was (trick question... it was both!). For those of you who couldn’t get enough of the slow creep of aliens invading people's minds like a disease across the world, leading you to trust no one but each other, you should pick up this (nearly) classic. In this series, the world is succumbing to a mysterious force, and only a child has the power to see what's coming and to stop it.
If you still think about that green ribbon...
What Moves the Dead
by T. Kingfisher
Sometimes, you just need to think about a dog that’s actually a rat for the rest of your natural born life. You must stew in the incredibly creepy black and white sketches that still haunt you decades after you grabbed the book from your elementary school library. It's like a curse. Something growing slowly in your brain, spreading like a disease, like what's overtaking the House of Usher in the start of T. Kingfisher's series. It's atmospheric, creepy, and will sit with you almost just as long.
If you want to escape to new worlds...
The Will of the Many
by James Islington
Epic fantasy lovers, unite! What was the book that you read before you read Lord of the Rings? It might’ve been the Garth Nix classic, Sabriel, and that might’ve put you on a path of loving a fantasy book of “a special person going on a quest that only they can fulfill.” Now that you're all grown up, please do not sleep on the Hierarchy series by James Islington, as it has it all. Special school? Check. Secret grudge? Check. The never-ending need to avenge? Check and check. You're going to stay up past your bedtime for this one.
If you're not going into the basement...
The Hacienda
by Isabel Cañas
It's the book that started it all! We're not talking creepy dolls and things in the bottom of the lake, just that one house down the street that everyone is afraid to go near. I still remember vividly reading this one in fourth grade! And I also vividly remember reading The Hacienda, another story of a house that is full of secrets and pain, set in the world of post-War of Independence Mexico, that will keep you questioning what is real and what is imagined.
If you understand the importance of a good chuckle...
F*cked Up Fairy Tales
by Liz Gotauco
This book was one of the best picture books to come out of the 90s, full of gross drawings and incredibly different ways of looking at the fairy tales and nursery rhymes we all grew up with (in a way that would decidedly NOT be endorsed by the Disney corporation). If you want to get even further into just how softened the edges were on these classic stories, Gotauco's book is sure to fascinate even those readers who aren't looking for a happily ever after.
If you ever wonder what you'd take with you on a desert island...
A Marriage at Sea
by Sophie Elmhirst
Hatchet was one of the first books I read where I realized, if this happened to me, I’d just be dead. Perhaps that is what draws us to extreme survival stories—the question of what we would do in those situations. Needless to say, this book endures for a reason, and we still love to read a story of those surviving insurmountable odds, especially if those who survive are also... odd. In A Marriage at Sea, we are introduced to a couple who put themselves into the circumstance that tries to kill them at every turn, and we cannot turn away as we read on to see if they’ll survive in the most extreme of circumstances.
If you have a BFF...
The Wilderness
by Angela Flournoy
There’s nothing like a group of girlfriends to get things done! We knew this from the moment that Kristy got her big idea. Suddenly, we have a whole new group of friends to root for over the entire series of books and spin-offs that make up the world of the Baby-sitters Club. When we grow up, things get more complicated, as do our friendships. Angela Flournoy shows us the way things change and how we can still show up in her story of how we grow together and apart and how friendships can be the most important things in our lives.
If you want to unlock an achievement or two...
Dungeon Crawler Carl
by Matt Dinniman
You're funny, you fight bad guys, you don't wear pants... frankly, you could either be Captain Underpants or Carl. Captain Underpants crawled so that Carl could... also crawl. The similarities abound, and if you were a fan of these colorful, fun, hilarious graphic novels when you were growing up, the Dungeon Crawler Carl world is going to be one that you're going to LOVE.
If you used to decorate your Trapper Keeper...
The MASH Up
by Laura Marie Meyers
The theme song to the TV series is running through my brain as I think about Sweet Valley High (Does anyone other than me remembers this show?). The Wakefield twins were as 90s as Cher from Clueless, as was the game MASH. The game we used to predict our future in middle school is now a book—and a fun, frothy, romance novel at that! Pick it up for the nostalgia, stay for the love.
If you don't want to be doomed to repeat history...
Kindred
by Octavia Butler
We all wish that we could time travel to learn more about actual history, right? The Magic Tree House captivated us as kids, if you don't think too much about how terrifying it would be to actually be surrounded by dinosaurs. Octavia Butler also captivated us with her story, but being pulled through time to the antebellum south is so much more harrowing, being confronted with the trauma of generations of people. This book forces you to look and understand and uses time travel as a way to process, not just for fun. It's a must read for a reason.
If you want to hit it out of the park...
Why We Love Baseball
by Joe Posnanski
It was hard to narrow it down to just one Matt Christopher book. The chokehold he had on so many of the kids in my elementary school cannot be easily explained, but these books are good and get everyone reading about kids doing amazing things! And, if you're still a baseball fan as an adult, you're going to love Joe Posnanski's book about what exactly it is that makes us crave baseball. Also, double recommendation for his book with Michael Schur (yes, that Michael Schur) all about fandom!
*Title availability may vary.
Now that I've been steeped in the waters of millennial memories, I'm going to check out my library and see if any of these classics of my youth are ready for me to introduce to my own kiddo!
RELATED READ: Summer reading throwback: The books we loved as kid
Published Jul 29, 2026
Meghan Volchko
Meghan Volchko is a writer for Libby Life and a Libby librarian. Her English degree set her up perfectly for grad school, where she received her MLIS and has been immersed in the world of books ever since. You can find her reading with her cat, traveling with her friends and family, or having kitchen dance parties with her daughter. HEAs are life.