Children's books for adults

C.S. Lewis

It was C.S. Lewis who said, "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."

C.S. Lewis, of course, wrote the Narnia Chronicles, including The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, some of the most popular children's stories of all time. I did not read them until I was an adult. I loved them.

The same can be said about the Winnie-the-Pooh stories and other books supposedly written for children.

Why do certain children's stories — Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Black Beauty, the Dr. Seuss books, for example — have staying power generation after generation? Because adults like them. Parents buy them for their kids, who remember them when they become parents and then buy them for their own children.

Also, parents — at least good parents — read to their small children, usually at bedtime. And children often like to hear the same stories over and over again. They had better be stories that entertain the parents, as well.

I can remember reading Nate the Great and Amelia Bedelia stories with my son. I liked them, too.