Five Kids' Books to Challenge Your Adult Faith

    I unabashedly love children’s literature. Whenever I’m feeling down or uninspired, I always return to the books that I loved as an introverted third grader who didn’t have internet. These books shaped my philosophical curiosity and tendency to see the world in stories. 

    I’m convinced that the reason so many people stop reading once they get out of school is because the books we read as adults are the books that we feel like we should read. We read books with long words to maybe impress our literary friends at dinner parties instead of getting swept up into adventures well past our bedtimes. 

    Just stop pretending you’re too old. You know how much you want to veer off into the kids’ section of the library and read something with short words and magical characters. No shame, my friend! Go ahead: you have my permission to go pick up a book that you loved as a ten year old. You may be surprised to find that it has grown with you. 

Here are a few of those exceptional books that have only gotten better with age: 

1. The Last Battle

C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, fantasy writer and theologian Clive Stapes Lewis famously re-imagined the Gospel in the story of the quintessentially British Pevensie siblings who stumble into a parallel world. The final book in the series concludes the journey of both Narnia and the Pevensies with a spectacular and beautiful imagining of the end of all things, and the beginning of “the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” Every time I read Lewis’ vision of Heaven I’m reminded why we will never be perfectly content in this world. 

2. Tuck Everlasting

Natalie Babbitt

What would you do if you could live forever? The premise of this book has captured the imaginations of thousands of writers, but Natalie Babbitt’s short book puts the decision into the hands of a naive and secluded ten year old. When Winnie discovers the strange and wonderful secret of the Tuck family, who never grow older and never die, she is forced to think about the purpose of life and death in a world where the one certain end is no longer certain. A thought-provoking story that continues to haunt me years after first reading it. 

3. Little Women

Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is a classic because it still feels absolutely true to life, even a century and a half after it was written. Following the four March sisters from childhood to adulthood, through young loves, first sorrows, the ache of poverty, and the joys of family, reading this book feels like living several lives at once. A sort of Pilgrim’s Progress for preteen girls, the wisdom of Little Women has grown with me as I’ve faced some of the same burdens and valleys. It’s a book about growing up with grace and humor, and who doesn’t need more of that in their lives? 

4. Ella Enchanted

Gail Carson Levine

Please, please, please forget everything about the 2004 movie with Anne Hathaway and go read this book. Not only does this book contain one of the sweetest romances and a compulsively readable storyline, it's also filled with little truths about life. The story of Ella, bestowed at birth with the “gift” of obedience, is a fun and romantic adventure that will gently and playfully push you into contemplating the purpose of free will. If you have ever wondered why God gave us the freedom to choose, knowing we would choose to abandon Him, Ella offers a bit of insight into why making choices is one of the things that makes us humans who are capable of love. 

5. A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Madeline L’Engle (The Time Quintet) 

Don’t be fooled by the presence of a time-traveling unicorn, this fantasy dives deep into reality. In L’Engle’s universe, God is represented as the great Harmony that set the universe in motion, constantly moving towards unity and beauty, while the forces of dissonance are constantly trying to destroy the harmony. Exploring from the beginning of time itself to a not-yet-realized vision of tomorrow, L’Engle bends time to bring her reader to the realization that each individual’s life is both infinitely small and fundamentally significant. The idea that every single choice we make has the potential to change the course of human history is both terrifying and beautiful.