Books I Loved as a Kid

I own a few bookshelves, mostly stacked with books from my teen years up until now (I’m 25), and I have a shelf at the very bottom of one of them where I keep some of the “chapter books” I had read as a kid. Normally I don’t touch these books, or even pay much attention to them, but out of curiosity I started flipping through some of them…and was immediately overtaken by some intense nostalgia from kid’s lit of the late 90’s/early 2000’s.

I thought I’d share some of the ones  that meant a lot to me as a child – most of them about goofy, brown haired girls like myself just trying to survive the struggle of elementary school. Important stuff!

Also, I’m working purely off my memories of these, so if I’m grossly wrong about any of them- sorry! It’s what 8 year old Steph remembers and took away from them.

Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

I found these books hilarious as a kid. I loved how messy, crazy, and goofy Junie B. was, and as a 6/7 year old I think I saw a lot of my own childish goofiness in her- that, and I think I wanted to be her. I was a very shy and quiet kid in school, and Junie…was not. I admired her, wanted to stand out like her, but a part of me was also glad I didn’t get in half the trouble she did, despite my admiration. Junie’s antics were super entertaining and I will always look back on these books with so much love.