Re-Reading Childhood Favorites
Most everybody has a book that they read as a child and loved, it's very rare to find somebody who doesn't. Even if they don't read a ton it's a very common occurrence. Normally, when re-reading childhood favorite it either falls into one of two categories; the oh my god this is so much better than I remember it, or the oh god, why did I re-read this and ruin this book for me? Is it worth taking the chance on the re-read, or is it better to just let the nostalgia and old memories sit in peace?
Over this last year, I decided to put this to a test. I started re-reading book series that I loved when much younger, seeing how they held up to the inevitable that is time and aging. I was both surprised and pleased with the results of this experiment.
I started off simple, reading 'Confessions of a Queen B*' by Christa McHugh. Overall, the book is a short read. The paperback is only 218 pages, and overall on GoodReads, it has a 3.86. This book follows the main character, who is often referred to as the 'Queen Bitch'. This is partially due to her blog, The Eastline Spy, where she posts callouts on her fellow students. Her blog slowly massed a large number of followers, and she's proud of her position. The Star Quarterback offers to help her figure out who's posting x-rated videos of the cheerleaders' locker rooms, and she takes the offer.
I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Despite having read it such a long time ago (4 or 5 years ago, I believe) I rather enjoyed it. I ended up giving the book four stars and purchasing the rest of the series to read. As I had just stolen my older sister's ARC copy off of her shelf.
My next test was on a series that meant a whole ton more to me. The 'Canterwood Crest' series by Jessica Burkhart. This series, I have very fond memories of. In 3rd grade I religiously read the entire series along with a friend of mine, lending her all of the books. This series has a rather simple overall concept, the main character gets accepted into a prestigious horseback riding school, and drama ensues.
When I was first reading them, I 100% would have given them 5 stars if asked to rate them. However, with my re-read, I found that they didn't age as well as I had thought they had. Granted, I only made it through the first few books, and they are rather short books. I ended up rather disappointed the books didn't live up to my memories of them. They weren't by any means awful, but they certainly weren't as good as I remembered them. As well as dating themselves rather dramatically with a few pop culture references that ended up not aging well.
After the last disappointment, I felt swayed to not continue re-reading the old book series, but I prevailed. Continuing on to read the 'Gallagher Girls' series by Ally Carter next. This book series is an extremely fun concept. There's a secret spy school, masquerading itself as a 'School for exceptional young women'. The main character is the headmistresses' daughter, and throughout the book series learns how to be a spy. Starting the series off with a simple test mission, that ends up with her sneaking out of the school in order to learn more about her first-ever crush, to her going into college and completing these rather intense missions.
This book series majorly surprised me in a good way. I ended up loving the series, despite knowing most of the twists and turns. I ended up binge-reading the series and wanting to find any new releases of Ally Carters and read those. All of the books in the series were easy 4-5 star books.
I took a break from re-reading series. Feeling like I had gotten through most of the re-reads that I needed to do. However, I was forgetting one major re-read, but it didn't take me long to remember it. 'The School for Good and Evil' by Soman Chanani is a book series that takes Grimm's fairy tails and puts a spin on them. Instead of having them be just as they are, fairy tails, he had them go to a school to learn how to be either good or evil. After they graduate, having to try and find their way into a fairytale. The books follow Sophie and Agatha of woods beyond who are from the town of Gavaldon. Every four years, two kids are stolen from the town to go to the school for good and evil. One kid good, and the other evil. When Sophie and Agatha get stolen they're convinced there's a mistake as Sophie- the supposed good one -has been put into the school for evil, and Agatha- the supposed evil one -has been put into the school for good.
I think I knew going into this that I would still like this series, maybe not as much as I did when I first read the first three books, aka when they first came out. However, they still blew me and my expectations away. I absolutely loved reading them, and I caught so much more about the stories after my reading comprehension had gone up so drastically. I only re-read books 1-3, and I'm in the process of reading the rest of the books in the series. Book 6 is coming out later this year, and I only have book 5 left to read before I get to wait for it to release.
By the end of my experiment, I had found that for the most part, books that I loved reading when younger, still held up to their former glory and usually out-did my memory of them slightly. So if you're scared to re-read that childhood series because you don't want to ruin it, don't be. Even for the series that I didn't love reading as much as I did in the past, I still got enjoyment out of it. Granted, that enjoyment was years ago, but the books still served their purpose in my life and inspired me.
Over this last year, I decided to put this to a test. I started re-reading book series that I loved when much younger, seeing how they held up to the inevitable that is time and aging. I was both surprised and pleased with the results of this experiment.
I started off simple, reading 'Confessions of a Queen B*' by Christa McHugh. Overall, the book is a short read. The paperback is only 218 pages, and overall on GoodReads, it has a 3.86. This book follows the main character, who is often referred to as the 'Queen Bitch'. This is partially due to her blog, The Eastline Spy, where she posts callouts on her fellow students. Her blog slowly massed a large number of followers, and she's proud of her position. The Star Quarterback offers to help her figure out who's posting x-rated videos of the cheerleaders' locker rooms, and she takes the offer.
I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Despite having read it such a long time ago (4 or 5 years ago, I believe) I rather enjoyed it. I ended up giving the book four stars and purchasing the rest of the series to read. As I had just stolen my older sister's ARC copy off of her shelf.
My next test was on a series that meant a whole ton more to me. The 'Canterwood Crest' series by Jessica Burkhart. This series, I have very fond memories of. In 3rd grade I religiously read the entire series along with a friend of mine, lending her all of the books. This series has a rather simple overall concept, the main character gets accepted into a prestigious horseback riding school, and drama ensues.
When I was first reading them, I 100% would have given them 5 stars if asked to rate them. However, with my re-read, I found that they didn't age as well as I had thought they had. Granted, I only made it through the first few books, and they are rather short books. I ended up rather disappointed the books didn't live up to my memories of them. They weren't by any means awful, but they certainly weren't as good as I remembered them. As well as dating themselves rather dramatically with a few pop culture references that ended up not aging well.
After the last disappointment, I felt swayed to not continue re-reading the old book series, but I prevailed. Continuing on to read the 'Gallagher Girls' series by Ally Carter next. This book series is an extremely fun concept. There's a secret spy school, masquerading itself as a 'School for exceptional young women'. The main character is the headmistresses' daughter, and throughout the book series learns how to be a spy. Starting the series off with a simple test mission, that ends up with her sneaking out of the school in order to learn more about her first-ever crush, to her going into college and completing these rather intense missions.
This book series majorly surprised me in a good way. I ended up loving the series, despite knowing most of the twists and turns. I ended up binge-reading the series and wanting to find any new releases of Ally Carters and read those. All of the books in the series were easy 4-5 star books.
I took a break from re-reading series. Feeling like I had gotten through most of the re-reads that I needed to do. However, I was forgetting one major re-read, but it didn't take me long to remember it. 'The School for Good and Evil' by Soman Chanani is a book series that takes Grimm's fairy tails and puts a spin on them. Instead of having them be just as they are, fairy tails, he had them go to a school to learn how to be either good or evil. After they graduate, having to try and find their way into a fairytale. The books follow Sophie and Agatha of woods beyond who are from the town of Gavaldon. Every four years, two kids are stolen from the town to go to the school for good and evil. One kid good, and the other evil. When Sophie and Agatha get stolen they're convinced there's a mistake as Sophie- the supposed good one -has been put into the school for evil, and Agatha- the supposed evil one -has been put into the school for good.
I think I knew going into this that I would still like this series, maybe not as much as I did when I first read the first three books, aka when they first came out. However, they still blew me and my expectations away. I absolutely loved reading them, and I caught so much more about the stories after my reading comprehension had gone up so drastically. I only re-read books 1-3, and I'm in the process of reading the rest of the books in the series. Book 6 is coming out later this year, and I only have book 5 left to read before I get to wait for it to release.
By the end of my experiment, I had found that for the most part, books that I loved reading when younger, still held up to their former glory and usually out-did my memory of them slightly. So if you're scared to re-read that childhood series because you don't want to ruin it, don't be. Even for the series that I didn't love reading as much as I did in the past, I still got enjoyment out of it. Granted, that enjoyment was years ago, but the books still served their purpose in my life and inspired me.
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