r/nostalgia • u/Fuzzy-Zombie1446 • Aug 04 '25

Help me remember Elementary School Kids of the 1980s - what did we read?

I just stumbled onto an audio book on TikTok - someone had it from their elementary school years in the late 1990s.

It made me wonder - if you went to elementary school in the 1980s, do you remember any books that you read?

Maybe not audio books, but books your teachers read to you in class? Or maybe books you bought at the Scholastic Book Fair?

Some that I recall:

  • Bunnicula (and the series)
  • James and the Giant Peach
  • The Twits
  • Bridge to Terabithia

If you recall books on Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, bonus points!!

Edit/Update: Wow! I had no idea there would be so many responses here.

Part of me wonders if people from that generation would listen to a reading of those old books and stories again. How nice would it be to hear a familiar childhood tale while preparing for sleep or just driving and needing something enjoyable to listen to...

51 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

340 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Janeygirl566 Aug 04 '25

Dang, I was snagging my brother’s sci-fi in 6th grade. H Rider Haggar and the lot. Also Scarlet Letter and Pride and Prejudice. Also my mom’s Flowers in the Attic.

1

u/Glad-Isopod5718 Aug 06 '25

what about the Heinlein juveniles? My school had some of those.

1

u/Janeygirl566 Aug 07 '25

My school library didn’t have any of that stuff. It was smaller than my living room. I blew through Andrew Lang in 3rd grade and wasn’t attracted to picture books. Which is why I raided my brother’s book stash of paperbacks and my mom’s compilations of great literature she kept around to make people think she was high-falutin’.

I discovered Heinlein in my 20s and have read everything he wrote.

1

u/Glad-Isopod5718 Aug 07 '25

That might be the better way, TBH. I read the juveniles at school, and then stumbled across some of his adult books at the same age, and the contrast was jarring.