I’m right on the cusp of the whole Gen-X / Millennial transition, as are several of my coworkers. We were lamenting the fact that many of our beloved childhood favorites have covers that are "old fashioned" and unappealing to today's kids!

The following titles are just a few of the books I recommend to children and parents because I loved them as a child. But some cover designs are from the 1970’s and 80’s, and sometimes earlier, and that makes them a hard sell to the kids who are used to a more cartoon-like illustration style.

I hope you can peruse this list and find a much-loved treasure to offer a child in your life. In fact, these books make excellent read-alouds and great audio books to listen to on a long car trip! Then we don't have to worry what the covers look like and the kids will tell all their friends how great the story is. We’ll start a new trend of retro reads!

Update: Many publishers have caught on! Here are a couple of my favorite books that have great new covers!