The 10 books that changed us (and still do)

Accepting death as part of life, that growing up is painful, and that love is often what saves us are just a few of the lessons these stories bring, through tears and laughter. For those of you who have been lucky enough to read these gems, this is a chance to rediscover them. For those of you who have yet to encounter some of these books, here are the powerful lessons they offer.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a classic 1960 novel by American writer Harper Lee. It is a coming-of-age story set in Alabama during the Great Depression. The plot follows a young girl named Scout, as her lawyer father, Atticus, defends a Black man who is falsely accused of a crime.

The book has many powerful lessons, and moral courage is key. The story shows how racism and unfair judgment can hurt innocent people. The mockingbird is the symbol of innocence, since Atticus teaches his children that they must never kill one because these birds don’t harm anyone; they only make beautiful music.

"The Catcher in the Rye" is a 1951 novel by American writer J.D. Salinger. It follows Holden Caulfield, a troubled 16-year-old who is expelled from boarding school just before the Christmas holidays. During this time, he wanders the streets of New York alone, searching for a real connection as he deals with growing up.

The core message centers on how teenagers really think, through everyday slang, while reflecting on the adult world, which Holden considers full of "phonies" who fake it to fit in. The angst of feeling lonely and like an outsider is central. Holden also wants to protect the innocence of children and imagines being the "catcher in the rye" who saves children from falling off a cliff while they play in a rye field.

"The Outsiders" is a 1967 novel by American author S.E. Hinton that defined the young adult (YA) literary genre. It is a story about a group of teens divided by class. It follows two different groups: the "Greasers" (poor kids) and the "Socs" (rich kids) living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the 1960s.

The plot centers around Ponyboy Curtis, who is 14 years old and discovers that people are much more than their social labels. The story is an iconic representation of the raw emotional challenges, social divides, and search for identity that occurs during adolescence.

"1984" is a 1949 dystopian novel by English writer George Orwell. It is set in a totalitarian regime where the Party is led by the omnipresent figure known as Big Brother, who exercises extreme control over everyday life, including "thoughtcrime" (questioning those in power is already a crime) and "newspeak" (the destruction of old words so rebellious ideas are impossible).

It remains one of the most important novels of human history. It is a horrifying warning about what happens when a government has too much power, including control of truth, language, and even privacy. Its message is considered by many a crucial reminder to stay vigilant and protect our personal freedoms.

"Animal Farm" is another novel written by British author George Orwell in 1945. It is an allegorical novella that puts farm animals center stage, as they seek to overthrow their tyrannical human farmer. The aim was to create an equal society, but the revolution ended up being betrayed by the pigs that led a dictatorship as ruthless as the humans'.

It is a satire of the 1917 Russian Revolution, alongside the rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union. Each animal represents different leaders and groups, such as the Pigs who signify Stalin and Trotsky, the loyal, hard-working Horse who symbolizes the working class, and Mr. Jones, who represents the dethroned monarch, Tsar Nicholas Romanov II.

"The Great Gatsby" is a 1925 novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is set in the 1920s in New York, and it's told by Nick Carraway, who moves next door to an intriguing, newly rich man named Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is completely obsessed with reclaiming his long-lost love, Daisy Buchanan, who is trapped in a marriage to Tom, by throwing lavish parties to win her back; this pursuit ends in betrayal and death.

Throughout the story, themes such as love and greed are explored, exposing the dark side of the Roaring Twenties and the pursuit of wealth. To this day, it remains a warning that the limitless desire for money can corrupt even our deepest dreams.

"Pride and Prejudice" is a novel first published in 1813 by British author Jane Austen. This romantic story follows sharp Elizabeth Bennet and wealthy, quiet Mr. Darcy. Each of them must overcome their personal flaws of pride and prejudice to stand a chance at falling in love and getting married.

It has become a cultural touchstone by showcasing something that affects us all: how people misjudge others based on first impressions, wealth, and social status. As each character faces family drama, social rules, and personal mistakes, they learn to look past their flaws to find true love.

"Little Women" is a novel by American writer Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Set in the 1860s in Massachusetts during the Civil War, it follows the lives of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, as they learn about love, loss, poverty, and the importance of family.

It’s considered a timeless coming-of-age classic because, for many readers, it is a realistic portrayal of what growing up is about. The March sisters are far from perfect, and each one makes mistakes that they then learn from. It is also a foundational text on female ambition, giving a voice to young women and showing that their daily lives, feelings, and dreams matter too.

"Jane Eyre" is a classic 1847 novel by British author Charlotte Brontë, written under the pen name Currer Bell. This story centers on an orphan named Jane and her experiences. The school she goes to is harsh, and she faces a cruel childhood. Later on, she begins to work as a governess (teacher) at a mysterious estate known as "Thornfield Hall", where she falls in love with her moody boss, Mr. Rochester.

This story revolutionized literature as it is the first novel to focus on the moral and spiritual growth of a young woman who wasn’t rich, passive, or traditionally beautiful. The main character, Jane, finds purpose in becoming a governess after all the hardships she endured and fights for her dignity and independence, refusing to settle for anyone who doesn’t see her as an equal, prioritizing herself over love.

"Charlotte’s Web" is a 1952 children’s novel by American author E.B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams. It tells the story of a sweet pig named Wilbur who is saved from slaughter and befriends clever Charlotte, a spider who writes words in her web to save his life. In doing so, this book explores universal themes such as friendship, loyalty, and the inevitable cycle of life.

It is a timeless masterpiece that stands out for its simple prose, offering deep lessons about life and loss, including how simple acts can save the world, and Charlotte's words show how the way we speak about others matters. Wilbur once asked Charlotte why she did all of this for him, and she replied: "By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a bit of that."

The creators behind timeless verses

Who said Humpty Dumpty was an egg? Stories of 10 ageless nursery rhymes

Image: Sven Brandsma

We have been singing the same nursery rhymes to little kids for years and years, often without considering the words we are repeating. Some of these songs, narrating the adventures of farm animals, stars, and itsy bitsy spiders, have very cryptic lyrics that we learned as infants and never again questioned. Who wrote these rhymes? How long have humans been singing them to one another? In this article, we unveil the stories behind 10 timeless verses.

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Do you know the five stanzas of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?" Very few people do. The ultimate lullaby belongs to the opening verses of "The Star", a poem written in 1806 by English author Jane Taylor. The poem was originally published in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection by her and her sister Ann.

The couplets are set to the very famous French melody officially called "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" ("Ah, will I tell you, mom"). It’s a universal classic from 1761; Mozart himself had composed a set of variations based on the melody. However, it wasn’t until thirty years after the Taylor sisters’ publication that another book proposed singing their poem to the catchy music. The nursery rhyme "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" uses a variant of the same tune.

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Nowhere in the poem is it mentioned that Humpty Dumpty is an anthropomorphic egg. The lyrics are enigmatic and many attempts have been made to link them to historical figures, like kings or battle heroes. The first version of the rhyme appeared in writing in 1797 in Juvenile Amusements, a music collection by English composer Samuel Arnold. It is believed that "Humpty Dumpty" was 18th-century slang for a clumsy person.

Why an egg, then? Some believed the poem was a riddle to which the answer was that Humpty Dumpty was not a human, but some fragile thing. It was none other than Lewis Carrol, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, who first depicted Humpty Dumpty explicitly as looking like an egg. The character appears on a wall in the popular book’s 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, where Alice meets him and points out how much like an egg he looks.

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"Mary Had a Little Lamb" is based on a true story. It was first published in 1830 by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale. She was a teacher who schooled girls and boys in her hometown, Newport, New Hampshire. One day, a student named Mary showed up accompanied by her pet lamb. This incident, the children’s reactions, and the obvious affection between Mary and her lamb —who "followed her everywhere she went"—, eventually inspired Hale to write a three-stanza poem called Mary’s Lamb.

In the same year, a composer from Boston, Lowell Mason, rearranged the poem and set it to music to have a singable version. We still use the words Mason wrote, but the melody we sing today is not the one he composed. We usually sing it to an 1867 tune known as "Merrily We Roll Along."

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For context about how old this song is, Mozart wouldn’t be born until 50 years after its earliest known version. "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" appears in a 1706 opera by English writer and composer Thomas d'Urfey. The play, The Kingdom of the Birds, included a song called "In the Fields in Frost and Snow", which was a very near version of the song we know today, down to the iconic "Here a Boo, there a Boo, every-where a Boo".

It is unknown whether this was already a popular song that d’Urfey quoted in his play. What we know, though, is that after his opera the song became very widespread, and eventually became a folk song with varying versions in Britain, Ireland, and North America.

Image: Nils Söderman

This one was conceived from the start as a song. The rhyme has only four lines. The first printing of the song is dated 1852 and attributed to author and teacher Eliphalet Oram Lyte. The melody, however, was very different from the one that was later popularized. It wasn’t until 1881 that the tune as we know it today was attached to the words.

The current version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat is intended to be sung as a four-part round canon. That means that the melody of each line can be combined to harmonize with any of the others. That’s why it’s usually taught to children and popularly used to teach choir singing.

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Children from as far back as the Late Middle Ages might have already been singing this song. The earliest printed version of nursery rhymes about the London Bridge falling appeared in England in 1744 in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, though the rhyme may have been sung long before this.

There are many myths behind the lyrics of this song, from claiming that the bridge falls because of Viking attacks, to stating that the "fair Lady" mentioned is Virgin Mary.

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This beloved nursery folk song was only born in 1938 when it was published as "The Bus" in the American Childhood magazine. Verna Hills, born in 1898 in Boston, conceived this tune to distract the little ones during long bus rides. That’s why the repetitive yet catchy lyrics enlist parts of the moving bus while adding some mimic or sound to go with it. "The Bus" eventually became a folk song also popular in Canada, the UK, and Australia.

The song is believed to be based on "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush", an old English nursery rhyme about a group of young ones going about everyday chores. This one had been set to music from an opera published in mid-1700s London. Its melody and rhythm are very similar to the one we know today.

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Also known as the "Spider Song," this rhyme has received different names throughout English-speaking countries. Its earliest appearance seems to have been in Arthur Walbridge North’s 1910 book Camp and Camino in Lower California, except that it mentions a "blooming, bloody spider" instead.

In varying versions and regions, the spider has also been called "eency weency" and "teeny weeny." Other countries added further variations to one of the most famous nursery rhymes ever. In France, it’s a gypsy spider; in the Netherlands, it’s a beetle; and in Norway, the spider is called Peter.

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The timeless finger-counting nursery rhyme was designed to teach children coordination and dexterity. Famously, the words match the narration of the fates of 5 pigs while folding the fingers on a child’s hand one by one.

The first time the poem appeared in writing was in 1728, in a medley called The Nurses Song. Since then, over the decades, varying versions have been written. Some say it may have been inspired by "To Market, To Market," also known as "To Market, To Market, to Buy a Fat Pig," another folk nursery rhyme with a first version that dates back as far as 1598.

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You probably have noticed that the iconic ABC song uses the same melody as the aforementioned "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"; Ah! vous dirai-je, maman. However, the lyrics were not applied to the melody until 1835, when Boston publisher Charles Bradlee decided to borrow the familiar tune to sing the alphabet to it, as a strategy to help children learn letters through a catchy and well-known melody. It became a preschool classic, and it has been adapted to be used in many languages other than English.