Ohhhhhh god that's so hard to pick just one but uhhhh....cheating a little and gonna state a series, but tbh ask me this in a month and I'll have a different answer anyways lol. I ADORE the His Dark Materials series in all it's forms(yes even the film). I first read the books in middle school and they've stuck with me ever since. I could gush on and on about why I love the books so much, but that would be a little incoherent and I wouldn't be getting any sleep for the next three days lol.

But specifically what spoke to me as a child was Lyra, and how much I identified with her. I've never been especially brave or strong, and even at a young age I couldn't really imagine myself ever /becoming/ those things. What was always praised was my cleverness. And I attached myself to any character that was booksmart(Annabeth from pjo, belle, etc.) but Lyra especially stood out to me and I didn't figure out why until I was much older. You see the difference between her and those other characters was that Lyra was a /trickster/. More often than not skills like lying are regulated to villains. But the thing is....like anything, trickery is a skill that has no morals inherently attached to it. And Lyra was the first time I'd ever seen trickery being displayed as a /good/ trait. In fact it was Lyra's most important trait, she's literally named "person good at lying". And never once is it her downfall, despite what the villains in her story say. It really stuck with me, the idea that you can do good without needing to follow a strict ruleset of what is and isnt good. Lying can be bad, lying can be good, in the end people have multitudes and we can't dumb them down into black and white categories based on actions with no context.

There's also SO much more to say about how it talks about kids being forced to grow up, how fucked up the church is, etc. but again, I need my sleep lol Ofc you're always free to message for more info!