As a kid, Dinotopia did that. It’s a really imaginative book, full of beautiful painted illustrations, where the plot follows two lost travelers as they explore their new home. It looks like renaissance Europe set on a tropical island, and throughout the book humans and dinosaurs live side-by-side in a peaceful and knowledge-seeking society. The whole thing is like catnip to an imaginative kid, and there are positive themes about learning, reason, tolerance, and exploration throughout the story. I still flip through my old copy sometimes, and I’m going to pass it down to my kids if I ever have any.
Lord of the Rings did the same thing for my imagination when I was a tween. It’s a big, grand adventure.
This isn’t fiction, but I really recommend Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. It’s like a shot in the arm of optimism. I love the way he saw the world, finding beauty in everything, even mundane things. He wrote about people from all different walks of life with empathy and love. If you ever watch the evening news or reality TV and shake your head at the state of humanity, Leaves of Grass is the antidote to that.
“Deep River” by Shusaku Endo is another book I really like, about finding inner peace and empathy for one’s fellow man.