Favorite Childhood Books?

[nixpix5]

I was just reorganizing our bookshelves for the coming school year and realized I had not one, not two, but SEVEN copies of Half Magic by Edward Eager. I read it for the first time in 3rd grade and it has been my lifelong favorite. I have my original copy from childhood which I lovingly library bound as a kid and then bought a new copy for my older boys when they were small. I ended up picking up any copy I found used along the way. It is a compulsion I think haha. Eager was heavily influenced by E. Nesbit and falling in love with his books lead me to other great books.

 

So it made me curious...give me your top 5 favorites of all time. They do not have to be classics. Just those books that you loved and have wanted to share with your own kids. I am primarily thinking elementary school but if you didn't fall in love with books until later then share whatever ;) I would love to know if there are any out there I missed and don't have on my shelves.

 

My Top 5:

1. Half Magic

2. No Flying in the House

3. The Wednesday Witch

4. My Robot Buddy

5. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

 

Bunnicula and My Friend the Vampire gets an honorable mention because I read them as a kid more times than I can count.

[hellen]

My favorite books when I was in elementary school were:

 

I Want To Go Home by Gordon Korman

Bridge to Terabithia

The Girl With the Silver Eyes

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Trixie Belden

[JustEm]

1. The Jolly Postman

2. Little women

3. The Mouse and the Motorcycle

4. The Hobbit

5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

[MistyMountain]

Some books I really liked as a kid that I enjoyed reading with my kids were Tales of a Fourth a Grade Nothing, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte's Web, Socks, and Sideways Stories from Wayside Street. Most of what I read as a child was fluff.

Edited June 4, 2017 by MistyMountain

[JenneinCA]

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Farmer Boy

All of a Kind Family

Have a Space Suit Will Travel by Robert Heinlein

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury ( it was in a collection of short stories, but I don't know the title of the book)

[SKL]

Books I loved as a kid and sought copies for my kids:

• Wilder's Little House series.
• Here's a Penny.
• My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
• Barn Swallow - an old library book I remember from 45 years ago and finally found and bought it!

Hard to decide what should be #5.  How about Mr. Popper's Penguins?  There are so many though ....

[nixpix5]

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Farmer Boy

All of a Kind Family

Have a Space Suit Will Travel by Robert Heinlein

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury ( it was in a collection of short stories, but I don't know the title of the book)

All Summer in a Day! I had forgotten about this one! This, "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Lottery" were all so creepy to me as a kid but stuck in my brain :)

[Guest]

My all-time favorite was The Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa. Oh how I loved this collection of stories that were told to a girl by her pet hamster because she was "...a very still sort of person." I was a very still sort of person and I wanted dearly to hear my hamster talk. Anyway - I have a copy I obtained from a used book store as an adult. Hands-down favorite.

 

2. The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, which I also obtained as an adult; when I found it, I thought I would die of joy.

3. Ed Emberley's Book of Drawing - not a story, but little step-by-step ways to draw simple, symbolic art.

4. The Grown-Up Day

5. The Complete Book of Horse Care - a yard sale book with no dust jacket, but I toted it everywhere, until I could tell you anything you could possibly want to know about horse care (though I had no horse!).

[nixpix5]

My all-time favorite was The Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa. Oh how I loved this collection of stories that were told to a girl by her pet hamster because she was "...a very still sort of person." I was a very still sort of person and I wanted dearly to hear my hamster talk. Anyway - I have a copy I obtained from a used book store as an adult. Hands-down favorite.

 

2. The Golden Book of Fairy Tales, which I also obtained as an adult; when I found it, I thought I would die of joy.

3. Ed Emberley's Book of Drawing - not a story, but little step-by-step ways to draw simple, symbolic art.

4. The Grown-Up Day

5. The Complete Book of Horse Care - a yard sale book with no dust jacket, but I toted it everywhere, until I could tell you anything you could possibly want to know about horse care (though I had no horse!).

Oh my goodness we must have been similar kids :) In my childhood books I also have Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa" and multiple Emberley drawing books. They were the best! I found the Golden Book of Fairy Tales recently at Value Village and did the happy dance too. The art is so lovely.

 

Now I am remembering another book I checked out multiple times at my school library. I think it was called "A Cat Called Room 8" or something like that. If I remember correctly it was a true story about a classroom that adopted a stray cat. I loved it so much!

[Guest]

Oh my goodness we must have been similar kids :) In my childhood books I also have Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa" and multiple Emberley drawing books. They were the best! I found the Golden Book of Fairy Tales recently at Value Village and did the happy dance too. The art is so lovely.

 

Now I am remembering another book I checked out multiple times at my school library. I think it was called "A Cat Called Room 8" or something like that. If I remember correctly it was a true story about a classroom that adopted a stray cat. I loved it so much!

Oh, how awesome that we have that in common!

[JustEm]

Oh I forgot my absolute favorite, which was George's Marvelous Medicine. I've read that to my kids a few times

[MrsMommy]

I did a whole blog post about my top five children's books! I can't narrow it down any further than that...those books are very special to me. :)

[nixpix5]

I did a whole blog post about my top five children's books! I can't narrow it down any further than that...those books are very special to me. :)

"The Monster at the End of This Book"...how nostalgic. Had not remembered that one until I saw the picture. There was also another one like that with a story on each side and you flipped it over.

[Tanaqui]

My favorite books as a child?

 

Oh... well, putting aside the Baby-Sitters Club (wow, so many of those) I read these books until they fell apart:

 

Dragonwings

A Little Princess

Five Children and It (that whole trilogy)

Ballet Shoes

So You Want to Be a Wizard

The Ramona books

Matilda

[Ellie]

My top three, because all other books are far below these :D :

 

The Chestry Oak, by Kate Seredy

The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge

Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

[Tanaqui]

Oh, I forgot to put Understood Betsy on the list. And the All-of-a-Kind Family.

[freeindeed]

1. Chronicles of Narnia Series

2. Little House Series

3. Where the Red Fern Grows

4. A Child's Garden of Verses

5. Classic Winnie-the-Pooh

Edited June 4, 2017 by freeindeed

[Jaybee]

Though we were avid readers, many of my favorite children's books (most considered classics that I don't know how I missed!) I did not discover until I was an adult. However, as a child, two books that stand out are Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt, and The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss. The second was not really a children's book, but I read it for the first time when I was in elementary school, and several times after that. I dearly loved both of these. I also loved Christy by Catherine Marshall, but that was when I was a little bit older. The book is so much better and so much deeper than the TV series.

[scoutingmom]

Hm... thinking older childhood rather than my answer on the other thread...

 

1. Follow my Leader

2. Light a Single Candle

3. Some book about a girl raised by her grandmother put into the foster system when the grandmother dies, and is placed with an older woman.... she getx very involved with gymnastics....

4. Hardy Boy Books (I owned the whole set!)

5. Childcraft Books.... the inventors one and the math one especially.

 

And a 6th... World Book Encyclopedia. I am one of those people who read the entire thing.

 

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[scoutingmom]

As a teen....

 

1. From the Ground Up (flight instruction)

2. The Constellations

3. Lord of the Rings

4. The Hobbit

5. Some genealogy books

 

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[Saddlemomma]

My all-time favorite book as a kid was Eo of the Caves by Florence Wightman Rowland, CW 1959.  It's about a cave boy whose parents are killed on a mammoth hunt (not detailed; just known by Eo).  He can't keep the large fire at the mouth of the cave burning, so the cave bears return to reclaim it.  Eo is forced to move on.  He eventually comes across another boy, who is trying to find food for his mother and little brother (father has also been killed).  They end up combining families.  The story details the struggles of surviving; the harsh realities of prehistoric life, and yet it is heartwarming as well, especially how Eo wins over his friend's mother who is worried about another mouth to feed. I read it to both my girls when they were little, and they loved it.

 

I thought it was out of print because I searched for it before, however, I just now see that it has popped up on Amazon with 5 available copies beginning at $19.95.  If you read the one review of it, that's exactly how I feel.  Fortunately, I've always had my copy and didn't have to search for it. My copy is very old without a dust-jacket (not sure if it ever had one), yellowed pages, and broken binding held together by fibrous threads.  I'll never give this copy away.  I hope to read it to our grandchildren if we ever have any.

 

Another book I loved to pour over as a kid was Wood's Natural History by Rev. J. G. Wood, 1897.  I just looked and you can still buy used copies from Amazon. My copy, again, is in a precarious condition with a broken spine, but I treasure it.  You just can't get books like this anymore. The hand-drawn, B/W sketches are amazing.

 

I know, I'm weird; no standard Dr. Seuss books or anything like that for me.  But, hey, I did also like Nancy Drew!

 

.

[Violet Crown]

Flossie and Bossie. Out of print and unobtainable; one of the best children's books ever. I don't allow it out of the house.

 

Stuart Little. A child's introduction to modern literature.

 

Time Cat. History; cats. Perfect.

 

Half Magic. Right there with you!

 

My Father's Dragon. Even weirder when half-understood and half-remembered until rediscovered in adulthood.

[Carol in Cal.]

From my own childhood:

 

The Diamond In The Window

In Place of Katya

the Maida books

My Book House

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

 

 

Additions from DD's childhood:

Number the Stars

Harry Potter

[nixpix5]

Flossie and Bossie. Out of print and unobtainable; one of the best children's books ever. I don't allow it out of the house.

 

Stuart Little. A child's introduction to modern literature.

 

Time Cat. History; cats. Perfect.

 

Half Magic. Right there with you!

 

My Father's Dragon. Even weirder when half-understood and half-remembered until rediscovered in adulthood.

So great to see another Half Magic fan! ;)

 

E.B. White was just a phenomenal writer who looked at the world with childhood wonder. I recently read "Some Writer" about EB White and it was so beautiful and touching that I ordered a copy of it for my library and made my husband listen to it. I never re-read biographies and that one I have read 3 times. Listen to this cute poem he wrote for his wife:

 

"The spider, dropping down from twig,

Unwinds a thread of his devising;

A thin, premeditated rig

To use in rising.

 

And all the journey down throufh space,

In cool descent, and loyal-hearted,

He builds a ladder to the place

From which he started.

 

Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,

In spider's Web a truth discerning,

Attach one silken strand to you

For my returning."

 

Cute right!? Love E.B. White and I certainly recommend this biography for any older kiddo who is reading his works.

[kewb]

Harold and the Purple Crayon

The Monster at the End of this Book
The Secret Garden
The Phantom Tollbooth
A Wrinkle in Time

High School:
Brave New World
1984
The Handmaids Tale

Edited June 5, 2017 by kewb

[Violet Crown]

So great to see another Half Magic fan! ;)

 

E.B. White was just a phenomenal writer who looked at the world with childhood wonder. I recently read "Some Writer" about EB White and it was so beautiful and touching that I ordered a copy of it for my library and made my husband listen to it. I never re-read biographies and that one I have read 3 times. Listen to this cute poem he wrote for his wife:

 

"The spider, dropping down from twig,

Unwinds a thread of his devising;

A thin, premeditated rig

To use in rising.

 

And all the journey down throufh space,

In cool descent, and loyal-hearted,

He builds a ladder to the place

From which he started.

 

Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,

In spider's Web a truth discerning,

Attach one silken strand to you

For my returning."

 

Cute right!? Love E.B. White and I certainly recommend this biography for any older kiddo who is reading his works.

Agreed. White was a talented writer. Middle Girl has enjoyed his non-children's writings greatly as she's grown older. Edited June 5, 2017 by Violet Crown

[wendy not in HI]

The Saturdays (and other's from the Melendy Quartet - the reader on the Audio book is excellent)

Ella Enchanted (the movie is horrible, but we loved the book)(did not read when I was a child, but loved it with my girls)

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Chocolate Touch

And I loved No Flying in the House from my childhood, too!

[happypamama]

We picked up Knight's Castle kind of by accident; I was searching for medieval books on knights and castles on the library's site, and it came up. We have read about half of it and like it. Half Magic and the others are on our list!

[helena]

Baby Island

The Bat-Poet

Nutmeg and TumTum

Twig

Ramona books

Everybody Needs a Rock

[nixpix5]

The Saturdays (and other's from the Melendy Quartet - the reader on the Audio book is excellent)

Ella Enchanted (the movie is horrible, but we loved the book)(did not read when I was a child, but loved it with my girls)

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Chocolate Touch

And I loved No Flying in the House from my childhood, too!

Oh the Chocolate Touch! It should have been on my list too. I have my old copy and read it to my kids last year. They were laughing so hard when he was in his band class and his instrument turned to chocolate. They made me re-read that chapter twice :)

[ScoutTN]

My faves as a 10 yo: (Yes, I know this b/c I found a list I wrote 41 yrs ago in one of my hardback children's books!)

 

1. Narnia

2. Anne of Green Gables

3. The Hobbit

4. My Side of the Mountain

5. The Just So Stories

[courtney.byrum]

From my own childhood:

 

The Diamond In The Window

In Place of Katya

the Maida books

My Book House

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

 

 

Additions from DD's childhood:

Number the Stars

Harry Potter

 

I loved the Maida books! I still have them and need to introduce my daughter to them :)

 

Another favorite of mine was Norby the Mixed Up Robot by the Asimov's.

 

Then there are the Westing Game, Wrinkle in Time, and the picture book The Little House