Favorite children's books (or book you liked as a child)

Interesting topic!

The Boxcar Children series was one of my favorites. Another one to follow.

The Littlest Witch

Half-Magic

The Emerald City of Oz was my favorite of the Oz series.

The Phantasms are perhaps the most terrifying creatures in children's literature.

The Karma Sutra for Kids

Uncle Mike’s BIG Secret

Let’s Have a Sleepover!!!

Hide and Seek with Neighbor Pete

Gumnut Babies

I Once Had a Master

The Story About Ping

Three Little Kittens

Corduroy

I liked the ones where Jane got Dicked for fun

From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Richard Scarry's The Best Word Book Ever, 1980 edition.

The Five Chinese Brothers.

Of course it would be canceled today but I loved it as a kid. I thought it was hilarious that every time they tried to execute the first brother, they kept them swapping him out with his other brothers that had other supernatural abilities

I loved this book. I always wanted to live in the fox's house. I'd love to get a copy for my little cousins, but it's like $200 now.

James and the Giant Peach, Harold and the Purple Crayon, A Wrinkle in Time, Where the Red Fern Grows, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing.

R14, I too loved "From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg and will add "The Cricket in Times Square" by George Selden.

I don't know if they're children's books or more of a young adult but they are marvelous.

Around the World With Ant & Bee. An adorable little book I still own. It probably stirred up my love of traveling.

Whats For Lunch, Charley? by Margaret Hodges

Raggedy Ann and Andy Stories. The original OZ books

Flat Stanley

[quote]When Stanley Lambchop wakes up one morning, his brother, Arthur, is yelling. A bulletin board fell on Stanley during the night, and now he is only half an inch thick! Amazing things begin happening to him. Stanley gets rolled up, mailed, and flown like a kite. He even gets to help catch two dangerous art thieves. He may be flat, but he's a hero.

My original copy was tattered from repeatedly aiming and tossing. I had to switch to the audio version.

The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang by Hans Jürgen Press. Four mysteries. Left pages had story, right pages had meticulous intricate drawings by the author that held the clue for you to find/solve as story progressed. The answer was in the continuing story line on next page.

I tore through the pages. ¡BURP!

My Side of the Mountain…

Any of the Ramona books…

The Bridge to Terabithia…

Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and Superfudge…

All the Little House on the Prairies …

There are Two Kinds of Terrible…

Dear Mr. Crenshaw…

In 1959 at the age of 6 I received a copy of "Charlotte's Web" from my aunt. I went out to my little hiding spot in the back yard where I loved to have my alone time. I was quite literally enchanted as I read and couldn't put it down until I finished it. I would got out there every day for over a week and reread it.

I eventually decided it merited a place in my treasure box, a big locking cedar chest at the foot of my bed where I kept things I valued the most. It was/is my own personal time capsule I wrapped the book in wax paper and then in aluminum foil. To my young mind that was the best way to protect it. Turned out I was right, at least until I gained enough knowledge to know how to really keep my treasured books safe. That treasure box is still full of all my wonderful things 60+ years later and has been in my bedroom closet since 1976. When I die my 2 godchildren will get it and hopefully my treasures will become their children's treasures.

This one. How I wanted to put my mouth all over that chocolate cak!

Any of Ronald Dahl’s children’s books, although I also read his two part autobiography as a tween and loved it. Was also obsessed with Enid Blyton books and Rupert Bear as a younger kid.

The famous five was my favourite Blyton series

This. I loved the little witch book.

Goodnight Moon.

Part one of Dahl’s autobiography. Not technically a children’s book perhaps. His boarding school tales are terrifying!

Dick and Jane. Especially "Dick".

The Monster at the End of this Book

In the Henry Sugar book, Dahl has a very scary story about the abuse at his little posh boarding school. YIKES.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

I had these..

Fun books

The Great Brain

The Moffat books by Eleanor Estes.

Nancy Drew!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Through the Looking-Glass

MOOMINS!!!

The Borrowers series.

The Little House was my favorite. I would read it over and over.

This was among the first books I was given as a child, and although my copy is in terrible shape, I still have it.

Once-Upon-a-Time Story Book by Rose Dobbs, Random House, 1958.

A lot of great books mentioned but my all time favorites were by Mary Norton.Mary Enright was a close second.

I loved Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark with it's creepy and malevolent black and white illustrations. I also enjoyed Every Secret Thing by Patty Hearst.

R49, I first discovered Scary Stories in fourth grade. My dad was randomly taking us kids on a road trip and he warned me to bring something to read. On the way out to the car, I stole SS (part 1, I think) off my older sister's dresser and read it aloud to my younger siblings in the backseat during said road trip. We loved those books and the illustrations.

My parents came to resent me telling my siblings ghost stories. Somewhere in high school, I was banned from telling them because, while I was at the mall with my grandma and my parents were out, my other idiot siblings thought there was a ghost upstairs and climbed out a window screaming and running to the neighbor house. For awhile, I had them convinced our detached garage with an attic was haunted by the ghost of a long-dead cannibal grandma who ate her grandkids and the neighbor kids in 1922. I chose the year at random and they wouldn't play in the garage anymore.

The Satanic Verses

Freddy the Pig

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Henry Reed

The Melendy Family

The Good Master/The Singing Tree

Swallows and Amazons

The Trumpeter of Krakow

Charlotte's Web. Still one of my favorite books.

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Make Way for Ducklings. Give it at every baby shower.

Eloise at the Plaza. How I envied her!

Who Will Toss My Salad?

I learned to read and write because of Johnny Gruelle's original Raggedy Ann & Andy books.

Anything related to Sesame Street or The Muppets.

"The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury

"The Witch on the Ceiling"

"The Ghost on Windy Hill"

Also, the original Belgian Smurfs comics by Peyo

and any Scooby-Doo books

Also the original Belgian Smurfs comics by Peyo and any Scooby-Doo books.

I apologize for the double post! Fucking piece of shit old phone!

r15: I found that book absolutely hypnotic as a child. I had one from the early 60s and it had many pages that were deleted in later editions - A two page spread on different flowers and how to identify them, and a two-page spread called "Out West" which featured Indians and "squaws". And then to make some of the animals female by putting bows on their heads,

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series, featuring brainy Jupiter, logical Bob, and HUNKY Pete.

Trixie Belden series!

Three Little Kittens was the first book I learned to read. Loved The Poky Little Puppy, too. Any book about naughty youngsters, human or animal were favorites, as I could relate.

Many books that others have mentioned. Richard Scarry books were a staple at my house.

I appreciate the inclusion of The Great Brain. Seems like that one rarely gets a mention anymore.

By the third grade, I read anything I could get my hands on and comprehend, like every Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie novel. My parents were divorced and I spent many weekends on buses or in airports on my own between the Bay Area and LA. In the 4th grade, I was reading whatever I grabbed from one of my parents' bookshelves before traveling. I asked my parents too many questions about what "..." means, so my mom gave me my own dictionary to shut me up. Example: "Mom, what is an ice water enema?" (I was reading "Sybil").

At a parent-teacher conference, Miss Siegel suggested to my mom that I might enjoy "Charlotte's Web" over anything by Gore Vidal or Aldus Huxley, which is what I'd been bringing to school to read during recess. I'd exhausted what was in the school library, so I ended up getting a library card for the city library. I read everything by Jack London, Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin.

From an early age, I knew that adults and society were fucked up.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Runaway Ralph.

The Phantom Tollbooth

Frog and Toad are Friends

[quote]The Little House was my favorite. I would read it over and over.

Any of Virginia Lee Burton's books are terrific!

As a small child I loved Bread and Jam for Frances. She liked a candy bar called a Chompo Bar as I recall over fifty years later.

The Little Brute Family really made me happy. I related to the child in it. I loved the illustrations.

Misty of Chincoteague

Beezus and Ramona

Henry Huggins

The Twins series of books by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Do kids still read those?

All of a Kind Family and All of a Kind Family Uptown

Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel Belles on Their Toes

James and the Giant Peach

A Wrinkle in Time

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Frank Baum OZ books of course, most of them anyway.

I loved reading so much and we lived just a few blocks from our town library and I could walk there by myself from a young age. I imagine my list indicates I'm pretty old, lol.

R19: I read Mrs. Frankweiler when I was in 3rd -4th grade. It was still considered an elementary-aged book twenty years ago, when I re-read it for an assignment during my teaching-credential program.

Of course, now, someone would probably find some fucking "issue" with it. 🙄

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. I loved the illustrated version my great aunts gifted me. I can't find the exact edition again.

Watership Down

The Pink Motel, by Carol Ryrie.

(It's now quite a collectible, so don't toss the old hardcover version if you have one.)

Horrible Hepzibah!

Treasure Island

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

My dad who would be eighty-nine if still alive told me he liked a Jack London book called "Snowbound", but there isn't a book by him by that title. I know it was short, maybe it was a short story, or a section from "Call of the wild"? Anyway, he said all the boys his age loved it.

This one. I had a lot of questions as a child. Too many questions. This was an "ain't nobody got time for all of that" purchase from my folks.

Charlotte's Web

Roald Dahl (especially James and The Giant Peach which I loved so much)

Famous Five

Blueberries For Sal (OP I haven't thought about this book for 30 years)

Watership Down

the Richard Scarry books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Where The Wild Things Are

The Wind In The Willows

The Borrowers

the Narnia books (I was a CS Lewis kid, not a Tolkien kid)

I was addicted to the Famous Five and would constantly cycle through the books, rereading them over and over and over until i knew them by heart. The setting and feeling of those books has somehow come to symbolize an idyllic childhood existence for me. Julian was my first "crush" (not really a crush that young but I knew I liked him).

Watership Down also left a huge mark on me and I can still remember bawling my eyes out over Charlotte's Web. I think that book slightly traumatized me ha ha.

Another vote for Misty of Chincoteague.

The Lord of the Rings

The Golden Book Encyclopedia

The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley

The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh (sequel to Harriet the Spy, which was not one of my favorites).

Field Guide to Birds (not sure of exact title)

[quote]Field Guide to Birds (not sure of exact title)

Wow. Same. I can even remember the smooth feeling of the pages and the most colourful birds being my favourite ones. This was my parents' book so who knows why i was reading it but I was, R80.

I loved Robert Lawson’s ‘Rabbit Hill’ and ‘The Tough Winter’. Father Rabbit had a fine vocabulary which I always tried to emulate.

I also loved ‘Yo Kill a Mickkngbird’ which caused much awarkwardnwss when I asked the definition of tape.

"Little Pear: The Story of a Chinese Boy" by Eleanor Frances Lattimore was a favorite. As I recall, there wasn't anything particularly special about the plot, just a typical children's story of a good little boy who somehow manages to get himself into trouble over and over again. But the fact that it took place in China fascinated me. The strange names, the descriptions of daily life, and the illustrations opened my eyes to a whole other world.

"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Pederasty... But Were Afraid to Ask"

The methodology on this is for shit, but it’s an interesting compilation to look at nonetheless. I did grow up in Pennsylvania and The Pokey Little Puppy was one of my favorites. Senior year I had a nasty Advanced Math and Calculus teacher who hated me and was outright hostile ( and most likely homophobic) to me in class. I even arranged to leave the end of high school early and take a college level maths class to prepare me for college. My last test in her class when I didn’t give a fuck anymore I never turned over my paper, but sat there reading The Pokey Little Puppy, while others worked as my last fuck you to her and to show the class I had absolutely no respect for her as a teacher. There had been some promotion where McDonalds was giving out Little Golden Books with certain meals and I had just gotten it.

"What Do People Do All Day?" and "Where the Scary Things Are."

LOVED them as a little child. My parents turned me on to reading at a very young age, and I was reading YA books before the 4th grade, as well as trashy adult paperbacks by 5th-6th grade.

The Fire Cat

As a kid, I named one of my cats Pickles after the cat in this book.

Tony’s Tunnel. It’s about a kid who has a secret tunnel and hangs out with all his animal buddies there. I loved the hole that was cut into the book- I’d never seen a book like that.

A Penny For Candy

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Katy and the Big Snow

My childhood literary obsession were these Disney fun to learn books from the 80’s. There were 19. I remember going to the A&P with my mom and each week they’d release a new one (or maybe I was only allowed one a week, don’t really remember). Somehow I missed number 4, so I never read that one, but my favorites were Simple Science, It’s a Small World, and Numbers 1-10 (they had Morty and Ferdie, two of my favs).

I spent so many hours with these books

Gus Was a Friendly Ghost

I was a big Berenstain Bears fan and my favorite was The Spooky Old Tree

Ramona and Beezus

Where the Red Fern Grows

Robert Newton Peck’s books with the kid named Soup

Encyclopedia Brown

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Amelia Bedelia series

Go Dog Go

Where The Sidewalk Ends

r77, could it be, "To Build a Fire"? I haven't read it, but a friend of mine who is an English teacher loves it. From her description, it's a bit gruesome/dark. About a man trying not to freeze to death.

R74 - I remember The Pink Motel. I hadn't thought about it fifty years...

I dont think these have been posted: A Dog on Barkham Street and The Bully of Barkham Street.

This one made a big impression on me as well: The Cay.

A lot of my favorites have been mentioned (James and the Giant Peach, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland). But my favorite book as a preschooler was "Mr. Willoby's Christmas Tree." It was made into a tv movie in the 90's, but was terrible, imho.

Later, I liked "Key to the Treasure" by Peggy Parish and "100 Pounds of Popcorn" by by Hazel Krantz and Vic Herman. I read each at least three or four times.

"Ginger Pye," and "Pinky Pye," by Eleanor Estes.

"Pinky Pye," was where I learned of a place called Fire Island. What was Mr. Pye getting up to on the family vacation?

Many titles already mentioned, but here are a few of my additional favorites, in no particular order:

- Fog Magic by Julia Sauer

- Many books by E. Nesbit, but my favorite is The Magic City

- The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron

- The Fabulous Flight by Howard Lawson

- Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan

Curiously, most of these are by women. As I got older, I reveled in the Tarzan and Mars adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though my mother had first editions of Tolkien, I didn’t read them until my late teens, just when they appeared in paperback, around 1967.

[italic]The Velveteen Rabbit[/italic]

I was born in 1970 but I loved this old book as a child, Five Little Peppers and how they grew

"Mr. Pudgins" by Ruth Christoffer Carlsen - wonderful book, kind of like a male Mary Poppins -- probably would be cancelled today because wonderful things would happen when he started smoking his pipe -- soda pop came out of faucets, flying in a bathtub, etc. I loved this books so much that when I found out my parents had gotten rid of stuff when they down-sized, I later ordered it as an adult from Amaozon.

The Moffats -- I remember Madame Bust that their Mom did sewing projects

various Beverly Cleary books - Henry Huggins, Ribsy, (especially the story "Gallons of Guppies"), Ramona and Beezus

Emil and the Detectives - Disney made a tv movie of it on their show years ago

Encyclopedia Brown

Teachers in elementary school read aloud -- "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Charlotte's Web"

There was this wonderful magazine for kids (I think through Scholastic, who sponsored lots of book fairs and very reasonably priced books) that I had a subscription to -- can't remember the name, but it was the same size probably of a "TV Guide" and had lots of colorful picture, cartoon, articles. Any ideas what it might have been called? I can't remember what it was, but it was like my first magazine subscription as a kid, and I looked forward to it every month while I had it.

R104 (My) Weekly Reader.

This book taught me to love the outdoors and wild animals. I read it in Detroit. I have lived in the woods for 50 yrs now.

Gone Away Lake. The story and the line art fascinated me.

I got most of my books from the library so I don’t remember many titles. A few years ago I tried to track some down. I started in the children's section of my local library but obviously they’ve culled most of the books from decades ago. Then I found a few juvenile book forums online and got some answers there.

Looking back, there were a lot of stories set at boarding schools. I wanted to go to one too, it sounded like so much fun.

As a young child, I used to love big anthology books full of stories and lavish illustrations; major favorites were Hans Christian Andersen, esp THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER, THE SNOW QUEEN, and THE NIGHTINGALE. But the one I really loved was THE WILD SWANS - the one about the young princess with twelve brothers who were turned into swans by the evil stepmother. To save them, she has to knit shirts out of "stinging nettles" for all twelve of them. The village wants her burned as a witch, so the twelve swans fly in to save her and she throws the shirts over each one, which changes them back to human princes - BUT she hasn't finished the last shirt, so the youngest brother still has a swan's wing. I remember the gorgeous full page illustrations this book had, and how at the end, the wooden stake the villagers were going to use to burn her bursts into flowers instead.

I also liked a book of folk tales called TALES OF A CHINESE GRANDMOTHER which I checked out of the bookmobile over and over. There must have been some trend toward Asian folk tales in the late 50s and early 60s.

But my ALL TIME favorite is THE STORY OF HOLLY AND IVY by Rumer Godden. This was serialized in McCALL'S magazine, which my mother read, and once I read the whole thing I had to have the book. (I bought an older copy off eBay several years ago). It's about an orphan named Ivy who wanders the streets and looks into the window of a toy shop at a doll named Holly, and what happens to them both.

All of these were so imaginative and dramatic, even though they featured evil stepmothers, witches, orphans, brothers who were turned into flying swans, scary toys that came to life at night, and often had sad endings, like THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER and THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL. I loved them all.

I love Rumer Godden and hadn’t heard of this story so thanks!

The Pushcart War

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Mr. Popper’s Penguin

This one.

R100. I loved the Pye family! “Unsavory character” is one of my favorite ways to describe sketchy people.

This odd book from 1958 features a man disguised as a tree who helps three horses dress up in drag as princesses to go into town. It’s pretty weird and I’ve never forgotten it. It was one of the few children’s books at my grandmother’s house so I looked at it every time I visited.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Any of the Curious George books

Back in the 60s:

the Encyclopedia Brown series of books.

Charley and the Chocolate Factory

Beverly Cleary books--my favorite was Ramona the Pest. Cleary just died last year, at the age of 104.

In our elementary school library, there was a series of biographies for children about the childhood of historical figures. I remember reading Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Mary Todd Lincoln...

Go, Dog, Go. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Hop on Pop. Put Me in the Zoo.

the Pippi Longstocking series of books.

Heidi

Are the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings considered children's books?

R117 Most children’s library sections will have the Hobbit, but place Lord of the Rings in YA.

Diddle Daddle Duckling

No love for Stuart Little? I’ll go drown my sorrows in some sarsaparilla.

Hardy Boys

Paddle to the Sea (book and film, both excellent...I have the film on DVD).

Hide and Seek Fog

The Nancy Drew series and the Secret Garden.

My favorite picture book was Bear Circus, where I fell in love with Australia, koala bears and kangaroos and learned to fear the seven year locusts.

The Space Cat series!

I've long loved the word unsavory, r112. I don't remember, but maybe that's where it started.

Anyone remember a series of books called "The Happy Hollisters"? I used to have it sent to me like every other month. They were kind of fun back in the day.

Where’s Waldo. Loved them.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Especially this page:

I loved the "Highlights" magazines. One of my relatives paid for the annual subscriptions for several years. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail each month.

Anything by Beverly Cleary.

How many do you remember reading?

I counted fourteen.

R133 I counted 14.

I loved a lot of Dick King-Smith's books, including The Queen's Nose, George Speaks, Ace, Dodos Are Forever, and the Sophie series. I always though Dick King-Smith was underrated in comparison to Roald Dahl.

Others that come to mind are The Perfect Hamburger by Alexander McCall-Smith, The Exiles at Home by Hilary McKay (used to reread that one a lot, I still have my copy in my bookcase) and the Ramona Quimby books.

Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

The Mysterious Shrinking House by Jane Louise Curry

and

Lady Chatterley's Lover by David Herbert Lawrence

I loved one called "The Diamond in the Window" by Jane Langton. The kids had a bedroom up in a turret at the top of the house, which I thought was the coolest thing ever.

I imagine Sal from "Blueberries for Sal" is an elderly lesbian today, living in a cabin in the woods with her life partner, walking with a cane, but still taking her bucket out to gather blueberries.

Oh, Lord I Wish I Was a Buzzard

I loved that story too, R106.

Motherfuckeress

I had a bunch of Dr. Seuss books, but my favorite was Scrambled Eggs Super. My favorite page was the one where the kid is standing in his kitchen with the hundreds of eggs that he’s collected.

I still have my childhood copy.

Andrew Henry’s Meadow. When I was in first grade, I never slept during “nap time” (even then I thought it was stupid) and read this book instead, almost every day. A great story and beautiful artwork.

R143 it was one of my favorite books that I received in a book of the month club type kids literature program through the mail when I was young. Magical.

The Mr. Men and Little Miss series

Me. Messy was my favorite. Probably because I was a slob.

Harry the Dirty Dog

Anybody recall this rather disturbing book based on an Aldous Huxley short story. It creeped me out, but I always went back and read it again.

Does anyone remember the book where two kids and a dog are painting a fence? They start out using red, blue, and yellow paint. Then the dog mixes yellow and blue to make green, then they make orange and purple.i think the dad freaks out when he sees the finished fence with the extra colors.

I’ve googled a few times, but I haven’t found the book yet. I read it in the mid 80’s, but I’m not sure when it was published. I loved that one.

[quote] This odd book from 1958 features a man disguised as a tree who helps three horses dress up in drag as princesses to go into town. It’s pretty weird and I’ve never forgotten it. It was one of the few children’s books at my grandmother’s house so I looked at it every time I visited.

I remember that book! I liked it. I guess it was a little strange but very sweet. The man in the story an artist named Peter; a seemingly lonely man who sees the wonderful little horses and wants to befriend them. The horses are charmingly named Blackie, Whitey and Brownie, because well, one is black, one is white and one is brown. I can't remember the story much but the horses, with Peter's help, become sought after celebrities and end up being spirited away to further fun and adventures. The last image in the book is of Peter; he's been left behind; his little horsey friends are gone. His face is in his hands; he appears to be crying. It's a very sad ending. I think it made me cry when I was a child.

R142, Scrambled Eggs Super was the first Dr Seuss book I knew when I was about eight and it’s still my favorite. Save your precious copy of this book. It will appreciate in value since this is one of a handful of Seuss books that have been withdrawn from the market because of politically incorrect content.

I came across "The Lonely Doll" and "Edith and the Bears" at my branch library and they freaked the fuck out of five-year-old me.

Ishi Last of his tribe. Not a children's book exactly. I read it at a very influential time. It changed my life.

"Where the Wild Things Are" is another one from my childhood that comes to mind.

R151 Read the biography about Dare Wright, it will freak you the fuck out even more. I’m shocked no aspiring young actress has snapped it up and done it as a limited series. Especially with all the mid-century NYC elements in it. I wonder if Michelle Williams might still be young enough to pull it off?

R120. I loved ‘Stuart Little’! He was such a dapper dresser and had a nice convertible.

Did you ever see the original movie? It was on Saturday morning television in the late 60s or early 70s. Johnny Carson, of all people, was the narrator.

[quote]I loved ‘Stuart Little’! He was such a dapper dresser and had a nice convertible.

Speaking of mice, there was Beverly Cleary's one-off "The Mouse and the Motorcycle." All I remember is that a family was staying in a hotel, a mouse that lived at the hotel rode a Hot Wheels-style motorcycle, and one day the boy got a fever and the mouse raced around all the baseboards looking for a dropped aspirin.

Mad Libs

I loved the Ramona and Henry books for their illustrations alone. Amelia Bedilia, Arthurs Halloween(When he actually looked like an aardvark), Gus the ghost, The Mole family's Christmas.

I read a lot of Andrew Clements when I was a kid. Things not seen was my favorite, I think it was because I sorta liked visualizing a naked teenage boy running around the city of Chicago. I was nine or ten, so it was okay. Wow I was a real homo even back then.

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

R72, is this the edition you had, with illustrations by Eulalie? It's the 1929 edition published by Platt & Munk. I found mine at Powell's Books in Portland, OR, but you might also try Abe Books. They both have websites.

This is from when is was very little.

[quote] I came across "The Lonely Doll" and "Edith and the Bears" at my branch library and they freaked the fuck out of five-year-old me.

Ah yes, "The Lonely Doll." I remember when I first saw that book; it was in the library of the rather shabby school I had to attend. I wanted the book; I liked the photography. It's noteworthy for the "eerily life like doll." It was a Lenci doll and the author of the book, Dare Wright, redid the doll's look in order to make her more like herself (blonde ponytail, hoop earrings). "The Lonely Doll" is considered by some to be rather unsettling and controversial. It features a scene where the doll is getting spanked by Mr. Bear; the doll is bend over his lap, her little behind in its white panties visible.

Dare Wright's life might be better served by a biography than a biopic. Her life was strange as hell.

Her mother Edith. an accomplished portrait painter, divorced her father and severed all contact with Dare's father and brother. She kept her daughter all to herself like she was, well, a doll. She painted endless portraits of her, all done up in girlish gowns and outfits; she photographed her over and over wearing all kinds of costumes and get ups; in one of them she seems to be a mermaid caught in a net. She photographed her nude. The two were more like a married couple than a mother and daughter. They lived together, traveled together and slept in the same bed, "spooned" around each other. When Edith Wright finally died in her 90s she died in bed with her daughter. Imagine that, being in bed with your mother's dead body.

Did Dare ever have sex with a man? Seems unlikely. She was totally frigid and wouldn't even kiss a guy. She was engaged for a brief period to a pilot, but he died in a plane crash before they could marry. He probably would not have ended up marrying her, seeing as how she didn't even want him to touch her, but she always fended off the advances of other men by saying she had only one true love and he died tragically. It was a convenient excuse.

She reconnected with her brother Blaine when they were in their 20s. Their meeting was highly charged; they were VERY attracted to each other. In fact they even discussed marriage...to each other. Thankfully that didn't happen. They didn't have sex, probably because neither one of them ever matured enough to have an adult relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Blaine hated Edith for keeping Dare away from other people and treating her like "a doll" but there was nothing he could do about it. He was a heavy drinker and never did much in his life besides create a popular fishing lure. He, like Dare, never could establish a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. He died alone; on his deathbed he begged Dare to come and see him, but she could not face the reality of his coming death, so she wouldn't see him.

After the deaths of Edith and Blaine Dare slowly went mad. Although she had a nice apartment she acted like a bag lady, sleeping on park benches and striking up friendships with homeless people. She'd wear clothes that were more appropriate for a child to be wearing and kept her hair in a blonde ponytail. She'd talk to her pictures of Edith and Blaine and play with teddy bears. She ended up getting raped by one of the homeless men she befriended; it was probably her only sexual experience with a man. She died in a hospital in her 80s, alone.

Some life. It does deserve a movie of some sort. I think if one were made it would classify as a horror movie.

The Giving Tree

Little Popcorn.

Next pet I get I’m naming Popcorn

Koko’s Kitten. I loved the idea of a gorilla having a kitten. I bought this at the school book fair in second grade.

The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden. It’s the story of a Romani girl who after the death of her grandmother becomes a problem for the authorities, and faces prejudice and rejection in her small village. Adapted for TV by the BBC as “Kizzy”.

I think I read every Doctor Dolittle book that I could find in my local library.

Remember Scholastic Book Club? I loved the monthly four-page "catalogue".

Make Way for Ducklings is a classic.

I loved this book!

Oooh oooh the Adrian Mole books. I loved those and remember thinking his girlfriend Pandora has the prettiest name ever and that if I ever had a daughter I would name her Pandora.

My favorite Beverly Cleary book was Ellen Tebbits.

There is a biography of Dare Wright: The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, by Jean Nathan, 2004. I agree Wright’s story is a Netflix series waiting to be made.

Earliest book I remember is ALL BY MYSELF, it was a cloth book with a belt to bucket, a button to fasten, a zipper to zip, a shoelace to tie. This was the 1950's, I still had the book until a few years ago when I decided to de-clutter.

[quote] Anyone remember a series of books called "The Happy Hollisters"?

I do. My sister had all of them and they ran across the top shelf of her dresser.

This was one of my favorites to check out from the library.

[quote] there was Beverly Cleary's one-off "The Mouse and the Motorcycle."

Runaway Ralph, mentioned upthread, is its sequel. And then there's Ralph S. Mouse.

A Cranberry Halloween

A Cranberry Christmas

A Cranberry Thanksgiving, Easter, Summer, Autumn, etc. I would check these out from my elementary school library a lot

Mrs. Wiggs

Scuppers the Sailor Dog.

My grandmother had a copy of "the Runaway Pancake" in the basket where she kept all of her magazines. It was there from 1963 or so until she passed away in 1997. My uncle was a book collector and that book disappeared on the day we moved everything out of her house.

I don't remember the story, but this picture displays the exact book cover as I knew it.

R182 A variation on the Runaway Pancake is 1953’s Journey Cake, Ho!, by Ruth Sawyer, illustrated by Robert McCloskey, who wrote and illustrated OP’s Blueberries for Sal. I was drawn to it even though the story builds to get very dark as all the animals from the farm slowly disappear and the fear of famine rises that the Appalachian family will not have anything to eat. The pictures are done in this eerie green and maroon shades with variations of the two in between that can feel very unsettling. It frightened me, but also drew me in, as the ending is eventually happy, but when the last of animals going missing I was practically afraid to look at the picture when I was really little.

Peter Rabbit. I Loved the drawings.

Miss Nelson is Missing

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Superfudge

Harold and the Purple Crayon

I had a few Little Golden Books, but my favorite was Scuffy the Tugboat.

The Little House

Little Critter books

Pat the Bunny

Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree. I did my first book report on this book way back in second grade. I got an E.

For those in awe of Beatrix Potter, she used the considerable wealth from her children’s books to buy up and protect the lands of the Lake District that had inspired her to write her stories. When she died she left over 4,000 acres and 15 farms to the National Trust to persevere the land and way of life that existed there. The V&A commissioned this beautiful film of the area to coincide with a major exhibit of her work currently being exhibited there.

There was also LBS, the only children's book with a restaurant named after it.

The "Choose Your Own Adventure" series

"The Wolves of WIlloughby Chase" by Joan Aiken

Wow - I started reading voraciously in first grade, but I don't remember the titles of any of those books. My parents were readers, I was a younger child in a large family, so books were all around me. I was probably in 3rd grade when I started reading the entire OZ serious, which my mom had in hardbacks from her childhood in the 1920s. Sadly those got left behind in a move. (Probably worth money, although they probably had some ripped pages or crayon marks, (big family)). I'm shocked no one has mentioned The Secret Garden, (Frances Hodgson Burnett) which I adored. Another book that is rarely mentioned is the Adventures of Perrine - a translation of a famous book for children by a French author , Hector Malot. It is sometimes titled Nobody's Girl in a different English translation I searched for it for years and discovered that is is printed by the Gutenberg project. I have reread it a few times since I discovered that, even though I don't enjoy reading books on the computer. It was apparently made into a very popular anime series and through that achieved a second life many decades after it was published.

R184, I think I read "The Island of Blue Dolphins" - funny how just seeing the title triggered a memory. Before searching, isn't that book about a Pacific-Islander girl who (somehow) gets "shipwrecked" on a island by herself? Much of the story then is about how she survives.

posting now, will then google, see if I'm at all correct.

The Poky Little Puppy

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series

Ramona series, especially Ramona and Her Father

Superfudge

Two Minute Mysteries

Miss Nelson is missing. Super fudge

R193 Books of Wonder in NYC, possibly the last book store dedicated to children’s books, was responsible a few decades ago for relaunching the republication of the Oz books after most of them went out of print and bringing them to new generations of readers. They also have the best collection of antiquarian Oz book for sale if you’re looking to rebuild what your mother had and you have a lot of money to spend.

R194 Close, she’s a California Native American girl, who along with her brother, gets left on a channel island when they remove all of them from their home relocating them to the mainland of California. It’s based on a true story. She was eventually rescued and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Mission at Santa Barbara. Scott O’Dell was considered such a master of historical fiction for children, that there is a literary award for children’s authors who work in that genre.

If your looking for some contemporary children books in that genre it’s a great list to start with. Louise Erdrich has won twice with titles in her series that looks at the parallel Native American experience to the Little House Books. The Green Glass Sea is a striking novel about the making of the atomic bomb, and Chains is part on an amazing trilogy about slavery in the northern states and highlights NYC at the time of the American Revolution, a time and place not often focused on in novels.

My mom had a very old collection of Uncle Remus books and those used to really crack us up.

Madeleine. I looked at the pictures; I don't remember reading the story.

the Curious George series.

Caps for Sale.

Randy Land and the Peppermint Prick Forest.

Daddy Drinks Because You Cry.

R199, I googled after posting and am surprised that a) I did remember the outlines of the story and b) the story is so sad, I'm disappointed in how little stayed with me over the decades.

204 replies and no mention of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble?

It's kind of a messed up story if you really think about it.

I heard that some schools considered banning it because the animals that portrayed the police officers were pigs. It's funnier now that I think about it

Does anyone remember one about a guy who invents a shrinking machine and he shrinks antique furniture and sells it to doll house collectors ? I seem to remember there was a bad guy who he ended up shrinking?

The Little Prince

I think I loved this one because of the insane pictures

How many of you tried to solve the mystery of Masquerade and retrieve the bejeweled golden hare?

My inspiration.....

[quote]There was also LBS, the only children's book with a restaurant named after it.

Not to mention IBS, the only children's book with a bowel condition named after it.

R209, I remember that!! I was fairly young still when it was published and would always look at the pictures when we made our weekly family forays to the book store.

Now off to Google what happened. I think it was found eventually, but don't remember the details.

Peter Pan. I read it over and over. I could not find an image of the edition of the book my library had (it was hardback, with a red dust jacket and black and white illustrations) , so here's a random cover image.

R193, I loved The Secret Garden. I doubt I would have chosen to read it but I had read everything I wanted to in the house and it was sitting on my sister’s bookshelf so gave it a go. Similarly The Railway Children which is probably my all time favourite. I always imagined the romanticism of going off to London on a steam train and the nomadic life of the canal people.

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

So gay porn star Cal Culver claims he had an affair with Christopher Reeve? HAHAHA! Yeah, gay porn stars are SO credible.

R216 What children's book did this story appear in?

The Road to Oz, by L. Frank Baum, the fifth book of the Oz series. I believe it was a 1926 edition and had originally belonged to my grandfather. It had gorgeous pen and ink illustrations and I cherished it, read it over and over. I still have it, not in the best of shape, but it has all its pages.

^Good to see you’re posting, again!

'Otis Spofford', Beverly Cleary

'The Outsiders', SE Hinton

EVERYONE POOPS!!!

There's a Monster at the End of This Book (with loveable, furry old Grover!)

Thank you R219. You've made my day.

One of my favorite childhood memories is my Mom reading from a tattered copy of a book called "Twig" after our baths and in our jammies, sitting on our beds, right before bedtime. Loaded with beautiful illustrations and full of fantasy, imagination, and wonder. Looked forward to it every night. She must have read through it 100 times for us.

The Little Prince

“What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Oh, "What Was I Scared of?" by Dr. Seuss. A Seuss character is relentlessly pursued by a pair of floating pants. Bizarre premise with a heartwarming twist at the end.

Fun fact, Elizabeth Orton Jones was known as “Twig” to her friends.

This thread is one of the best in months, so many warm happy, innocent memories and long-forgotten titles of books I loved.

The most powerful book i read as a preteen was The Pilgrims Progress. It's probably shaped me more than i realize

Good Little Bad Little Girl, A Golden Book.

Seems this same girl could be super nice or a total bitch. She sounded exhausting. But I was there for the drama.

Lots of favorites have already been listed but here's some other goodies:

John Bellairs' The House With a Clock In Its Walls is so good! (I refused to see the movie....I can't stand Jack Black)

Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. And, other WWII, kids fleeing/hiding from the Nazis books.

Loved Phyllis Whitney's mystery books, like Mystery on the Isle of Skye.

Oh, and Noel Streetfields' "Shoes" books, esp Theatre Shoes and Dancing Shoes.

I've actually started collecting some of my favorite kid lit from my youth, in older editions from my childhood. Working on getting all the great Elizabeth Enright books.

Now i write children's books. That's how much I loved the ones i grew up with.

The references to Dr. Suess reminds me of a book my brother had, "Happy Birthday to You." It was about a bird who flew into your room on your birthday and took you on an all-day adventure. I LOVED that book.

Didn't have that as a kid R233 but I think I would have loved it too. My favourite as a kid was James And The Giant Peach for basically the same reason: cool randoms show up and take you on the best adventure ever. I lived for 2 things as a child: candy and adventures.

Do Famous Five, Secret Seven, Billy Bunter, William, and Biggles mean anything to anyone here?

We had a book “Benji: The Fastest Dog in the West” and my dad would read it out loud with the fakest Southern accent, to which my mom who was from the South would laugh at my dad’s terrible accent. It was so much fun.

I also had the Grover book. I loved anything Sesame Street.

Does anyone remember a series of books that the family looked like gerbils? The mother wore pearls and a big hat and dress. There was a boy and girl and they always got into some kind of mischief. I LOVED those books. This would’ve been in the ‘80s.

Also, the Little Miss and Mr Man books. All I can remember was Little Miss Scatterbrain and Little Miss Late. They were all different personality traits.

Sweet Pickles Books.

:) this

Finn Family Moomintroll

R235, I had a lot of Enid Blyton books when I was little. They were well constructed, with correct grammar, and got me hooked on reading. They were massively politically incorrect and would not be published today!

I was also strongly encouraged to read by my parents. We would be taken to the library in town every Saturday and told to choose four books. My parents would check in with us to make sure we were progressing with the books. Reading is still my greatest pleasure.

Richmal Crompton was a lesbian.

R231. So have I. Love prowling through used bookstores in search of my favorites.

Blood Meridian

Flat Stanley

The Headless Cupid

The Betsy-Tacy series

Homer Price and his doughnut machine

The Westing Game

The Bobbsey Twins

Henry Reed

From the age 12 to my freshmen year in college I read A Tree Grows in Brookyln once a year. Other childhood favorites that were read mutiple times as a child were Heidi and Ramona the Pest.

R244 I loved all of Beverly Cleary's books, and Ramona was one of my favorite characters.

Was Ramona the Pest the book where Ramona went to first grade and the teacher told her to "sit down for the present" and Ramona kept waiting for the teacher to give her a gift?

That always stuck with me. Beverly Cleary had such a wonderful way of tapping into a child's thought processes.

There are too many childrens books. We should read fewer so we have a shared reading experience to help us relate to one another when were grown up.

I loved Beverly Cleary's books (and especially Ramona) as well, R245. I also remember a moment, not particularly pivotal to the plot (iirc) from one of them, and it has stuck with me for 30+ years now. Ramona pukes in class and then later overhears her teacher saying it was a "pain" (or something similar) - Ramona assumes that the teacher is saying SHE is a pain but it turns out later, when the teacher explains, she meant that the incident was a pain, not Ramona herself. For some reason that really struck me as a child, because I interpreted it just as Ramona did, understood why she was upset and found the teacher's explanation, which is not presented as false or disingenuous, to be slightly false and disingenuous.

I have NO idea why I still remember that minor detail from a book I last read decades ago.

The Famous Five books were in my top 3 as a kid, R235. Absolutely loved them (and being so young I don't recall picking up on any of the political correctness - not that it wasn't there, just that I would never have associated badness, at that age, with anything other than an individual rather than a group). Am actually tempted to read them through again now. Julian was my favourite, my first crush and in some ways the character I still compare most men to. Upright, moral, slightly teasing but affectionate, stern when necessary etc. Sigh.

The Practical Princess.

owls in the family.

The first non-picture books I remember loving were the Thorton Burgess animal stories. I think they are largely forgotten, I had a hard time finding them when looking for books when my nieces and nephews were little. Even when I read them in the '70's, it was older copies from the library.

Others would the Velveteen Rabbit. A bunch of mystery series, The Secret Seven, the Hardy Boys, and my favorite The Three Investigators. Eventually I graduated to Agatha Christie that lasted quite a while.

I would say Red Fern Grows and Wrinkle in Time were the big two favorites of later grade school, especially Red Fern even though it was a bit traumatic. I reread Red Fern later in high school, and it seemed to have aged pretty well as a good book (at least for a 16 or 17 year old. I reread Wrinkle in Time when the movie came out, and that did not.

The Jungle Book.

How to Make Love Like a Pornstar.