Favorite books from childhood

Jersey Girl · May 21st, 2011, 10:12 PM

I've been rearranging my place and just went through a bunch of books I haven't really looked at in a while. One is "Around the World with Ant and Bee," which my godmother gave me waaaaay back in the day.

She was in the Peace Corps and, though she wasn't around a lot, always tried to educate my siblings and me on things wordly. She would always bring us cool things from the places she visited. It was always super fun to see her.

My Ant and Bee book is damaged (thanks, stupid basement in NJ) and I tried to replace it, but, WOW. Super expensive book! Anyway, I am thinking about having it rebound since the cover is gone and, truth be told, there is no way I will ever replace it.

So, what are your favorite childhood books? I also love "Are You My Mother" and anything dealing with Snoopy.

Dback Jon · May 22nd, 2011, 05:18 AM

The Little House books....

Louis · May 22nd, 2011, 06:27 AM

Incognito Mosquito!

Beaver · May 22nd, 2011, 09:42 AM

Brian in Mesa · May 22nd, 2011, 03:46 PM

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hardy Boys, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown, etc.

Brian · May 22nd, 2011, 09:34 PM

Where the Red Fern Grows, The Lottery Rose, My Side of the Mountain, and Bless the Beasts and Children.

Linderbee · May 23rd, 2011, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dback Jon

The Little House books....

Read just about all of them many times over. On the Banks of Plum Creek was my favorite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian

Where the Red Fern Grows, My Side of the Mountain, and Bless the Beasts and Children.

I knew these 3 would be on your list; the bolded two I loved as well.

I read an insane amount of books as a kid; I loved to read...it's hard to remember them all. My mother gave me a ton of books that she had as a teenager. I still have a few of them. Wish I could say I kept them all, but unfortunately, I did lose some. The Luckiest Girl is by Beverly Cleary. I had no idea she was that old at the time. Knowing my mom read that when she was a kid was kind of weird to me since I thought Beverly Cleary was a "new" author, lol. Little did I know that Beezus & Ramona was written in 1955! Loved all her books. The Mouse & the Motorcycle was my favorite by her.

I also enjoyed The Five Little Peppers series, all of Judy Blume's books, of course. I especially liked Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Roald Dahl's books were great (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc).

E.B. White, of course. The Trumpet of the Swan was one I could read over & over as well.

Last but definitely not least, Watership Down. Fantastic book.

Dback Jon · May 23rd, 2011, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linderbee

Read just about all of them many times over. On the Banks of Plum Creek was my favorite.

Read thme over and over myself.

I have been to the Big Woods, Plum Creek, and DeSmet

, and the site of the Little HOuse on the Prairie in KS

Mulli · May 23rd, 2011, 07:03 AM

My fourth grade teacher read the Little House books to us after lunch. She was cool.

DemsMyBoys · May 23rd, 2011, 08:55 AM

"The Story of Theodore Roosevelt". He had asthma. I had asthma. I was about 7 when I first read it and was thrilled that he had overcome it. He promptly became my role model. I still have the book. (I just notice my brother had written his name inside the front cover so I obviously "appropriated" it.)

We had one of the old Carnegie libraries in my town. The children's section was downstairs and had all the boring books. We were constantly sneaking upstairs to read the good stuff and getting yelled at by the librarians. There was also a bookmobile which came by once a week.

We were big on comics. I still have boxes of them. Unfortunately we read them until they were falling apart so they're worth zilch. Dennis the Menace was a particular favorite. I have a couple of the first Peanuts books. (Anybody remember Violet? That's how old these are.) And I loved my dad's old Sad Sack books from the 40's.

jf-08 · May 23rd, 2011, 09:48 AM

Encyclopedia Brown, LOTR, Watership Down, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies

MrYeahbut · May 23rd, 2011, 11:04 AM

I've read 'Where the wild things are' to my grandkids about 1000 times

I grew up with anything by AA Milne...most notably Pooh Bear

Russ Smith · May 23rd, 2011, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian in Mesa

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hardy Boys, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown, etc.

Oh yeah I loved the Hardy Boys books right up until I found out that they were written by the same person who wrote the Nancy drew stories. For some reason as a kid that bugged me.

DemsMyBoys · May 23rd, 2011, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ Smith

Oh yeah I loved the Hardy Boys books right up until I found out that they were written by the same person who wrote the Nancy drew stories. For some reason as a kid that bugged me.

So you'll appreciate how I felt when, sitting at our kitchen table, one of my brother's friends told me that Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew author) was, in fact, a middle-aged man.

Betrayal!

Turns out Carolyn Keene was a whole bunch of people. But my little feminist heart was broken. I think I tiped the Monopoly board over and pouted the rest of the evening. It wasn't pretty.

Dback Jon · May 23rd, 2011, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DemsMyBoys

So you'll appreciate how I felt when, sitting at our kitchen table, one of my brother's friends told me that Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew author) was, in fact, a middle-aged man.

Betrayal!

Turns out Carolyn Keene was a whole bunch of people. But my little feminist heart was broken. I think I tiped the Monopoly board over and pouted the rest of the evening. It wasn't pretty.

Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew came from same book company, different set of authors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_W._Dixon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Keene