I’ve been looking forward to today so I can see what books you remember reading when you were a child. Did those books lead you to the books you read today? I think they led me to mysteries, fantasy, and biographies.
Before I was old enough to go to the library and read, there were Little Golden Books. Do you remember the books such as The Poky Little Puppy, The Three Little Kittens, and Dumbo? We didn’t have many, but my parents did read those to us. Of course, I don’t remember, but both of my parents read to us. My mother made similar pillows for each one of us.
Then, when I was in first grade and got all As on my report card, my father bought me my first adult book, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Way too young to read it then, but once I could read it, it was one of my favorites for so many reasons. Dad bought that for me, and Mom was named after Beth in the book.
The trips to the Huron Public Library opened up the world of books to me. I always loved that library. My parents didn’t limit or review the books we read. If we could read them, that was fine. When I was sixteen, I became a page at the library. When I was twenty-two, I became the Director, my only goal in life. My mentors were the women who worked there. It was, and is, a wonderful library.
But, we’re not here to talk about the Huron Library. We are here to talk about the children’s books I discovered there. My goal, before I was old enough to know better, was to read all the books in the children’s department. Then, I learned there were new books being added all the time. What a disappointment! However, I did start with A in the biographies, and worked my way toward the end of the alphabet. Do you remember a series called Childhood of Famous Americans? In older libraries, like Huron, those books were rebound because they needed to be. Ours were rebound in orange, and we just called them the orange biographies. They covered the childhood, education, and early careers of famous Americans. I remember Annie Oakley, Lucretia Mott, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, and Elizabeth Blackwell. This series is still being published, and, of course, updated with additional people. I loved these “orange biographies”. They’re designed for ages 9-11, and I probably read them around those ages.
I know so many people say they fell into mysteries because of Nancy Drew.I loved the Nancy Drew books, but they weren’t my first mysteries. There was a series called The Happy Hollisters,”popular children’s mystery/adventure book series about the Hollister family—Pete, Pam, Ricky, Holly, and Sue—who solve mysteries in their hometown of Shoreham, written by Andrew E. Svenson under the pseudonym Jerry West. The wholesome, family-oriented series, published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, ran for 33 books from 1953 to 1969.” Do you recognize the Stratemeyer Syndicate name? They published Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but these books were for a little younger audience. We went on a month-long camping trip once, and were told we could each take 15 books. Linda and I took books we both wanted to read so we’d have 30. Included in those were Happy Hollister books. I mentioned these to Linda’s husband, Kevin, one night, and he said he read them, too.
These were my first mysteries, but I also read mysteries by an author named Helen Fuller Orton, who wrote books in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, such as Mystery in the Pirate Oak and The Secret of the Rosewood Box. It’s funny. LIke the “orange biographies”, if the library hadn’t been renovated, I could have walked to the shelf blindfolded, and found these books. I have a visual membery of Orton’s books. They were for a young audience. When I was a little older, but still in the children’s department, I read Phyllis A. Whitney’s mysteries. Did you know she wrote twenty mysteries for children as well as adults? Two of those books, The Mystery of the Haunted Pool (1960) and The Mystery of the Hidden Hand (1963) won Edgar Awards.
I know I developed a love of mysteries thanks to The Happy Hollisters, Helen /fuller Orton, and Phyllis A. Whitney with her exotic mysteries set in other countries.
Before I dive into fantasy, though, I have to mention a family favorite, Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan.
When I was in fourth grade, I ordered that book from Scholastic Book Club. How exciting to order books monthly, and get them delivered to your desk! Snow Treasure, when I read it, was supposed to be the “true” story of Norwegian kids who smuggled gold out from under the noses of the Nazis during World War II. It was originally published in 1942, and later editions said it was not a true story. But, my mother read that book and loved it as a child. Then, I read it and shared it with my sisters. Linda’s kids loved it. We shared that book to pieces. It was probably one of my early historical fiction books. And, if you’re ever tempted to watch the old movie “Snow Treasure” with James Franciscus, don’t do it! It’s awful, and they make him the hero instead of the kids.
There are a few authors who led me into fantasy, L.Frank Baum, Andrew Lang, and C.S. Lewis. Ah, L. Frank Baum and those wonderful Wizard of Oz books. I don’t think I ever read the actual The Wizard of Oz book. But, one summer day when I was probably between fourth and fifth grade (a prime reading time for me), I read three of those 300 page books in one day,
The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, and The Scarecrow of Oz. I had such a headache at the end of the day, but I was determined to stay in that world until I finished.
Did any of you read Andrew Lang’s “Coloured” Fairy Books? There were twelve of them, although I don’t know how many our library had. I read ones such as The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Yellow Fairy Book. When I looked them up, Lang and his wife published 25 children’s collections, including the 12 “Coloured” ones, the ones I read. I was never a fan of Hans Christian Andersen, and his depressing stories. But, Lang’s books, published between 1889 and 1913, “compiled fairy tales from diverse international sources, many appearing in English for the first time.” I discovered other stories and cultures in those books.
Then, there’s my strange story about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I read that book, and loved it. But, it was the only one of his books in the library. It wasn’t until I was in high school and a classmate said he had the whole set, that I said, what set. I didn’t even know there were others in the series! Fortunately, he lent me the others, but, none of them ever moved me like the first one I read. Too late! I didn’t fall for them as I did The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
I really think these are the books that made me the reader I am today, thanks to my parents and the Huron Public Library. Some of it is serendipity, what I could find at the library. My reading is somewhat eclectic. However, there’s still a strong emphasis on mysteries and fantasy, some adventure, some biographies.
What about you? Tell us about your childhood favorites, please.
I fear my contribution to this theme will be quite dull because I didn’t have many books while growing up, nor was I read to when very young. The ones I remember are these:
When I was around five years old my parents would on occasion buy a new ‘Little Golden Book’ for me at the grocery store. These were short 24-page books, hard covers, with golden coloured spines. THE POKY LITTLE PUPPY – THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD – SCUFFY THE TUGBOAT – THE SHY LITTLE KITTEN – THE LITTLE RED CABOOSE. Seeing them lined up on the shelf in my bedroom brought me immense contentment – something organized and steady that was a bit of a calming anchor to what was a dysfunctional family life. To this day I remember the feeling it gave me to see them. I feel much the same today! Coming home to all my books waiting for me still fills me with peace.
I also had a copy of Walt Disney’s CINDERELLA and I remember poring over those illustrations for hours upon hours. I desperately wanted to bring that book with me when we moved to another province after my father was transferred for work to the airport in Vancouver, even though I was sixteen years old! But alas, I was not allowed to bring it with me. I mourned its loss like a lost limb, and as an adult I eventually found a copy in a used-book store and I still have it.
Later I became addicted to the NANCY DREW books, which is likely where my love for mystery stories began. As it must have for countless others.
The one book that I remember clearly, from when I was around nine or so is THE SECRET WORLD OF OG by Pierre Berton, a Canadian historian and writer.
Quote from Amazon: ‘…inspired by his own offspring. Illustrated by his daughter Patsy (“who was there”) …children’s fable about a society of funny green creatures who can only say “Og”
Penny, Pamela, Patsy, and their little brother Peter are bewildered when they discover that the baby (better known as the “Pollywog”) has inexplicably disappeared from their playhouse during a game of tea party. When Pamela remembers noticing a miniature saw cutting out a trap door in the playhouse floor, the four intrepid siblings descend into a murky subterranean country. There they narrowly escape capture by the Ogs–ruthlessly childish creatures who have constructed a bizarre culture from cast-off toys and comic-book characters.’
This was another book I wasn’t allowed to bring with me when we moved, which upset me because for some reason it was important to me at the time. Don’t know what I would think of it today.
Sometime after this I discovered the library, and all the books one could ever want lived there; and reading and I became fast friends from that day forward.
I know so many wonderful children’s books from reading them aloud to our three children, and I certainly have favourites from among those but that’s not what today is about. Although I sure wish I’d had some of those while growing up.
Lindy, I completely empathise with you about books and libraries being safe and reassuring things.
My family was also dysfunctional – I’ve realised in writing my own post that as a child I read (& probably still prefer) books with very ‘safe’ plots (mysteries, of course, largely fit that brief) – I needed everything to end well (& not to be too scary in the middle) because it rarely did so at home.
And like you, one of my great pleasures in life is coming home and just ‘being’ with my books. It doesn’t really matter if I’ve read them or not (& if I haven’t, then what promise they hold!), they are there for me. I suppose for many people a dog provides that comfort – but books can be left for days, and don’t need walking!
I 100% agree with, and relate, to your comment Rosemary. And so true about dogs! As Anne Shirley said in Anne of Green Gables, perhaps you are a ‘kindred spirit’ ha ha.
Oh, Lindy. When I picked this topic, I never really thought about those of us who needed those books as companions because our family lives weren’t functional. I hope this topic brought back some good memories, too, just not memories of lost books. But, I understand how important those particular books were. I still have Little Women, but I’ve repurchased copies of some favorite books, or my sister, Linda, bought copies for me because she understood how much I loved those books.
I think any memory of a book is a good memory Lesa. They all evoke some feeling or other don’t they?
So true, Lindy.
I learned how to read in Kindergarten. There was this series of books featuring Sam The Lion, Matt The Rat, and Mitt The Chimp. If you read one you got to keep it. I read all of them. Until the teacher retired, I held the record for most books read in her class.
I think I read all of Encyclopedia Brown, and The Great Brain.
I remember reading a book called Go Dog, Go! about dogs driving race cars.
Clues in the Woods was a favorite, too.
I also dimly remember liking a book about a sentient tooth brush.
Other than that, I actually mostly read comic books.
Glen, I read books but also loved comic books. My dad worked in NYC and used to bring us home a batch of last month’s comic books. They’d cut the top of the cover off and he paid about a dime apiece for them. And I had an older bro who kept us supplied with MAD magazines. The three of us would pass those around until they fell apart.
Glen, What a special teacher! Amazing how one teacher can influence a life.
Comic books. I know I was so impressed when I started my first professional job after grad school, and the children’s librarian had an enormous collection of comic books for kids to read and check out at a time when many librarians disapproved of them. She was constantly updating them. She said all that mattered was that kids read. It didn’t matter what they read, as long as they did. And, kids up through junior high flocked to that department to read comic books.
Apparently, the Sam The Lion were all part of some literacy program. The teacher also made a caterpillar. Each student started with the head, then for every book read, a segment of the caterpillar was added. My caterpillar went all the way around the room, and almost made it twice. Every kid got to keep their caterpillar too. My mother didn’t know what to do with it.
Your poor mother! Still, what a great reading incentive project by your teacher.
That’s funny, Glen, that your mother didn’t know what to do with your caterpillar.
Glen, that reminds me now of reading “Dick and Jane” in Grade One, with a teacher I adored. But alas, it was decided that I was able to read more advanced books than that so they moved me to a higher level Grade One class – where I did not like the teacher at all. I still remember her name, Mrs. Corbett. Not a warm fuzzy type of person at all, and very strict. Poor woman; she was probably just fine but my bruised psyche wanted the kind teacher back.
I’m glad you mentioned school reading so I could remember this!
Also, all the kids a little older than me read The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe books, so I did, too, and completely missed the point the first time.
I also remember reading a book about a kid who winds up on Krakatoa with some sort of utopian society, right before it blows up, but I can’t remember the title for the ife of me.
Glen, your later reading preferences were clearly set by that Krakatoa book!
I too read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at a very young age – it was only when I read it to my own children that I finally got the point – though I still find the Turkish delight scene more memorable than the deeply ‘meaningful’ ones.
I don’t know how old I was when I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I got it. Then, I went to a Catholic school, so maybe I was set up to get the point of that one.
I agree with Rosemary. The Krakatoa book must have influenced your future reading.
Glen, the Krakatoa book is The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. Definitely on my list as one of my favorite children’s book.s
Margie! I never read that, so didn’t know that was the Krakatoa book.
You would love it, Lesa!
hi, everyone! looking forward to seeing everyone’s posts!
it is 7:54a.m. in Paris. I am sitting in the CDG airport with a nasty cold and a very foggy brain.
All time favorite children’s book – Eloise by Kay Thompson. and I still adore her.
Kaye, I didn’t discover the Eloise books until I had my own children – my elder daughter and I loved (& still love) them. We especially enjoy Eloise at Christmastime and Eloise Takes a Bath (I think those are the titles – the books are currently languishing in Edinburgh, but we are soon to be reunited!)
I do hope you feel better soon – nothing worse than travelling when you feel ill. Bon(nish) voyage.
Of course, ELOISE, set in the Plaza Hotel. I LOVED how naughty and spoiled she was. Thanks for the reminder, Kaye!
Hi, Kaye! I’m sure Donald and Annabelle will be happy to see you, even if you arrive home with a cold!
I don’t think I read Eloise until you were my friend. I can see how you would identify with her! It was so much fun to see her at the Plaza, and think of you!
Safe travels home!
I like to say my love of mysteries came from NATE THE GREAT. It was a picture book about a kid detective. Very dry style, very fun. And a mystery that kids could solve, or at least understand when we got to the solution. My brother is seven years younger than I am. With him, we discovered the rest of the series, but that first book was the best.
In second grade, I was immersed in the world of the LITTLE HOUSE books. And somewhere along the line, a teacher read us MY FATHER’S DRAGON. That was a very fun early chapter book.
In third grade, I found Narnia. Don’t worry, Lesa, the first is the best. And this is coming from someone who read all seven of them back to back and got classmates reading them. They are still magic.
Here’s the funny thing. I set aside a Hardy Boys book to read the first Narnia book. Now I read pretty much just mysteries. I read more widely back then, but I did follow the trail from the Hardys to Nancy to Trixie Belden. And Encyclopedia Brown was in there, too.
It’s wonderful to hear that you read so much as a schoolboy Mark. My son (who’s now 34) was also an avid reader, but hardly any of the other boys in his class read at all.
I remember one of his teachers saying that there were so many disruptive children in his class that he just sat and read his way through her shelves. She said she felt sorry for him because she wasn’t able to give him much attention, but I was just glad to know he was happily reading away.
Thank you, Mark! I loved Narnia. I appreciate your comment that the first one was the best. Now, looking back, I find it odd that the library only had the one title, but I suspect that might have been a donation added to the collection.
I love that you were a mystery reader from a young age, and kept that path all your life. Like you, I remember those books that led me to now.
Jackie taught Nate The Great to her classes, as well as things like Amelia Bedelia and the great James Marshall series about hippos George and Martha.
I love that Jackie taught these books to her classes. What did she teach, about 3rd or 4th grade?
First second grade, then third.
My family LOVED Amelia Bedelia.
When I begin to think about my favourite childhood books, I realise that they fall into two separate categories. The first are books that I actually read as a child, the second books I wish I had read, but only discovered as an adult, sometimes when reading them to my own children. Dodie Smith’s I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, for example, has the reputation of being a book ‘handed down from mother to daughter.’ All I can say is, my mother failed there! I didn’t read it until I was at least 30 years old – but I HAVE passed it down to my daughters (one loves it, the other thinks it’s boring.)
Libraries have had a massive impact throughout my life (in fact, Lesa – would that be a topic for another discussion? Libraries we have known? And/or bookshops? [Maybe two separate sessions?]) My parents were avid readers, but couldn’t afford to buy many books, so they were regular library users, and I have continued that tradition; I rarely buy a book if I can borrow it, though I do sometimes buy a book AFTER I’ve borrowed it, if I think it’s so special I want to have it permanently on my shelves. Libraries are, to me, such wonderful places. A few years ago I went into one of the smaller branch libraries a few days before Christmas. It was such an oasis of calm that I just wanted to hide in there till the end of the holidays! I always find comfort in a library.
So here are some of the books I really did read as a child. I’ll follow them with a few that I wish I’d read – but did come to in the end.
THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET (and its sequels, FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET and HOLIDAY AT THE DEW DROP INN) by Eve Garnett.
I wrote about these wonderful books for our Comfort Reads discussion, so I won’t describe them again. I read them when I was quite young, and loved the stories of everyday life in a large working class family in the 1930s – and especially, of course, of Kate, the second eldest daughter, an imaginative, spirited dreamer. She was my own, much more relatable, version of Jo March, and Id like to think that she *would* have married her equivalent of Laurie! I wish Eve Garnett had told us what happened to all of the children when they grew up; perhaps I should start writing fan fiction!! I still reread these books often.
THE TREASURE SEEKERS by E Nesbit
Nesbit is the author of the much more famous RAILWAY CHILDREN, but I much prefer this book about the Bastable family, who live in Lewisham (south London) with their widowed father. When his business goes under, the children think up ways to restore the family’s fortune.
Oswald Bastable is generally the ringleader of these usually misguided schemes, and he also narrates the book. He is full of wild ideas and good intentions. As a child I would no doubt have taken him very seriously; as an adult I can enjoy the author’s jokes, at the same time appreciating the respect Nesbit shows for this determined, ever-optimistic child.
MARY PLAIN by Gwynedd Rae
I read all of this series thanks to Bromley Public Library, which my mother and I visited every Friday afternoon. I still remember the tiny chairs in the ‘infants’ department’, the way the sun used to slant in through the windows, and the motes dancing in it, as I sat and read.
Mary Plain is a small bear from the bear pits at Berne in Germany. She is adopted by the ‘Owl Man’ (he has round glasses), with whom she has lots of adventures and for whom she is the cause of many headaches. The Owl Man has a companion, The Fur Coat Lady, who also features in Mary’s life. Mary is another one of those ever-optimistic characters, always trying to please her adopter, but more often getting into scrapes from which he has to rescue her. Small children never question bizarre situations (or at least I didn’t) – I never wondered what the bear pits were, nor how Mary could leave them to live with a bachelor in a smart London flat. I just loved the stories, and Mary herself. I still have some of the books.
JOSEPHINE AND HER DOLLS by Mrs HC Cradock
Bromley Children’s Library was also the source of these books, which were already old when I was a child (the first one in the series was published in 1915.)
Josephine lives in a very smart mansion flat in London. Her dolls are sent round from Harrods. She has a friend called Peter who sometimes comes to play. And that’s about it.
I don’t know why I loved these books so much, but I know I borrowed them time and time again. My life could not have been further removed from Josephine’s, but I think what I liked was the peaceful, reliable nature of her days. Nothing bad ever happened – in fact very little happened – and Josephine’s life always felt so secure and safe. A few years ago I saw a copy of one of the books in the Oxfam shop in Stockbridge (Edinburgh.) I told myself that I should not be wasting £5 on such a nostalgia trip, and set off up the hill to go home. I got halfway before I could stand it no longer; I positively ran down that hill, desperately hoping that nobody had beaten me to it (they had not) and handed over my £5 note with joy. I have the book still, and I still enjoy its comforting predictability.
TEDDY ROBINSON by Joan G Robinson
This was another ‘infants’ library book. I can’t remember much about Teddy Robinson’s adventures, but I know I loved him dearly. I had my own ‘teddy’, a bear that my mother had made in a sewing class; he was the most beloved of my toys and although he’s quite threadbare now, I treasure him very dearly.
SUE BARTON, STUDENT NURSE by Helen Dore Boylston
I read this series a bit later on, and oh how I loved it. I, of course, saw myself as Sue; I would be the perfect nurse, kind, caring, efficient, top of the class, and – needless to say – attracting a handsome doctor along the way.
I did actually work as an auxiliary nurse in our local hospital during a couple of university holidays. I was hopeless! All my ideas about nursing had come from Helen Dore Boylston and her ilk; launched into the real world of high speed, high pressure nursing (and that was then!) I was slow, confused, and terrified by the fierce woman who delivered the meals and effectively ran the ward. The doctors (even the junior ones) ignored even the most senior nurses; to them I was totally invisible. The experience left me with a deep respect for nurses; they put up with a lot, they work long hours doing often thankless tasks – and their world is nothing like Sue Barton’s. I did love those books though.
WHAT KATY DID by Susan Coolidge
This was one of the books passed on to me by my glamorous cousin Sally. I think at the time I had no real notion of the fact that Katy was living in Ohio in the 1860s – goodness knows what inaccurate ideas I acquired about American children of the 1970s! I still enjoyed the book, and especially the rather too perfect cousin Helen, stoic invalid and mentor to the slightly wayward Katy. I should re-read this one – I wonder what I would think of it now?
ST CLARE’S AND MALORY TOWERS series by Enid Blyton
Blyton is often criticised; at one point her books were removed from libraries and schools because the powers that be felt her writing was rubbish. Nevertheless, generations of children grew up with her Famous Five and Secret Seven stories, and her boarding school books were just as popular (and still are today – Malory Towers was recently made into a successful TV series.)
Like most of Blyton’s readers, there was no chance whatsoever of me ever going to boarding school – and I see now that I would have hated it. The girls at St Clare’s and Malory Towers are wealthy and privileged; they love their schools, are stalwarts of the lacrosse field, good at music and art, always ready to help a new girl, etc etc etc. I, and every girl I knew, lapped them up – and one of my daughters did the same 30 years later.
The books depict a world of tuck boxes, midnight feasts, daring escapades, ponies, tennis, jolly holidays and close friendships. Yes they probably are badly written, yes they are probably highly sexist and snobbish and their views would not be acceptable now. Nevertheless they were a big part of my childhood. And of course they are set in yet another safe, enclosed world. It seems to me that children either like that feeling of security or loath it. My youngest daughter wanted to read about subversive adventure – Harriet the Spy was a favourite; her sister, like me, wanted predictability and happy endings. (She loved the Bramley Hedge books, which even I found a bit too saccharine, although the illustrations were pretty.)
And here are a few books I wish I had read as a child (some hadn’t been written then, some had), but instead read much later, sometimes to my own children;
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Graeme (another book I wrote about for Comfort Reading) I vividly remember reading this for the first time while I was sitting on the commuter train into London. I loathed working there and was overjoyed to be transported to the riverbank with Ratty and Mole.
ALFIE AND ANNIE ROSE by Shirley Hughes
Beautifully illustrated stories about the everyday lives of Alfie and his little sister Annie Rose, who’s always getting him into trouble. Hughes has a wonderful eye for the things that matter to small children – Alfie losing his favourite pebble on the way back from the beach, Alfie accidentally locking Mum and Annie Rose out of the house, Alfie managing to stem an imminent tantrum from Annie Rose when she is already half way down the aisle at a wedding. Alfie also has great friends – Grandma, who drives a little red car, the milkman, the postman, and various kind neighbours. Everything is very gentle. These books are massively popular, and rightly so.
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA by Judith Kerr
Another beautifully illustrated book, in which Mummy and Sophie are at home when a tiger knocks on the door and invites himself in for tea. He eats all the food, drinks all the beer, and even all the water in the tap, then says ‘thank you very much’ and leaves. When Daddy comes home (he’s drawn substantially larger than Mummy – this is the 1960s!), Mummy doesn’t know what to do – there is no water for Sophie’s bath, and what will they have for tea? Daddy, of course, has a solution – they will go to a café. The drawing of them all walking through the dark and lamplit streets, Sophie with her coat on over her pyjamas, was one of my elder daughter’s favourite things. The next day, Judith Kerr tells us, Mum went shopping and bought a big tin of tiger food in case the tiger should come again;
‘But he never did.’
This book is so surreal, but somehow it normalises what could have been a frightening event. Anna and I can still quote lines from it. I’ll have to buy a copy for my new grandson, when he arrives (buying him a library will be such a pleasure, though I will have to be careful not only to buy books of my own or my children’s childhoods – there are so many fabulous new books for young children these days.)
I could go on (and on) but I probably shouldn’t. I have shelves of children’s books – everything from The Little Grey Rabbit (Alison Uttley, who at one point lived in the same village as Enid Blyton, but refused to acknowledge her in the street because she was so annoyed by Blyton’s greater success) to Farmer Duck, Cuddly Dudley (a penguin), Dr Dog and Ballet Shoes. These days my children choose very different books from me – but in these social media-laden days, they still read, and they still remember the books we read together; that makes me very happy.
Rosemary, I think libraries and bookshops would be great topics for future discussions.
Oh, I’m in, Rosemary and Sandy. I already marked Libraries and bookshops on my calendar for May. It’ll have to be Friday, May 8 because May 1 is Treasures in My Closet. I have some readers who live for Treasures even though they don’t comment. But, they do email me if I move the date for that, and ask why no Treasures on the first.
I loved to read about your childhood adventures with books, Rosemary. Or, I should say, non-adventures since you were looking for security and safety in books.
I find it interesting that you liked boarding school books and the Sue Barton ones. I read a few Sue Barton, but never wanted to be a nurse. And, I couldn’t relate to boarding school books. I lied the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, but I read the later ones when Betsy-Tacy and Tib were in high school. I think this was probably my first romances because the ones I remember were in the YA section of the library – Betsy was a Junior, Betsy and Joe, Betsy’s Wedding. The series took Betsy from eight-years-old through her wedding. As I said, though, it was the ones in high school and beyond that I remember. These were normal teens in school in Minnesota. Because it was public school, and not boarding school, I thought this was what life was like. I had forgotten about those books until you mentioned all the boarding school ones.
I love it that you mentioned the books your daughters loved and still appreciate, and that all of your children were readers. I can see those patterns in Linda’s adult children, in their thirties, and the oldest is forty. I introduced them to Harry Potter, and all of them love fantasy yet. But, the youngest, who just turns thirty-three today, is an eclectic reader. But, even when he was in third grade, he checked a book about Kissinger out at the school library. That’s still a family legend. Now, he reads fantasies, along with nonfiction – cookbooks, books about salt, books about tea and the British empire, Marcus Aurelius. It’s fascinating to see what he picks.
Jackie says she didn’t like Sue Barton. “She was no Cherry Ames.”
Ha! Tell Jackie that’s funny.
My feelings about boarding schools are well known, for sure nobody thought it would be a good idea to send me to one.
As a child, however, such schools seemed very much like summer camp, only not in summer.
Lesa, I also wanted to add that I really loved your description of your own childhood reading. The only books I’ve heard of are Little Women and the Nancy Drew series, and the only one I’ve read is Little Women (Nancy Drew wasn’t big here, at least not in my childhood.) Isn’t it fascinating how different everyone’s experiences are?
I find it fascinating, too, Rosemary, and interesting to see how we all analyze our current taste in books from what we read as kids. So many mystery writers today trace their writing back to reading Nancy Drew. And, I’ve seen women’s fiction or YA authors trace their writing back to Judy Blume. Although I read Judy Blume, I was just a smidge past the right age for discovering her at the appropriate times. Are You There, God, It’s Me, Margaret? came out in 1970, just as I was entering high school. The right age for that one is about fourth grade. She didn’t have a big influence on me or my reading. My cousin gave me that book, but her daughters were just at the right age for it then.
I have my list of favorite children’s books in front of me, but reading the other comments so far, I realize that all the books on my list are for school-aged kids. I loved THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD, MIKE MULLIGAN AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL, and lots of picture books that I’d recognize the minute I saw them, but I can’t remember their titles now!
My mother read to my sister and me until we were old enough to read to ourselves, because it was part of our bedtime ritual — my mother read to us, and my father sang to us (and we sang on car trips, too). She also read to us at dinner when we were eating early because our father was working late.
Natasha, my younger sister, and I had access to wonderful children’s books not only through the local library but because our mother was an elementary-school librarian and ordered prize-winning books for her school (we went to a different one) and then shared them with us. Looking back, I think we were exceptionally lucky. Here’s a list of beloved books that are still on my shelves today:
1. All the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson (33 books). Lesa, I have read The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, and The Scarecrow of Oz–and many others. Natasha and I couldn’t wait to have each one read to us!
2. The Chronicles of Prydain, a series by Lloyd Alexander set in a magical world, with a wonderful hero called Taran who grows from boy to young man over five books.
3. As you have already mentioned, the Narnia series. I read all the books several times, although I like some better than others. My favorite is THE HORSE AND HIS BOY.
4. Roald Dahl’s JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1961) and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1964). I know that later on, Dahl wrote more books than those two, but I only read the later ones as an adult. Along with Charlotte’s Web, JAMES is the reason I’m not afraid of spiders!
5. The Melendy Family series by Elizabeth Enright, written and set in the 1940s. A family of four wonderfully realistic and likable children raised mainly by their loving housekeeper. The four books are great to read in order as the kids grow up from book to book.
6. The All-of-a-Kind Family series of five books by Sydney Taylor, about five girls in an American Jewish family on the Lower East Side of New York starting in 1912. I especially love the first one (and it has great illustrations, too.)
7. Francis Hodgson Burnett’s THE SECRET GARDEN, A LITTLE PRINCESS, and LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. I could never decide which was my favorite.
8. Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN, LITTLE MEN, and JO’S BOYS plus EIGHT COUSINS, which is about a different family. Believe it or not, my favorite was Little Men!
9. Historical novels about strong, independent girls (not that I was thinking about that when I read them!): CARRIE WOODLAWN (1936) by Carol Ryrie Brink, about pioneer days; ROLLER SKATES (1937) by Ruth Sawyer, set in 1890s New York; UP A ROAD SLOWLY (1966) by Irene Hunt, set in the Midwest in the 1930s; and DOWNRIGHT DENCEY (1927) by Caroline Dale Snedeker, about a Quaker family on Nantucket in the days of whaling ships. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about Quaker history, and my sister attends a Friends Meeting in Olympia, WA.
10. This list makes it look like I only read books about girls, but I read lots of children’s books about boys, too, especially historical novels by Rosemary Sutcliffe, like WARRIOT SCARLETT. Two other novels about boys I loved: JOHNNY TREMAIN (1943) by Esther Forbes, about the beginning of the American Revolution, and IT’S LIKE THIS, CAT (1963) by Emily Cheney Neville, about a fourteen-year-old boy in New York who adopts a stray cat and copes with being a teenager.
This delightful project was made easy for me by still having these books here in Bern! They are all old (and, in some cases, very beat-up) hardbacks with gorgeous illustrations. I guess I’ve gotten carried away, making such a long list, but I hope some of you will recognize a few of these titles and have happy memories!
Kim, what a great list! I’ve heard of only a very few of your books, but you’ve made me want to read just about all of them. I will see if I can find any of them here.
I don’t think it matters a bit if our memories are of school age books or earlier ones; it’s all childhood and if you remember them they surely count.
Oh, I agree with Rosemary, Kim. When I think of childhood favorites, it’s those middle school books that I really think about, the books we chose and read for ourselves. You were lucky, though, that your mother was a librarian who picked special books to read to you. And, I love that you still have those books in Bern. I love that your mother read to you!
While Little Women will always have a special place in my heart, I loved Eight Cousins and the sequel, Rose in Bloom. I read those two books at the appropriate age, and I so wanted to have boy cousins about my age!
I did read The Chronicles of Prydain, but read them as an adult. I went through a Lloyd Alexander stage then. And, I met him at a conference! He looked like a wizard who stepped from the pages of his books! I was so excited when I met him!
I feel as if I step into someone else’s world as you each talk about the books you read as a child!
Kim, I remember reading Roller Skates!
I was blessed with a mother that is a librarian – she has a Masters in Library Science – so she always encouraged reading! My favorite children’s books: I loved Nancy Drew, the Babysitter’s Club, Caddie Woodlawn, the Little House Books, the Prydain books, and, of course, from the
Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the Judy Blume books and Harriet the Spy!
Yay for your mother, Melissa! I did a semester’s independent study on E.L. Konigsburg, the author of From the Mixed Up Files. You’re much younger than I am. Although I recognize all of your books and series, most weren’t part of my childhood reading. Instead, I read them in grad school or as an adult. I took some great classes when I was able to read juvenile and YA books.
It’s odd. Unlike so many readers, I never was interested in the Little House books.
Lesa, I was never interested in Little House, either. Didn’t even like the TV show.
My sisters watched it, Glen, but I don’t think I ever watched an entire episode. That family never appealed to me.
I also needed books for escape and security. I am forever grateful to my teachers and librarians who allowed free access to books and bent the rules as to how many I could check out.
Like Lesa, I love Snow Treasure and I think I read every book in The Childhood of Favorite Americans series. History is still my favorite subject to read about.
Other favorites were:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
Dorrie and the Blue Witch series by Patricia Coombs
Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys
Little House on the Praire series
The Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary
The Homer Price books by Robert McCloskey
The Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. My brother and I read these when we were young, I have read them all to my son, and he has saved them all to read to his future children!
Yertle the Turtle-This is the only book I remember my father reading to us. He did a wonderful job dramatizing it. That made quite an impression on me and was the first time I realized this wasn’t just a fun story about turtles. I still have that battered book.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stands as my favorite. There was never money to buy books, but my wonderful grandparents gave a hardback copy of this to me for Christmas. My grandmother would make a pan of her wonderful fudge. She, my grandfather and my two younger brothers would all squish on a loveseat with the book and the pan of fudge and they would read to us. We read this twice a year when they visited, for many years. I still have the book, complete with many fudge fingerprints and the wonderful loving memories. I bought a new copy of the book for my granddaughter, but when we read it, I used my old copy. I had to encourage her to leave a fudge print as well!
Jennifer, you made me tear up with your story of your grandparents, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and fudge. And, then encouraging your granddaughter to put a fudge print in your copy. Generations! It’s like my memories of Snow Treasure and everyone reading and loving it. I can see why that’s your favorite book.
I love that your son has saved the Alfred Hitchcock books to read to the next generation. Some books are just so loved and so timeless.
Someone who remembers The Childhood of Famous Americans series! I bought one once at a library book sale in Florida. They had blue covers while ours were orange. It’s funny what you remember about books.
They were wonderful, Lesa, my angels! When my kids were born, they gave each a beautiful little rocking chair. The instructions were that the chairs would be passed to their children, telling each of them how much they were loved.
I can see why those grandparents were your angels, Jennifer. What beautiful gifts!
Yes, I remember stuff like The Poky Little Puppy, but only because I was 10 (and then 13, with the second one) when my sister was born, so read those to her. The one I sort of remember was The Ugly Duckling.
Jackie’s favorite was PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren. Apparently, this most appealed to her because Pippi’s father was a captain always away at sea, so she was on her own, unsupervised by adults most of the time. And she was very unconventional.
She loved the Nancy Drew series too, but she also was a big fan of other mystery and “career girl” series like Cherry Ames, Nurse and Vicky Barr, Stewardess, plus The Dana Girls.
Lastly, she mentioned WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE and AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, an early “end of the world” book, a genre that still appeals to her.
We moved to Brooklyn when I was 9 and my brother was 8. My parents rented the first floor of a two family house. One of my key discoveries in the basement was a complete set on the Oz books in hardback. (The landlord had two older children.) I borrowed them and read them straight through, probably the first series of books I ever read (or at least the first I remember).
I was playing touch football with my brother and cousin in back of my cousin’s apartment building when my brother “accidentally” pushed me and I broke my nose. A present I got for being brave when the doctor had to rebreak it and set it was the first two books in the Hardy Boys series. I know I went on to read a lot of them.
What I also remember was buying books in school via Scholastic. (Years later, when Jackie sold Scholastic Books to her classes, I was in charge of keeping the finances straight.) I remember buying Fred Gipson’s tearjerker OLD YELLER, and of course I remember the Disney movie that followed. But what was weird was that I bought General Lew Wallace’s BEN-HUR: A Tale of the Christ, after seeing the 1959 movie. (I remember going on a class trip to the Rivoli Theatre – I think – in Manhattan to see it.) And yes, it was 500 pages long, but I read it all. I was 11.
A slightly later discovery was THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, which fired my hatred of injustice and hypocrisy to this day.
If she was younger, Jeff, I’m guessing Jackie would have loved Harry Potter. It’s funny that so many kids loved Pippi Longstocking, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson, books with kids whose parents were absent in their lives. I don’t think we all wanted our parents to die. We wanted the adventures that came about because parents were absent. Even Nancy Drew lacked a mother! I’m sure someone has analyzed all those books, but I’d rather read the books themselves than someone’s analysis of them.
Tell Jackie I read many of those same books, but, since I was getting my books from the library, there was only an occasional Cherry Ames or Sue Barton book. We had more Nancy Drew ones in the library. I never heard of her end-of-the-world books.
But, of course, Oz and the Hard Boys, and all those Scholastic Books. I can still remember that they smelled different when they arrived. It must have been because they were new paperbacks rather than older library books. Ben-Hur is an unusual purchase, almost as unusual as Daniel picking up Kissinger.
I love that you remember reading the Little Golden Books to your younger sisters.
Even though we were older, we did love Harry Potter. I liked Percy Jackson too, though not as much.
Actually, I read a lot of children’s books I had missed as a kid when Jackie taught them in school. She taught mostly second and then third grades.
My mother was always a big reader. She had a subscription to Readers Digest Condensed Books. These took three or four bestselling books of the day and reprinted them, usually “slightly abridged,” in one large hardback. I can remember reading THE YEAR THE YANKEES LOST THE PENNANT (later turned into DAMN YANKEES) and THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (a favorite John Wayne movie) in that format. She also had paperback and hardback copies of Perry Mason books – the Raymond Burr show ran from 1957-1966 – and I got my start reading mysteries with them. These were current books from the 1950s and 1960s, and years later I went back and started with the earlier Masons, when he was much more hardboiled a character. I loved those.
I was older, too, Jeff, but I loved those books. I liked the earlier Percy Jackson more than the later ones. I quit when Riordan moved to other myths.
I was almost on target. I guessed third or fourth grade for Jackie. I have to say when I read at a school once a month, second and third grades were my favorites. I loved those kids. They were so bright, and so interested in the books.
Jackie: “They get less interested in the fourth grade.”
I never read to the fourth grade. Probably “too old” to be read to. Not really, but you can’t tell them that. Second and third grade were perfect for reading.
I remember reading both Worlds Collide books but I don’t remember how old I was when I read them. They were part of my early love of science fiction.
I seem to have skipped all of the popular children’s mystery books. I didn’t really start reading mysteries until I was in junior high and discovered Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series. And I was out of the children’s section of our library pretty early. By 5th grade I was getting my mom to take books out of the adult section for me because our library wouldn’t let you get an adult card until you finished 6th grade.
Instead of mysteries I was into science fiction and read all of the Tom Swift books. I don’t think the library had any but there was a big used book store one town over that did and my dad would take my younger brother and me there on a Saturday and let us get a couple of books.
I also liked reading about nature and animals. One of the earliest I remember was a copy of WALT DISNEY’S WORLDS OF NATURE. I still remember the pictures of ants. I also read all of THE BLACK STALLION books by Walter Farley, and MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George which I still have.
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH was another book I really liked as a kid although I tried rereading it as an adult and couldn’t figure out why I had liked it so much.
My younger brother and I grew up watching creature features on TV every Saturday so I guess it made sense that I grabbed a copy of DRACULA when I saw it in a Scholastic book fair. That paperback is long gone but I do still have a copy that I reread every few years.
Oh, the Black Stallion books! Sandy, I went through the typical horse-loving stage of so many twelve and thirteen year old girls. I read those books, but my favorite by Walter Farley was Man-o-War. I loved it so much, my parents even took us to Lexington, Kentucky. We went to his grave, and I stood and cried. But, I also got to see Citation on that trip, while he was still alive!
And, I read so many of Albert Payson Terhune’s books about collies, beginning with Lad, A Dog. Of course, Terhune, was honest about dogs in those stories. The dogs sometimes died, and I cried. I also loved And, Jean Fritz wrote a book called Champion Dog, Prince Tom about a cocker spaniel. I loved that book so much that I bought it as an adult.
David still has his copy of Lad, a Dog. It’s by far the oldest, most beat-up book we have in our home, and I love seeing it on the shelf.
I’m so glad, Lindy. I loved those books.
Lesa, you’ve reminded me of my own childhood obsession with pony stories – especially all the ‘Jill’ books – ‘JILL HAS TWO PONIES’. ‘JILL’s GYMKHANA’, ‘JILL GOES PONY TREKKING’ – the list was long!
Ruby Ferguson assured us that Jill’s widowed mother was very hard up, so I couldn’t see why I – the only child of a widowed mother with no money – couldn’t have a pony myself. Of course Ferguson’s concept of ‘hard up’ was rather more middle class than ours! I think one or two girls at my school did have ponies, and many had riding lessons; I’d probably have hated those lessons, I was absolutely NOT an outdoor child, but for a few years I was desperate to try.
Sandy, it’s always interesting to see which books have lasting appeal and which don’t. I loved Malcolm Saville’s mystery books as a child, but when I started reading them to my own children I realised they weren’t very good – but despite all the criticism she still gets, they really enjoyed Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books (another series with absent parents! These ones were fit and well, but sent all the children to boarding school and then, in the summer holidays, sent them all of to stay with George’s extremely laissez faire parents, so they just roamed around the countryside doing whatever they liked, camping; sailing, crossing to islands.
I suppose if any of these characters’ parents had featured too heavily they’d never have got the chance to have any adventures. Imagine anyone writing about children being left alone for days on end now (as happens, for example, in THE CHILDREN WHO LIVED IN A BARN ([now reprinted by Persephone]) – the author would probably be in trouble with the social services!
What a fun topic, it’s been enjoyable to reminisce on the meaningful books of childhood. Loved lots of old fashioned children’s books:
Kate Douglas Wiggins Mother Carey’s Chickens
All of LM Alcott’s especially Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom
All LM Montgomery, Especially Emily
adored the Madeline books set in Paris
Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did
Maud Hart Lovelace Betsy/Tacy books
Laura Ingalls Wilder books
Also enjoyed the “teen girls” authors such as Leonora Mattingly Weber,
Betty Cavanna, Rosamond DuJardin, and the Janet Lambert books.
And Harriett the Spy-I was certain I would grow up to be an international spy after reading this one😃!
Eileen! I enjoyed seeing your list because I read many of those same books, including the “teen girls” ones by the authors you mentioned. I spent so much time at the library that I can remember where those books were, including the teen ones.
I think that’s funny that you were sure you’d grow up to be an international spy. Even if you did, you probably couldn’t tell us!
Eileen, I was going to be a detective! That made my grandmother cry, so I changed my mind so as not to cause her to worry.
What a fun topic, Lesa! I grew up on a farm and was lucky enough to have a horse. I loved to read all of Marguerite Henry’s books, with favorites being “Misty”, “Justin Morgan had a Horse” and “Misty of Chincoteague”. I think that she also wrote a story about the Lipizzaner stallions that I took out of the library so many times that they should have just given it to me. I was a big fan of Mary O’Hara’s horse books too – “My Friend Flicka” and absolutely loved “Thunderhead”.
As I mentioned in our Favorite Books post, I also read all of Gene Stratton Porter’s books. They were written about nature, usually had chaste romantic relationships in them, and espoused kindness and love.
When I was really little, my favorite book was “Magic Elizabeth” by Norma Kassirer. From the Wikipedia webpage: Nine-year-old Sally is left in the care of an elderly aunt in a spooky old house, and becomes enthralled by the portrait of another girl who lived in the house long ago, and the story of her lost doll, Elizabeth. Finding the girl’s belongings in a trunk in the attic, Sally seems to experience the episodes in her predecessor’s diary, and gradually finds that she is not as alone as she felt when she arrived.
I think this might have been my first exposure to the mystery genre, and I haven’t looked back!
Can’t wait to read everyone else’s favorites!
Oh, Mary! You had the horse that so many of us girls longed to own! Jealous! I do have an early picture of me on a pony. I lived on a farm for the first 3 years of my life, so I was probably about 3 in the picture. The farm had Jersey cows and the owner had horses as well. I wasn’t a Marguerite Henry fan as I was Walter Farley.
I never heard of “Magic Elizabeth”, but it sounds like one I would have enjoyed with a spooky old house and a mystery.
Mary, my mom got me into Gene Stratton-Porter’s books. She’s 98 and still rereads them. Freckles was my favorite.
It’s a hard one to beat!
Hi Lesa, I can definitely relate to your library visits as a kid. I grew up going to the Norwalk Library (close to Huron), and fell in love with reading there. One of my all-time favorites was “Wait Till Helen Comes” by Mary Downing Hahn. I must have read that ten times. I also loved the Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, and Little House on the Prairie series. Once I was a little older, I checked out every Agatha Christie book the library had! I guess it’s no mystery where I got my love of mysteries.
The Norwalk Public Library! You were nearby, Kate. Agatha Christie has a lot to answer to, but it was Harriet the Spy who made Jennifer and Eileen want to be spies.
Good morning, all! There were already so many entries today when I got to my computer
(it’s 6:30 here) that I thought I’d better give you my list before I read through everyone else’s.
Lesa, I wanted to mention after reading your post that I certainly do remember the Little Golden Books–we had quite a few of them. I also loved the Happy Hollister books. My parents taught me how to read before I went to kindergarten (which I did when I was 4 years old), and I remember reading books to the class. Obviously they started me on a life of reading, and I can’t thank them enough.
I was always in the most advanced reading group at school, and I remember that once the teacher offered three of us the opportunity to pick one of three books to take home and read. I chose one about Joan of Arc because it was the shortest. That meant I passed over Little Women and didn’t read it until much later. D’oh! In the summertime our school library, which was within walking distance, was open two days a week during the summer, and we could borrow two books each time. I remember trying to read very slowly so I could make them last. And comic books–yes, I loved them as well, but more like Archie and Veronica than superheroes. At the time they cost 10 cents and 25 cents, depending on the size.
When Lesa first mentioned we would be talking about our treasured childhood books, I started making a list. Here it is, with some annotations. I’m sure I could have made it much longer.
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge – I still have a copy. I found out later it is also JK Rowling’s favorite children’s book.
The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois – This is the one about Krakatoa that Glen mentioned but didn’t know the title. I have this one also, and it never fails to delight me. So creative!
The Nine Questions by Edward Fenton – A favorite book of my best friend Judy and me. When we were adults, I researched and found a copy to give Judy for her birthday. I wish I had found one for myself. I’ll have to start looking for it again.
Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski – Can’t wait to have my granddaughter read my copy.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The Good Master, etc. by Kate Seredy
Roller Skates (and the rest of the Skates books) by Ruth Sawyer
The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Fielding and subsequent books in the series. This makes me want to read the first one again, which is magical.
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
Cherry Ames Nurse series by Helen Wells
All-0f-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor – As a side note, I once had this out of the library and couldn’t find it. I finally had a dream that it was under the sofabed, and when I woke up, to my relief, it was indeed under the sofabed. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a productive dream, before or since.
The Borrowers series by Mary Norton
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little by EB White
Ballet Shoes (and the rest of the Shoes books) by Noel Streatfield
Now it is my utmost pleasure to find newly published books that I think my grandchildren will like to give them on birthdays and Christmas. It’s a challenge to find books that they haven’t read because their dad takes them to the library frequently. Just recently, Autumn asked me: Grandma, are you a bookworm? My response: Yes, I am, and proud of it!
Lesa, thank you for this delightful return to our past reading lives.
I read Strawberry Girl quite a few times!
Oh yes! I’d forgotten about the Archie comics Margie. Many summers reading those sitting in the shade of a fence in the back lane with a friend.
Lindy, I was sitting in the shade of the maple tree in our front year. Great memories!
Every time someone mentions a book, I want to say, “And this one!” Did you ever read the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, Margie? I loved those stories about a woman who lived in an upside-down house and had cures for children’s bad behavior. For instance, the child who wouldn’t take a bath. They let the dirt accumulate, and when he was sleeping, they planted radish seeds in his dirt. I remember that one because I went through a stage when I hated to take a bath. But, loved the stories. Your list, for some reason, reminded me of that series. I think it was Dr. Doolittle because I read them about the same time.
I want to be a book dragon! One of the adult books I read lately said that instead of a book worm! I think it was Kate Quinn’s book.
No, I’ve never read the Piggle-Wiggle books, Lesa. For some reason, they haven’t come to my attention, then or now. But it sounds like I should seek them out! Thank you.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle was so much fun!
MargIe,
Mr. F from 21 Balloons was the coolest!
The first book that I ever read was THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD, I remember reading it out loud to my mother and her excitement when I read. She gave me Black Beauty when I had the chickenpox and started me off with the Little Women series, Both of my parents were readers. My mother walked me over to the nearest library, and I was there so often and read so much that the librarian gifted me with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Book of Poetry for Children. I still have the copy. My father was a medical intern at the time, and we saved our nickels and dimes for his bus money to med school, so we didn’t have money for books. We used the library so much,
My father gave me the Diary of Anne Frank when I was twelve. My third-grade teacher read the entire Little House on the Prairie to the class during the school year. Nancy Drew was not available in the library but my Aunt Augusta gave me three of them. During Junior High, I read almost all of the books in our neighborhood library, I skipped the math and business books. I remember telling my mother that we had to find a different library because I needed more books!
In a trade book store, I found Agatha Christie, read and kept them. Then I gave them to my best friend, who is still reading them. It was the entire collection of everything that she wrote. My father introduced me to Pearl Buck, I read all of her books and gifted them to my best friend.
When I was in grade school, I had a friend named Cheryl Long, she lived across the street. I would go over to her front porch and she would had a stack of books in between us. We sat for hours on the porch swing reading through the stack for hours.
Books were the perfect adventure, not an escape, weren’t they, Carol? I’m so happy you have such good memories of libraries, and sharing books with friends. You’ll have to talk about that next month when we do libraries and bookstores. I can talk libraries forever, but we didn’t have any bookstores nearby.
I grew up going to the Willowick Public Library. My siblings and I used to ride out bikes down E. 305 to participate in the summer reading program. I remember we used slips of paper for checkout and had to write down the titles. Then the system graduated to actual library cards with a metal stamp inserted used for checking out.
My parents bought us a set of the Book of Knowledge encyclopedias which included abridged versions of classic children’s books like Little Women that I read when I ran out of library books.
The books I still remember most from my childhood that I also shared with my daughters were The Trouble with Jenny’s Ear by Oliver Butterworth and Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge.
I loved all The Borrowers books by Mary Norton which I also read at night to my daughters.
My husband’s favorite childhood book is The Gamage Cup by Carol Kendall. He read it to both daughters as well. When we were stationed at Ft. Sill, we actually got to meet the author at the Lawton Public Library which was a thrill.
What a fun topic for today. Thank you for doing this Lesa.
Happy Reading!
I remember Willowick, Sharon. One of my college roommates lived there, and I went to her house one weekend.
The Trouble with Jenny’s Ear! I hadn’t thought of that book in years, but I know I read it twice because I ilked it so much. I don’t know The Gamage Cup, or that author.
It was a fun topic, wasn’t it?
Because I was hearing impaired at a young age, books were my escape. I didn’t have many friends, but I always had books. And I read a lot. Most of the pictures my parents took of me, had my nose borrowed in a book.
My mom worked across from the town library and even at a young age, she would send me across the street to browse the library. After a while, they hired me to shelve books, I always volunteered at the libraries and when I went to college I worked at the college library. I ended up getting my master’s in library science. My goal was to be a research librarian. Instead, I ended up in the education field.
I honestly don’t remember much of what I read when I younger but some of my favorites were Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the Sue Barton series. I do remember my parents never censored anything I read and I’m very thankful for that. Sometimes a banned book can really change your perceptive of something.
Bev, I didn’t know any of that about you, that you were hearing impaired and books were your best friends as a child.
Once I started working in the library at 16, I always planned to be a public librarian. I worked for the best library director. She allowed me to do almost everything in the library, including reading the professional journals. I had a leg up on others when I went to college and grad school. I hope you are as happy in the library field as I was.
So many of my favorites have been mentioned already! (The Black Stallion, the Chicoteague books, Great Brain and Encyclopedia Brown…) As a younger reader I really liked the Bobbsey Twins and then moved on to Nancy Drew and her cool car.
My house growing up had been in the family a long time, and there was a set of books (I have no idea how old) that had one volume called “People and Great Deeds.” I was mad for it, and especially liked the story of Clara Barton. (Earlier this year I stumbled across her Missing Soldiers Bureau office in Washington, DC, which was fun.) Another early favorite was Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, about a sickly city girl who comes into herself and thrives after moving to Vermont. (I loved Vermont and still do.)
Like many here I went to books and the library for escape, and science fiction and fantasy were great for that, A series I still cherish is the Riddlemaster series by Patricia McKillop.
It was fun to think about this today since I just finished The Astral Library by Kate Quinn.
My sister, Christie, was thinking about the Bobbsey Twins, Trisha, and you mentioned them. She and I both liked those books. They may have been formula books, but the Stratemeyer Syndicate did a great favor yo so many kids. Fond memories of their series.
I absolutely loved Edward Eager’s books, Half Magic and Knight’s Castle. My mother also introduced me to The Peterkin Papers, about the world’s dumbest family. The stories were hilarious! I also adored the All of a Kind Family series and then the usuals: Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, and the Betsy Tacy and Tib books.
I have a wonderful memory from elementary school. We had to read a book about animals. I told the librarian I couldn’t read any book where the animal got sick or died. She found me a happy animal book. I wish I remembered the book.
When I became a twin, I loved The Moonspinners and book called The Year of Janie’s Diary, where she wrote an essay titled “Forward ever, backward never,” which became my life’s mantra. Then when I was in seventh grade, we were assigned English classics and I became obsessed with Dickens and the Brontes, among others. I still am!
NOT a twin!! A teen!!!
Oh, Ellen. I’m glad you clarified that. I was going to ask you about becoming a twin! I know exactly how you feel about animals. I’ve read them when a pet dies, but I usually cry over them. I really embarrassed my sister. I took her to see Charlotte’s Web, and cried over it. She’s almost six years younger than me. Not cool.
I meant to mention that I remember reading Snow Treasure as well and enjoying it. Been a long time since I thought about that books. I’m sure I still have it somewhere.
I still love Snow Treasure, Mark.
Sorry I am so late to comment on this topic. We have been out most of the day getting cat food and shopping at Costco, etc.
Glen remembers reading and enjoying The Hardy Boys series. Also, one of his grade school teachers read THE AVION MY UNCLE FLEW by Cyrus Fisher to his class.
I remember very little about the books I read as a child, but I know I read a lot, and that I was read to by my parents. I don’t think my childhood reading was related to a dysfunctional childhood, but I was the only person in my family who read a lot as a child and I was the only introvert, so I did not really fit in. I was 7 when my brother was born, so I probably read to him when he was young.
In 5th or 6th grade, my teacher read two books to us that I remember, THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett and THE HUNDRED DRESSES by Eleanor Estes. I would like to find THE HUNDRED DRESSES to read now and see what it was like.
Beyond that, I began reading the Erle Stanley Gardner books, the Nero Wolfe series, and Agatha Christie’s mysteries when I was around 12. I remember nothing about any specific books I read earlier than that. But throughout my childhood (before high school), I spent more time reading indoors than outside playing, unlike my brother and sister and other kids in the neighborhood.
Glen and I enjoy the Eloise books. But we did not discover those books until after our son was born (like Rosemary).
Tracy, I’m happy when you join us whenever you can. And, I’m happy when some of you mention what your spouses read, too.
Funny, I don’t remember reading The Hundred Dresses, but I remember what the cover looked like.
Aren’t books wonderful for those of us who are introverts? What do people do who don’t read?
Hi, I am a little bit late to the discussion, but one of my favorites, that I read over and over was Harriet the Spy. I also adored Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, and later Nancy Drew. As I still love a great mystery, it appears I started young with that love.
I have to admit, Tracey, I never read Harriet the Spy. I did read Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew mysteries, though. Maybe it was the cover of Harriet, or maybe it was the summary on the book flap, but I just wasn’t interested in that one, although I know I looked at it. And, there was a YA series I never read because I couldn’t stand the cover art, but now I don’t know who the author was. Possibly something that began with S or towards the end of the alphabet.