Books YOU loved as a young child!

Just wondering what you read as a child! (Or had read to you!) My favorites were the Maj Lindman series...Flicka, Ricka, And Dicka and Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr. Of course, I'm collecting all of these gems for my kiddos. Any other ideas.....

Swallows and Amazons and its sequels by Arthur Ransome. My parents read us the whole works. And Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and of course A.A. Milne's Pooh books.

I loved for my mother to read Dr. Seuss' Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? I loved to hear about the borfin that schlumps! I also enjoyed Pooh Bear, and the first series that ever hooked me into reading longer books had to be The Chronicles of Narnia when I was in 6th grade.

The ORIGINAL Winnie the Pooh books by A. A. Milne should definitely be at the top of any parents' list of stuff to read to their kids. However, if your kids have already been exposed to the Disney version of Pooh, be ready for some questions and confusion, as Milne's original vision was significantly different than what Disney turned it into.

The Things you can think by Dr Seuss was always a favourite. And Where the Wild things are by Maurice Sendak. Lovely stuff

A little princess - a gift from my sister who recognized my genius for martyrdom at an early age. I read it almost monthly throughout my child- and young adulthood. It was always good for a therapeutic cry, good practice for my grown-up years when I don't need to go looking for reasons to cry. It's all about me! Boo-hoo!

The Duchess Bakes a Cake is the earliest one I can remember. I loved it and the rhyming made me laugh and laugh. In 2nd and 3rd grade my friends and I ate up the books of Edward Eager, the Chronicles of Narnia, the Oz books and Nancy Drew.

The Secret Garden, The Borrowers, Applebough, When the sirens wailed and White Boots. The Children who lived in a barn, The secret Island. The Swallows and Amazons series. The Little house series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Anne of Green Gables series.
And I could go on and on. I'm sure later I'll remember some huge omission and have to come back and edit.

The book that I read as a kid (until it fell apart) was The Monster at the End of this Book. It had Grover (of the Sesame Street fame) and he was trying to keep the reader from getting to the end of the book... he even built a brick wall on one of the pages so that the reader would not be able to get to the end... I still love that book! Picture books don't get any love.

There was this picture book called Jam by Margaret Mahy that I absolutely loved my parents to read to me again and again. The work isn't touchstoning, perhaps nobody has catalogued it yet.

Spoiler (of a picture book...)

There is a tree in the backyard that the father decides to take the fruit from and make jam while the mother is off at work, but he goes overboard and makes so much jam it fills everything, even things like vases. Finally the family eats through it all, only to find the year has gone by and the tree is ripe again!

Oh, so many books I loved to pieces as a child...

The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill

The Silver Crown and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks

The Borrowers series by Mary Norton

Escape to King Alfred by Geoffrey Trease

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff

And many, many others...

Goodness! I had so many! When I was little little I enjoyed little golden books like
the poky little puppy
the saggy baggy elephant
the tawny scrawny tiger

an adaptation of sleeping beauty
and a goldenbook of paul Revere's Ride which for some reason held me spellbound for hours

The Little Engine That Could
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge
Ferdinand the Bull
And others that I can't remember at the moment, including some Little Golden Books.

What I remember best is poetry, from children's poems by Eugene Field & RLS & others, to poems from adult anthologies of "story poems" and "light verse." I used to pest my mother to read to me from those constantly.

Going way, way back I remember Caps for Sale and the books about Georgie the Ghost. Lion by William Pene du Bois really intrigued me for the drawings. Yertle the Turtle, The Sneetches and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back were books I read over and over again.

My favorites as a child are all short stories or poems that tell a story. The one that stands out above all is Winken, Blinken, and Nodd.

*touchstones not working*

My favourite, which I reread on numerous occasions was The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel. I'm amazed this is still out of print. The structure of the book is similar to the Arabian Nights. It tells the story of the eponymous king who is extremely ill. His doctor has to travel over the copper mountains to find the plant that can cure his ruler. To keep the king alive the doctor sends the animals he meets in the kingdom to visit the king to tell him a story. Each chapter is a separate story told by successive animals, interspersed with the progress of the doctor. It is a wonderfully written book (translated into English from the Dutch) and is particularly suited for reading a chapter each night to a young child.

#11 The pushcart war sounds so familiar. What was it about?

It's about a four-month "war" in New York City between the big trucks who were trying to take over the streets, and the 509 humble pushcarts licensed to do business in the city. The owners of the truck companies want to make an example of the pushcarts, so pushcarts start getting smashed up. So the pushcarts decide to fight back.... it's AWESOME. I wrote a review on it if you want more info. Classic story of the little guy winning, and sooooo funny and clever.

Jean Merrill's The Toothpaste Millionaire is also brilliant.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was one of my favorites. I wanted to go overnight in a museum.

I created a tag for them as I entered them "Childhood Favorites." There are too many too list. But the ones that are most worn out from re-reading are Alexander and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day, Mr. Pine's Purple House, and Muffle and Plums.

I really enjoyed fairytales and the Golden books when I was a kid. I absolutely loved anything by Beverly Cleary (Ramona is such a funny little character) and Ronald Dahl. I also remember being a big fan of The Babysitters Club and the Nancy Drew series. Oh, and I adored Harriet The Spy.

My favorite book when I was little was "The Color Kittens" by Margaret Wise Brown. I also had a lot of the "Raggedy Ann" books by Johnny Gruelle. I still have a charming little book called, "Scat, Scat" by Sally R. Francis about a lost kitten. "Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry was another book that I read again and again. And I am not ashamed to admit that I still read and enjoy "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss!

Books my parents read to me:

PJ Funnybunny
Hop on Pop
The Berenstein Bears

And when I started reading to myself:

Paula Danzinger
Carolyn Keene
Betsy Byars
Lynne Reid Banks
Judy Blume
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Trumpet of the Swan
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
The Cricket in Times Square
Choose Your Own Adventure Books

And so many more!

This list could go on and on...

Picture books:
Goodnight Moon
Blueberries for Sal
Leopold the See-Through Crumb picker and The Fabulous Firework Family by James Flora
Bedtime For Frances

and as a reader myself
The Hobbit
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
Half Magic by Edwad Eager
Nancy and Plum by Betty MacDonald
Lad, a Dog by Albert Peyson Terhune

When I was little, we had the whole Mercer Mayor series (I think that's how it's spelled), and the Berstein Bears collection.

"Mercer Mayer" and "Stan and Jan Berenstain"

As a school librarian, I believe you can never have enough of these two.

I remember Tootle and The Little Engine that Could and Clear the Track - my daddy was a railroad man.

I was also brought up on A. A. Milne, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

I remember Snip, Snap and Snurr with fondness, as well as The Dutchess Bakes a Cake.

I read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Misty of Chincoteague in grade school by myself.

I recited Wynken, Byinken, and Nod to my daughter at bedtime every single night for about two years.

What great memories this thread brings!

Does anyone remember "Mike Mulligan and his Steamshovel?

and a book aboout a little house that was all happy and loved in the country and then the city encrouched and it was abandoned until someone bought it and moved it out to the country and it wasd happy again? I loved that story!

Now my kids liked a sesame street book called "the monster at the end of this book" . But you have to read it in Grover's voice or its not as funny!

Polly- I think your book was called The Little House. Yes, when the touchstone popped up, I recognized the author. This is the right one. I still have it in the elementary library.

The ones I call my favorites now (The Sneetches, lots of children's poetry collections) were, I think, just a few of many I enjoyed as a kid. When I was younger, I think I would've mostly named books my parents read to me, such as A Little Princess. And then there were the ones they didn't quite think were worthy of reading, like The Baby-Sitters Club - I definitely disagreed.

My best friend introduced me to Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein when I was a kid and it became one of my favorite books right away. When I told my mom about it she introduced me to my favorite children's book of all time Lafcadio (Uncle Shelby's Story of Lafcadio the Lion Who Shot Back-- the touchstone didn't work for the full title) by Shel Silverstein. I read that book until the binding broke and had to be taken to a book binder.

Heidi. I don't know how I forgot that.

As a child, I loved the Boxcar Children series and Trixie Belden. Not quality, but enjoyed just the same.

Another absolute favorite was Caddie Woodlawn. Wasn't there a series for younger kids about a girl named Betsie? I seem to remember reading about her going to school for the first time.

Yes! The Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion...got it in my weekly reader book club.

My ultimate childhood favorite is definately Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Some others that I love include POPCORN!, But NO Elephants, and The Giant Jam Sandwich. When I got a little older I read the Cam Jansen series (about the girl with a photographic memory) and the Encyclopedia Brown series. (and obviouly a ton of others) Another young adult favorite I had was The Girl Who Owned A City. I tracked down a copy of it about a year ago so I could have it in my current pc and hand it down to my daughter some day.

As a 'young child' I adored The Monster at the End of this Book. As pre-teen I loved The Borrowed House by Hilda Van Stockum. In fact, I checked it out of the public library so many times I think others thought it was on permanent loan.

OH! I thought of another one. It is another Sesame Street book. Actually I have a couple. Ok, so first is Don't Forget the Oatmeal with Ernie and Bert. Next is Down on the Farm with Grover. Frankly, Sesame Street came out with a lot of great books back then, and if you can find them I suggest you hold on to them. I really wish I had.

>38 megkrahl:

I'll have to thank my parents for keeping my Sesame Street books in a box for me, then - I've got the two you mentioned and about twelve others, including my favorite, The Ernie and Bert Book.

I also loved Pigs in Hiding and The Very Hungry Caterpillar when I was really little.

I loved horses and my the first books I can remember loving were by C.W. Anderson....the Billy and Blaze series. I have 2 of them in my collection at work and I prize them!

Play with me by Marie Hall Ets was a big favorite of mine. I still have it and recently read it to my grandniece because my cats were running away from her. While we sat on the floor (oof! hard to get up!) with the book, the cats came up to us - driving home the point.
Also, The tall book of christmas by Dorothy Hall Smith, which has one of my favorite stories in it: "Granny Glittens and Her Amazing Mittens." Our library still has the Tall Books, which amazes me.
Was anyone else terrorized by the Carl Sandburg story of the Huckabuck family? Funny what scares kids.

The phantom tollbooth is my favorite from childhood.

I loved Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel polly! There's so many favourites, it's hard to remember them all, A.A. Milne definitely, I loved all the poetry as well as the Pooh stories. I had an single elderly lady friend who lived two doors down from us and I used to go and visit her and she'd play the piano and we'd sing "They're Changing Guards At Buckingham Palace" and "Christoper Robin is Saying His Prayers". Good memories.

Also all the fairy tales from My Book House, a set of books that came with our encyclopaedia set (gorgeous illustrations). Animal stories, Farley Mowat, Albert Payson Terhune, Marguerite Henry (esp. Brighty of the Grand Canyon), Bambi.

The Wheel on the School house, Mine for Keeps, The Bells on Finland Street, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, all the L. M. Alcott stories, as well as all the L. M. Montgomery stories.

Okay, I'm going to stop now, there's just too many. I gobbled books like air when I was little :-)

When I was a kid the book I read over and over was James and the Giant Peach. Just loved that one. Every time I was mad at my mom I would go and hide in my closet and reread it.

When I got slightly older, it was Little Women. I must have read that a half-dozen times by the time I finished high school. The Pushcart War was also a big favorite. I recently tried to read it to my son but it's a bit too advanced for him yet at 4. I also loved The Phantom Tollbooth.

I also absolutely loved the "All-of-a-kind Family" series by Sydney Taylor. It's about a family that has something like five daughters. I loved them for the descriptions of life in NYC in the time period when my grandmother was a kid -- and also for the fact that they were Jewish. When I was a kid, there wasn't a lot of kids' literature about Jewish families!

The Miss Know-it-all books by Carol Beach York. Definately a fun read.

There were quite a few, as I recall.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams which is about a toy rabbit who is loved to life;

Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown which she wrote when she was just 14 (although you wouldn't believe it) about an amateur drama group;

The Box of Delights by John Masefield - a wonderful Christmas story;

The Borrible Trilogy by Michael De Larrabeiti which is great fun and for slightly older children and, of course, classics such as Alice in Wonderland etc.

I remember, also, enjoying the What Katy Did books by Susan Coolidge, although I think I would probably find them a little sickly sweet now.

There were soooo many. But I think my favorite was The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. I read it again and again.

I read Alice in Wonderland. Well, actually, first I saw Disney's movie. Later I had to read books for my English class and I decided to read Alice in Wonderland. Only then I found out that it had many hidden meanings in it (see http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net )!
I am glad I read the books at a later age, because I may not have been able to appreciate all of it otherwise.

The Corduroy books and the Amelia Bedelia series were two of my favorites. And at Christmastime, my mom always read us The Story of Holly and Ivy.

I've just been thinking about this!

Anything by Marguerite Henry or Walter Farley
The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caddie Woodlawn
Johnny Tremaine
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
The Boxcar Children
My Side of the Mountain (must have read this one 50 times)
Lois Lenski's books
Louisa May Alcott
L.M. Montgomery
Encyclopedia Brown
Danny Dunn
Half Magic
Water Babies (and thank g-d I never picked up on the subtexts in this one!)
The Witch Family

And oh so many more!

Wow, whoever came up with this thread, thanks for the walk down memory lane!

I remember The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron very fondly. I got it from the school library in third grade. Years later, as a high school senior working at Waldenbooks, I was delighted to discover it was still in print and I could special order it! I re-read it every so often.

I've never forgotten Lillan by Gunilla Brodde Norris. (I had to look up the author's name just now; I've never read anything else by her.) Lillan is a young, very shy Swedish girl whose parents are divorced. Her mother gets a new beau and Lillan feels abandoned. It was very sweet and sad, I remember it fondly. I also loved the Borrowers books and the Little House books, Fattypuffs and Thinifers, and The Wind in the Willows.

I don't remember the exact title (and it is probably out of print anyway), but I read a book when I was 12 years old that was incredible (to my young mind). It was a retelling of The Canterville Ghost where the ghost is telling the story. He explains that the whole thing was an overblown misunderstanding, including his wife's murder. I got it from the library and it was one of those old hadcover books that was well-worn and comfortable. That book and Treasure Island were instrumental to my love of reading.

I loved horses and collected pennies from the age of four to save up for my first horse. My favorite childhood books: All The Billy and Blaze picture books, Afraid To Ride (now O.P.) in which a girl has an accident riding and gives up riding only to meet with an abused mare, girl and mare regain confidence together and ride again. Also Tall and Proud (also O.P.) Girl recovering from polio doesn't want to do her PT, her dad buys an injured racehorse and she pushes herself to be able to meet the horse's needs till they're both recovered, then girl and horse ride to the rescue when an escaped convict turns up.

I was a voracious reader as a kid - anything and everything was fair game. As I recall, I had my mother's complete approval until she found my dad's John D. MacDonald books tossed in my nightstand pile, and sternly told me I needed to "wait a while" before reading them. Having already read them, I let her take them away without protesting.

From my more appropriate age-group readings, some stand-out favorites were:

Charlotte's Web

The Sneetches

The Forgotten Door

Pippi Longstocking

and just too many more to name. :)

#28 -- the problem with doing Grover's voice is then you have to keep doing it, and even when the kids get older they ask you to do it. In public.

Some of my all-time favorites I have passed along to my boys include Just Only John, Harold's Purple Crayon, I Saw it on Mulberry Street and Wait 'til the Moon is Full...

Then Phantom Tollbooth, Willy Wonka, Stuart Little, and all those Hardy Boys mysteries...

I remember getting the Little House set for my 8th b-day and reading them over many times, but times have changed and my kids didn't like it, or read more than 1 book...

Well, not really sure what age group we are talking, but if your kiddo likes fantasy and animals...

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley as well as her The Hero and the Crown
Clare Bell's Ratha's Creature, Ratha's Challenge, etc. and her Tommorow's Sphinx -my personal favourite of hers.

Of course who could forget Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn!

Where's my head? I can't believe I haven't brought up Beverly Cleary's Ramona books yet, especially Ramona the Pest. Plus all the Henry Huggins books, and her Emily's Runaway Imagination.... I re-read these on a regular basis, and have several of the Ramona books in German as well. They're at a perfect reading level to match my German abilities.

My 5-year-old son loves that book and laughs everytime I just mention it!

I don't even know where to start. From the time I was little, I loved books! Loved my grandmother to read the Bobsey Twins to me. Chronicles of Narnia, The Little House I had my mother read over and over and I still have the book (although it's falling apart badly). I know it's controversial, but I loved Little Black Sambo as a kid, all I thought was cool was the animals running around and around the tree and turning into butter.

I can't believe two of my childhood favorites haven't been mentioned yet: The Stinky Cheese Man and Sideways Stories from Wayside School.

I think the first book had about a three-month waiting list at my elementary school library. And whenever someone in my class was the lucky one who got to check it out we would all crowd around them and read.

I love the Sideways stories as well - they were hilarious.

Of course I also loved the Ramona books, Little House on the Prarie, The Baby-sitter's Club, and I still love to read The Secret Garden.

Also, one of my earliest memories of having a book read to me is that of my dad reading to us from Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends. I also had quite a selection of Little Critter books.

Really, I could probably go on forever. I've practically always been deeply enamored by books.

Your favorites haven't been mentioned, because many of us are too old to have read them as young'ns. But as a librarian, I have purchased, repurchased, read, re-read, and re-re-read them to a couple of generations of wee folk. You're just confirming my good taste in book selection!

>56 TeacherDad:, Teacher Dad, I second you on Grover's voice! Also Scooby, Shaggy and Velma...

I like how we can guess the age of the poster by their beloved books.

My first, and still most, beloved book of childhood was Understood Betsy. I also stayed up late at night to read the Betsey, Tacy, and Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace. I also like the All of a Kind Family series and OF COURSE Louisa May Alcott. What bookish girl didn't imagine herself writing in an attic like Jo.

Other early favorites included The Witch of Blackbird Pond and Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

Patty

I remember getting that book for Christmas and reading it over and over. Love it! There is a modern version, "The unfinished fairy tale", which is along the same lines. It is great, in a different way.

I had a copy of "The Little House".Two years ago a homeschool teacher found a copy of "The Little House" for sale at the library.When she was finished reading the book she gave it to my Grandmother for me to give to my Daughter. Inside the book was my name! it was my book from childhood.

#66- That is so neat! Did she know when she gave it to your grandmother that it was yours? Or was it one of those crzy coincidence kind of moments?

each of my boys has gone through the "amazed" stage when they find my name or my mom's name in some of the books on their shelves -- incredulous that Dad was a little boy that read that very same book! ...and that the books from Grandmom are over 60 years old!
I make it a point when I buy them a special book to write a note to them inside the cover, so my Grandkids (far, far in the future) will get to see it...

In addition to fairy tales, nonsense and narrative verse, and just about anything about animals...I remember being fond of a book/45rpm record set of Arnold Lobel's Mouse Soup. I can still "hear" the voice of the reader in my head when I remember the stories; I must have listened to it a lot!

Once I could read by myself there were three books I read and read and read ... Ballet shoes, Marianne dreams and Alice in wonderland, plus any fairy tales I could get my hands on.

Has anyone ever read Stareye? I think it is by Marguerite Henry?

I can not find a record of it on Wikipedia, Amazon.com, Ebay, Half.com, answers.com and various other places. It tells the story of Lutheran boy during the Revolutionary War who is kidnapped, sold to some kind Indians, and then reunited years later with his parents, where he has to make a choice.

I distinctly remember getting a box set of Golden Books for Christmas when I was 5. Those books are what hooked me on reading and loving books. I absolutely loved them and read them more time than i could count.

I posted more about it on my blog. Those books meant so much to me and I fully intend to keep my future children stocked in Golden Books.

I just heard of a book the other day where a boy is taken by indians and returned to his parents at 15. It's called "A Light In The Forest" so maybe it's your book published under another name. Hope this helps !

I loved Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Velvet Room , The Golden Name Day by Lindquist, Myeko's Gift by Haugaard, Dorrie the Witch series by Patricia Coombs, and All of a Kind Family by Taylor. Those are the ones that still stick in my mind so many years later.

Great post! My favorites were by an author, Paul Hutchens , a series starting with The Adventures of the Sugar Creek Gang
written in the 40's and 50's.

My first grade teacher read them to us and I couldn't wait each day for the next chapter to be started at "rest time".

For years I tried to find any of those books in antique and rare book stores, garage sales, book fairs with no luck. My daughter braved a new internet venture called Ebay (LOL!!, it was new back then anyway) and in about 5 minutes found 15 of the hardbacks in the series and surprised me for my birthday one year.

And a nice treat: the seller of the books was from my childhood midwest hometown!

I remember, for some odd reason, in the fifth grade I was absolutely wacko for Gary Paulson's story the Hatchet. It was read in class, and I loved it! I think it was the adventure - and of course the thought of having to survive or your own. Before that, no one really read to me besides in class. They would always pick books on topics I wasn't interested in either. So, when I went to middle school was when I started actually reading for fun - 'cause I found out that not all books have stupid topics and plots.
The Harry Potters was my next adventure for then on XD.

Hey I'm relatively new to LT and just posted a blog earlier on this same topic. Guess I should have perused the topics closer! I remember my Mom reading Little Women to me. I also remember her sharing The Velveteen Rabbit. I don't think I understood The Velveteen Rabbit then, but it is one of my favorites now. I also liked Go Dog Go, Put Me in the Zoo, and various Dr. Seuss classics.

For picture books I loved Baby Animals and Sleepy Time by illustrator Gyo Fujikawa.

When I got a bit older I loved many of the books mentioned above, but my "security blanket" book was Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Nancy Drew stories and a book called The secret of Goblin Glen

I can't recall the title of the earliest book I remember loving, but it was a black and white picture book about a strange little man who landed a flying saucer in a field and then loaned out a series of vehicles (including a car and a biplane) to a nearby little boy.

At the time, I also loved Septimus Bean, The Story of Ferdinand, The Poky Little Puppy, and Big Dog, Little Dog.

Two I loved then that still stand up to the test of time for me are The Giant Jam Sandwich and Whistle for Willie.

After entering elementary school, I fell in love with The Mouse and the Motorcycle, the Encyclopedia Brown books, and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler. I read the library copy of Half Magic to tatters and worried my school librarian to no end when I spurned the Hardy boys in favor of the Nancy Drew series.

In 4th Grade, I discovered the Heinlein juveniles and read them all, starting with Rocket Ship Galileo. I was also a great fan of the Mad Scientist's Club (to the point where I just recently purchased all four of the Purple House Press reissues), When the Tripods Came, and Danny Dunn.

Around that time, my dad purchased a TI-99/4A home computer and I became addicted to the Not Quite Human series. The stories really don't hold up very well today, but I loved the programs in the back of each book that I could type into my computer.

Three other books from that era that I still re-read from time to time are The Hero and the Crown, My Side of the Mountain, and The Halloween Tree

Archaism, I'm so glad you mentioned Half Magic! I'd forgotten about this book and I remember really enjoying it when I was a kid. Now I have to go get it for my daughter.

I don't think I read much as a young child, but one set of books REALLY captured my imagination and has always stayed with me. The idyllic, mystic representation of the British countryside tallied perfectly with my own explorations of nature and, even now, it's hard to visit Cornwall without expecting pirates or mermaids in the next cove. Originating much earlier, but very popular in the 1960s and 70s, for one reason or another, they seem to have fallen out of favour in recent years. In fact, having falied to find any books in the UK high street bookstores, last year I picked up a secondhand copy for GBP 6! The books I refer to are the Rupert Annuals, e.g. Rupert Bear. They are perhaps of interest only to British or European children, often the stories are dated and the ryhmes contrived, but in my opinoion they nevertheless surpass the much of what is published today - a fact I have observed in my own children. Enjoy!

Kinda along the same line....
Today a friend of mine was asking about a book she read as a junior high student, she is having trouble remembering the name. I have never heard of it but she peaked my interest. Can anyone help us figure out what book this is:

Synopsis:
A man is stranded on an island with many others, they form a multi-cultural community and each have their own homes that are a representation of their country. The people take turns making and having diner at their homes all the while talking about their culture until they come up with a plan to rescue themselves. They are able to make some hot air balloons and find a way to use an erupting volcano to raise them off the island.

Any clue would be great, this is all my friend could remember, I have no clue but she says it was a really good book she read it several times but cannot remember the name or who wrote it.

HELP if you can (I will be posting this on more than one forum to try and get some help with this.)
Thanks! Debbie

I think we got it, thanks to everyone that helped me today. The Twenty-One Balloons seems to be the right one.

As a child I used to love The Jolly Postman and The Jolly Christmas Postman, Each Peach Pear Plum, The Penny Polard series and the Roald Dahl books Matilda and The Twits.

Regarding (Swallows and Amazons) There is an Arthur Ransome Society you can join. I've been a member for years. You can attend events or just read the literature they send

#75-Christian book distributors sells them. www.cbd.com. I bought the first few for my son and he's really enjoyed them.

Just posted a message under "Worst Film Adaptations" I loved Elizabeth Goudge's "The Little White Horse" when I was a child. Loveday Minette had the most wonderful name and was a marvellous character. Everyone's perfect mother! The book was full of humour and magic and a sweet whimsey. The film 'The Secret Of Moonacre' is a complete mess. Oh please please please - read the book

I was a voracious reader as a child (likely had something to do with why I became a school librarian!). I still have my very tattered copies of the following: The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Matilda, Nancy Drew (I did grow out of those), anything by Noel Streatfield, and anything by Madeleine L'Engle.

The earliest book I remember reading was called Wings On Things, and I drove my poor mother nuts reading it over and over and over again... I can actually still quote you the first half of the book!

Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Ramona, Nancy Drew, The Black Stallion series. A treasure was A Child's Garden of Verses by RLStevenson partly because I loved the illustrations by Gyo Fujikawa. Still have that book.

Oh so many....Little Women, Pippi Longstockings, all of Shel Silverstein's books, The Secret Garden, The Outsiders, all the Narnia books, Charlotte's Web, The Wonderful Wizard Of OZ, The Giver, and so many more.

Little Women; Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books; Mrs. Piggle Wiggle; My Side of the Mountain (no idea why--I would have been way to chicken to live in the woods; I've been camping exactly ONCE in my whole life!); A Wrinkle in Time; Pippi Longstocking

They are turning two of my favorite children's books into movies! Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs comes out in September and Where the Wild Things Are comes out in October. I know WWTA is already an animated movie but it isn't very long or well known. This new release is a live action movie. I can't wait!

I loved the Lucy Boston books about Green Knowe - the series starts with "The Children of Green Knowe" thrilling and suffused with magic and mystery. You can visit the house that Green Knowe is modelled on. It is the Manor House at Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire. Visits are by appointment, but wonderful. Lucy's daughter-in-law, Dianne, takes small groups on a tour, and it is just like the book. I must not tell you any more - go and find the magic yourself.

My mom read Little House in the Big Woods to us. I was about 7 at the time. We lived in the country, in a densely wooded area...certain parts of that book were pretty scary to me! Soooo easy to imagine bears & Indians & ...

Some years later I read every single Laura Ingalls Wilder book I could lay my hands on. Great illustrations by Garth Williams, too.

Speaking of which, I wonder when LT will allow additional authors/editors/illustrators to be added to books in the system prior to them adding that capability in the listings.

Illustrators are REALLY important to me!

Are you my mother?, Mr. Popper's Penguins and The boxcar children, the first one, and they are still books I like to read today.

#94 I loved the Children of Green Knowe but didn't know until I googled it recently that there was a series of books.

#95 I loved the "Little House" books and I'm reading them to my kids at the moment. We started with Farmer Boy and we spent Christmas just a few miles from Almanzo's home. We visited the farm and my kids got such a kick out of seeing the house and the barns etc.

When my daughter was young we visited several Laura Ingalls Wilder sites over the course of several summers. We toured DeSmet, South Dakota, Mansfield, Missouri, the site of the Kansas homestead, and the place (drawing a blank here) where they lived in the dugout in On the Banks of Plum Creek. We also drove through some Wisconsin woods not too far from Lake Pepin - but not any official site.

The cool thing was, Lee never read any of the books, and couldn't care less about the sites - he took us there because he knew we loved the books.

#97 The Green Knowe books do read as a series, but each one is different - has a different "feel" to it. Read them and you will see what I mean. "Stranger At Green Knowe" won the Carnegie medal for outstanding children's book in 1961. "The chimneys at Green Knowe " is being made into a film...

Oh you are so lucky. I would love to get the chance to see these places. Wonderful books.

#49 - Have you read Rumer Godden's "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower"? about two little Japanese dolls and the lonely little girl who gets the dolls everything they need

I loved The Doll's House, also by Rumer Godden. And The Good Master by Kate Seredy.

One I didn't find until I was grown up was Are All the Giants Dead by Mary Norton. I didn't like the Borrowers that much, but I loved this one. The illustrations by Brian Froud are wonderful!

I love Rumer Godden's doll stories. I am intrigued by the Mary Norton, never heard of that one. I shall try to get hold of it - thanks for the tip. Brian Froud does some wonderful fairy illustrations

The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Bored, Nothing to Do by Peter Spier

These are the ones that spring to mind.

Half Magic and Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Big Red, Irish Red and Outlaw Red by Jim Kjelgaard
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg

I remember the magic of Fog Magic in 4th grade. And the first book that every made me cry was Pocahontas. I was so suprised to find that a book could move me like that!

Star: The Story of an Indian Pony

I almost wore it out. ( Now I wonder what happened to it)

There is an Arthur Ransome Society for fans of "Swallows and Amazons"
http://www.arthur-ransome.org/
They send out really interesting magazines and newsletters. Wonderful books, I agree

I loved Put Me in the Zoo, The Wind in the Willows, and A Fish out of Water. Nancy Drew books were also a favorite of mine, but not one in particular.

my mom read Dr. Seuss's ABC book to me so many times as a child she still has it memorized! Once I started reading, I read all the little house books (except farmer boy which I still haven't read). I also read little women so many times I broke the binding.