# Great kids' books from your childhood (8-15 years or so) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 10, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849 "2011-02-10T03:01:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/61 "2011-02-10T20:03:26Z")
At the older end of the age range, David Eddings’s The Belgariad is fabulous. I loved those books sooooo much when I was around 12-13. And then I remember finding out he had another series, and being so happy, and THEN finding out that it was about the same characters and almost swooning with delight. (It’s actually not as good as the original five, but my point is how much I loved the first ones!) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/62 "2011-02-10T20:06:38Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > Space Station Seventh Grade, by Jerry Spinelli Holy crap, someone else has read this book? **SS7G** was “the funniest book I’ve ever read” for _years_. One of my favorites: **Sir MacHinery**. It’s about a scientist who goes to Scotland and constructs a robot; some brownies (the wee magical kind) find the robot, and, believing him to be a knight in armor, call him “Sir MacHinery” (the name they read off the crates of “machinery” lying around), and engage him in a series of adventures. Anyone else remember **The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death**? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/63 "2011-02-10T21:17:28Z")
Another recommendation: the first six Xanth books by Piers Anthony. It was somewhat after that point that he devolved into a perverted hack; the early Xanth books are great light fantasy adventure with some actual decent wordplay. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/64 "2011-02-10T21:39:57Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Anyone else remember **The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death**? Yes, but I thought it promised more than it delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/65 "2011-02-10T21:54:56Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I was apeshit for the Freddy the pig series when I was in grade school. You are a gentleman of taste and distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/66 "2011-02-11T01:39:43Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Holy crap, someone else has read this book? **SS7G** was “the funniest book I’ve ever read” for _years_. Yes. Yes it is. I’m overjoyed that there’s a sequel, I’m hoping to find it in the library this weekend! Oh, and also The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, by Paula Danziger. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/67 "2011-02-11T01:47:02Z")
The Dark is Rising series The White Mountains Swallows and Amazons Watership Down ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/68 "2011-02-11T03:35:07Z")
The one childhood book that I snagged from my sisters’ hands when my parents downsized was The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. ---
**Author:** ![seanchai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@seanchai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seanchai)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/69 "2011-02-11T03:52:20Z")
Nobody’s mentioned Enid Blyton’s Adventure series - The River of, the Valley of, the Island of, the Mountain of etc. Yes, Burgess’ animal books, Anne of Green Gables. The kids in the neighbourhood all had some of the Trixie Beldon / Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew books and we swapped them around like hockey cards. I fell in love with Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons and the sequels. Then I found Rosemary Sutlciffe’s books, starting with The Eagle of the Ninth.As a matter of fact, the movie The Eagle, starting tomorrow here, is made from that book. I’m going to catch it (even though the trailers didn’t excite me) out of pure nostalgia. for a bygone age of reading:) an seanchai ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/70 "2011-02-11T04:03:47Z")
_sniff_ Lotta old favorites, here. Alvin Fernald…the [TV movie of which is now online](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYxyQ5I3aEg); the Mad Scientists Club…the [last](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Kerplop-Original-Adventure-Scientists/dp/193090049X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1297395666&sr=8-5) [two](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Chunk-Ice-Adventure-Scientists/dp/1930900295/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1297395666&sr=8-4) previously unpublished novels of whom have just gotten into print; The White Mountains (still my favorite book)… Good times. (Though I think I still prefer Midge Glass to Henry Reed—he could be areal humorless prick when he wanted to. So, most of the time. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/71 "2011-02-11T13:30:00Z")
I keep thinking of more…that was really the golden age for me. I had access to the most wonderful books, and time to read them! [David and the Phoenix](http://www.amazon.com/David-Phoenix-Edward-Ormondroyd/dp/1930900139), by Edward Ormondroyd [The Phoenix and the Carpet](http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Carpet-Puffin-Classics/dp/014036739X/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in), by Edith Nesbit (honorable mention to Five Childen and It, and The Story of the Amulet) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/72 "2011-02-11T15:49:38Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Anyone else remember **The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death**? I’ll say I do. I read all the Daniel Pinkwater I could get my hands on. > [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I also met Roald Dahl as a kid. He smoked like a chimney and was pretty gruff around us kids… I wonder if we caught him on a bad day, or that’s just how he rolled? I once read Daniel Pinkwater’s own account of meeting a young fan. The kid was disappointed, because it turned out a children’s book author is actually just another boring adult. I was also a fan of the Danny Dunn series, as well as Alvin Fernald and Homer Price. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/73 "2011-02-11T15:54:55Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#): > > I also met Roald Dahl as a kid. He smoked like a chimney and was pretty gruff around us kids… I wonder if we caught him on a bad day, or that’s just how he rolled? > [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > I once read Daniel Pinkwater’s own account of meeting a young fan. The kid was disappointed, because it turned out a children’s book author is actually just another boring adult. When Dahl met his boyhood author idol C. S. Forester, he was idsappointed because Forester looked and talked like everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/74 "2011-02-11T16:14:59Z")
> [@seanchai](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned Enid Blyton’s Adventure series - The River of, the Valley of, the Island of, the Mountain of etc. This was my first thought as well but I just read the Wiki on Blyton and it’s not flattering at all. Aside from the fact she was a nasty piece of work, her books often contained sexist and stereotypical characters. Still, I enjoyed the Famous Five and Secret Seven books as a kid. I would let my kid read them but I would have a talk with the kid about the content. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/75 "2011-02-20T09:24:00Z")
_Good Night, Mr. Tom_ - Michelle Magorian _Children of the Dust_ - Louise Lawrence _Rebecca’s World_ - Terry Nation _The Search for Delicious_ - Natalie Babbitt Like everyone else, I also enjoyed Roald Dahl books, Edward Edgar’s Tales of Magic series, The Phantom Tollbooth, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/76 "2011-02-20T10:42:09Z")
**From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler** , E.L. Konigsburg **A Day No Pigs Would Die** , Robert Newton Peck **In the Suicide Mountains,** John Gardner ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/77 "2011-02-20T10:43:40Z")
The first book I ever read from beginning to end, that wasn’t a picture book or for younger kids, was _[The Shark in Charlie’s Window](http://www.amazon.com/shark-Charlies-window-Felker-Lazarus/dp/B00070VZ6Q)_ by Keo Felker Lazarus. I was about 9, and didn’t read another such book until I was 12 when I doggedly made my way through _Lord of the Rings_. After that I started to read more often, and really kicked into gear at age 15, when I found some other epic Fantasy at the library, unfortunately the first being _The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant_. Luckily I found some way better than that (or at least less depressing) soon after. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849/78 "2011-02-20T14:07:19Z")
> [@Anonymous\_Coward](#): > > This was my first thought as well but I just read the Wiki on Blyton and it’s not flattering at all. Aside from the fact she was a nasty piece of work, her books often contained sexist and stereotypical characters. > > Still, I enjoyed the Famous Five and Secret Seven books as a kid. I would let my kid read them but I would have a talk with the kid about the content. Yeah…even as a kid I hated that Anne (or the girls in the Secret Seven, or whatever other book) was the one who had to cook/keep house. No wonder George was so reluctant to be a girl… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-kids-books-from-your-childhood-8-15-years-or-so/570849.md?page=3)