Never read any Judy Blume, but that sounds awful. I totally dig The Long Secret! Alkie piano player Bunny and the holy roller family with the wooden toilets!
Good news: they’re in paperback now!
ETA: Nitpick, Sigma – only the older daughter, the one the same age as Harriet and Beth Ellen, was a holy roller. It seemed to be her way of rebelling against the rest of the People-of-Walmart family.
I loved Arthur Ransome’s books- all of them but Missee Lee and Peter Duck. Still got and read them all too 
I think I started on some of the Terry Pratchett books at about 8, and The Hobbit. I read a lot as a kid, still do really, whatever’s around.
Mind you, I read a lot of books that I totally didn’t get until years later when I was a kid, just because I liked the act of reading itself.
Weird coincidence: My fourteen-year-old is home sick today. I went home at lunch to check on him and thought he needed something to read, so I started rooting around trying to find my copy of Eyes of the Dragon. I couldn’t find it though; bet it’s in his room already…
As an animal lover, I tended to read books about animals, especially horses.
The Black Stallion series
King of the Wind
Misty of Chincoteague
Lad: A Dog
Where the Red Fern Grows
Good-bye My Lady
The yearling
Gentle Ben
I read all of these over nad over and over. Still love 'em.
I’ve never cared much for story books. I read a few mentioned but even as a child I was more interested in science and history, and especially books about other cultures.
I suddenly remember that as a chld I loved the animal works of Thornton Burgess. Damn, I hadn’t thought of him in decades.
I loved the Danny Dunn books.
Yes, I remember her enormous brother whom she constantly berated to Walk with God instead of Walking with Candy Bars or something.
Oh! And The Mad Scientist’s Club!
Aww, I came in to say those two series as well! Also, I read Watership Down at around age 14 and absofrickinglutely loved it. If I could only read one book over and over for the rest of my life, it would be that one. For younger readers, I remember really loving The Indian in the Cupboard. I started hoarding toothpaste caps after reading it, puzzling my mother to no end I’m sure.
I still have a lot of my childhood favorites. I have trouble getting rid of books. 
Favorites included:
- Trixie Belden series
- Three Investigator series
- Encyclopedia Brown series
- Danny Dunn series
- Nancy Drew series
- Hardy Boys series
- Space Cat (I think there were three or four)
- The Rescuers (Miss Bianca and Bernard–again, I think there were three or four)
- Jenny and the Cat Club
- *The Hero From Otherwhere *(by Jay Williams, half of the Danny Dunn author duo)
- Various Star Trek novels from the late 70s
- King of the Dollhouse
- Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians (I’m still trying to hunt down the rest of this series reasonably priced)
- Alvin Fernald series
- Great Brain series
- Little House on the Prairie series
Things I read that weren’t kids’ books but I still liked them:
- *Atlas Shrugged *(yeah, I first read it at 13–the look on my English teacher’s face dur3A
- Anything horror by Stephen King
- The Sime/Gen series
Any of **Roald Dahl’s **childrens books:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
James and the Giant Peach
Danny, the Champion of the World (my personal favorite)
The Witches
Fantastic Mr. Fox
and so on.
I was just going to post that I forgot these two series!
Why hasn’t there been an Encyclopedia Brown movie/TV show?
I also read a ton of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.
Just to be clear, this is more of a nostaglia thread, instead of an active request for recommendations. Hippy Jr. is a ways off from these books, I think. 
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 was apeshit for the Freddy the pig series when I was in grade school.
If his biographies are anything to go by, you seem to have caught him on a good day. 
Would like to recommend Peter Dickinson in general, and The Dancing Bear in particular.
Some books that blew my mind as a kid were “The Westing Game” (mentioned), “The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)” (also by Ellen Raskin), but especially “The Portmanteau Book”. That one really left an impression on me!
ALL of Paul Zindel’s books.
William Sleator has written some very enjoyable books (though the quality’s gone down with the last few). My favorite is House of Stairs.
I also recommend the Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher, beginning with The White Mountains.
Am I the only one who remembers The Mushroom Planet seeries?
Another vote for Walter Farley books(except for the last Black Stallion book.)