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!)
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?
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.
Yes, but I thought it promised more than it delivered.
You are a gentleman of taste and distinction.
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.
The Dark is Rising series
The White Mountains
Swallows and Amazons
Watership Down
The one childhood book that I snagged from my sisters’ hands when my parents downsized was The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber.
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
sniff Lotta old favorites, here. Alvin Fernald…the TV movie of which is now online; the Mad Scientists Club…the last two previously unpublished novels of whom have just gotten into print; The White Mountains (still my favorite book)…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. 
)
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, by Edward Ormondroyd
The Phoenix and the Carpet, by Edith Nesbit (honorable mention to Five Childen and It, and The Story of the Amulet)
I’ll say I do. I read all the Daniel Pinkwater I could get my hands on.
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.
When Dahl met his boyhood author idol C. S. Forester, he was idsappointed because Forester looked and talked like everyone else.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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…