Dopers and their families read at above their age level; film at 11.
Oh, and Amelia Bedelia! Though I never could find very many of her books.
That’s okay. Neither could she.
It was when her employer asked her to “cook the books” that the true disaster happened.
Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book. My favorite book when my parent’s would read to me, and my favorite book when I would read to my kids. At one point I had the whole thing memorized. I still can recall the first 8-10 pages more than 25 years after I last read them to someone.
Oh, and Tom Sawyer and sequels, Doctor Dolittle series, and Penrod.
Oh, and of books others have mentioned that I would have voted for:
- Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
- The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
- The first book of the Dark Is Rising series (Over Sea, Under Stone), but I never could get into the rest of them.
- The Mad Scientists’ Club
- The Encyclopedia Brown series
- The Tiffany Aching series
- Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
There are a few others that I remember, but I think I overthought them as a kid. Like, IIRC, in The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree, the spaceship could teleport, but only long distances, not short distances. So if you wanted to go a short distance, why not just go to the Moon or wherever, and then back to your actual destination? Or in Half Magic, it’s just a matter of phrasing your wish so you’re asking for twice as much as you actually want.
They do figure that out, but sometimes they screwed up even so.
7 day magic is better.
This was my first thought too (I literally came into this thread to see if it was there and post if it wasn’t).
Glad to see it was the first response.
Yeah, people in this thread are drawing heavily from (although not all limiting themselves to) books from their own childhoods, when 21st century books did not exist.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Finch’s Fabulous Furnace by Roger Drury
Any many more I can’t remember. I never read any of those on the list when I was a kid but have read many of them since. I guess there’s still a kid inside me somewhere!
Aside what I mentioned above —when I was a child in the 80s I really enjoyed reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. I am surprised no one else has mentioned them. Also their competitors–Which Way Books and TwistaPlot.
My daughter, who was born in Moscow in 1995, taught herself to read when she was three using the Prostokvashino books, which are very popular in Russia. (There is also a cartoon series of the same name.)
Later on, she read Rene Goscinny’s Little Nicholas (in Russian, but she could have read it in French too).
She wasn’t much interested in reading English (the spelling is just too weird) until she discovered the Harry Potter series when she was seven or eight. Then she devoured the books.
I can’t believe I forgot Elizabeth Enright! Gone-Away Lake and the Melendys
Nancy Drew.
Will it to me, I only had the first one.
I thought so at first, but maybe I was just relieved it was no worse. Baby Jack Black ruined it.
The book still stands as something that truly frightened me…I was cold while reading it on a warm Fort Lauderdale afternoon.
I loved all the Henry Reed books when I was a kid, especially the first, Henry Reed, Inc.
Here you go, only ninety-some bucks:
Karla Kuskin’s The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
and its sequel, The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed.
Another oldie but goodie: Homer Price and the sequel Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey, who has already been mentioned for his picture books.
My cousin wrote a paper in her master’s program in which she interviewed various adults about the books they remembered best from their childhoods. Among the people she interviewed were my uncle (her dad) and my son, and both mentioned Homer Price. Had she interviewed me (which she didn’t) I would likely have mentioned it too. Impressive to have a book be a favorite for three generations.
I just realized that neither Uspensky or Goscinny were 21st century authors, though the former lived until 2018. I was thrown off because I didn’t read either of them until I was well into my adulthood.
Another vote for Mike Mulligan.
Also adding in Trumpet of the Swan by EB White.