Hmmmm, the first that I can remember being read to me that blew me away was Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - read by my teacher when I was 9 - what a truly magical experience.
After that, there are so many books that I was fortunate enough to read at the right time and that had a profound impact on me, but I would have to say that Charlie was probably the first.
Mine was Little WOmen and Black Beauty. I jus tloved them both.
At about 10, I read The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.
First novel I read, I loved it.
I liked reading very much as a child, but never really had any favorites back then. Two of the books I’ve read over and over (now) have been Paula by Isabel Allende and To kill a mockingbird. I absolutely love those books. For whom the bell tolls was great too.
Flowers in the Attic By V.C. Andrews
So it’s not the most cheery book in the world, but there was an interesting little story that goes along with it :
My mother and I were in a CVS or Rite Aid ,some type of little drug store, and I was checking out the book section. A dully famillar title caught my eye and I realized it was a movie I had seen a few years back. Now, then I didn’t know that the movie was made years after the book, but I picked it up and I bought it.
I couldn’t put it down, always sneaking peeks during class and on the bus ride to school. I was slightly disappointed that I finished it in two days, I I began reading (almost in order) the rest of the books by the same author.
Today, I have every book published under V.C. Andrews’s name (though she died some time ago and has a ghostwriter) and I am eagerly awaiting the others to come.
Anna Karenina
Actually, that should be Uncle Shelby’s ABZ Book. (Shel Silverstein). That was a great book, but I didn’t discover it until I was an adult (a fact for which my parents are probably eternally greatful).
Zev Steinhardt
So many books I remember fondly and hard to narrow it down:
Summer of the Monkeys
Tom Sawyer
Where the Red Fern Grows
Shane
but I fell in love with Bridge to Terabithia, almost made me cry at school.
The Annotated Alice, but I was five and my college age sister was reading it to me. After that, it was fifth or sixth grade before my friends and I discovered Andre Norton’s science fiction in the school library. I can’t remember the titles any more, but we kept that library shelf empty for a year.
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander. I read it when I was eight and thought it was the most amazing, magical book ever. I checked out the library’s copy so many times that I can still picture exactly what it looks like.
I, too, was a serious reader before I started school. The first book I can recall really digging must have Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. I remeber reading that when I was 5 or 6, and just completely looking at the pictures and reading about Max’s adventures with the friendly monsters.
When I was about 9, I read Dracula and Frankenstein (the grownup versions, NOT retold for kids) and being completely blown away by them. I had no idea Frankenstein’s monster was so chatty!
I’d have to go with the Belgariad series by David Eddings. Turned me on to reading in general, not to metion the fantasy Genre.
R.L. Stine was a good set for me too, but Eddings came first.
Bunnicula is by James and Deborah Howe and is a great book–they just came out with a 20th anniversary edition.
The whole Chronicles of Narnia series, which I see others have mentioned—my favorite within the series is probably The Magician’s Nephew.
My first major reading experience that I recall vividly—the one where I realized, hey, I can READ!–was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Bunnicula is by James and Deborah Howe and is a great book–they just came out with a 20th anniversary edition.
The whole Chronicles of Narnia series, which I see others have mentioned—my favorite within the series is probably The Magician’s Nephew.
My first major reading experience that I recall vividly—the one where I realized, hey, I can READ!–was Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.
One of my all time favorites when I was very little was The Mountain and the Summer Stars by Micheal Baker. After 20 odd years, it went missing in a move.
As further evidence that my mom is a much neater lady than I gave her credit for as I was growing up, she found me a copy for xmas last year… happy happy!!
One of my all time favorites when I was very little was The Mountain and the Summer Stars by Micheal Baker. After 20 odd years, it went missing in a move.
As further evidence that my mom is a much neater lady than I gave her credit for as I was growing up, she found me a copy for xmas last year… happy happy!!
When I was seven, my family and I were traveling through Britain, on our way to Spain, where we’d live for the next five years. We stayed for a while in a hotel in Scotland, deep in the country, in an upstairs room with a slanted, beamed ceiling. At night, my mother would read to us from a copy of Mary Norton’s The Borrowers.
When I got to Spain, I couldn’t wait to read more, and wanted to read something for myself. I got ahold of an Enid Blyton book, one of the Famous Five series. It took me so long to read it that the cover was entirely off by the time I was through. But I remember what it felt like, having finished that book, all by myself, and lived all the adventures in it. I went romping into the living room, singing my little book-finishing song, which I still, sometimes, sing in my head after turning the last page.
After that, it was everything Enid Blyton had ever written.
I’ve always loved books, libraries, and book stores. The first book I remeber loving was one on Greek Mythology. The first adult-type book I fell in love with was Demian by Hermann Hesse at age 11.
Have you read the other two books in the trilogy? They were all reissued a couple years ago.
In early middle school, I was a bit obsessed with My Side of the Mountain. I wanted to run away and live in the woods like Sam.
Ah, yes. The first book I thought of when I saw this thread. Had to scroll down just to see if anyone beat me to it. This one goes down as my childhood favorite.
A few notable mentions, though:
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary - When I decided to have an imaginary friend, he was a mouse named Ralph. I even built a little shoebox house for him and everything.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume - Simply put: Fudge rocks the house.
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (had to Google for the author, I hope I got it right) - This one always made me hungry for my mom’s “hobo stew”. Mmm…hobo stew…