# What was the first book you remember reading as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 18, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774 "2021-01-18T03:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/1 "2021-01-18T03:56:25Z")
Not counting “Dick and Jane” and its school-assigned equivalents, what is the first book you remember reading as a child? Mine was _The Wonderful Flight To The Mushroom Planet_ by Elinor Cameron…quickly followed by everything else I could find that was written by her. You? ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/2 "2021-01-18T04:09:54Z")
The first book that wasn’t primarily a picture book was Tales of Toyland by Enid Blyton. I still have it. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/3 "2021-01-18T04:15:18Z")
The first book I have a _vivid_ memory of reading was the second book in the Nancy Drew series, The Hidden Staircase. Before that I had been prompted page by page to read, parental pointing etc; in that vein I “read” books like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and Stop that Ball, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Spaghetti Eddie, etc. But my Dad read some Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books to me, one chapter per night, got me hooked, then said “I’m sorry, I’m too busy this week, but you could try reading ahead on your own” and handed me The Hidden Staircase. Sneaky Dad. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/4 "2021-01-18T04:24:53Z")
Hop on Pop. ---
**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:** [January 18, 2021, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/5 "2021-01-18T04:27:36Z")
_The Shark In Charlie’s Window_ when I was around 8 years old, I think. I was a good at reading as a kid, but not a book-reader as such. I read comics and picture books and puzzle books, but not novels. There are a lot of classics I have never read, even though we had them on our shelves. _Treasure Island_, _Famous Five_, _Narnia_, _Wizard of Oz_, _Tom Sawyer_, etc. Their antiquated style was a bit much for me. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/6 "2021-01-18T04:43:17Z")
The first book I remember reading was _ **Witches, Witches, Witches** _. I couldn’t have been more than four years old. Scared the crap out of me! 😖 The second was probably _ **All About Dinosaurs** _ by Roy Chapman Andrews, followed by the Classics Illustrated versions of _ **The Time Machine** _ and _ **War of the Worlds** _. There was one more, published by the same company that did Andrews’ book. It was about great explorers, and there was a chapter about the dive of the _Trieste_ to the Marianas Trench. Can’t think of the title though. ☹ ---
**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:** [January 18, 2021, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/7 "2021-01-18T04:48:24Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Can’t think of the title though. Let’s not start this again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/8 "2021-01-18T04:49:12Z")
I think it might have been _Beezus and Ramona_. As I recall, we read a story from the book in class and I enjoyed it. So when I saw the book in the school library and realized there were more stories with the same characters, I read it. Astonishingly, the author Beverly Cleary is still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/9 "2021-01-18T04:53:36Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > There are a lot of classics I have never read, even though we had them on our shelves. _Treasure Island_ , _Famous Five_ , _Narnia_ , _Wizard of Oz_ , _Tom Sawyer_ , etc. Their antiquated style was a bit much for me. I can remember reading _The Wizard of Oz_ when I was a child and being astonished to discover the story in the book was different than the one in the movie. I guess I had assumed that there was only one way to tell a particular story. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/10 "2021-01-18T04:55:58Z")
_Little House in the Big Woods,_ by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Followed shortly by _Aku-Aku_ by Thor Heyerdahl and _The Hobbit._ Some books on pond life and other science titles in there as well, and Scholastic books including one about how to write cyphers. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/11 "2021-01-18T05:01:16Z")
Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls It was a collection of poems by famous authors. Nothing to do, nothing to do, Put some mustard in your shoe, Fill your pocket full of soot, Drive a nail through your foot… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/12 "2021-01-18T05:31:02Z")
Winnie-the-Pooh. Or perhaps The House on Pooh Corner. Definitely one of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, in any case. It definitely wasn’t the first book I read on my own (I was a very early reader), but it’s the earliest I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/13 "2021-01-18T06:11:51Z")
_[The Best of Science Fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Science_Fiction)_, edited by Groff Conklin, at the age of 6 or 7. It was a collection of 40+ SF short stories, and I pretty much read it from cover to cover. I’m not sure how much I understood some of the stories, and I found some of them disturbing, but I really loved that book. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/14 "2021-01-18T06:35:01Z")
_How the Sun Was Brought Back to the Sky_ by Mirra Ginsburg. This book seems to have prompted me to question my dad about what happens to the sun when it’s cloudy out. It was an overcast day and my dad was inspired to drive me up to the mountains and show me that the sun was still there above the clouds. _The Story About Ping_ by Marjorie Flack is another one I remember… maybe it was the first one. I should note that both of these books were already quite vintage by the time I was born. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/15 "2021-01-18T06:56:05Z")
I had lots of books read to me as a child. My SiL tells me when she came to see my bro, I proudly announced that I could read the newspaper (at age 5). She didn’t think I could but yep, I sure could. Because the OP says “Book,” I’ll rule out comics. Yeah, they’re comic “books” but they’re comparatively short and they’re illustrated. Similarly, it may have been an anthology by Edgar Allan Poe (not illustrated)—“The Black Cat” is a great short story—but also, I didn’t read the anthology from start to finish. I think one of those Bookmobile things came around and I got “The Great Brain” by J.D. Fitzgerald. It’s an assortment of stories, but I read it all. Our teacher was pushing reading and my parents bought me a book, which wasn’t usual. In fact, the teacher asked someone to make “medals” for best book reports in various categories and I somehow ended up doing it (by which I mean outside school). The idea was that after we presented the reports, the class would vote and awards would be given. I had powder blue construction paper, glue, tubes of glitter, scissors, a paper punch, and some yarn (to make a “necklace” for hanging it around the winner’s neck). There were categories for the awards, like best adventure story, best action story, etc. Then there was the grand daddy: best book report. I made all the awards but that award, for the best overall, didn’t turn out very well. You know, you try to handwrite with glue but it doesn’t always turn out. Small, messy, unimpressive. Yeah…the best book report was the one I won. At first I was kind of bummed out. Then I realized that since I had made them, I could make another, better one. Then something clicked and I matured by like, ten years or something. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/16 "2021-01-18T07:50:17Z")
My Grandma had one of those Time-Life books, a large but thin hardcover, that was a picture and diagram summary of the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo programs, and the Apollo 11 Moonshot. I loved it as a kid, mostly for the pictures, but I did eventually get around to actually reading it as well. The first book I ever owned, that I picked out for myself, was H.M. (Helen Mary) Hoover’s _The Delikon_. Still have a copy. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/17 "2021-01-18T08:47:37Z")
The first novel I read, at the age of 7, was either The White Mountains by John Christopher or A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (can’t remember which came first). ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/18 "2021-01-18T15:43:49Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There was one more, published by the same company that did Andrews’ book. It was about great explorers, and there was a chapter about the dive of the _Trieste_ to the Marianas Trench. Can’t think of the title though. ☹ [_All About Undersea Explorers_](https://www.amazon.com/about-undersea-exploration-Allabout-books/dp/B0007DEFWO/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=allabout+books&qid=1610982837&s=books&sr=1-3), by Ruth Brindze? [_… Famous Scientific Expeditions_](https://www.amazon.com/About-Famous-Scientific-Expeditions-Allabout/dp/B0007DYUQA/ref=sr_1_47?dchild=1&keywords=allabout+books&qid=1610982968&s=books&sr=1-47), by Raymond Holden? There are [a few dozen](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=allabout+books&i=stripbooks&dc&qid=1610983422&ref=sr_pg_1) of those books, published by Random House; my sister bought me several when I was around six or seven. She had a subscription – one “All About” book and one “[Landmark](https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2016/generation-past-the-story-of-the-landmark-books)” book each month. The earliest books I actually remember reading were _Profiles in Courage_\* (JFK) and _The Witchcraft of Salem Village_ (Shirley Jackson), both of which were “Landmark” books, though I’d already been reading for several years by that time. \* According to my cousin I was seven when I read _Profiles in Courage_. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/19 "2021-01-18T15:51:41Z")
Too late to edit: [Here](https://oldscrolls.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/landmark-books-first-rate-history-series-for-readers-and-collectors/https://oldscrolls.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/landmark-books-first-rate-history-series-for-readers-and-collectors/)’s a complete list of the “Landmark” books. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/20 "2021-01-18T16:41:17Z")
There are _lots_ of books I remember reading as a child, but “what was the first” is a hard question. I have a vague memory of finishing a Bobbsey Twins book (no idea which one) and thinking “I just read a book all the way through!” so that might have been the first novel-length book I read. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774.md?page=2)