# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/61 "2021-01-19T19:42:14Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Anybody remember reading _ **The Five Chinese Brothers** _? I thought it was hilarious when I was in kindergarden and first grade. “One had an iron neck. Another could swallow the sea…” ---
**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 19, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/62 "2021-01-19T19:44:48Z")
He could hold it in his mouth, not swallow it. And when he was too tired to hold it any longer, he let it go and drowned the boy who was gathering fish off the sea floor. ---
**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 19, 2021, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/63 "2021-01-19T20:05:08Z")
This is the book I had. The cover still gives me the willies! [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/e3/eb/ffe3eb80660ee61465884bfb766d87b0.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/e3/eb/ffe3eb80660ee61465884bfb766d87b0.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/64 "2021-01-19T20:10:05Z")
Oh yeah, I would’ve pounced on that for sure! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/65 "2021-01-19T20:20:26Z")
The entire Oz series. There may have been books before that, but these captivated me. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/66 "2021-01-19T20:41:29Z")
Not including children’s picture books or books that were read to me, I’m almost certain the first novel length book I read all the way through on my own was _The Great Airport Mystery_, #9 in the Hardy Boys series. I read a whole bunch of other Hardy Boys books after that, but that was the first one. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/67 "2021-01-19T20:51:21Z")
I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/68 "2021-01-19T21:05:48Z")
**From Then to Now** A Little Golden Book by J. P. Leventhal > **[FROM THEN TO NOW- LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK NO: 201: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/THEN-NOW-LITTLE-GOLDEN-BOOK/dp/B000IAVD4E)** > > FROM THEN TO NOW- LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK NO: 201 on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. FROM THEN TO NOW- LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK NO: 201 > **[Parnassus Book Service, Inc](https://www.parnassusbooks.com/Juvenile?product_id=13909)** > > Shop new, used, rare, and out-of-print books, prints and ephemera at an independent bookstore based in Cape Cod, Mass. Undermined any literal Bible interpretation tendencies I might have developed right at the start. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/69 "2021-01-19T23:43:22Z")
Mine was “The Tall Book of Make-Believe,” with its wonderful illustrations. I still own the book, though it’s a little worse for wear after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/70 "2021-01-20T00:56:32Z")
[The Doll In The Cake Shop](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/y/carol-beach-york/doll-in-cakeshop.htm) Pretty obscure, but you can basically tell the plot from the front cover. We had it from the library, and I LOVED this book. I read it. And read it. And read it again. And loved it so much that finally, rather than bear the heartache of being unable to read it _yet again_, my parents photocopied the entire damn thing before they sent it back to the library - which was kind of a big deal in 1974. Of course after that, I never read it again. The photocopy was knocking round the house for the rest of my childhood - which is of course how I remember the story in the first place - and for all I know it’s still somewhere in my parents’ house, 46 years and 6 moves later. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/71 "2021-01-20T15:09:18Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I think I had that book too. Was it published by Classics Illustrated? Mine had the story of the hitchhiker who borrowed the driver’s sweater, later found draped over her tombstone. > > This is another book that scared the crap out of me. I couldn’t get to sleep if it was in the same room… I had a paperback when I was maybe 10 or 12 that I think was titled Strange But True. It had short, scary stories that were supposedly true. A guy picked up a hitchhiking girl that was wearing a lavender dress. She asked to be dropped off by a cemetery. When he looked back she had disappeared. He went searching for her and found a tombstone with a lavender dress draped over it. Of course, the tombstone was that of a young girl that had died some years before. I read that book a million times. I still have it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/72 "2021-01-20T15:53:55Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I had a paperback when I was maybe 10 or 12 that I think was titled Strange But True. It had short, scary stories that were supposedly true. A guy picked up a hitchhiking girl that was wearing a lavender dress. She asked to be dropped off by a cemetery. When he looked back she had disappeared. He went searching for her and found a tombstone with a lavender dress draped over it. Of course, the tombstone was that of a young girl that had died some years before. > > I read that book a million times. I still have it somewhere If you want to read more of the story, Seanan McGuire’s _Ghost Roads_ series tells stories from the POV of the hitchhiking ghost. Start with **Sparrow Hill Road**. > **[Amazon.com: Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Roads Book 1) eBook : McGuire, Seanan:...](https://www.amazon.com/Sparrow-Hill-Road-Ghost-Roads-ebook/dp/B00FX7LV12)** > > Amazon.com: Sparrow Hill Road (Ghost Roads Book 1) eBook : McGuire, Seanan: Books ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/73 "2021-01-20T16:00:38Z")
Library hold placed. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/74 "2021-01-20T17:34:50Z")
I’m convinced that _ **Strange But True** _ is the cause of 68.5% of all tweenager nightmares… ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/75 "2021-01-20T17:49:51Z")
I did not like reading. In large part because anything I could read was boring. Dad reads me Robert Lewis Stevenson, and you expect me to stumble through this garbage baby stuff? Hell no. My parents bribed me with some sort of prize chart. Part way through, I had a book about mammals. _My Big Book About Mammals_, which I may be misremembering because searching on that title doesn’t return anything familiar. This was the first book I actually wanted to read. I got out of bed and sat by my night light to read more. ETA obviously not my first book ever, but the first I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/76 "2021-01-21T00:03:36Z")
I have a book that includes the lavendar ghost story called Strangely Enough, by C. B. Colby, which I still have. [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20749652-strangely-enough](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20749652-strangely-enough) ---
**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 21, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/77 "2021-01-21T00:40:34Z")
This is the first book I remember reading, though the copy I had was missing its dust jacket. IIRC, it was bound in plain black leatherette. (Must have been procured at a library.) [![](https://notapinkgirl.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_2028.jpg) ](https://notapinkgirl.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/img_2028.jpg) The illustrations were correspondingly creepy. This is the first thing I saw when I opened the cover. It was enough to give four-year-old me nightmares. [![](https://sites.create-cdn.net/siteimages/27/8/7/278726/6528852.jpg) ](https://sites.create-cdn.net/siteimages/27/8/7/278726/6528852.jpg) I don’t recall ever hearing of Helen Hoke before today. She apparently wrote a number of such books designed to scare the daylights out of small children. I’ll have to see if there are any at the Toronto Library when the lockdown is over. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/78 "2021-01-21T01:01:07Z")
Green Eggs and Ham. Or maybe The Cat in the Hat. Not sure which one was first. My mom taught me to read before I went to kindergarten. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/79 "2021-01-21T01:39:39Z")
Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler. My elementary school had a book nook in the classroom. Kids could check books out. It wasn’t big enough to call a library. I’d guess they had maybe 30 donated books. I started reading the Hardy Boys about the same time. I think the book nook had a couple. My parents bought me several. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/80 "2021-01-21T16:02:28Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I have a book that includes the lavendar ghost story called Strangely Enough, by C. B. Colby, which I still have. [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20749652-strangely-enough](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20749652-strangely-enough) That’s it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774.md?page=5)