# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**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, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/81 "2021-01-21T16:07:18Z")
I can’t imagine kids are allowed anywhere near some of these scary/spooky books we read as kids. It must have been a popular genre for kids back in the 60s & 70s. I loved scary books. And I also loved to watch the scary movies, especially the ones with Vincent Price. I was probably 7 or 8 when I first watched them. The adults never seemed to think anything of it. ---
**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 21, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/82 "2021-01-21T16:35:41Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I can’t imagine kids are allowed anywhere near some of these scary/spooky books we read as kids The Goosebumps series? A Series of Unfortunate Events? Amazon even has a category for [Childen’s Spine-Chilling Horror](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&rh=n%3A3018&url=node%3D3018). I’m not sure how these books compare with the books we read as children in terms of degree of scariness, but they are very popular. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/83 "2021-01-21T23:21:18Z")
Basically the first I remember, all at roughly the same time, are _The Donald Duck Book_, and two Dr Seuss books: _And to That I Saw It on Mulberry Street_, and _The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins_. I was maybe fours years old. A couple of years later I had _In the Days of the Dinosaurs_ by Roy Chapman Andrews. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/84 "2021-01-22T01:28:36Z")
My first book was a comic book, Detective Comics #179. I found it, coverless, in the attic, and kept reading it until I more or less understood the story, which was a chore since a lot of it was pretty idiotic, like a lot of the old Batmans. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/85 "2021-01-22T01:36:57Z")
_A Fly Went By._ or, possibly _Nobody Listens To Andrew_ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/87 "2021-01-22T06:25:56Z")
The first picture book I can remember is _Georgie and the Robbers_ by Robert Bright. The first novel could have been _The Enchanted Wood_, _The Wind in The Willows_ or _The Hobbit_. I have distinct memories of reading all 3 (with some help for the words I didn’t understand) but couldn’t say which was first. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/88 "2021-01-22T06:54:10Z")
When I first saw this thread, I was going to say that there’s no way I could possibly remember. But I do have a vague recollection of one of the first books I ever read myself, if perhaps not the very first, but then I was stuck on remembering the title. And it suddenly came to me – one of those very distant memories that suddenly pops up to the surface – it was _It Happened One Day_. The book has gone through a number of editions, but it was awesome to find this particular cover picture, because that was exactly the book I had! (I’m not quite so old that the 1938 date is pertinent – I either had quite an old book, or there were many reprints using that cover). Now that I’ve found it, I may just end up ordering one from a used bookseller. > **[It Happened One Day-Wonder Story Books-Huber et al. | #101071480](https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/happened-one-day-wonder-story-books-101071480)** > > It Happened One Day: The Wonder-Story Books Miriam Blanton Huber, Frank Seely Salisbury, and Mabel O'Donnell Row, Peterson and Company, 1938, 200 pages, 6 wide x 8 tall, color illustrations Cover is ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/90 "2021-01-22T08:08:38Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Now that I’ve found it, I may just end up ordering one from a used bookseller. Ha! I found several original 1938 first editions, and just ordered one that is supposed to be in pretty good shape. Looking forward to a major burst of childhood nostalgia! Would never have done it if the Dope hadn’t triggered this old memory! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/91 "2021-01-23T11:09:05Z")
Carolyn Haywood was one of my favorite childhood authors. She also a series about a character named Betsy and her little sister, Star. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/92 "2021-01-23T11:44:49Z")
_Bunnicula_ at age 7. Made an intentional effort to emulate my parents and start reading. It worked. Being under 100 pages long was a big contributor to not getting overwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/93 "2021-01-23T12:36:07Z")
The first book i remember reading is “Snow”. It’s in the “i can read” series, and it was boring, and my mother was teaching me to read and made me read it. She succeeded, but i don’t remember what the first book i read on my own might have been. I do know that the first “adult” book i read was “the Lord of the Rings”. My father read “the Hobbit” to me, and i liked it, so he gave me his copy of LOTR. I was in second grade. I learned the concept of a paragraph from that book. I tried to end each night at the end of a sentence, but soon realized that some sentences weren’t good ending points. I also developed reading fluency from reading LOTR. I spent months reading “the fellowship of the ring”, but whipped through the other two much faster. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/94 "2021-01-23T13:01:18Z")
This’ll date me: I think it was a hand-me-down from my older brother, called [Bulgy the Barrage Balloon](https://pallantbookshop.com/product/enid-marx-bulgy-the-barrage-balloon/) ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774/95 "2021-01-23T16:29:13Z")
There was a book about all things underwater, both freshwater and saltwater, that belonged to my brother. It even covered diving and fishing equipment. I think the diving chapter featured Jacques Cousteau. Since I read a chapter in this book about raising brine shrimp, I was actually excited when I learned the truth about sea monkeys. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-book-you-remember-reading-as-a-child/930774.md?page=4)