I recently had a talk with a friend about the Dr. Dolittle books. Try as I might, I cannot FIND the box set of paperback stories that comprised the entire set of novels. I was given them as a child for Hannukah one year and they were quite wonderful.
We then talked about all of our favorite children’s books. Here is what I remember. I’m listing children’s books as stuff I enjoyed before the age of 12. Not that I didn’t re-read them after that age, but these are titles I know I discovered as a child.
Mods, I know this is a poll but it’s about literature so I put it in here. If it needs to slide to IMHO, I understand.
The 21 Balloons
The Little Prince
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Little House on the Prairie/ Big House In The Woods series
Noddy
later, The Naughtiest Girl In The School series and then the Famous Five and… well, everything else by Enid Blyton… the Galliano’s Circus books, the Children of Cherry Tree/Willow Farm books, The Magic Wishing Chair and sequel, The Folk of the Faraway Tree, etc.
More Spaghetti I Say
the Berenstain Bears books
The Best Nest
Dr Seuss books
No Such Thing As A Witch
Possum Magic
the Little House on the Prairie books
the Anne of Green Gables series
the Little Women series
Pollyanna
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Heidi
a lot of Robin Klein books, including Hating Alison Ashley, Junk Castle, Penny Pollard’s Diary, Halfway Across The Galaxy and Turn Left, Ratbags and Rascals
Encyclopedia Brown
Trixie Belden
Nancy Drew
The Chronicles of Narnia
Charlotte’s Web
most of Roald Dahl, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach, George’s Marvelous Medicine and The Twits
Alice in Wonderland
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (or is it NIHM? I always forget)
The Magic Pudding
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
I just know I’m forgetting hundreds.
I just read 21 Balloons and it is throughly enjoyable.
Little House on the Praire series was huge for me. Particularly Little House in the Big Woods. The rest, not so much.
Dr. Seuss
The Bearenstein Bears
Ping
Beatrix Potter
Boxcar Children
Adventures from Third Street School
Roald Dahl
Great Illustrated Classics
Wizard’s Hall
Dear America
The Magic School Bus
Black Beauty
Misty of Chinteague and all accompanying stories
The Black Stallion series
Little House on the Prairie series
Artie the Smartie (I made my parents read this to me when I was little until the book fell apart)
Horton Hears A Who
Charlotte’s Web
The Boxcar Children Series
Various and sundry Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books
You mean there was a Boxcar ChildrenSeries? I was ripped off! I read plenty of Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books–but even as a kid, realized that they wouldn’t stand up to re-reading.
Loved all the Little House books. But I never watched the TV show–because I knew that Paw did not look like Little Joe!
Little Women was my favorite Louisa May Alcott book. The others were pretty good–but I wasn’t surprised that she considered them hack work. (She had a bunch of relatives to support & her “wholesome” stuff sold better than her more adult, slightly racy stories.)
Twenty One Balloons was beautiful–& I need to get a copy!
Andre Norton’s The Stars are Ours was my first SF. Loved her other stuff & Heinlein’s “juveniles.”
Am I the first Edward Eager fan? (Start with Half Magic & Knight’s Castle.)
And–who wouldn’t want to be raised by wolves? Especially if you could have a black panther as teacher.
They were my first book, and came in a singe volume, writen by Milne and illustrated by Shepard, and got me through half a year in which I was confined to a hospital bed.
Too many to list, but… I really liked Robert Lawson’s books about animals who were pets of, or who helped, famous people. I Discover Columbus was about the parrot who helps guide Columbus; Ben and Me was about the mouse who gives Ben Franklin all his great ideas; Captain’s Kidd’s Cat (my favorite) is self-explanatory, as is Paul Revere’s Horse. They’re a great way to interest kids in history; I think most, if not all, are still in print. The illustrations are even better than the text, which is always fun. Lawson’s Rabbit Hill series, about the community of woodland creatures who live near a mansion, is also terrific. He also did the illustrations (although he didn’t write the text, IIRC) for Ferdinand, about a sweet-tempered bull in Spain who doesn’t want to take part in the bullfights.
I also really liked The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, based on an old Russian folktale, which is simply delightful. Ditto Caps for Sale!, about a cap salesman and a treeful of mischievous monkeys.
I loved Half Magic as a kid, but I recently reread it and was disappointed at its failure to stand up.
All of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne and Emily books.
Elizabeth Enright’s Melendy books.
I think I read everything Beverly Cleary every wrote.
Ditto Judy Blume, although I was maybe a little older then. Esp. Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself.
Loved the Little House books. I STILL want to live in a sod house, like Laura does in By the Banks of Plum Creek, dammit. I’m currently living in a fairly nineteenth century fashion (well, if they had the internet in nineteenth century, obviously), and I cheer myself up when I’m carting water back to my house by imagining myself in a Little House book.
Loved Zilpha Keatley Snyder, especially The Egypt Game.
Oh yeah, and for a couple years in elementary school, I read about eight trillion Babysitters’ Club books.
Like a lot of dopers, probably too many to list, but the series that I read most often are:
[ul]
[li]The Tom Swift Jr. books. Gave me my first interest in science and technology. Which is a bit part of my career now. [/li][li]The Hardy Boys[/li][li]The Black Stallion[/li][li]The Three Investigators[/li][li]Encyclopedia Brown[/li][li]There was the great two volume kids encyclopedia set that used Disney characters for all the entries. I’ve looked, but never been able to find it. [/li][/ul]
I also read the Little House on the Prarie books, but I only remember reading them once, where as all these other series I read over and over. Several of them I’ve actually collected and have for when my children are a bit older.
Pooh
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Dr. Seuss
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Richard Scarry
Dr. Doolittle
Beverly Cleary
Henry Huggins
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Miss Pickerell
Pipi Longstocking
The Just So Stories
Encyclopedia Brown
]