# What were your favorite OBSCURE(?) children's books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684 "2008-01-16T00:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/161 "2012-08-06T18:24:19Z")
> [@3acresandatruck](#): > > The Golden Book Encyclopedias, as seen in [this eBay auction](http://cgi.ebay.com/Golden-Book-Encyclopedia-16-Volume-Set-1959-Mint-bonus_W0QQitemZ160198682046QQihZ006QQcategoryZ29223QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). If I did eBay, I’d buy this set - ours were severely worn. My Mom bought them, one each week, at our local Kroger grocery store when I was about 5. It was the first thing to make my parents think I was ‘a scary-wierd kid’, when they realized I was reading the volumes cover-to-cover, in sequence. They never tried to discourage me, though…when I finished the set, they bought the Golden Home and High School Encyclopedias; by the time I was in 8th grade, they bought the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia. I know they considered buying Encyclopedia Britannica (I remember lusting over the sample volume when the salesman was at our house), but it was just too expensive for them. > > I was also quite fond of spending hours sprawled on the living room floor, reading our Random House Unabridged Dictionary. You couldn’t hold it in your lap; it was so huge that it would cut off the circulation in your legs and you’d fall over when you tried to stand up. Both of these, to my uttler delight and social doom ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/162 "2012-08-06T18:34:12Z")
Couldnt finish (or correct the spelling in my last post) but the other book was Reader’s digest Great World Atlas. Huge oversized book I would open to various pages and pour over for hours. The solar system, the rocks and minerals, the death of the sun, which distressed me for years… I must have been the oddest 8 year old nihilist being upset then resigned to the eventual death of the sun. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/163 "2012-08-06T18:59:25Z")
I also enjoyed _The Liberation of Clementine Tipton_ (about a girl growing up in 1870’s Philadelphia) and _One Hundred and Eight Bells_ (about a girl growing up in 1950’s Tokyo), both by Jane Flory. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/164 "2012-08-06T19:02:53Z")
I don’t know is this is too mainstream for this thread, but I liked Jane Langton’s books, _The Swing in the Summerhouse_ and _The Diamond in the Window_. I just went to look up the author’s name, and was startled to see there are _six more books_ in [the series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Langton#The_Hall_Family_Chronicles), of which I was completely unaware! It appears I have some catching up to do. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gulch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Miss\_Gulch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gulch)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/165 "2016-07-11T15:50:19Z")
[COLOR=black][FONT=“Trebuchet MS”]I realize this is an old, old thread, but I just had to add some of my favorites. My apologies if these have already been mentioned.[/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=black][FONT=“Trebuchet MS”][/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=black][FONT=“Trebuchet MS”]Willard Price’s adventure books series[/FONT][/COLOR] The Boys Who Vanished - John F. Carson The City Underground - Suzanne Martel The Casket and the Sword - Norman Dale Mystery of the Witches’ Bridge (aka The Witches’ Bridge) - Barbee O. Carlton The Strange Light - Reeves Tom’s Midnight Garden - Pearce Follow My Leader - Garfield The Greyhound - Helen V. Griffith Light A Single Candle - Butler Green Eyes - Jean Nielsen The Horse That Had Everything - Wilde Ride Out the Storm - Bell Mystery Mountain - Laughlin Trail Through Danger - Steele The Secret Raft - Krantz The Lion’s Paw - White The Mystery of the Great Swamp - Zapf Blue Ribbons for Meg - de Leuw Berries Goodman - Neville The Taste of Spruce Gum - Jackson Crofton Meadows - Houston The Gatepost Mystery - Bothwell The Magic Drawing Pencil (aka Marianne Dreams) - Storr Adopted Jane - Daringer Jamie - Bennett The Little Lame Prince - Mulock That Certain Girl - Snow Black Forest Summer - Allan Tomas Takes Charge - Talbot The Mystery of the Missing Stamps - Clark The House of Secrets - Bawden The Witch’s Daughter - Bawden Chancy and the Grand Rascal - Fleischman The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare The Mystery of the Haunted Mine (aka The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros) - Shirreffs ---
**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:** [July 11, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/166 "2016-07-11T17:37:49Z")
I second \*\*\*The Mad Scientists’ Club \*\*\*and _ **Cinnabar, the One O’Clock Fox** _. Others I remember fondly from my grade school days: _ **Ten Beaver Road** _ _ **Terry Sets Sail** _ _ **Me and Caleb** _ _ **Project: Genius** _ _ **Andy Buckram’s Tin Men** _ _ **Caboose on the Roof** _ _ **Star Trek: Mission to Horatius** _ _ **Combat!: The Counterattack** _ The last two were Whitman “young readers’” books. I’d add the _ **Encyclopedia Brown** _ and \*\*\*Alvin Fernald \*\*\*books, but I don’t think they’re that obscure … or are they nowadays? Anything by Margeurite Henry belongs on a list like this. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/167 "2016-07-11T17:41:29Z")
I’ll add _ **When the Legends Die** _ too, though I was a junior in high school when I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/168 "2016-07-11T18:04:56Z")
I was fascinated by wildlife when I was a kid. There was a series of books by a guy named Robert M. McClung that I particularly enjoyed. They were geared toward children, and each book was a pretty comprehensive description of the biology and life cycle of one species, told in narrative form. They all had the same title format. Buzztail: The Story of a Rattlesnake, Bufo: The Story of a Toad, and Vulcan: The Story of a Bald Eagle are three that I remember. I borrowed those three many times. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/169 "2016-07-11T19:45:46Z")
My favorite book when I was a kid was [_The Tall Book of Make-Believe_](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1391210.The_Tall_Book_of_Make_Believe). It’s a book of unique(?) fairy tales, with some really incredible illustrations. I used to fantasize my own stories based on the illustrations, more than the stories themselves. I still have my well-worn copy after all these years. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/170 "2016-07-11T19:57:48Z")
I was introduced to a series of children’s book, entitled “The Twins Books,” by my husband who had read them as a child. These are not the Bobsey Twins books, but a collection of tales about twins, always a boy and a girl, from different countries(The Dutch Twins, The Mexican Twins, etc.) and eras(The Pioneer Twins,The American Twins of the Revolution), in each successive book the twins are a year older. First published in the early 1910’s thru the 30’s, horribly dated now, but charming and winsome. Lucy Fitch Perkins is the author, she also did the lovely illustrations. I’m missing 2 books, AFAIK, I believe there were 20 altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/171 "2016-07-12T00:24:23Z")
Most of the ones I came to share have been mentioned–the Green Knowe books, the Mushroom Planet books, The Teddy Bear Habit (weird book, man, illustrated by Lorenz), Tom’s Midnight Garden… I didn’t see Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson listed, loved that book. Mitch and Amy by Beverly Cleary is another I read again and again. I read constantly and voraciously as a kid, checking 20 books at a time out of the library (they extended the limit for me, kindly). I wish I could remember more of them. Astonishing to see all the ones listed I hadn’t read. ---
**Author:** ![oara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b77776/32.png) [@oara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oara)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/172 "2016-07-12T00:55:28Z")
I had a set of encyclopedias, and then assorted reference books like nature guides, history of the US, science books that other people gave us. I remember them rather positively overall. But it never occurred to me how I can’t say I have beloved fiction from childhood because I’d get loads of it from the library, read read read, return, rinse, repeat. And so all forgotten. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684.md?page=8)