Two words: “Encyclopedia Brown”
The Hardy Boys series
The Hobbit - LOR
The Three Investagators, another Mystry series, I can’t remember the author
kknick, I’m having a flashback concerning the Three Investigators… was one of the kids called Jupiter Jones?
And how could I forget “A little princess”!
Sex appeal – Give generously
We read The Bookhouse a series of 8(?) books of collected tales ranging from fairy tales in vol 1 to adventures and mysteries in vol 8. These were outstanding books for kids, but I bet they are out of print now since no one I know has ever heard of them.
The Happy Hollister series
A Child’s Garden of Verses --R.L. Stevenson
James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Great Glass Elevator --Roald Dahl
The Cricket in Times Square (I’d almost forgotten that one, thanks, michelle.)
Winds of Chance --Jeffrey Farnol
Elfquest series --Pini
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
Snow Treasure
Shadow Castle
Loved these but I can’t recal the authors – who looks when you’re nine?
~tomorrow is promised to no one~
Oh, there’s so many! Most of which are already mentioned. Stoidelia, I’m right there with you on A Little Princess. I LOVED that book (still do!) and I was so upset the first time I saw the Shirley Temple movie. I mean, come on! We can deal with her Dad being dead!
Off my rant now… let’s see, kid’s books.
#1 all favorite still read 'em at least once every couple years - The Chronicles of Narnia
A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy - I had one book that had all these in it so I think of 'em together.
All the Dr. Suess books, with the Lorax at the top of the list. Go Dog Go is next.
A book called “Are you my Mother?” Don’t know the author. This is a young kid’s book.
I read Little House on the Prairie. Liked it fine, but it wasn’t on the same level as A Little Princess and the Narnia books.
Anne McCaffrey’s Pern trilogy for kids… let’s see, that’s Dragonsinger, Dragonsong, and … one more… I think.
Little Women
Judy Blume novels
Charlotte’s Web
The World Book Encyclopedia (I loved reading these!)
The entire contents of the Peter White Public Library children’s room. My dream was to live next door.
I just went through my so-called childhood reading stage (I’m 14, and I think it ended well before I was 13). My favorite book was probably Boy, by Rhoald Dahl. I read it when I was about 9. It’s Dahl’s autobiography. The things he talks about are funny, sad, and strange, much like Dahl’s books. What a life that guy had. Of couse to write like he did, he must have.
Oh, I remember the Three Investigators. The smart, fat kid was Jupiter Jones and he lived in a junkyard. He and his two buddies (names? one wore a leg brace, I think) ran around solving weird crimes. I think the series was written under the name of but not by Alfred Hitchcock.
~tomorrow is promised to no one~
Without a doubt “Moominland Midwinter.” This book totally took me to another world as a child, and still has the same effect on me as an “adult”. It’s the “comfort food” of books.
“Stop the rope and let me in or I’ll go out and get some gin”
Shirley, I could kiss you just for mentioning “Flat Stanley.” NOBODY else I ever talk to remembers that book, and it was one of my favorites.
“The Great Brain” series is good. It’s similar to “Encyclopedia Brown” except it’s set around the turn of the century in Utah and the Great Brain is a member of the LDS church. Good stuff, though.
Other faves were:
Charlotte’s Web (of course)
A Cricket In Times Square
The Little Prince
The Hobbit
“Argue with what I said, not what you think or hope I said.” - Me
After reading everyone else’s posts I don’t know how I could have forgotten some of those books! I LOVED Judy Blume! Harriet the Spy was also great. And now they are making a movie out of Stuart Little. Wrinkle in Time was fantastic, wasn’t that actually part of a set? I also read just about every Nancy Drew book, but I wasn’t really thrilled with them, so I left those off my list.
Oh, yeah, Flat Stanley! I just explained that book to a friends daughter a few weeks ago. So she read it and loved it. Made me feel great.
Actually, almost everything that has been mentioned. Read 'em, loved 'em, still read 'em.
I just finished reading the first chapter of Charlotte’s Web to my daughter last night, and it’s great watching her get into it.
::sigh::
Waste
Flick Lives!
Wow, what a lot of great memories. Thanks, guys! I was a real fan of: Narnia, Secret Garden, Little Women, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys (agree: they are pretty yucky reading them as an adult).
Two of my absolute favorites, that I’ve bought to keep forever: The Tough Winter and Rabbit Hill by Larson.
Then I got into Ellery Queen and Conan Doyle, even though a lot of it was over my head. Some combination, huh? Sherlock Holmes and The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Nostalgic sigh,
Veb
So many of my childhood favorites have been mentioned (Nancy Drew series, Dr. Suess, Little House on the Prairie, Narnia Chronicles, etc), but I think my all time favorite was “Where the Red Fern Grows”. It has kind of a sad ending, but I loved this book when I was about ten or so.
Shadowfox
“Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with
great ambitions.”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Phil, the Great Brain and his family weren’t Mormons…they were part of a small minority of Catholics in the Utah town.
Not that this had anything to do with the stories, really, (and excellent stories they are, too) but I’m fussy about my children’s lit facts.
Otis, MOOMINLAND MIDWINTER is on my to-read-to-daughter shelf. We’re currently on FINN FAMILY MOOMINTROLL. Glad to know that there’s another good 'un waiting.
Uke
The Three Investigators:
–Jupiter Jones (the smart stout one), Bob Andrews (the bookish one), and Pete Crenshaw (the athletic one). IIRC, Pete had a leg brace in one story, but it wasn’t a permanant condition.
–several authors contributed to the series; Hitchcock was a mentor to the boys in the original editions (not in the current reprints, however. I guess they are afraid kids won’t know who Hitch was.)
I loved the Great Brain books, too.
The Narnia Chronicles, the books about the little people that lived under the floor called The Borrowers, Beverly Cleary books, Encyclopedia Brown, Little House books, A Cricket in Times Square, What the Witch Left. Great books, all of them.
When I was a really young, I loved the Amelia Bedelia books and Clifford books.
Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew were huge faves. I also really liked the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. A couple other standouts were “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles,” by Julie Edwards (Julie Andrews, using her married name), and “Charlie & the Great Glass Elevator.”
My all-time favorite book when I was a really littler kid was a book about an Easter bunny who was late for Easter. I think that was the title, in fact, “The Easter Bunny Who Was Late,” or something like that. There were pictures of EB dressed up in all kinds of holiday outfits, trying to offload the eggs he hadn’t delivered at Easter time. If anyone else knows of this book and where I can get a copy, please let me know!
Harold and the Purple Crayon, with accompanying 45 record.
For you young-uns, a 45 record is a 7" vinyl disc that could record about 5 minutes of music. 
The Giver by Lois Lowry.
The Nancy Drew Mysteries.
The Hardy Boys.
Encyclopedia Brown, as has been said, is wonderful.
And my personal favorite, The Golden Book Encyclopedia. (Yeah, the volumes themselves)
shrug So I was a weird kid.
-John
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Charlottes Web
my all time favourite was Little Black Sambo which now has been pulled from all libraries because of the racism factor… I never thought about it that way… it was just a great story