This thread’s already listed alot of childhood favorites; The Oz books, The Hobbit, Danny Dunn, the Heinlein juveniles, The Twenty One BalloonsEncyclopedia Brown, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, Jules Verne. One that hasn’t been mentioned in The Magic Chalk. It was about a boy who had a piece of magic chalk with the power that anything he drew became real. I had a copy when I was a young lad and about ten years ago I saw a copy at a garage sale and bought it for a friend who had young children. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the author’s name but I believe he was Scandinavian (the book was a translation).
Christmas books: The Year Without a Santa Claus by Phyllis McGinley The Littlest Angel
Every-day books: Anatole The Red Balloon
and not so esoteric, but good for boys who might find reading a chore:
Matt Christopher has about 20-30 sports-themed books out, appropriate for 3rd-6th grades, I’d guess.
A Shel Silverstein book called “Lafcado, the Lion Who Shot Back.” I’m butchering spelling the names, but it was a hilarious book about a lion who ate the hunters, learned to shoot their rifle, went on to great acclaim in the human world as a trick shot artist and who then went back to the jungle, dressed as a hunter, and couldn’t figure out why his old lion pals didn’t recognize him and weren’t happy to see him.
And to think I thought I was the only one to have read A Wrinkle In Time.
The sequel to A Wrinkle In Time was pretty cool to.
A few others:
Encyclopedia Brown
The Hobbit
I, Robot by Issac Asimov
Various Mad Magazine mags and paperbacks Star Trek novels Farenhieght 451 (sp) The Martian Chronicles
Various other Bradbury short stories
A shit load of DC comic books like Batman, Superman, and The Justice League of America
A bunch of “Ask me why” books, especially the ones with the Peanuts characters. and 20 years later, here I am, still visiting places that answer questions
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Okay, I’ll stop shrieking long enough to post a reply. I have hardly anything to add; I can second almost everything that’s been named here. Just let me clarify, though; Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry and Half Magic by Edward Eager were each the first in their series. What the Witch Left was one of many, although not a series, by Ruth Chew. The story about the witch and the bumblebee was The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes. All her stuff is good, and I also recommend Elizabeth Enright (the Melendy family and Gone-Away). Also, Richard Peck, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Norma Klein, Lois Duncan, Maurice Sendak, Ellen Raskin and Anne Alexander.
Once I was in a Borders and a kid was asking if they had any books about people being shrunk. I was a customer, but I overheard and recommended Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine. Would you believe it wasn’t in print?! I hope he found a library copy. Once I was waitressing and the soup of the day was chicken with rice. I served it as Maurice Sendak soup. Some people knew what I meant; some didn’t.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Wow, a lot of my favorites here, though I read a lot of them when I was older than 13, some of them very recently.
Ben and Me, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and the Black Stallion series were great, also the Miss Pickerell books. I recommend them to all the kids in the school library where I volunteer. IMO, the best of the Seuss books are the Horton ones.
Probably my favorite from those years is The Plain Princess, by I don’t know who.
My daughters, who are both in that age range, love The Bridge to Terabithia, and Tuck Everlasting.
Now, I have two “mystery books”. One of them is about a young girl who lives with a witch who she thinks is her mother. At some point she finds out that her real mother is imprisoned in one of the witch’s bottles of potions, or something like that, and at the end of the book, the witch turns into an anteater. Oh, and the little girl’s name is Minx.
The other is set in England, and is about three(I think) friends or siblings on holiday in the country, staying with someone they are not totally familiar with. Distant relative, or something. They discover a cloak that makes people invisible, a magic ring, and some sort of maze or magic temple. I know that isn’t much to go on, but those are the visual images I remember.
Oh, and Zenna Henderson’s books about “The People” are wonderful. No Different Flesh, and another one. I wanted to find those people and be one of them.
Well, as long as someone’s mentioning Natalie (TUCK EVERLASTING) Babbitt, lemme throw in a plug for THE DEVIL’S STORYBOOK and THE DEVIL’S OTHER STORYBOOK.
Anybody remember the “LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS”? I’m trying to locate a copy of a volume called “PERRI and PORRO”
Anybody out there know where I can find? -AMAZON doesn’t have it.
You all have mentioned so many. As I skimmed through, I didn’t see:
A Fish Out of Water (little kid’s book)
The “Tom Swift” series
All the Bill Peet books (more stuff for little kids)
“Freddie the Pig” series (Walter R. Brooks)
As for Natalie Babbitt: I wrote to her once to tell her how much I loved “The Search for Delicious” and “Kneeknock Rise” and she answered me – personally! She asked me to send her a copy of my first book. What class. I had framed a quotation from “Delicious” :
“Facts are the barren branches on which we hang the dear obscuring foliage of our dreams.”
The following commercial sites are provided as an informational service. I have no financial ties to these sites (except I buy a fair amount of books through them.) If this is a violation of the board policy, please delete this post, and let me know… http://www.abebooks.com/http://www.addall.com/http://www.bookfinder.com/
The Beverly Cleary books: Ellen Tebbitts, Otis Spofford, and the Henry Huggins series through Henry and the Clubhouse. (I turned 14 the year that one was published.) Mr. Popper’s Penguins (author’s name was Atwater) Big Tree (about Wawona the redwood tree) Pepper (about a raccoon) The Shy Stegosaurus of Cripple Creek
Sorry, I don’t know the names of these three books’ authors.) Building Blocks of the Universe by Isaac Asimov
And KSO: I think I remember Little Witch…was her name Little Minx, or something like that? Did bad children get turned into flowerpots? Whatever it was, I loved it too.
I was at Borders today and saw copy of Phantom Tollbooth and I have seen it, but I don’t remember reading it. I have added that to my book wish list…excuse me…my children’s book wist list
I have a couple of books I want to add that are recent publications. Anyone with kids in their life might want to check into them.
Say Please. (By Virginia Austin, Candlewick Press, 1994, ISBN:156402833) Great for preschoolers with soft pictures. Teaching a little boy to Say Please through the animal’s in his life. " The dog said, Throw my ball, woof woof. Please…" ($4.99)
**Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star ** (By Iza Trapani, Whispering Coyote Press, 1994. ISBN:1580890156) A wonderfully new variation on the familiar poem with lovely illustrations. Very lyrical. Parents will enjoy it as much as the kids. ($6.95)