# Your favorite kid's books **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 26, 2000, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849 "2000-07-26T00:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/121 "2000-08-16T22:27:40Z")
Man, all I want to do now is go home and curl up with my old favorites. Almost all of mine have already been mentioned several times over, but here are a couple more: _The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek_ _Davy’s Dream_ _Sylvester and the Magic Pebble_ _East of the Sun, West of the Moon_ (Illustrated by Michael Hague-- the pictures were gorgeous!) _Where the Red Fern Grows_ I’ve got to reiterate the _Tripod Trilogy,_, the _A Wrinkle in Time_ series, _Mrs. Piggle Wiggle_, _The Dark is Rising_, and _Anne of Green Gables_. Read them all a million times and still love them. And **Ukelele Ike** , a play called Shock-Headed Peter was recently here in Minneapolis. I laughed so hard I was crying and my cheeks hurt by the time it was over. It was put on by a company from London, featuring the Tiger Lillies. Anyway, it adopted all those macabre stories into a quasi-musical. Completely great. ---
**Author:** ![Hanofer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c37758/32.png) [@Hanofer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanofer)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/122 "2000-08-16T22:55:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by velvetjones \* > **Alice in Wonderland** Wonderland’s changed a bit… American McGee’s Alice ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/123 "2000-08-17T00:15:17Z")
I completely forgot Jacob Two-Two! I remember going with my class (I think in grade 2) to go see Jacob Two- Two and the Dinosaur as a play! I also love Robert Munsch (sp?) He is cool. One of my favs is The Paperbag Princess. I saw a newer one of his as well call ‘Good Families Don’t Have Farts’ or something along those lines. It was hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Mxyzptlk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@Mr\_Mxyzptlk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Mxyzptlk)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/124 "2000-08-17T01:32:16Z")
When I was a lad I used to love to read books about sports. There was an author whose name I can’t remember who wrote books about high school age boys involved in sports. Two of the books I remember are “Good Field No Hit” and “Long Ball to Left Field”. The same author also wrote stories about high school boys involved in football and basketball I also loved anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs…Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar kept me enthralled for hours As I got older books like the Grey Mouser and Ffaherd series along with books and stories by H.P.Lovecraft and Robert Howard (Conan the Barbarian) kept me busy many a night. Ah youth… ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/125 "2000-08-17T03:20:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > > So it is with great joy and alacrity that I mention: > > **The Tripod Trilogy.** _The White Mountains_, _The City of Gold and Lead_, and _The Pool of Fire_, by John Christopher. > \*\* BLESS YOU! I’ve been thinking about this series for some time; I so remember the total-freak-out it put me in about twenty years ago. Recently I’d looked for it on Amazon but didn’t find it – the only title I could remember was “White Mountain,” and, well, you can just imagine how many titles that pulled up. A small nit: it’s a quadrilogy, not a trilogy :). Now, a great book for grown-ups who like children’s literature: **Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom** , now available in paperback. (Here’s the [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0064462358/qid=966481160/sr=1-2/103-6655234-9762254) link.) Ms. Nordstrom was the brilliant editor who nurtured Margaret Wise Brown (“Good Night, Moon”), Garth Williams (illustrator of almost everything in the 50’s & 60s), Louise Fitzhugh (“Harriet the Spy”), Syd Hoff (“Danny and the Dinasaur”), Mary Rodgers (“Freaky Friday”), Russell Hoban (“Bedtime for Frances”), E. B. White (“Stuart Little” and, a little discovery she made when he was 23: Maurice Sendak. The letters are fantastic, highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Lor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea666f/32.png) [@Lor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lor)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/126 "2000-08-17T04:54:28Z")
Aha! A really interesting thread, for a change. Well, like most Dopers, I was a voracious reader as a kid. I can still remember going to the library in the summer and bumping into two “popular” girls from my class. They were amazed at my stack of twelve books that I had checked out. I have a few titles that you guys missed, nyah, nyah, nyah! Anybody remember the Danny Dunn series? I loved “Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave” How about Homer Price? He was a kid from a small town called Centerville, where the townspeople were always causing a commotion about something. My fave was the salesman selling cans of “odorless, tasteless, colorless, absolutely invisible Ever-So-Much-More-So!” In other words, a scam. “The Nonsense Book” and “The Hodgepodge Book”, wonderful books full of folklore, rhymes, jokes, riddles and everything a kid should know about being a kid. There was a really cool, gross-out rhyme in “Hodgpodge” that goes, “Did you ever think when the hearse rolls by, That someday in it you may lie?” A series about a kid named Rupert Piper: “Triple Trouble For Rupert” was one. Not bad, kind of cute stories. The McBroom series, about the guy with “Eleven red-headed youngsters” whose names I still remember: Will, Jill, Hester, Chester, Peter, Polly, Tim, Tom, Mary, Larry and little Clarinda. Yup, I was a geek. Any and all of the books illustrated by Wallace Tripp. He has the most wonderful illustrations to nonsense poems, like “If you are a gentleman, as I suppose you be, You’ll neither laugh nor smile at the tickling of your knee.” Someone mentioned the mythology books by the D’Aulaires. Beautiful illustrations. For little kids, “Journey Cake Ho!” Or something like that. It’s very cleverly rhymed. And of course, that old standby, Babar. Not my all-time fave, but I liked him. ---
**Author:** ![DavisMcDavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@DavisMcDavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavisMcDavis)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/127 "2000-08-17T05:07:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pmwgreen \* > \*\*Joined up just so I could post this…nobody’s mentioned my all time favorite… > > _Diamond In The Window_ by Jane Langton. > > \*\* Darn! I thought I was gonna be the first to mention the Tripods or the Dark is Rising, but missed those. Then I thought maybe **The Westing Game** , and finally I had my hopes held high for **Diamond in the Window**. I guess I can slightly redeem myself by adding that there was sequel called **The Swing In the Summerhouse** which I also liked. Actually, I’m kinda glad someone else read these books, they were soooo good. This thread brings back so many favorites, thanks to **Nekochan** for remembering the title of **Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth** as I couldn’t remember the middle of the title. > [@](#): > > The one about the maid that trimmed the steaks with rick rack and drew a picture of the drapes instead of opening them. That was rhe **Amelia Bedelia** series. I remember when she made the sponge cake by cutting up a sponge and mixing into regular cake batter. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/128 "2000-08-17T05:55:07Z")
(a) I have been continually impressed with the excellent conversations that take place here, so I finally had to sign up (b) I’m glad that some of my favorite children’s books remained unmentioned: for very young people: _Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day_ _Drummer Hoff Fires it Off_ (I think that’s what it’s called) _Frog and Toad are Friends_ and most of all _The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle_ older: -Anything by William Pene Dubois (someone mentioned _The Twenty-One Balloons_, but he also wrote some other excellent stuff) _The Egypt Game_ _Mara, Daughter of the Nile_ and _The Golden Goblet_ -Lots of stuff by Sid Fleishman (I think he wrote the _McBroom_ books, but also various other books) -The harper hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums) _The Princess and the Goblin_ and of course tons of the things that other people have mentioned (although perhaps I should follow the tradition and just “happen” to point out that when I was 18 months old, I was already reading Proust in several different translations, so I’m not quite sure what qualifies as _children’s_ books) ---
**Author:** ![PoorOldNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PoorOldNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorOldNerd)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/129 "2000-08-17T06:22:41Z")
Many of my favorites have been listed, (such as Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends and C.S. Lewis) but here are a few I haven’t seen listed: Bridge To Teribithia - my first “favorite” book; sad, the first to make me cry From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler - about kids who run away and live in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of course it took me about fifteen years to get to see the museum but it was still in my head. ---
**Author:** ![nemo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@nemo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nemo1)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/130 "2000-08-17T07:12:16Z")
Okay, maybe I missed it in my admittedly cursory scan of the third page, or maybe one or two people mentioned it, but does no one any longer care for “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland,” or for “Through The Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There” by the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll? I’m tempted to say it may be a generational thing, the dopers seeming to be a rather youngish lot, but really! I see no mention of Aesop’s Fables, either, for that matter, nor any of Edward Lear’s nonsense verses. I’m gratified to see a few mentions of “The Phantom Toolbooth,” and “A Wrinkle In Time,” and disappointed to see so much said of Bev Cleary’s “Ramona” books when her earlier “Henry Huggins” books (“Henry And The Paper Route” and “Henry And The Clubhouse,” in which Ramona had bit parts) were so far superior. _sigh_ I guess Ramona was more commercial. No-one so far seems to have mentioned Homer Price (I’m sorry, I don’t recall the author’s name, but three years ago, those stories could still be found in my local library via title search). There were about a dozen short stories, in which Homer’s uncle Ulysses and cousin Telemachus (get it?) figured fairly prominently as an inside joke for the parents who were reading the stories to their kids. The stories included Homer’s (temporary) pet skunk, Aroma; a bioengineering experiment (in the early 60’s, mind) that resulted in giant ragweed plants; a snake-oil salesman selling the perfect product: Ever-So-Much-More-So; and the construction of the first suburban cookie-cutter housing development in Centerburg, Ohio. Delightful stories, all. I’ve left out a few really good ones on purpose. I liked the first Harry Potter book, but am dismayed to learn that the American editions of all the HP books (the only editions available in the US, by publishing contract) have been TRANSLATED from English to American, of all things. Maybe I make too much of it, but part of the adventure of reading Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and, at a slightly older age, P.G. Wodehouse, was that the people and the narration spoke slightly differently, though not so you couldn’t understand them. It was a noteworthy part of what was enriching about that reading. SHAME on J.K. Rowling (the “J” is for Janice, BTW, another thing her American publishers would prefer to suppress, since, in their assessment, American boys would reject good stories if they knew they were written by a woman) for agreeing to this. I guess money talks, and inasmuch as she was homeless at one time, I suppose I can’t fault her for desiring financial security, but … YUCK! Someone earlier on mentioned that s/he had missed the undertones of Christian dogma in the Narnia books until re-reading them as an adult. I got that the first time around all right, but it wasn’t until I re-read the series when I was about seventeen that I picked up the Platonic undertones in the texts. Everytime I re-read one of those books now (about once a year in a continuing cycle), I find something I hadn’t known was there before. There may be no better example of literature that has enduring appeal for both children and adults than what I call the Heptateuch (seven books). I don’t think anyone has mentioned C.S. Lewis’ fabulous space trilogy (“Out Of The Silent Planet,” “Perelandra,” and “That Hideous Strength”), perhaps because it’s not routinely regarded as children’s lit. Certainly the third book is beyond most children (I read the first two at ten, couldn’t get through the third book until I was fourteen). How about “The Trolley Car Family?” Thank Bog someone finally mentioned “The Pushcart Wars.” I started to fear I’d hallucinated that whole thing until I saw a volume on my shelves of “Pushcart Prize” stories. Goodness, but I do go on. Sincere apologies to any and all whom I may have bored, offended, and/or patronized by my remarks. Peace, Nemo (no clever sig is my sig) ---
**Author:** ![nemo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@nemo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nemo1)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/131 "2000-08-17T07:22:53Z")
PS. I almost forgot: Nobody has mentioned the late lamented Edward Gorey (he died just a few months ago). Maybe my parents were too permissive and/or a bit weird to provide me with that stuff, but those lovely macabre drawings and verses were among my greatest delights as a child. I would not be surprised if nobody in the world except me and my siblings regard Gorey as Children’s Literature. On the other hand, I’m guessing that at least some of the dopers had some hip and/or weird, or, shall we say, unusual 'rents. Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![Togepi\_no\_Miko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Togepi\_no\_Miko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Togepi_no_Miko)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/132 "2000-08-17T08:32:30Z")
Greetings everyone. I have read every post on this thread and no one mentioned one of my favorite books: the Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, and sequels, by (i believe) Eleanor Cameron. And for the younger kiddlies; the Sesame Street ABC and 123 books. My favorite parts were the baseball game with the monsters, (Arkle-snarkle higgledy snoo just meant we want to play baseball too!) and King Hungry the Ate who ordered eight of everything for dinner… (I wonder if anyone will appreciate my username?) L8r! ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/133 "2000-08-17T12:19:01Z")
One that I think will be a classic to TODAY’S kids: “The Stinky Cheese Man” Hilarious book. Great send-ups of classic stories… ---
**Author:** ![jaytini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@jaytini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaytini)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/134 "2000-08-17T14:34:32Z")
i am trying to figure out where i can get the Hodgepodge book and the Nonsense books…i remember pretending they were like little kids spell books wioth all the folklore and superstition inside, they were great, AND I WANT TO HAVE THEM…any ideas, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Hanofer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c37758/32.png) [@Hanofer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanofer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/135 "2000-08-17T14:37:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hanofer \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by velvetjones \* > > **Alice in Wonderland** > > Wonderland’s changed a bit… > > American McGee’s Alice \*\* Sorry about that. Still getting the hang of vB codes. Try this one: [http://www.alice.ea.com/main.html](http://www.alice.ea.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![msouth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@msouth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msouth)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/136 "2000-08-17T16:26:03Z")
I read through three pages before I found “a cricket in times square” the author is George Selden, and I also recommend “Harry Cat’s Pet Puppy” and “Tucker’s Countryside”. I haven’t seen “the Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper” mentioned, and now I don’t remember whether I saw “the mouse and the motorcycle” “runaway ralph”, etc (those last few are Beverly Cleary). Someone did mention, and I wish to second, “the mad scientist’s club”, and someone mentioned Scott Corbett’s stuff. I liked a lot of his, including “The \_\_\_\_ Trick” (the Limerick Trick, the Lemonade Trick, etc). For picture books, I love “if you give a mouse a cookie” and “if you give a moose a muffn”. Also there’s a beautifully illustrated “jabberwocky” out there, and the best Dr. Suess book ever, “Fox in Socks” hadn’t been mentioned when I started the registration/posting process. I am positively amazed at how many of these books turn out to be out of print. I guess they had to drop something to print the [insert your favorite poor young adult literature here] series, eh? There’s a beautifully illustrated “the mitten” out there. I liked (but haven’t re-read) the Thornton W. Burgess animal stories (the adventures of Sammy Jay. I saw “charlie and the chocolate factory”, but no references to “Charlie and the great glass elevator”. My subject line “the 18th emergency” is a book by betsy byars. I read a lot of hers (“emergency” was probably my favorite). I remember liking “midnight fox” by her, but I haven’t been back to it. I also read “house of wings” and “the tv kid” by her, but don’t remember liking them as well. YMMV. I was excited to see that Alvin Fernald and Danny Dunn were mentioned. I didn’t see Ellen Raskin’s “the tattoed potato and other clues”, also a great one. Did anyone else read “ever ride a dinosaur?” also corbett, but I hadn’t seen it mentioned. I hate to admit that I read the bobbsey twins sets. I liked them a lot in first grade, though. Bert, Nan, Freddy and Flossie. Ugh. Kidnapped and Treasure Island, I think, were menionted. I also liked the Swiss Family Robinson (more the early part of the story than the latter) got to get some work done! ---
**Author:** ![orestes543](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b5e925/32.png) [@orestes543](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orestes543)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/137 "2000-08-17T17:05:29Z")
Well, there’s one here that I haven’t heard mentioned yet, and although it isn’t a children’s book, most people read it at about 13 or 14, **Ender’s Game** by **Orson Scott Card**. I just read this last year during my senior year of high school, and it blew me away. It was a really awesome book. Some others: \*\*The Nancy Drew Series \*\* \*\*The Chronicles of Narnia \*\* \*\*The Choose-Your-Own Adventure series \*\* That’s it for now. ---
**Author:** ![cakebelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@cakebelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cakebelly)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/138 "2000-08-17T17:11:11Z")
I love the Narnia books from C. S. Lewis and the Wrinkle in Time books from Madeleine L’Engle. I also liked the “choose your own adventure” books, which i always cheated at. When I got a little older, i realized how wide a range good writers have, as i enjoyed some of CS Lewis’ adult books as well (til we have faces, etc…) i also used to try to work my way through the Newberry Award list-THE be all end all source for summer reading for grammar school teachers. ---
**Author:** ![cakebelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@cakebelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cakebelly)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/139 "2000-08-17T17:13:35Z")
ohmygosh! i totally adore roald dahl!!! the witches was an absolute favorite among myself and four gradeschool chums-and we still laugh about it to this day-“poooooo!!! POOOOOOO!!” ---
**Author:** ![BobSchroeck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BobSchroeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobSchroeck)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849/140 "2000-08-17T17:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kat \* > \*\*the Ramona Quimby books > So You Want to be a Wizard > \*\* All of Diane Duane’s “Wizards” books are great, whether you’re an adult or a kid! – Bob [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-kids-books/26849.md?page=8)