And A.A. Milne- not, actualy, the stories so much as the poetry-
“James, James
Morrison, Morrison
Whetherby George Duprey
Took
Great
Care of his Mother
Though he was only three.”
of course to really appreciate them, you have to have my mother come over your house and read them to you.
There’s a couple I almost forgot till i started working in a bookstore:
The Search for Delicious
The Light Princess (for the longest time I thought I dreamt that story)
Mistress Masham’s Repose
If you don’t know them, read them. Better yet, have children just so you can read them to them.
Yep, those are the ones. Alfred Hitchcok would loan them his limo and they had their secret hideout in an old trailer buried in a junkyard. I never really understood the Hitchcock connection, but it’s been a while. I heard that they are revising the old series and it no longer has any reference to Alfred Hitchcock…some kind of legal mumbo jumbo with his estate.
JESS – I too love the Betsy/Tacy books, but mostly the later ones (high school and marriage). I went out an bought a bunch of them when they were reissued in paperback a couple years ago, but not the early ones (“Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill”) because they’re not as interesting to me.
I also read and re-read childrens’ books. My favorite “chapter book” is one called The Brothers Lionheart by the woman who wrote Pippi Longstocking – Lindstrom? It’s very different from Pippi, though, a fantasy-type saga for an older reader – what I think they now call “young adult.” My favorite “picture book” is Arrow To The Sun, which I vividly recall reading and loving in first grade.
Other faves:
– Louisa May Alcott books – Little Women, Eight Cousins
– The Dark Is Rising series
– The Chronicles of Narnia
– Scott O’Dell books – Island of the Blue Dolphins
– The Westing Game, which I recommend to every “young reader” I meet.
Some recently published favorites include Ella Enchanted, Catherine, called Birdy, and The Midwife’s Apprentice, all more for girls than for boys. And, of course, Harry Potter.
My favorites for kids’ poetry are Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends and A.A. Milne’s Now We Are Six
denbo-I though so. Those were really good. I still have the series packed away up in my attic. I looked for them at the bookstore for a friend’s son, but I couldn’t find them. (Pre-web). I hope when they revive them they reissue the old stories also.
I do! I had at least 3-4 of those books and I loved them! Unfortunately, I went through this phase where I wanted to be a do-gooder so I took like 1/3 of my books and donated them to the library, and I think my Bunnicula books were among those. sniffle sniffle
Does anyone remember How to be a Perfect Person in Three Days? It was about a kid in 4th grade who thought he was a loser so he took this book out of the library telling him how to be perfect. It included wearing a piece of broccoli around his neck. I remember our teacher having us wear broccoli every day when we read that story. I love hands-on learning! :^)
Whenever these threads come along, I read through them quickly, desperately hoping that my Great Suggestion hasn’t already been taken by someone else. Then I quickly hit Reply and compose a fast message, my heart pounding at the possibility of a simulpost.
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.
(Here’s the Amazon link. This edition has the whole series in one volume.)
The first book was our in-class “story time” read-aloud selection in 5th or 6th grade. After less than a week, I was so hooked I went to the library, got all three books, and zipped straight through them. Appropriate for kids ages 8 to 15; adventurous, thoughtful, and just a little scary in all the right places.
If you haven’t read these, do. They still hold up (mostly) for an adult reader. You’re welcome…
P.S. A big “second the motion” to the George and Martha books. Wonderful, wonderful.
I loved Richard Scary as much for the illustrations as the storied themselves.You could sit and find all sorts of little details.Where’s the goldbug?
When we were very little, my brother and I loved a Sesame Street book called “There’s a Monster at the End of This Book”.Throughout the book Grover is trying to talk you out of turning the page.It was just hysterical but not a good bedtime story.Got us too wound up.
**Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle!**She was a kind of good witch with all kinds of magical ways to get kids to behave and do what they were told.And she lived in an upside down house!How cool is that?
I read Watership Down to my hubby a few years ago and we both loved it.Now I’ve given it to my favorite niece and she’s hooked too.Reading is such a fun addiction!
I can’t belive I forgot:
Bunnicula
A Wrinkle In Time
Little Women
Pippi Longstocking
I just realized that I don’t remember any picture books. I know my parents must have read them to me, but I can’t think of a single one.
I love the Louis Sachar series, Sideways Stories From Wayside School. I can’t get enough of them. Also, Shel Silverstein’s, A Light in the Attic, and all of its spin-offs.
I have just realized that I remember no books I had read when a child, except for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea while in second grade. Took me some time to read it, too. Got one gold star. Kelly Sullivan read about thirty Go, Dog, Go! or Ten Apples Up On Top books in the same time frame and SHE got the prize. Bitch.
That made me turn to comic books and Mad Magazine…
Anything by Dr. Seuss
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Lord of the Rings
Robert Peck’s ‘Soup’ books
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Blubber
Bridge to Terabithia
The ‘Great Brain’ books
Island of the Blue Dolphins
How to Eat Fried Worms
Dear Mr. Henshaw
The Redwall Abbey series
Anything by Roald Dahl
The Three Investigators series
Anything by John Bellairs
My sister liked R.L. Stine, as well as those Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley High books.
Tuck Everlasting
Number the Stars
Sign of the Beaver
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Maniac Magee
Skinnybones
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Hundred Dresses
I think it’s Harold and the Purple Crayon. Did the same guy do one about a dinosaur, a brontosaurus (back when we called them that, uh-huh), or is that the same book?
Clifford the Big Red Dog was a favorite of mine; also any Richard Scarry books (hurray for Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm!).
Also, someone mentioned So You Want to be a Wizard I though I was the only one. I have made so many people read them, and they all love them.
I also loved these:
The Westing Game (If you haven’t read this, GO GET IT you could read it in one sitting, it’ll take you about an hour. It’s wonderful)
The babysitter’s Club (up to 40 or so, then they kinda got old)
Thoroughbred, ALL of them
Tuck Everlasting
The MYTH Books (you know Skeeve and Aahz not really for kids but I read them whe I was in middle school)
Magic Kingdom, for Sale (also not for kids, but I read ALOT when I was little)
Make way for Ducklings
The Phantom Tollbooth (Once again, if you haven’t read this, read it you’ll laugh your ass off)
Mythology (any and all)
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
The Redwall books
King of the Wind
The Dear America Series (these are relativley new, the were the pre-Harry Potter rage)
The Hobbit
The Stainless Steel Rat series
My Teacher Is An Alien
Dr. Dolittle: A Treasury
But, my all time favorite book growing up was, believe it or not, The Count of Monte Cristo I had a “Young Reader’s” version and I absolutley loved it. Now I read the real one and its even better.
Well, heck, the really good stuff’s already been mentioned, but here’s one: I had a great fondness (as in, I checked it out of the library at least six times) for a book called Sir MacHinery. Premise: an inventor moves into a castle in Scotland to work on a robot. Some brownies (the mythical kind, not the junior-Girl Scout kind) discover the completed robot, and, since he looks like a knight in armor and there are boxes labeled “machinery” lying about, they call him “Sir MacHinery” (Scotland, ha!) and decide to recruit him for a Mission of Great Importance. Full of heroic stuff, ghosts, brownies, the Loch Ness Monster, and other coolness.
