Euty:
That’s YOUNG ADULT NOVEL. It’s my favorite of his, too, it’s currently available in the omnibus edition 5 NOVELS, and everyone should go out right now and buy it.
5 NOVELS also contains ALAN MENDELSSOHN, THE BOY FROM MARS, and THE SNARKOUT BOYS AND THE AVACADO OF DEATH. So what are you waiting for?
Books that are in my kid’s collection that I can read and have read 100x and never become bored with them.
My list is for 1-7 years of age.
Imogene’s Antler’s ( David Small)
Edward and the Pirates (? McPhail)
Twas the night before Thanksgiving (dav Pilkey)
Anno’s Counting book (Matsuma? Anno) Great for learning to count. I like the artwork.
Bob the Snowman - great to begin concept of where snow and rain come from. Nice illustrations.
Chyrsthanamum
Lili’s plastic Purse
Julius, Baby of the world
Weekend with Wendall ( all four of these are by Kevin Henkes and delightful. My son just loves saying Wendall (the antagonist) and Sophie ( 0ur hero) names.)
Goose - Molly Bang
Any of the Mercer Mayer Books ( put out by Golden Books)
I’m a little tea pot
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Twinkle Twinkle little star > Iza Trapina. Can’t recommend them enough and give them as gifts.
McDuff Series ( four books total) by Rosemary wells ( I think)
Zak: The One of a Kind Dog. Great photo’s of Zak, a mutt searching for his identity.
If I cannot find my books via used book stores, I try
http://www.half.com . I’ve had excellent luck there. Gift books, naturally, are from the bendover stores.
Outside Over There , by Maurice Sendak
The Frog and Toad Treasury , by Arnold Lobel
A Wrinkle in Time , by Madeleine L’Engle
Little House on the Prairie , series
anything Dr. Seuss
Are You My Mother?, by P.D. Eastman
anything by Russell and Lillian Hoban (the Francis series comes to mind)
What Was That?, can’t remember author, about three little brother bears hearing strange sounds at night after they are in bed.
A lot of the books I read as a kid have already been mentioned. I remember my fourth grade teacher reading us both “How to be a Perfect Person in Just 3 Days” and the first two books in the Bunnicula series.
A couple of my favorites that haven’t been mentioned are :
All the Little Critter books, by Mercer Meyer (my mom still buys me new ones when they come out)
“Behind the Attic Wall” I don’t remember the author, but I read this book all the time in middle school
And my all time favorite children’s book: “Morris’s Dissapearing Bag” By Rosemary Wells (anything by her is good). If you haven’t read this one, I highly suggest it… especially if you can find a young child to share it with!
On a side note, I often volunteer at a children’s book bank, cleaning up and repairing donated books to be redistributed to needy children. While we are there, my friends are always telling me to work more, and read less. I just can’t help it… Kids books are the best!
I agree with a lot of the books posted already, but I thought I’d mention one that I haven’t seen.
Stellaluna is this beautiful story about a bat who is raised as a bird. It’s for really young children, but I still love it dearly. (I’m taking it to college with me. Shh.)
andygirl
My Side of the Mountain
Used to sit out in the woods reading that one, back in the days when a kid could be gone for 4 hours without mom calling out the National Guard.
Joined up just so I could post this…nobody’s mentioned my all time favorite…
Diamond In The Window by Jane Langton.
Also, several people mentioned Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, but nobody’s mentioned The Little House by the same author.
And John Bellairs needs another vote too. Mansion In The Mist and his other recent stuff is good, but my favorite always has been Face In The Frost. It was just about the last fantasy written before Tolkien hit the US.
E posted earlier about Ruth Chew … and that name struck a chord. While searching on Amazon for a book that I remember from my childhood, I discovered that it was written by Ruth Chew! The book? The Wednesday Witch. Very cute.
Another book that I read and reread was titled, I believe, “The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot” by Marian T. Place. It’s a unique book that combines a touching story about a boy dealing with foster parents and a believable account of Bigfoot in the northwestern U.S.
There are two books that I have very vivid memories of, but cannot for the life of me remember the title. For some reason, the title of one seems to stick in my mind as “What’s Wrong With You, Katie?”, but I can’t locate it anywhere. It’s a story about a young girl dealing with faltering friendships and alienation and (I vaguely remember) a move. There’s a passage where she explores an old abandoned farmhouse that holds a special place in my memory.
The other (and I know I read this book) was about a family who went on vacation for the summer and the young daughter begins to hear stories of a witch who lives across the lake. This “witch” has three eyes and plays her magical flute while standing on a rock in the middle of the lake. The girl eventually discovers the truth. It sounds like I’m making that up! Does that plot sound familiar to anyone?
I also had to sign up to post to this thread. My new wife and I fell in love reading each other our favorite childrens’ books as bedtime stories. My first birthday gift for her was an out of print Maurice Sendak book. We love everything by him we have read. Of course Winnie the Pooh is another favorite.
I’ve only seen The Dark is Rising series mentioned once–I read these at least five times in a row straight through when I was eight. I got my first girlfriend by telling her she had “Eyes that could see the Wind.” (with apologies to Susan Cooper)
The Great Brain and Encyclopedia Brown were favorites I had forgotten about. I loved the sneetches; it’s ironic that here in Colorado we call the Texans who ski wearing Cowboys team jackets “Star-bellied Sneetches,” when the book was supposed to teach tolerance.
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury knocked me out of a depression I didn’t know I was in at age ten. I think we are shaped by the books we read as children more than we know. Thanks for reminding me of so many wonderful ones I had forgotten. I think I will go to the library tomorrow.
Lesse… I just scanned the list and I saw some of these were mentioned but ah well
Encyclopedia Brown
Beatrix Potter
Ramona Books
Nancy Drew (hardcover old ones… I think I read them all)
How to Eat Fried Worms
Freckle Juice
The Velveteen Rabbit
Anne of Green Gables
Ghost stories
Some young adult writers I’ve found I enjoy now (I didn’t read them when I was younger)…
Harry Potter/ JK Rowling
The Immortals, Lioness Rampant/Tamora Pierce
Okay… make that 3 newbies. Cool thread. I may have missed it but I haven’t noticed any of these, although some may be a little Canadian:
Alligator Pie
Jacob Two-Two meets the Hooded Fang
Anything by Gordon Korman
Anything by Enid Blyton(?) i.e. Famous 5
or the Mr. Men/Little Miss books, although perhaps those shouldn’t count.
I’m also getting a flashback to something which may have been called No Ducks Allowed.
Andre Norton, Ursula LeGuin, Anne Fine, Jane Gardam, Kate Seredy, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Diana Wynne Jones.
Anne Fine also wrote a fabulous adult novel about this guy who lives in his wife’s line cupboard and ends up poisoning people by mistake. Hysterically funny.
Man, this thread takes me down memory lane. My personal faves…
The Encyclopedia Brown series. That seems to be pretty popular with the Dopers. I wonder what the connection is?
Charlotte’s Web - I still use the line, “Greetings and Salutations!”
Anything by Judy Bloom. She’ll “talk” to kids about topics their parents won’t touch with a ten foot pole.
The Adventures of Big Max - I’ll be REAL impressed if anyone else has heard of this one. The title character, who is actually quite small, is hired to find a missing elephant. Ring any bells?
There was a “Pick Your Own Ending” series that was HUGE in the early 80s. Basically, the reader picked one of two (sometimes three) actions for the main character to follow, so no two stories were the same. Sound familiar to anyone?
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM - The movie, “The Secret of NIHM,” doesn’t do the book justice. Personal significance to me - this is the first book I read in my first upper level reading group right after my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Birardi, realized I didn’t belong in the lowest level. The problem, she realized, wan’t my intelligence level (she told my parents I had a 132 IQ) but my self-esteem was in the gutter. Had she not been so perceptive, I might not have a college degree today.
Three Cheers for Teachers,
Patty
I read and loved virtually everything that’s been mentioned here already. Some that haven’t been mentioned (or at least I didn’t notice them):
Edward Eager (I think that’s his name)
Wrote “half magic” and a whole bunch of other books about normal kids who discover magic things and have adventures.
E. Nesbit: The Railway Children, Five Children and It, The Wouldbegoods, etc
The Bullerbu books by Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi fame) I have them in german and I’m not sure they were ever published in the US because I’ve never met anyone else who has heard of them.
Also–there is a prequel to the tripod books (I just picked up the trilogy at a book sale in april. Why would you get rid of them?) that talks about them coming to earth.
Argh—this thread has just reminded me of so many books I now feel compelled to go out and buy…
[li]Madeline L’Engle Wrinkle in Time Series as well as her other books. My favorite was The other side of the Sun.[/li][li]Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood and King Arther books.[/li][li]Fran L. Baum’s Oz books, my fave was Glinda of Oz.[/li][li]George Macdonald’s The Golden Key, I just found the text of this one![/li][li]Edgar Eager’s Magic books. The one about Thyme was my favorite.[/li][li]Dr. Seus, especially Green Eggs and Ham[/li][li]Nancy Drew series[/li][li]C.S. Lewis’s the Chronicles of Narnia[/li][li]The Hobbit[/li][li]Beverly Cleary’s books. I am still searching for pink talcum powder because of her.[/li][li]Jonny Tremain[/li][li]Anything i could find by Thurber.[/li][li]Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books.[/li][li]Scott Corbett’s book, especially the one about the cookies.[/li][li]Ursale Le Guin’s Earthsea[/li][li]Judy Blume’s books.[/li][li]The Time Machine[/li][li]The Borrowers[/li][li]Constrictor! This was my first book. I desparately want a copy.[/li][li]The one about the maid that trimmed the steaks with rick rack and drew a picture of the drapes instead of opening them.[/li][li]Mary Poppins series[/li][li]And the Cheese Stands Alone[/li][li]The books about a little witch. In one there was a bee named Malachi[/li][li]Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series[/li][li]Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink[/li][li]Lewis Carrol’s Alice books[/li]Potato Chips and a Slice of Moon
My absolute favorite book of all time which I still read constantly and couldn’t live without is:
Higglety Pigglety Pop (or There Must Be More to Life) by Maurice Sendak.
Others I remember from when I was too young to know author’s names:
Swimmy
The Missing Piece (Shel Silverstein?)
The Magic Hat
Pinchpenny Mouse
The Fat Cat
The Quitting Deal
Frederick
Outside Over There
Tried not to repeat any from other posts - but love all those too (especially Roald Dahl’s BFG).
I also had to register to reply to this post.
The one book that I read as a child that I think every child should read was called Frederick, and it was by Leo Lionni. The artists/poets in the crowd would probably be the most interested. Anyone else remember this one?
I also read something called _Sam,_Bangs,and_Moonshine; but I forget who wrote that. That’s the source of one of my Mom’s childhood (mine) stories. I was reading that book one day, and interupted one of her cardgames with her friends to ask her what laryngitis was, so she told me, and then asked me why I wanted to know (I was 5 or 6 at the time). I told her it was a word in the book I was reading that I’d never seen before. They didn’t believe me until I showed them.
I also want to mention a book I’ve only read as an adult. It’s probably not the best children’s book ever written, but
I like its message. It’s called The_Jolly_Mon, I think, and it was written by Jimmy Buffett and his daughter Savannah when she was a little girl herself. It’s based on one of his songs that’s probably in turn based on some local legend from some island or something.
when i was little there was a book i took out of the library every chance i got…and wish i had never returned it. I think the name of it was The Hodgepodge book or something, any thoughts? there was laso a second in the series, not even remotely sure what it was.
Bridge to tarabithea
a day no pigs would die
Madelyn L’engle books
and the aforementioned hodgepodge book
I have yet to see my favorate young children’s series. It was the series I started reading on.
Curious George
That’s right - Leo Lionni! He also wrote Swimmy. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but he died recently . . .