Tuck Everlasting
A Cricket in Times Square
The Giver
And also a whole series of picture books by Greame Somebody, called The Churchmice…(do something, go somewhere, etc.), about a bunch of mice that live in a church with a friendly cat named Sampson. They always come up with schemes that go awry. Loved 'em!
Goodnight Moon
The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White)
Chicken Soup With Rice (Maurice Sendak)
Does anyone remember the children’s introduction to anatomy called Blood and Guts?
Or how about the book that had things you could touch like a fuzzy bunny or a little piece of sandpaper that was supposed to feel like “daddy’s chin?”
I still go back every year or so and re-read LeGuin’s Earthsea books. Just an amazingly well-told story. Even Tehanu, the one she wrote 20 years later is a great read, but not a kid’s book.
Someone mentioned Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang. Wow. I’d totally forgotten about that one.
I was beginning to think that Make Way For Ducklings was just a regional thing. Every time I mention it to someone who grew up outside of the Northeast I just get blank stares.
Roald Dahl was a big favorite of mine. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, James and the Giant Peach, Danny, Champion of the World.
And Shel Silverstein. Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Wow, I could just keep typing for days. I read a lot as a kid. This thread is reminding me of all those books.
I think I read The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles about 50 times in a row when I got it. Anybody else ever heard of that one?
And the same goes for The Phantom Toolbooth.
OK, that’s probably enough contribution to the first thread to bring me out of lurk mode.
The Great Brain series- I loved those! Here I thought I was the only one…
Has anyone else ever read “Andrew Henry’s Meadow?” It is out-of-print. It was a FAVORITE in our house.
As the parent of a 16 month old, this thread is a God-send.
Incidentally, the story about the fuzzy bunny and daddy’s chin is “Pat the Bunny.” For the longest time I didn’t read the story and thought the bunny’s name is “Pat.” Wrong. You’re supposed to “pat the bunny,” “feel daddy’s scratchy face,” etc. all the while letting your young one get the tactile sensations. We also have a few about dogs that are the same concept. Also, the newest gimmick for really young ones is to dress babies up like all sort of critters ala Anne Geddes’ flower creations, and photograph them with portions of the photo providing tactile sensation (lizard skin, animal fur, “flutterby” wings as Lilly calls them, etc.).
My favorites: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Ping (about a duck in China), The Mouse and the Motorcycle, The Five Chinese Brothers (truely a weird story, but great nonetheless), Curious George Goes to the Hospital (I had a number of surgeries on my eyes as a kid so I could relate), and Green Eggs and Ham.
Interestingly enough, my brother gave me “Where the Wild Things Are” when I graduated from high school. “Here, Lee,” he said, “Let the rumpus begin.” I sure do miss him.
The Phantom Tollbooth
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
and anything else by Roald Dahl
Charlotte’s Web
Alice in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
For young children:
The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
For grade school children:
City Boy, by Herman Wouk
(I don’t know how Mr. Wouk would feel about it, but I think City Boy is his best book of all, period.)
Dr. Suess’ greatest book The Lorax.
I also love Leo Lionni’s books, especially Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse
Other great books are Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
The Red Balloon - I think it was originally a French book.
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler
Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth
In the mid-70s, a publisher called Hawaiian Heritage published a number of beautifully illustrated books depicting Hawaiian legends like Pua Pua Lena Lena and Kamapua’a as well as Japanese stories like Momotaro. Wonderful stories and artwork.
Is this the book where a bunch of kids go to live on their own in a meadow, including some guy with a dresser drawer full of dandelion seeds?
If it is, thank you, because I have been wondering what the title of that book was!
yes!!! Andrew Henry moves to a meadow a builds his own house because his building things is driving his family crazy. He is then followed by other misunderstood kids, and he builds them these cool houses that reflect their various interests/hobbies. Both my brothers, my sister, and I equally loved this book- which is pretty miraculous given that you couldn’t find 4 kids who more different than each other. Unfortunately, it is outof-print. My mom did find me and my sister copies in used book stores. I treasure it! I can’t wait to read it to my little one(who is due to come out and meet us any day now…).
EBailey, you are my new hero. I will search for that book online.
All those Beverly Cleary books are great. Judy Blume’s are good, too.
When I was a kid, I just about wore out my school’s copy of Tomorrow’s Children. It’s an anthology of short stories edited by Isaac Asimov. It was wonderful in transporting me to far away places.
Then there’s Asimov’s own works. I loved everything he wrote, including the Lucky Starr series he wrote under the psuedonym (sp?) of Victor French.
I also enjoyed A Cricket in Times Square. I’m afraid I don’t remember the author’s name.
The all time best book, however, has got to be Madeline L’Engle’s book A Wrinkle in Time. That is simply the best book ever. Awesome.
Happy reading. Gotta run.
A lot of theses books can be found through Project Gutenburg. I plan to make my own hardcovers of some of them.
I also love 21 Balloons that was an awsome book.
Fretful Porpentine, you weighed in early on and said you liked J.D. Fitzgerald’s Great Brain series. Did you ever read his story of how his parents met and married? Called “Papa Married a Mormon”. One of this nicest books I ever read.
As for what I liked, most of them have been mentioned but here goes. The Chronicles of Narnia, the Chronicles of Prydain, the Black Stallion series, Heinlein’s juveniles,(and most of his adults now that I’m adult)the High KIng’s Daughter, all the Wilder series, Edgar Rice Burroughs, etc. etc. etc.
I currently work at an in-patient adolescent unit, so alot of these are around… and I’m reading them again. I’ve found some of them have met the test of time real well, others haven’t:
“Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM” (aka “The Secret of NIHM”) turns out this was a real good book… and still is.
“The Pushcart War”
“A Wrinkle in Time” Now THAT’S a classic
Any Shel Silverstein books!
Does "To Kill a Mockingbird " count (I read it as kid…)
The Encyclopedia Brown books … well, they REALLY don’t do much for me as an adult. The adults are idiots in the book, which is never a good thing (Encyclopedia’s Dad is the chief of police, and he needs the help of his kid to solve what are <to my admittedly older eyes> REALLY simple cases. He’s lucky the town elders haven’t figured it out and fired his butt).
Many of my favorites have already been mentioned. Some others:
Raggedy Ann and Andy
The Hardy Boys novels
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet novels
Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch is a recent children’s book I recommend highly. The text is by Nancy Willard and the excellent illustrations are by Leo and Diane Dillon. I recommend pretty much any book the Dillons illustrate.
I LOVED the 3 investigators! I read the first 30 or so all in a row. And Encyclopedia Brown…my mom introduced me to one, and thats when I got my first library card, just so I could read more. That was the first series I ever tried to read. And the Tripods series…man…what memories. Thank you for finding that link! I forgot who wrote it!!!
My contribution:
Watership Down
Summer of Monkeys
Dragon wings.
Dragonwings might be a little heavy for anyone under 3rd grade(thats when I read it because it had dragon in the title). At the time I was on a really heavy dragon kick, and read everything I could find. The book is about chinese immigrants in SF before and after the great quake. The focal point is a young boy. Excellent book though.
Loved “The Secret Of NIMH”, The first three “Wrinkle in Time” books were great, the fourth one… didn’t grab me the way the first three did. Shel Silverstein is great. I was rabid about the Great Brain series. Encyclopedia Brown, ya, the adults were a little dumbed down, but I don’t agree that that is never a good thing. At some points in kids’ lives they naturally become adversarial towards the adults in their lives to some extent. They can sometimes feel angry with their parents, and not know how to ‘safely’ express it. Having books where the kid helps the adult gives these feelings a way out that feels okay to the kid.
It takes some of the scariness away from them.
As to my other favorites, I’ve seen C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles mentioned numerous times in this thread, I’m happy to see that others enjoyed them as much as I did. Another great one, that I haven’t seen anyone mention yet, is “The Magic Grandfather”. I always wished there’d been a sequel to that story.
I’ve read all four Harry Potter books, each one in the course of a night, me unable to put it down until the story finished, and usually around 2am at that!
A few Hardy Boys books, though I can’t recall the titles anymore.
Others are whirling around up in my head, but none seem to want to settle right now…
-Myrddin
Does anyone remember a series of little books (for quite young children) about two characters named Ant and Bee? I remember one about them sailing around the world, and one about Bee getting a cold - I think I had about 10 of them, and I adored them.