Charlotte’s Web. I knew I forgot something- though spiders have, still do, and always will have the power to frighten me to death.
That’s really sweet that you chose the role in Charlotte’s Web though 
One of life’s greatest pleasures is to find a book that I had read as a kid. When I found a new edition of Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw in a Borders Bookstore, I could barely keep from jumping up and down and screaming with joy. I had been looking for it casually for many years and never really expected to find it. (This was before you could find almost anything via the internet.) When I read it again after not having seen a copy for 25-30 years, it was almost exactly as I remembered it. I didn’t own many books as a kid except for Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. Most of my reading was from our school library.
About 10 years ago I also bought my own copy of The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie, old classics by George MacDonald.
For quite a few years now I’ve been trying to remember the title of a book that I’d checked out of my school library quite a few times (can’t remember if it was elementary or jr. high). It was sort of a fantasy about a young girl named Anemone (which I could never pronounce) and her dog, a Kerry Blue Terrier. There was some sort of bad guy of course and I think a castle. I’ve even searched some of the old book sites on the net trying to stumble across it. No luck yet.
Hmmm. I still am a child. In the last year I read 35 Dragonlance books, all of Salvatore’s Forgotton Realms books, 15 Vampire books and I reccomend them to anyone. Especially the DL Choronicles and Legends. You’ll enjoy them, I promise.
Speaking of dragons- I think there’s a book called my Father’s Dragon. It might have been a series. I dunno…
Oh yeah, two other books i loved, “Outside Over There”- think that’s the title, and “Guy and Jack.” I remember liking Mauriece (sp?) Sendak as a child. Where the Wild Things Are was good…and so was In the Night Kitchen.
Same here… I have all of them: Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry and A Wizard Abroad being the others. I remember being part of a writers’ workshop at Princeton University in the middle 1980s, where Diane read the passage from High Wizardry (still being written at that point) which had the cameo by the Peter Davidson Dr. Who…
Jeeze, the original Tom Swifts? Yow, primitive – “Tom Swift and his HandHeld Battery Lamp” is about the level of technology in those.
I’m far more familiar with the second Tom Swift series, “Tom Swift, Jr.”, which came out in the late 50s and early 60s. The first volumne was “Tom Swift and his Flying Lab” (which was a monster jet with all kinds of then-cutting-edge research equipment on it) and eventually got as far as antigravity spaceships… This Tom was the son of the original Tom Swift.
Oddly enough, a few years ago I stumbled upon a third generation of Tom Swifts in a local K-Mart. Young Adult paperbacks (of course), they started off with a Tom Swift (who might or might not have been TS III, it wasn’t made clear in the little I browsed) who was into parallel universes and quantum black holes…
Unfortunately, I couldn’t spare the cast to buy them at the time. I gotta get over to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and see if they’re still in print somewhere.
Oh yeah, those were great. I still remember the lake monster and the money in the cannon…
In a similar vein: *The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet{/i] and its sequels.
Does anyone else remember the Mr. Men books? Tiny, white books, featuring people like Mr. Neat, Mr. Clumsy, Mr. Ticklish, Mr. (insert any adjective)…
these were GREAT!!!
I remember the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. (Little Miss books were by the same folks who did Mr. Men. Little Miss Late, Little Miss Naughty, etc.)
“Dominic” by William Steig (cried at the end because it was OVER. Hey, I was eight.)
“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster
The Alice and Sylvie&Bruno books by Lewis Carroll
“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L’Engle
The Narnia books by C. S. Lewis
“The Dark is Rising” series by Susan Cooper: freaky, Freaky, FREAKY!
The Green Futures of Tycho- an absolutely first rate science fiction book about alterate futures and time travel. I 8think* it’s by William Sleator…
The Silver Glove, and sequels
For those interested…
I went to Amazon.com and just searched on Tom Swift under books; I got 86 hits back, including collections of the original volumes (now called Tom Swift Sr.), several of the 1950s-60s Tom Swift Jr books, and at least three of the third generation TS books (published ca. 1991).
I’m glad that some of you remembered the Mrs. Pigglewiggle books. I had them read to me in elementary school and I thought they were great. I have one of the books now. Poetic justice used amusingly to make bad kid characters smarten up.
I also liked Encyclopedia Brown, the Great Brain series (I once owned them all), the Tripod SF series, the old Hardy Boys (I had their Detective Handbook…with tracking people advice), the Narnia books…and I read a lot of Beverly Cleary, Dr. Seuss and Judy Blume when I was a wee gaffer.
I also remember my Grade 6 teacher reading us a bowdlerized abridgement of Les Miserables in class.My sister and I love the Betsy/Tacy books. However,her boyfriend Jim, torments her about this constantly. She has a Betsy Tacy and Tib mouse pad and gets the official newsletter. Personally, I just enjoy watching torment the women who is responsible for my need to be heavily medicated and in therapy 2x a week.
Loved Ramona. I think it was the illustrations.
That would be “Curious George and the High Tension Powerline”
Coincidentaly, the last in the series. 
Unless, of course, George was well-grounded.
“The Little Prince” is a really good book. It’s a n adult’s book cleverly disguised as a children’s book. I’d recommend it to everyone!
Has anyone heard of a book called Dogsbody? It has been lurking in the dark corners of my mind for years and I pretty much assumed I dreamt it until this thread caused me to do some digging. IT DOES EXIST!!! Has anyone else read it? It was wierd a la Madeline L’Engle. (PS Words like fewmets, tesseracts, and farandolae still pepper my conversation).
I don’t think anyone else has mentioned Enid Blyton, but I loved her Adventure series…
Oh I mentioned her. I did too…I thought they were great. When I was little anyway.
This is the first time I have visited the Straight Dope Message Board, and instantly I find something interesting. No one mentioned the Danny Dunn series, my very favorite as I was growing up. I cannot remember who wrote it. Has anyone else read this series?