Adults - what was your favourite childhood book when you were young?

[Monster Books]

Monster Books is writing a blog article on favourite childhood books from the past! Would be great to hear what you all remember reading as kids.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

Impossible to pick one, difficult to narrow it down!

The Secret Garden: love the whole premise, wanted a flower garden of my own, and an enchanting neighbor boy. Didn't worry about being an orphan.

The Phantom Tollbooth: love the satire, the word play, the logic games, the humor. Didn't worry about the MC's real life issues.

[Harley]

Lad: a Dog: Actually anything about animals especially dogs.

[Beverly, Miscellaneous Club host]

What age? Different favorites at different ages.

When I was younger: Horton Hears a Who!.

When I was in elementary school: Nancy Drew series, Hardy Boy series

When I was in middle school: Three Investigator series

When I was in middle school and high school: Black Stallion / Island Stallion series; and every dog book Albert Payson Terhune ever wrote.

[Manybooks]

I cannot pick just one book.

The Secret Garden
The Neverending Story
Anne of Green Gables
Me and the Terrible Two
Little Women
Madita (the German versions, I hated the English language translations, they left out entire chapters)

[Heather]

In my younger reading days I loved the girl who loved wild horses by goble. And as I grew up I enjoyed the lioness rampant series by tamora pierce

[Jakki]

When I was really young, I liked Christina Katerina & The Box by Patricia Lee Gauch.
And, The Monster at The End of This Book by Jon Stone.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

Christina Katerina & the Box
The Monster at the End of this Book
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
for the links to some wonderful books!

[C.]

Throughout Middle school, I think about all I read was animal books and comics. All of those by Albert Payson Terhune, such as Lad:A Dog, and the horse books by Marguerite Henry.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

Marguerite Henry was one of my top favorites , then, too. I think especially because of the illustrations by Wesley Dennis.

[QNPoohBear]

The books that had the most impact include the Little House books (favorites are Little House in the Big Woods and On the Banks of Plum Creek) with illustrations by Garth Williams. I wanted to be Laura!

Then I discovered Anne of Green Gables and wanted to be Anne! Shortly after that the American Girl books came out. The Kirsten series Meet Kirsten: An American Girl was the one I read and reread and wrote fan fiction about but Samantha's books are some of my favorites!

[Trevor]

The hungry caterpillar book, hands down, is legendary.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

My kids and I must've read that a hundred times!

[Trevor]

It is so incredible Cheryl, I love Eric Carle's work!

[Megan]

Anything with horses, with a preference for the more realistic stories (not much of a fan of Saddle Club/Thoroughbred/Pony Pals series though I would read them because they were about horses).

Billy and Blaze picture books by C.W. Anderson
Marguerite Henry, especially with Wesley Dennis' wonderful illustrations

and my all-time favorites,

The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley

These sustained a horse-crazy city girl for many a year until I could afford to pay for lessons with my paper route money at 14.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

Megan wrote: "Marguerite Henry, especially with Wesley Dennis' wonderful illustrations.."

Oh yes Especially the ones where I could learn about the lineage of a type of horse, for some reason. King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian and Justin Morgan Had a Horse. Not a big fan of Misty, and am only reading the sequels now.

[Beverly, Miscellaneous Club host]

Megan wrote: "Anything with horses, with a preference for the more realistic stories (not much of a fan of Saddle Club/Thoroughbred/Pony Pals series though I would read them because they were about horses).

Bil..."

I was also a devoted fan of Billy & Blaze, Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley.

[Jasmine]

Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Little Women
A Wrinkle in Time

[Michael]

I never knew Billy & Blaze until parenthood. They are great post-easy reader books with magnificent illustrations. Henry and Farley were not favorites, but I read them. Also a ton of Terhune. At that point it was more about quantity - reading for the sake of reading.

Particular series favorites from my youth that have unfortunately disappeared from libraries include Cowboy Sam by Edna Walker Chandler and Dan Frontier by William Hurley.

[Manybooks]

Michael wrote: "I never knew Billy & Blaze until parenthood. They are great post-easy reader books with magnificent illustrations. Henry and Farley were not favorites, but I read them. Also a ton of Terhune. At th..."

I have never been all that much into The Black Stallion series, too much a glorification of thoroughbred racing for my tastes. And while I loved the Misty of Chincoteague series, some of Marguerite Henry's thoroughbred stories, like Black Gold are again too much a positive spin on thoroughbred racing as a sport for me.

[Audetnicolegmail.Com]

I loved to read all Dysney's picture books. Then, I wrote more than 25 picture books. Dysney inspired me as a writer.

[Megan]

"Michael wrote: "I never knew Billy & Blaze until parenthood. They are great post-easy reader books with magnificent illustrations. Henry and Farley were not favorites, but I read them.

Manybooks wrote: I have never been all that much into The Black Stallion series, too much a glorification of thoroughbred racing for my tastes.

Now that I have experience working around Thoroughbreds and have seen more of the business side of things, I am not a fan of Thoroughbred racing either. I didn't become as aware of all the negatives until my teen years. As a child, though, there were so few opportunities to interact with horses or see horses on TV outside of racing that I took everything I could get.

[Megan]

Beverly wrote:
I was also a devoted fan of Billy & Blaze, Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley.

*waves*

[Manybooks]

Megan wrote: " "Michael wrote: "I never knew Billy & Blaze until parenthood. They are great post-easy reader books with magnificent illustrations. Henry and Farley were not favorites, but I read them.

Manybooks..."

I grew up in Calgary, Alberta and it was a well known fact that the majority of chuckwagon racing horses were broken down thoroughbreds.

My family also bred Trakehners and it was always freaky that by the time we started to slowly train a young warmblood horse at around the age of three, in thoroughbred racing, they would have been training their horses for two years already (starting too young in my opinion).

[Megan]

Yes, I completely agree that the horses are started far too young, leading to debilitating injuries. Not to mention that far more Thoroughbreds are bred than there are homes for after their racing days are done.

If I am ever in a place financially to afford a horse, I would love to retrain a Thoroughbred for pleasure riding.

[Mike & Lori]

Space Cat by Ruthven Todd: I now own the whole series as ex-library copies. I like to think of all the kids who read these very volumes when they were circulating--most of them probably with children and grandchildren by now.

[V]

Jasmine wrote: "Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Little Women
A Wrinkle in Time"

Yes! All of those!

And fantasy by Tamora Pierce and Patricia C. Wrede

[I.L.]

Charlotte's Web!

[Princess]

There was a book series i remeber reading awhile back about little girls finding dolls that transport them to a different place that the doll was related to and they met princesses, but I cant seem to remeber the title and i’ve been looking for it since! I loved that book really triggered my imagination:)

[Samantha]

My favourite book as a child was Charlotte's Web

[Valerie]

There were so many books that I loved when I was a kid. Though I wasn't an avid reader, there were those few books that I did enjoy, like Stuart Little for some reason. I also liked Roald Dahl books (the BFG), and Goosebumps were also super fun to read in Elementary School, I had a huge collection of them.

[Tripti]

The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton, Little Women, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Great Expectations, David Copperfield...

[Laura]

Where's Spot?, Pat the Bunny, Green Eggs and Ham, where just a few favorites at our house!

[C.]

My favourite was 'The Island of Adventure' by Enid Blyton. I bought it again for my daughter 2 years ago - she loved it too!

[Emily]

Can't pick just one...
The Great Green Turkey Creek Monster
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
Little House in the Big Woods
Ginnie and Her Juniors

[Eric]

Answering this thread after a year and a half, in part because I don't see Beverly Cleary listed. I loved Runaway Ralph and other books of hers.

And I see she's still living! 104!

I'm showing my age, I think, and I'm not sure if her books are read much, anymore.

One benefit of her books was that they had both male and female characters, and without that, honestly, I don't think I would have spent as much time reading about well-developed girls' characters (for example, Ramona). (And when I say "well-developed," I mean for children's lit, of course.)

This was all before third grade; at that age, I moved to science fiction and read that almost exclusively until high school.

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

Thank you for adding Beverly Cleary, she is absolutely one of my favorites, and one of my youngest son's, too. When he was reading independently, we didn't want to give up reading together, so I read the whole Ramona series to him, and he enjoyed it almost as much as I did. This would have been about age 8 I think, and about 2004. I'm quite sure they're still in print.

In fact, I also read, when we were dating, The Mouse and the Motorcycle to my husband, as his name is Ralph and he's into motorcycles. He got a kick out of it.

[QNPoohBear]

I loved Beverly Cleary too. I don't think she's as popular anymore. I gave my niece Ramona Quimby, Age 8 when she was 8 and no word on whether she read it. Older niece listened to some of Ramona the Pest and enjoyed it but never sought out the books to read. (That's miss "I only read graphic novels.)

[Adolfo]

I was obsessed with all of Shel Silverstein's books. Some of the best children's books ever made in my opinion.

[Eileen]

Cheryl is busier irl atm. wrote: "Impossible to pick one, difficult to narrow it down!

The Secret Garden: love the whole premise, wanted a flower garden of my own, and an enchanting neighbor boy. Didn't worry about b..."

I loved The Secret Garden too!! And the movie!!

[Eileen]

QNPoohBear wrote: "I loved Beverly Cleary too. I don't think she's as popular anymore. I gave my niece Ramona Quimby, Age 8 when she was 8 and no word on whether she read it. Older niece listened to some..."

I owned all the Ramona books and loved them, I recently went to the library and found they had changed all the covers though! I am partial to the original ones

[Eileen]

Samantha wrote: "My favourite book as a child was Charlotte's Web"

Charlotte's Web changed my life. It's what got me into reading and I wouldn't be the person I am today without it.

[Manybooks]

Eileen wrote: "Cheryl is busier irl atm. wrote: "Impossible to pick one, difficult to narrow it down!

The Secret Garden: love the whole premise, wanted a flower garden of my own, and an enchanting ..."

If you can find a copy, the BBC television series of The Secret Garden (from the late 1970s) is fantastic. It really follow the book and Ben’s authentic Yorkshire dialect is great.

[QNPoohBear]

Eileen wrote: "Samantha wrote: "My favourite book as a child was Charlotte's Web"

Charlotte's Web changed my life. It's what got me into reading and I wouldn't be the person I am today without it."

Aww! I refuse to eat pig products because of Wilbur. I know E.B. White was pragmatic about it but how could he make Wilbur such an appealing character and expect any reader to want to eat ham or bacon after that?!

[Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish, Newbery Club host]

QNPoohBear wrote:... " Aww! I refuse to eat pig products because of Wilbur. I know E.B. White was pragmatic about it but how could he make Wilbur such an appealing character and expect any reader to want to eat ham or bacon after that?!..."

I have always wondered that. I know the novel has been widely read in schools, but I don't see evidence that it's making more kids choose to avoid pork.

[Manybooks]

Cheryl has hopes her life will calm down soonish wrote: "QNPoohBear wrote:... " Aww! I refuse to eat pig products because of Wilbur. I know E.B. White was pragmatic about it but how could he make Wilbur such an appealing character and expect any reader t..."

On the other hand there are novels post Charlotte’s Web where some of the characters refuse to eat pork because of Wilbur, like for example Suzy Austin Madeline L’Engle Austin Family series