Children's Books discussion
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Childhood Books

Anyway, as to childhood books, I used to have a thing for The Seamstress of Salzburg by Anita Lobel. I loved the detailed illos.

There were a couple of books that inoculated me against reading for years. One was See Spot Run, and the other was The Cat in the Hat. I hated those books so much that I opted out of reading til I was nine, and then the first book I actually read on purpose was Oliver Twist. It took me a year to read it, but it hooked me onto reading and made me want to become a writer as an adult.
I think the reason I hated those two classic children's books is because they assumed children were stupid.
From grades 4 to 8, all I read were big fat novels by authors whose last names began with either A,B,C or D.
Marsha
www.calla.com

I read it over and over and over again. I recently found my old copy in my parents basement and finally have it at home again. Mr. Pudgins is a babysitter and when he puffs on his magic pipe wonderful things happens (this all sounds rather suspect to me now that I'm an adult but trust me, as a child it was great.)
My favorite chapter was when the family was having plumbing problems and Mr. Pudgins made pop pour from the faucets instead of water. One sink ran orange soda, the bathtub ran rootbeer, the kitchen sink grape soda... you get the idea.
Long out of print but if you are luck enough to be able to find a copy buy it immediately. You won't be disappointed!
I'd love to hear if anyone else has read it!


Other gems that I appreciated as a kid:
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
The BFG
Choose your Own Adventure

Think about what The Cat In the Hat is about --
Two kids, left home alone. Are their parents concerned about their safety? No. They're admonished to keep the house clean. So when the giant monster cat comes and threatens them with violence, all the kids are worried about is keeping a clean house. The book gave me nightmares. The illustrations also creeped me out. Green Eggs and Ham bothered me too, but mildly compared to Cat in the Hat.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Dr. DeSoto by William Steig
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink - I read this so many times growing up!
Also the entire Ramona series :)

My theory is that the Cat in the Hat is an imgainary figure, like the parade on Mulberry Street or the Circus McGirkus. Thus there was no real need for the kids to be scared.
Tiff,
You mentioned some great books there.
When I first saw Cloudy With... i almost passed it by, thinking it was one of those lame joke books. I'm so glad I gave it a chance, what a great book.
Diane,
Reading the Tripods in Fourth Grade must have been a real trip! There are some heavy duty things in there. Especially the "butterfly collection." True masterpieces, but I think I would recc. them to a 6th or 7th grader.
-Sam Riddleburger

I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff by reading them at a young age, but I went back and reread them many times, even as an adult. My son just finished reading the tripod series recently, and he's 17. He just wasn't interested in them earlier, but really liked them now.

Of course the Cat is an imaginary figure, but it was terrifying for me nonetheless, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think that's why they altered the story when they made the movie.




I also wanted to let the teens do older reader's theater readings for kids their age or maybe adults. Does anyone know of a good source for prepared scripts and/or have ideas for stories or plays? I know about Aaron Shepard of course, but he doesn't have a whole lot for older kids...



Suzanne

I also loved Encyclopedia Brown. And Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. L'Engle books and The Secret Garden really made the transition from little kids books into more YA-type books.
Although, I must guiltily admit to having had a huge crush on a certain type of choose your own adventure fantasy books. I would really get a kick out of it if I could find those again! :)

Other favorites were:
Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Hateful Plateful Trick by Scott Corbett. It's that magic chemistry set, again, and everyone ends up smelling like their least favorite food.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
and Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

I Love The story of Hawkeye and Amy too. I read them when I was at elementary school. I read the the Indonesian translation. They're great! And I collected them. However I cannot find them now since my family renovated our house. Too bad....




I'm brand new to this site, btw, and I thought this forum might be a good idea to start investigating material for my upcoming stay-at-home-dad stint we're adopting a child within the next week or so - I'm already making book lists :)

THE MIXED UP FILES and LITTLE HOUSE books were favorites of mine also. I read the LITTLE HOUSE books over and over again too! Then read them again to my daughters (2 times!), which was interesting to me because they seemed so different to me as an adult - a little scary and overwhelming to read the stories from a parent's point of view. But of course as a child I identified with Laura and not her parents, and she felt protected by them.
Re the MIXED UP FILES - after seeing the new Greek and Roman galleries at the Met Museum I had really mixed feelings. They are beautiful, of course, but no trace at all of the old cafe with the fountain (the dolphins were removed years ago) where Claudia and Jamie collected coins!

Sweet Valley Kids
Baby Sitters Club
and when I was even younger:
Little Critter
Beinstienbears

The Henry Huggins/Beezus/Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin



And the one who ate soggy tomato sandwiches, I think it was Harriet the Spy...

Other favorites that were not part of a series were Little Women, Heidi, The Secret Garden and Sara Crewe by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Have you read about the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are? It sounds fantastic! And is directed by Spike Jonze who is a big kid himself. I am very excited.





I was just thinking about Enid Blyton the other day. I loved her books and read as many as I could find in my school library in Germany, believe it or not. I enjoyed her other series, too. I don't know what it is called in English but they all had similar titles... "The Secret of the..." I loved escaping into their mysteries and wished I could solve some big important mystery myself!

The whole Wrinkle in Time series
The Boxcar Children series
Trixie Belden series
Anne of Green Gables
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
ANY Judy Blume book
Little House series
The Secret Garden
Jane Eyre
ANY Paula Danziger book
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
The Phantom Tollbooth
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Cay
Charlottes Web
Stuart Little
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
A Cricket in Times Square
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Little Women
Little Men
I could go on....

Also, I grew up in Texas and they had the Bluebonnet Award, so that guided a lot of my reading. It made me fall in love with Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry and Jerry Spinelli.

Can't remember when i first read Little Women, but I know I have loved it since. Recently, my 9 year old daughter read an abridged version, and it moved her so. Such lovely insights into family ties and friendship.

Wow Marsha, what an unusual kid! You remind me of my mom. Her goal as a kid was to read every fiction book in the library! She didn't do it, but she did read a lot!!!!
I remember liking Pippi Longstockings as a child and Peter Churchmouse, and several others from my children's reading club. I think "Black Beauty" was my favorite childhood book.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Bobbsey Twins myseries
The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Where the Wild Things Are
The King's Stiles(this is a Dr. Suess book that has been out of print for sometime. Thank goodness I still have mine.)
The Dark is Rising series
Nancy Drew
There are too many to name and so many new ones that are terrific.

The first was about a girl who was either kidnapped or lost as a baby/toddler. She was raised by a man just a few miles from her home. She would pass by an old, gray stone house, and was told never to go there. She decides to explore the house and begins to discover her identity, and that she used to live in that house.
The other book was about a girl who discovered a house that used to be a church. I don't remember a kidnapping with this book, but the girl did have some family tie to the house.
I know it's not much to go on, but any help would be appreciated. I have two little girls and would love to share these books with them.
I'm new to the site, so if there is another discussion group that's dedicated to finding old books, I'd appreciate it if someone could direct me to it.

PLEASE read the directions for posting before you post there, though. People are more likely to want to help you if your thread title is NOT something like, "I can't remember the name of this favorite old book".

Books mentioned in this topic
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (other topics)Sideways Stories from Wayside School (other topics)
Just want to share a bit of my first children books I read. When I was in the 3rd grade of elementary school, I really loved to read "The Famous Five (series)" by Enid Blyton. They increased my imagination of adventures in nature.
Nature is fun ^_^