(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish. Want to make your own list? Clicking the image will take you to this week’s post. Happy listing!)
Every bookish person has a book (or two, or 50) that they read over and over as a kid. Here’s ten of mine.
1. Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder) – I read all of the books in Wilder’s series—and later the books about Rose, Laura’s daughter—but Little House on the Prairie was the first one I read. I read my copy until the cover fell off (for real; it’s taped on now), and I still have it.
2. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg) – I thought that Claudia and Jamie’s adventure sounded so fun and dangerous, and I hung on every word. This is another book I read until the binding came apart.
3. Dancing Shoes (Noel Streatfeild) – This was my favorite installment of Streatfeild’s Shoes books, and follows three orphaned girls and their adventures in a rambling boarding house. The girls are talented dancers and actresses, and the book is a nice balance between the harsh realities of poverty and the beauty of following your dreams.
4. Stellaluna (Janell Canon) – A book about a little bat who gets separated from her mother and is raised by a family of birds. Even though Stellaluna eventually finds her mother, she and her “siblings” Pip, Flitter, and Flap know that they’ll always love each other.
5. The Secret Garden [abridged] (Francis Hodgson Burnett) – I read several illustrated and abridged adaptations of this book as a kid, but didn’t read the unabridged version until recently (I loved it). My favorite was always Dicken.
6. All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot) – The second in a series written by the English veterinarian James Alfred Wight. The descriptions of the English countryside, the animals, and the funny characters had be obsessed. I still love these books.
7. Love You Forever (Robert Munsch, illus. Sheila McGraw) – Read it about a million times. I can’t read it anymore, though, because it makes me cry.
8. Live Among the Savages and Raising Demons (Shirley Jackson) – While Jackson is best known for her horror writings, she wrote several autobiographical books about her family (husband, four kids, and assorted wild animals). Fabulously funny.
9. The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush (Tomie dePaola) – A beautiful illustrated legend. Didn’t you ever wonder why those wild flowers you see everywhere are called “Indian Paintbrushes”?
10. Erma Bombeck, Teresa Bloomingdale, and Prudence Mackintosh – The triumvirate of ridiculous and hilarious family escapades. Most of these books are from the 1950s – 1980s, but they were always laying around at my grandmother’s house, and I loved them. Still do, actually.
What are some of your childhood favorites? What memories do they bring back?
I am ashamed to say it, but I’ve never read Little House…bad me.
Get crackin’! They’re fantastic.
The Little House books and Stellaluna are the only ones on your list that I have read.Actually, I have vague memories of reading random things like Erma Bombeck at my grandma’s house too. Here is my list http://wp.me/pzUn5-GY
I’m glad someone else remembers Stellaluna. I read it over and over again as a kid. I loved the illustrations.
I love Little House on the Prairie! Loved the whole series! I am looking forward to reading it to my own kids one day (when/if I ever have any)
The Little House stories were, I think, the first chapter books I read. I was obsessed! I’m not planning to have kids, but I’m hoping my sister-in-law has a daughter so we can read the books together. Fingers crossed! 🙂
P.S. Just noticed your tagline, “One woman’s attempt to read every book ever written. This may not end well.” Hilarious! I feel the exact same way sometime.
It’s my mantra. 😀 If I focus too much on all the books I’ll never get to read, I forget to enjoy the ones I do. I’m also a cynic at heart, so it seemed appropriate.
Nancy Drew was my most favorite, I read all of the books multiple times and I had 40 or 50 of them. I also loved Trixie Belden. I read one of them only a few years ago, found it at a thrift shop. I loved it just as much in my 50’s. Hmmm… maybe I should get some of those books again…
I didn’t know there were that many in the series, although I’m not really surprised. I’m always sad when I revisit a childhood favorite only to find that some of the magic has gone; I’m glad that wasn’t the case with you. 🙂 Check the library — they’ve probably got a bunch of them.
Little House on the Prairie!! I had never read it until 2010 — then I absorbed the series. And now I crave a reread. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Jillian! I’m so glad you liked Wilder’s series; weren’t you just kicking yourself for waiting so long to read it? Better late than never, though. Hope you re-read it soon!