What was one of your favorite books or series as a child? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Borders, 700 N.H. on September 8, 2007

“‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle. L’Engle died today. The idea of being able to escape to new places and meet fantastic creatures was great.”

— Dianne Williams, head of production, Lawrence

“‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ by Crockett Johnson.”

— Steve Fahrenkrug, mechanic, Bonner Springs

“‘Little House on the Prairie’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I could relate to the little girl Laura; she was part tomboy and adventurous and was trying to be good.”

— Amy Brox, stay-at-home-mother, Shawnee

“The Grimm Brothers’ tales. Those are wonderful stories. Of course I read them in translation. They are very warm, beautiful and beautifully written.”

— Yang Lu, professor, Lawrence

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JJE007 6 years, 7 months ago

From about three years old until I became a teenager, my favorite book was:

Birds of America / editor-in-chief, T. Gilbert Pearson, consulting editor, John Burroughs ; contributing editors, Edward H. Forbush, Herbert K. Job, William L. Finley [and others] ; artists, R. I. Brasher, R. Bruce Horsfall [and] Henry Thurston ; with 106 plates in full color by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

At first, I just liked the pretty pictures. When I read that those "pretty pictures" (birds) lived outside I became quite interested in learning about them.

"White Fang" by Jack London was another favorite read.

max1 6 years, 7 months ago

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" -Marion

Talk about warping a young mind! A nautical league is 1/20th of one degree at the surface of the earth (or 1/7200 the circumference of the earth). The earth's circumference is 24,900 miles, so a league is roughly 3.45 statute miles (3 nautical miles). Therefore, 20,000 leagues is more than 69,000 miles, and the diameter of the earth is only 7,926 miles, so Nemo was roughly 61 thousand miles out in space, and I guarantee you he wouldn't encounter any giant squids out there.

max1 6 years, 7 months ago

Cinderella and the Three Pigs

herbalife4life1 6 years, 7 months ago

Wow....not one mention of the Redwall series....but I also liked The Hobbit, The Boxcar Children.

amyc 6 years, 7 months ago

Oh, my, we have a lot of book lovers! Is this a record number of responses to one of these questions? Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and I loved the Hardy Boys, too, because my older brother had a collection of them. Little Women and the follow-ups, over and over. I took mine up in my favorite tree, too, or curled up in a comfy chair. We had a lot of books of our own, but we would go to the library every Saturday and check out the maximum 10 books allowed and I would read every one at least once. We had lots of the "Little Golden" books, I always look through them at thrift stores and yard sales and the illustrations bring back memories and feelings of childhood.

erod0723 6 years, 7 months ago

Hmm.. My Side of the Mountain and The Far Side of the Mountain Hardy Boys Casefiles Goosebumps Those Create-your-own-story books Where the Red Fern Grows The Giver Shel Silverstein Poetry 12 Angry Men (A play, but whatever) Lord of the Rings 1984 Anthem Atlas Shrugged Tom Clancy stuff The Stranger by Albert Camus Edgar Allen Poe stuff Thunder in the Deep by James Buff

I'm sure there's lots more, but I can't think of anymore without traveling back to my parent's home and looking at all my books.

Pywacket 6 years, 7 months ago

All of 'em.

I read incessantly. Took books up into trees or on the roof to read (change of venue). Finished my homework and read (or drew) in class. Read in bed with a flashlight after I was supposed to be asleep.

Among my favorites were a 10-book set of Colliers' "The Young Folks' Shelf of Books," 1956 edition, which came with the encyclopedias my folks bought. Each had a differently colored jacket and a different theme: #1 was Fairy Tales, in a red jacket; #10 was Poetry, in orange. In between were "Stories of Animals and Nature," "Stories of Sports and Adventure," "Stories of Wonder and Magic," and so on.. These stories represented countries and cultures all over the world.

The nice thing was that there were easy stories to draw in the young child, who would then be so entranced by the stories that she/he would proceed to the more challenging ones. I can remember reading stories that had lots of words previously unknown to me, and stretching to learn those words from the context of the stories.

The poetry book began with simple nursery rhymes and riddles and progressed to complex or pages-long classics from Wordsworth, Coleridge, Tennyson, etc.. I had many of these poems, as well as many prose classics, under my belt long before I was halfway through elementary school, thanks to these wonderful books.

I loved these so much that I looked for the set at used book stores, and finally found it, for my own first child. I had an easier search a few years later (thanks to the internet) and sent a set to my brother when his daughter was born.

I had always loved the illustrations, as well as the stories, but didn't fully appreciate them until I saw the books again as an adult. The simple line drawings hailed from such luminaries as Gustave Dore, Charles Dana Gibson, Albrecht Durer, George Cruikshank, and Howard Pyle, among others.

The illustrations were not overly abundant, which makes each one very important to a 6- or 7-year-old reader, who is just weaning off of "picture books."

If you ever see a set of these (they changed covers and some content with different editions), and have a youngster in your life who loves to read (or whom you would like to lead into a life of reading), you should snap them up. You may be able to find some online separately, but you have to be patient to find the entire set at once. I have looked through some other editions, but am very partial to the 1956 set and would recommend them without hesitation.

Peaty 6 years, 7 months ago

Since they only asked for one I'd have to say The Hardy Boys.

mick 6 years, 7 months ago

"Squirrel Meat is Stringy" by Ernest T. Bass.

adriennerm 6 years, 7 months ago

My favorite book as a child was Otto. The book was about a robot that came to school with the kids.

As a preteen and teenager, I love Penpals. Then we those went out of print, I started to read The babysitters Club. Then in my later teens I started reading the horror books by R.L Stine.

bobberboy 6 years, 7 months ago

Treasure Island

acg 6 years, 7 months ago

When I was a little kid I was big into Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High (this was about 6 to 10). When I was 10 my grandma died and left me her books and she had a lot of old Stephen Kings and I got hooked to him. I spent from 10 to 20 devouring all of the horror (King, Koontz, Little, etc.) I could get my hands on. That's the stuff that'll keep you up at night. My folks were just glad I was so into reading but looking back I wish they had kept closer watch on exactly what I was reading. I know that spending all of my formative years ensconced in horror is probably why I'm afraid of the dark, open water, the woods, the fog, big cities after midnight, clowns, St. Bernards and spiders. And probably why I've always had more nightmares than regular dreams.

Jaminrawk 6 years, 7 months ago

"Dr. Dredd's Wagon of Wonders", "The Wishgiver" and "The Devil's Donkey". Awesome, creepy books that still remind me of grade school.

Cait McKnelly 6 years, 7 months ago

I'm an old woman. But when I was a kid I read books that were even older. My parents had an antique shop and I regularly robbed the book section. As a consequence my favorite books as a kid were a bit strange. I read everything Louisa May Alcott wrote; the entire "Little..." series (Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys) Eight Cousins and it's sequel, Rose in Bloom. At the age of nine I discovered Dumas and devoured The Three Musketeers, stumbling over and mispronouncing the French in my head but totally enthralled with the story. I had the original translations of Grimms Fairytales and believe me they shouldn't have been kids reading.. They were thisclose to being horror and yet they started me on my road to falling in love with fantasy. In junior high and high school I discovered Thomas B. Costain and Taylor Caldwell. As an adult I discovered a children's series I fell in love with; Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. I asked for and received the entire five book set as a gift for my thirtieth birthday. I still have it 24 years later.

Cindy Wallace 6 years, 7 months ago

My favorite books were the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House on the Prairie" volumes......I would read these books for hours on end. My favorite books today are historical fiction.....

Bill Chapman 6 years, 7 months ago

A poetry collection titled "A Big Ugly Man Came Up And Tied His Horse To Me","Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. The Hardy Boys series. Any and all science fiction I was able to get my hands on - I preferred Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, and Frank Herbert(I had read "Dune" by the third grade). Sherlock Holmes stories by A.C.D., and some of the Louis L'Amour books. I tended to read sci-fi and fantasy, but by the fourth grade I was reading the horror classics (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.) and was starting to read the Cthulhu stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Needless to say, my dreams started to get interesting around then - but that didn't stop me from continuing to read horror. High School forced me to read "modern English" books - The Scarlett Letter, Moby Dick, etc. and "classic literature" - The Oddessy, The Iliad, etc.. I didn't always enjoy reading it, but I did read it. I now read just about every thing with words. I usually read about 10 - 12 books a month.

coolmom 6 years, 7 months ago

the boxcar children and the black stallion

mom_of_three 6 years, 7 months ago

Oh, I used to read Enclyclopedia Brown, too.

My kids liked the Boxcar Children, Harry Potter, Junie B Jones, and there was one about about a boy and his horse. I want to say "little black and Big red", but there is several in the series.

justfornow 6 years, 7 months ago

Encyclopedia brown and rascal.

mom_of_three 6 years, 7 months ago

I read Judy Blume books, but she wasn't my favorite.
Another one of my favorite authors was Louisa May Alcott. When I was older, I liked the Louis L'Amour books.

Kookamooka 6 years, 7 months ago

Occasionally I can find a Three Investigators book at a garage sale or thrift store. My kids are into them now. I never read them but I've got relatives all over the U.S. keeping their eyes open for them.

trinity 6 years, 7 months ago

the little house series was my absolute favorite! can't count how many times i read 'em all-and i bought one of my daughters the set when she was young. every now&then i pick one up as a little guilty pleasure reading!
does anybody remember "red shoes for nancy"? there was one or two other books about that little girl but can't recall the names. also loved "a tree grows in brooklyn". reading has always, ALWAYS been one of my most cherished&favorite pastimes.

packrat 6 years, 7 months ago

Agnostick (Anonymous) says:

packrat (Anonymous) says:

"Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators"

DUDE!!!!!!! Those kids were cool!!!

I was only able to find two or three of those books-how many of them were there? I loved the ones I had, read 'em over and over.

Starting in college, I "graduated" (so to speak) to all the James Bond novels, starting first with the original Fleming books, and then moving on to the John Gardner ones.

Agnostick

I have six at home. I don't remember their names. When I return to the states, I'll have to look them up.

Kat Christian 6 years, 7 months ago

Winnie the Pooh then the Diary of Anne Frank. Later in my teens I loved reading Agatha Christi books then Harold Robbins. Oh and the Hobbit. Now I barely have time to read a novel. I miss that too.

manyblessings 6 years, 7 months ago

I loved A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, The Little House on the Prairie and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables series, I also liked all the Babysitter Club and Sweet Valley High books and Nancy Drew. I liked all the Ramona books too and Charlottes Web and Little Pear. I also liked The Hobbit and The Neverending Story and The Whipping Boy and the Boxcar Children. As a younger child I liked any Dr. Suess book, especially Green Eggs and Ham and the Berenstain Bears and Curious George and Amelia Bedelia books and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and the Peter Rabbit series and Little Bear and The Little Engine that Could and the Poky LIttle Puppy. I could go on and on. I always loved to read.
My children all love to read and be read to also. They loved a lot of the same books I did and also the Magic School Bus Series and The Happy Hollisters. Some of their other favorites have been Mr. Popper's Penguins, Owls in the Family, The Apple and the Arrow, anything by Bill Peet, Frog and Toad, The "Miller Stories" (Missionary Stories with the Millers, Storytime with the Millers, etc.), Twenty and Ten, The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Blueberries for Sal, Homer Price, The Story About Ping, Dolphin Adventure, Dragons of the Deep, the Danny Orlis series, Are You My Mother?, Bread and Jam for Frances, the Henry and Mudge series, A Fish Out of Water, The Diggingest Dog, Gerald McBoingBoing, The Matchlock Gun, and again the list is endless.....

hitme 6 years, 7 months ago

Mein Kampf

sunflower_sue 6 years, 7 months ago

southern, my sis was a Judy Blume junkie. She was also a V.C. Andrews junkie...more specifically, the "Dollenganger series." I didn't read any of those because I wouldn't do anything she was doing. (Good ol' sibling rivalry, I guess.) As an adult, I'd say she has very good taste in books...and undoubtedly did as a child, too...my loss, but it's never too late. "So many books..." :)

budwhysir 6 years, 7 months ago

When I was a kid, they came out with these books that where on cassett tapes. Those where my favoritel I mean talk about having it made, reading was never so easy. I learned so much

Aileen Dingus 6 years, 7 months ago

inmyopinon- I LOVE the Mushroom Planet books. My favorite was "Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet"

Anybody else ever read the Moomintroll books?

George_Braziller 6 years, 7 months ago

Original book of "Wizard of Oz." There are many characters and story lines that never made it into the movie.

Sarah Rahija 6 years, 7 months ago

Where to start?? I read on the bus each day (and as a result had bifocals at age 10) for my hour ride to and from school ... the Munch Bunch (Giles Reed), Moonbeam the Monkey, Ramona Quimby, anything Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume (Mouse on the Motorcycle), Boxcar Children, Little House on the Prairie, Sweet Valley Twins, Babysitter's Club, Saddle Club, Nancy Drew (old and new), Serendipity books (Steven Cosgrove), The Life of Helen Keller, Trumpet of the Swan, Summer of the Monkeys, the Bunnicula books (saw that one at a garage sale this morning!), Dear Dragon, the Bridge to Teribithia, My Brother Sam is Dead, Number the Stars, The Secret Garden, Hatchet (my sister and I made our own survival land based on this book!), The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and so many more!!

My girls are both bookworms too, and we love Junie B. Jones, the Magic School Bus, The Magic Tree House, anything by John Scieszka (Stinky Cheese Man, Time Warp Trio - a favorite of mine for older kids, especially boys in 4-5th grade!), James Marshal (George and Martha stories), Little House Picture books, and a myriad of wonderful other stories!

Okay, it says what was the favorite ... guess I went overboard ... there are just sooooo many good books available! My escape, then and now, from the mundane of everyday, or to just experience it in a different way!

southerngirl 6 years, 7 months ago

Geez, didn't anyone ever read the Judy Blume books? I devored all of those ("I must, I must, I must increase my bust"). I also love the Little House series, Where the Red Fern Grows and The Hardy Boys Mysteries (I had a crush on those boys! d

Agnostick 6 years, 7 months ago

packrat (Anonymous) says:

"Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators"

DUDE!!!!!!! Those kids were cool!!!

I was only able to find two or three of those books--how many of them were there? I loved the ones I had, read 'em over and over.

Starting in college, I "graduated" (so to speak) to all the James Bond novels, starting first with the original Fleming books, and then moving on to the John Gardner ones.

Agnostick agnostick@excite.com http://www.uscentrist.org http://www.americanplan.org

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 6 years, 7 months ago

There was this weird illustrated wrestling book I faintly remember.
The words were in these curly funky letters. Don't know the name of the book. I do remember that the female wrestlers each had a dot on the forehead.

Kookamooka 6 years, 7 months ago

I was into the Ruth Chew books about witches and anything occult. A Wrinkle in Time was a big favorite, too. As an adult, I should be into Harry Potter but it's such a fad, I can't even pick them up and be interested.

inmyopinion 6 years, 7 months ago

When I was young I loved the Trixie Beldon series. But one of my favorite books was The Wonderful Trip to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron.

Aileen Dingus 6 years, 7 months ago

Marguerite Henry books- Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy- Misty's Foal, King of the Wind... all great books for a little girl who couldn't wait to have a horse. :)

At a family friend's house I read all the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins I could lay my hands on- great stuff.

gogoplata 6 years, 7 months ago

Petey and I

sunflower_sue 6 years, 7 months ago

Ah yes, "Where the Red Fern Grows." My daughter, by the 4th grade, was sooooo sick of reading books about dogs who die that she told her teacher as much. While at the book fair during Parent-Teacher conferences, we found a book entitiled: "No More Dead Dogs!" We gave it to the teacher as a gift. She loved it.

BrianR 6 years, 7 months ago

The Wuggly Ump by Edward Gorey.

KyleXY 6 years, 7 months ago

I don't remember

mom_of_three 6 years, 7 months ago

When I was a kid, I read all the time. I loved biographies, but read the Trixie Belden series, the Boxcar children, Little House on the Prairie series, and our library had older books like the Bobbsey twins. One of my favorite books was "Caddie Woodlawn." "The Red Fern Grows" was another favorite.

thebcman 6 years, 7 months ago

teetoncey .. teetoncey and ben o'neal .. the odyssey of ben o'neal .. hardy boys ... piers anthony's incarnations of immortality series .. lord of the rings

kneejerkreaction 6 years, 7 months ago

My Side of the Mountain

camper 6 years, 7 months ago

The Hardy Boys books were good. Learning how to read was good for self-esteem cause my brother already knew how. It was good to crawl into my room and dive into the books. It opened a lot of doors for me and sparked imagination. I miss those times and remember them fondly.

ms_canada 6 years, 7 months ago

Marion - there were more than one Tom Swift books in that attic but the Flying Machine was my favourite and the only one I remember well. Reading is the most joyous activity of my life. Always has been and I guess always will be.

sunflower_sue 6 years, 7 months ago

I have always loved to read, but the one book I would always go back to was "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Shel Silverstein had such great poetry and drawings for kids. I have several of his books and my girls will pull out "WtSE" a few times a year for fun and read it together. Another family fav is "Custard the Dragon" by Ogden Nash.

My girls just decided in July (maybe the end of June) that they would read the "Harry Potter" books. My eldest devoured them all quickly, but my youngest is still on book 4. Now that she has required reading for school it will take her a bit longer, but she still picks up "Harry" almost daily to read.

As a side note...I don't think I've ever heard the Grimm books referred to as "warm and beautiful." Maybe something was lost in translation???

topekan7 6 years, 7 months ago

My favorite series as a kid were The Great Brain books by John D. Fitzgerald: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grea...

These books are filled with great humanity and generosity.

packrat 6 years, 7 months ago

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators then the entire Foundation Series and Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. My boys love Hank the Cowdog. My oldest loves Bionicles

Marion Lynn 6 years, 7 months ago

MS_Canada:

The Tom Swift books went high on my list at about ten years of age. I still have many and actually collected them for a while, latching onto many with the original dust jackets and many firsts.

PrincessConsuelaBananaHammock 6 years, 7 months ago

The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and The Babysitters Club were all favorites of mine and now I love sharing them with my students and with my daughter. My daughter is 7, and she loves the Junnie B Jones series by Barbara Park as well as the Hank the Cowdog books (not quite ready to read Hank on her own but loves having me read them to her). Another popular story here with Mom, Dad, and the kiddo is Where the Wild Things Are -- and of course anything by Dr. Seuss!!

ms_canada 6 years, 7 months ago

Heh there sgtwolverine - I just looked at the Norfolk Admirals web page and guess who scored a goal in the opening game of the Traverse City tournament for Tampa Bay Lightning. Rob Klinkhammer, thats who!! Yippee, that's my boy looking good. Just to explain, Norfolk Adm. is the farm team for T. B. I presume for the tournie they play under Tampa Bay banners.

ms_canada 6 years, 7 months ago

When I was 13 my family moved to a small farm in the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia. My bedroom on the upper floor of the small farm house had a crawl space accessed by a small door in one wall. I snooped in there and found a small cache of books. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I had never had access to so many books. Seems the previous owner was a boy and most of the books were of more interest to boys than girls, but I devoured them nevertheless and one of my favourites was Tom Swift and The Flying Machine. It was so filled with adventure. Does anyone else know of these books? They are very old, I must say.