Sunday, May 3, 2009

Old Friends


By Kirsten Scott

Jeanne and Cindy's awesome anniversary post got me thinking about times past. Good times. Times spent on the couch with a book.

Which is to say, half my childhood.

Now I read a lot of great books as a kid, but there are a few that will always stand out. The biggest and the best? The Black Stallion. I recently bequeathed my 30 book set of Black Stallion books to my son, but he didn't really get into it (SOB!). I'm holding out hope for my daughter. What's not to love about a boy and his horse? A deserted island, the fiercest creature of them all? And he tames it with his love? Oh man, it doesn't get any better than that.

Then there's Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. If you've never read her, you've really missed out. She's a wacky, zany lady that kids adore. Her house is upside down, the kids dig in the backyard for buried treasure, and all the parents call her to figure out how to "fix" their kids when they have a problem. It's all totally tongue in cheek and I love these books as much now as I did then.


Still in my animal phase, in about sixth grade my dad turned me onto Albert Peyson Terhune. He wrote back in the early 1900s, but his books about collies are still fantastic. Jeanne, our resident dog lover, if you haven't read Lad, you really must. Terhune's collies don't just have personalities -- they have souls. 


And then there were the great fantasy books. I know there are lots of McCaffrey fans out there -- well, my favorite book of all time is still Dragonflight, the first Pern book. But I also went through a Piers Anthony phase. Loved those Xanth books. Couldn't get enough.






So now you know all about my favorite books from grade school. What about you? What books do you remember best? Any of mine on your list?


132 comments:

limecello said...

?

limecello said...

Kirsten - are you my long lost twin?! O_o Haha - I recently wrote a post about books too, and got a friend to buy up a bunch of the books she read as a kid.
I've got to add Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. I recently bought that. And the Emily books by LM Montgomery; and her Anne books, of course. I have the little house books- and also the Black Cauldron books by Lloyd Alexander.
I read all the books you mentioned - and also loved the Kingdom books by Cynthia Voigt. I'm now buying her Tillerman series too. I read a number of Louisa May Alcott books; Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys. So many Caldecott and Newberry books. Egypt Game, the Rats of Nimh... I love kid books. It makes me sad when I find out kids today aren't reading them. Or - this might get people mad at me- when people say the Harry Potter books the best children's books ever. No - they're fun and entertaining and good, but I wouldn't say they're the best. (Oh and hello, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.)
Oh and of COURSE all of L Frank Baum's Oz books... [Yes, can you tell I *never* read as a kid? :P]

Helen said...

limecello he is back at home although he may be a bit tired after the big birthday bash. How did the finals go?

Kirsten
What a great post I have always been a reader and although I haven't read any on your list I love my list as well I was a big fan of Enid Bylton's Secret Seven and Famouse Five books and would always be at the school or public library borrowing them as I got older and in high school I loved The Secret Garden and a book called Pastures Of The Blue Crane I can't remember who wrote it but it was good then I moved onto all the Agatha Christie books and of course now I am totally addicted to romance love them

Have Fun
Helen

Tawny said...

What a fun trip down memory lane, Kirsten :-)

I loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, too. And Amelia Bedelia. But my mainstay was anything Louisa May Alcott. I read, and reread all her books so much that the spines broke and I had to tape the books back together. I found McCaffrey as a teenager and gobbled those up, too :-)

Anna Sugden said...

Great post, Kirsten. Congrats, limecello!

I was as much a reader as a kid as I am now. Loved reading anything and everything. Loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and LM Montgomery's Anne series. Loved Enid Blyton and CS Lewis. Loved The Hobiit - got bored by Lord of the Rings (ducks *g*)

But, I also loved books like Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf, Danny Fox, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat, Paddington, Mr Popper's Penguins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the totally awesome Moomin books by Tove Jannsen.

I picked up the series by Margery Sharpe not long ago - starting with the Rescuers. Fab.

Barbara Monajem said...

Wow, Anna, how totally cool to find someone else who's read the Moomin books. I just reread Finn Family Moomintroll last year.

My list seems endless, but here are a few:

Edith Nesbit - Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet, etc.

Eleanor Farjeon - The Glass Slipper and The Silver Curlew

Rosemary Sutcliff's fabulous historical novels - Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, The Armourer's House, etc.

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series. Read and reread and read again.

The Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild - I wept along with Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail.

Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising Series, and Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen and others.

Elizabeth Janet Gray's Adam of the Road.

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, a strange but fascinating book that I understood better when I was a kid...

And many, many more.

PinkPeony said...

Hi Kirsten:
Great post! I still have most of my books from my childhood. My mom signed me up to receive a Dr. Seuss book every couple of months. Go Dogs, Go! was one of my favorites. I read all the Encyclopedia Brown series, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beverly Cleary, and Louisa May Alcott. Johnny Tremaine, Pippi Longstocking and the Anne of Green Gables series were also big favorites. I remember buying books through the Scholastic Book Service. Back then they would hand out catalogs in class and we'd bring a few dollar bills and change to give to our teacher so she could place our orders.
Have a good weekend. Jen

Anna Sugden said...

Hey Barbara! Glad you love the Moomin books too! I've been trying to collect them in recent years - some of the pop-ups are fabulous. I even have a set of the soft toys *g* - Moomintroll, Snork Maiden, Moominmama and Moominpapa. So cute!

Deb Marlowe said...

Kirsten! Clearly you and lime and I had the same childhood!

I loved the Piggle Wiggle books and Pippi Longstocking too. Trixie Belden anyone? Ah, Jim started my lifelong obsession with redheads. :-)

Pern and Xanth were my middle school salvation, along with the Prydain series. Lime--did you want to be Eilonwy too? How cool to have long red hair, a magic bauble and go around scolding her 'assistant pig keeper?' Plus, I kept waiting for *my* dragon to come and rescue me from my boring life!

My animal phase also included all the Marquerite Henry books! I begged to go to Chincoteague for summer vacation, but my favorite was King of the Wind.

I could go on all day!

penney said...

The one book I loved as a kid was The Box car children and the thing at the foot of the bed. sorry I don't know who wrote these two but I loved them.
Penney

Anonymous said...

Hi lime! And yes, I have a confession...our mother told me something that I wasn't suppose to tell you until you were old enough to understand... LOL!

Yes, we must be twins! I also put the Black Cauldron books in my son's hands a few months ago, but he didn't bite. Just yesterday, I gave him the Rats of Nimh. I'm hoping that one takes! He does love books, but I guess my tastes are dated somehow.

We are all Harry Potter fans in our house, but I don't mind a second if you say it wasn't the best ever. :-) There are lots of other fantastic books out there!

Anonymous said...

Oh, Helen -- the Secret Garden! Yes! An all time favorite! And they are doing it as a ballet at my daughter's ballet school this spring. I can't wait.

The Pastures of the Blue Crane sounds mysterious. Lovely title - what's it about?

Anonymous said...

Tawny, there was one summer I discovered Louisa, and I definitely remember each one of those books. They were old, hardback copies with the pictures every 50 pages or so -- do you remember those? With a thin piece of tissue paper to protect the picture? Anyway, my favorite was Rose in Winter. I always remember her running around the house with her belt loosened up. I seem to recall she lost a bunch of weight, too. Maybe that's why I liked her so much! LOL. I was always waiting for my transformation...

Becke Davis said...

With all the books I read as a kid, I'm amazed none of ours overlapped. My sister read the horse books in our family, but I would have liked the others.

I mostly read mysteries, once I got hooked with a Weekly Reader book called THE SECRET OF THE OLD POSTBOX. After that, I read every Nancy Drew book I could get my hands on, and then Trixie Belden, Judy Bolton, Cherry Ames, the Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie.

Other favorites:

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O'Dell

A HUNDRED MILLION FRANCS by Paul Berna, which was made into a Disney movie called "A Horse without a Head"

THE TALL BOOK OF FAIRY TALES (It's a picture book, but I still love that one.)

A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine l'Engle (I was a bit older when I read this one)

THE LITTLE PRINCE BY Antoine de St. Exupery (ditto)

THE SWORD IN THE STONE by T.H. White

DADDY LONG-LEGS by Jean Webster and
DEAR ENEMY by Jean Webster (probably my first romances; there is a Fred Astaire/Leslie Caron movie of Daddy Long-Legs. It's wonderful, but the dance scenes are too long.)

THE SECRET OF CASA GRANDE by Helen Rudolph (1936 - a lot of the books I read were my mom's old ones; I found this on ebay awhile back -- not as good as I remembered, but fun to read it again)

CADDIE WOODLAWN and THE PINK MOTEL by Carol Ryrie Brink

FOG MAGIC by Julia L. Sauer -- LOVED this book!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Anna -- great list! I was also horribly bored by the Hobbit. I didn't actually read the series until the movies came out.

And Laura Ingalls Wilder -- is there anyone who doesn't love those books? How could I have failed to put her on the blog?

Now, did you actually read all the CS Lewis books? I loved Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, but I must admit that I didn't get through the series.

Anonymous said...

Barbara, what a great list! There are a lot of titles/authors on your list I haven't heard of, which is great, because I've got a reason to go to the library!

(have I ever confessed my library obsession? it's really bad...)

I do still have copies of all the Shoes books, and I can't wait to foist them on my daughter! I loved those books -- and totally loved that moment in You've Got Mail!!

Anonymous said...

Ah, PinkPeony, Scholastic Books still preys on children in the same way -- with the little catalog they use to entice them and get them to nag their parents with until they agree to buy a book! There has been a dust-up lately with the catalog, because they're starting to carry more and more toys. This is enormously frustrating for a parent, when the things circled on the Scholastic forms aren't even books. Grrr...

Pippi Longstocking -- now there's a book I was just reading yesterday! I do classes for kids on writing, and I used Pippi to illustrate a great character! :-)

And Encyclopedia Brown -- great books. My favorite mysteries were the Three Investigators. Did you read those too?

Becke Davis said...

If you are looking for books to read to young kids, you can't beat the Frances books by Russell and Lillian Hoban. As Meg Ryan would have said in YOU'VE GOT MAIL, they are completely and utterly wonderful (or words to that effect).

Anonymous said...

Okay Anna, now you'll have to tell us what the Moomin books are all about!

Deb Marlowe said...

Oh, and lime--don't despair! My kids are big readers and so are lots of their friends.
The youngest plays a made up game on the playground, based on the Warriors series by Erin Hunter.

The older one is salivating for the last book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series--only 2 days to go! And he reads constantly. He loves Lloyd Alexander and I recently let him start on Xanth!

Anonymous said...

Hey Deb! i love finding fellow children's book lovers! And my stash of books that I saved from when I was a kid also includes King of the Wind! What's the chance of that? :-)

I only have a couple of shelves worth of books from when I was a kid, but I swear, you named half of them!

So did you ever get a pony? I didn't, and I'm still bitter about it. *pout*

Nancy said...

Limecello, congrats on taking home the rooster!

Kirsten, I avoided animal stories--too likely to have unhappy endings. However, I loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

I read historical fiction, early romances (usually featuring nurses), books I now recognize as YA romances (Beany Malone by Lenora Mattingly Weber and the many stories of the Parrishes and Jordans by Janet Lambert), and adventure stories.

Unfortunately, a lot of the adventure stories were not historically accurate, and the science fiction was not based on good science. I read and re-read Venus Boy, about a colony on Venus (no protective clothing required) and a boy who tried to stop the smuggling of rare Venusian bears that were much like koalas. I also loved the Zip-Zip series about a Martian boy who crash-landed on Earth and was discovered by middle-schoolers, who went back to his Martian cavern home with him in a later book.

The D'Aulaires' mythology books were among my favorites, and I now own the Greek and Norse volumes.

Manley Wade Wellman, best known as an SF writer, also wrote YA historical fiction. His series on the American Revolution in the South captivated me, and I read them over and over and over. As an adult, I discovered that they were actually available over the internet, but they were pricey.

I went to the rare book room of the main library, the only place that still had copies, and re-read the first book to be sure I still liked it before spending that kind of money, and I loved it all over again. The dh gave them to me for Christmas and birthdays, and we read them to the boy, who found them as engaging as I had, many years before.

I also love McCaffrey but didn't discover her until adulthood.

Becke Davis said...

Oh, I also loved all of Paul Gallico's books -- Thomasina, The Abandoned, The Hand of Mary Constable, Jenny, The Love of Seven Dolls...he was most famous for The Poseidon Adventure, but these were his masterpieces.

Anonymous said...

Hi Penney! I remember the Boxcar Children! They've got a whole series of them -- great books. I haven't read the thing at the foot of the bed, though. Sounds delightful!

Nancy said...

Limecello, Susan Cooper is another author I didn't find until adulthood, but those books in the Dark is Rising series are great. The first book is so much better, imho, than that movie supposedly based on it.

I also read the Little House books and a lot of Newbery winners. I still have fond memories of Island of the Blue Dolphins and A Wrinkle in Time.

Anonymous said...

Treethyme -- I figured if we kept going long enough, we'd find books in common -- and there they are! Wrinkle in Time (one of the best books ever), The Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Little Prince -- all amazing books that I loved as a kid!

I must admit I never read the real Sword in the Stone, but I've seen the Disney version. Does that count? *VBG*

Anonymous said...

Deb -- I'll make this sound for my son -- SQUEEEEE!!! That's for the next Percy Jackson book. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Nancy! You should know by now that I only read happy endings. So I studiously avoided animal stories that were sad. No sad books for me, thanks! Black Stallion books were all happy. Lad stories -- all happy.

I don't think I cared much about historical accuracy or scientific accuracy in my books, but somehow the accurate ones always end up being more interesting, don't you think?

What about Azimov? I, Robot? His books seem accurate, and I remember spending a few months gobbling down whatever I could of his.

Nancy said...

Helen, I loved Five Run Away Together, one of the few Famous Five books in our library when I was growing up. I bought a copy during a trip to England; they're very hard to find here in the States.

Anonymous said...

Treethyme, I am studiously making notes so I can go back and find these authors you like!

Nancy said...

Anna S., I remember Mr. Popper's Penguins. That was a fun book. When we go the Central Park Zoo, we make a beeline for the penguin house.

Nancy said...

How could I forget Nancy Drew? I loved her. And the Bobbsey Twins.

There's a great book about Nancy Drew that was published on her 75th anniversary: Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak. It's a history of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which published Nancy under the "house name" Carolyn Keene, but it also looks at Nancy's popularity, touches on the Hardy Boys and Bobbseys, and looks a the lives of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who took over the company after her father's death, and Mildred Wirt Benson, who wrote the early Nancy Dew books and whose personal life displayed an adventurous spirit worthy of the character she wrote.

In later years, Adams claimed to have been Keene, and contractual issues prevented Benson from asserting otherwise until a dispute between Stratemeyer and its distributor brought everything into the open.

It's a terrific book for those interested in such things.

Nancy said...

My favorite Alcotts were Eight Cousins and A Rose in Bloom. The others just didn't grab me.

PinkPeony said...

Treethyme...The Island of the Blue Dolphins! You've jolted my memory bank. That was one of the few animal books I read. I avoided most of them fearing something bad would happen to the animals. Sara Crewe was one book I read over and over.
Kirsten, I used to save my allowance to buy those Scholastic Books. I never read The Three Investigators. Will check it out along with Noah Streatfield's books. Gee, writing classes for kids? I wish I'd had the opportunity to take such a class when I was a kid.

Becke Davis said...

I still have a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins -- it intrigued me as a kid, but it apparently went way over my head. I always thought it was weird. Loved the illustrations, though.

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS was the first book that made me cry. My son wasn't a reader when he was young, and when that book was assigned, I suggested we take turns reading chapters out loud. I knew when the chapter was coming up that made me cry, and it was one he was going to read. When we came to that part, he stopped dead, said "I have to go to the bathroom" and disappeared for a few minutes. Came back with red, swollen eyes and said, "You read this part."

He still likes that book, but Harry Potter is what turned him on to reading. For my daughter, it was Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice books, Ann M. Martin's Babysitters Club books and Lois Duncan's books, especially DAUGHTER OF EVE.

Joan said...

Ok, can I say that this type of topic is just ANOTHER way to bring out the generation gap?

Erg,

I'm a bad, bad lifetime reader. I don't recall authors and half the time the titles. I did read Black Beauty and Charlotte's Web.

I was an avid patron of Scholastic Book Club, ordering as many as my Mom would let me each month through school.

"A Lantern in Her Hand" a fictiional story about a young girl's experience as a pioneer from traveling to the praire through marriage, children and end of life.

"Out of the Strong" Christian based Roman story. Huh. Maybe that's where I got it from?

"The Janitor's Girl" About a young coming of age girl whose father must take a job as the janitor and she faces teasing.

"Out of the Steppes" About a young girl whose family is sentenced to Siberia during the Revolution and how they survive.

"Red Shoes for Nancy" A mother's account of caring for a young child with cerebral palsy. Huh. Maybe that's where the nursing came from?

Another one, fantasy about a fairy kingdom and the young prince who awaits his betrothed, a princess from the blue fairies only to have to battle deception by the goblin princess....

I've got a whole trunk full at my mother's/brother's house.

Oh, and was never a big fan of Dr. Suess. Except for Horton Hears a Who.

I identify with the little who's yelling "We are here, we are here, we are heeeeeeeeeeere"

Yeah, like me on the perimeter of the publishing world :-)

PinkPeony said...

Joan,
I still have my SBS copy of A Lantern in Her Hand. I loved pioneer stories.

Joan said...

Pink Peony! REally!

How cool!

I had leant my original to my young goddaughter and ...she lost it.

I finally found one on a used book network and devoured it in one sitting.

PinkPeony said...

Joan, I was surprised I still had it as well. I was helping my parents move a couple years ago and I opened an old dresser found and all of the SBS books and other childhood books. Right now, I'm on a bender to collect first editions of some of my favorite Beverly Cleary books published by Harper & Row or Lippincott so I've been haunting used book sites.

Anonymous said...

PinkPeony,

I just started teaching the classes recently at my kids' school and the local library. They're very fun. Kid books are perfect for teaching about conflict and how to build interesting characters.

Example -- Ferdinand the Bull (anyone remember this one?). I tell the kids that the best characters are those that have something unexpected or unusual about them. So you expect a bull to be fierce and like to fight, but Ferdinand likes to sit under a tree and sniff a flower.

Then we talk about plot -- I call it, the "problem". Characters have to have problems to make an exciting story. The worse the problem, the more exciting the story. An interesting problem is one that relates to the thing that's unusual about the character.

So the worst problem for a gentle bull? To have to fight in a bullfight!

It's actually quite fun to go through your kids books and try to find the unexpected or unusual characteristics, and then figure out the problem. :-)

Anonymous said...

Treethyme, we've got a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins on the coffee table right now.

Here's an excerpt from page 5:

"No one knew what went on inside Mr. Popper's head, and no one guessed that he would one day be the most famous person in Stillwater. He was a dreamer. Even when he was busiest smoothing down the paste on the wallpaper, or painting the outside of other people's houses, he would forget what he was doing. Once he had painted three sides of a kitchen green, and the other yellow. The housewife, instead of being angry and making him do it over, had liked it so well that she made him leave it that way. And all the other housewives, when they saw it, admired it too, so that pretty soon everybody in Stillwater had two-colored kitchens."

Great character, right? :-)

jo robertson said...

Congrats, Limecello, you're back in the game!!

Kirsten, I love to walk down memory lane and think about the books or other things that were important to me as a child. My favorite books have always been about mysteries of some sort, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, even the Bobbsey Twins books. I think I was a slow starter in reading alone, but I do remember being read to -- Black Beauty and Little Women.

Anonymous said...

Joanie, I think the books you remember are very telling. They are issue-oriented books that clearly went on to influence your life and work. I think that's beautiful -- you're obviously a very thoughtful reader!

Anonymous said...

Jo - I remember Black Beauty very clearly, but I can never re-read it. It's just too sad (note comment to Nancy above: Kirsten cannot read sad books). I'm a total wuss! Do you think your love of mystery books is perhaps reflected in your writing? Coincidence that you write romantic suspense? ;-)

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Ah, Kirsten...You've listed some of my all time favorites, espeically the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series!

Here's a few more:

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES and ANNE OF AVONLEA. The movies came out when my girls were little and I got to relive it all over again!

SUE BARTON, STUDENT NURSE, the series. Did my mom know me or what when she gave these to me to read? One morning I came down crying and she asked what was wrong. I told her Sue had a terrible desease...pnumonia...pronounced by me, p-nomia. Very dramatic!

and a whole slew of biographies...(which is a whole other blog).

Joan said...

They are issue-oriented books that clearly went on to influence your life and work. Really? I'm reading about Conn, Virginia Kantra's sexy selkie right now...I AM being very...um, thoughtful aoubt him?

Books like this is why when I took the Monteray bus tour in SF and we stood off the shore looking at all those seals on that island? I thought.."Hmmm..maybe?"

Anyway, thanks for the complement! Oh, and congratulations on your final in The Sheila! Woohoo!!! Another Bandita makes a mark!

Anonymous said...

Suz, I love that you and Joanie can plot your future careers through your childhood reading lists! If I had to do that, I'd be a dragonrider or jockey. Hmm...I wonder why neither of those panned out for me?

So my secret confession is that I never read Anne of Green Gables. My sister did and loved it, which I think may be the main reason I didn't. Back then, I found it essential to distinguish myself from her in all ways. :-) But maybe I need to go back and read it. I know everyone LOVES those books.

I wonder why? Is it the orphan thing?

Anonymous said...

Joanie, selkies are very thoughtful and issue oriented...um...okay, maybe not so much. :-)

And thanks about the Sheila!

Becke Davis said...

Kirsten - I had to laugh at your quote from Mr. Popper's Penguins. My son offered to paint my kitchen last year, and I liked the idea of soft gold/yellow on one wall and a sunny green on the others. I was overruled.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Kirsten, it might be the oprhan thing, but truely I believe it is her spirit. She come to live with the Cuthberts as help for Marissa, but ends up finding a home and two people who love her. She's a red-head, so has the stigma of that (some people still believed that meant trouble) and her quick temper to make her human just like the rest of us. Then there's the underlying love story of her and Giblert Blythe.....sigh.

Anna Sugden said...

Oh yes! Pippi Longstcking! The Secret Garden! Nancy Drew!

Which reminds me Flambards - loved that too.

Yes, Kirsten, I did read the whole series - my favourites were the LL&W and The Last Battle. *g*. The others were okay, but not as good as those two.

Tove Jansson was a Finnish children's author who wrote a magical series about these characters called Moomins. They're cute little creatures with big snouts and they have great adventures. I believe she did her own illustrations. You have to look them/her up!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Morning, all! Or should I say, Good afternoon for all us East Coasters. I'm sadly late to join in today, but that party yesterday wore me OUT!

Thanks for coming by to celebrate with us, everyone!

Kirsten, you got me dead to rights on all these books. The only one I didn't read was Xanth. All the others, plus the OBrien Silver Chief books Nancy and I have gone on and on and on about. Jack London's Call of the Wild, All the Billy and Blaze books, all the Boxcar Children books, Deb and I were both Misty of Chincoteague fans, I see. And the list goes on and on. If it had a creature in it, I was THERE. I'll bet most of us read Black Beauty and National Velvet too. :>

I found Anne McCaffrey too and continue to buy everything she (and now her son) writes.

Lime, the Susan Cooper books were FAB. The Grey King was a Newberry winner too. Wonderful books. Oh, and Nimh too.

PRetty much everything you mentioned Anna. I kept the children's librarian's hopping in my library, for sure!

Becke, I love Blue Dolphins and several of the others you mentioned. I still think about the Dolphins book though all these years later.

Did anyone else ever read a book called Norah's Ark? Its about this girl who gets caught in a flood and keeps fishing dogs and cats out of the flood. I remember that there were looters and she hid from them. I've never been able to find a copy of that book again. Hmmmm, may have to go hunt that out.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

oh...I forgot...

THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL--"they seek him here, they seek him there, that damned illusive Pimpernel"

A TALE OF TWO CITIES
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
OLIVER TWIST
A CHIRSTMAS CAROL
TOM SAWYER
HUCKELBERRY FINN
THE CRUCIBLE

Okay, now I've transitioned into middle school, but dang I loved those books

Becke Davis said...

Jeanne - You can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Noras-Ark-Natalie-Kinsey-warnock/dp/068817244X/ref=ed_oe_h

I haven't read it, but it looks great!

Louisa Cornell said...

Good Morning All! The Lair looks remarkably clean considering the party that went on last night. At exactly what point did the cops show up ? The reason I ask is that there is a badge and a taser over in that corner.

The GR obviously needed a soft place to land after last night's going's on! Congrats, Lime!

What a great blast from the past, Kirsten!

I loved the Black Stallion books as a girl. Then of course there was my very favorite of all time Black Beauty. I still have my original copy from 1967. although it is a little worse for wear.

Loved the Louisa May Alcott books too. And, Helen, I still have all of my Enid Blyton books !!! Weren't they wonderful!

I learned to read with those Dr. Seuss books. Hop on Pop, anyone?

And I loved The Secret Garden. Does anyone remember a book called A Little Princess ? Another of my very favorites!

The Boxcar Children

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwilder (or something like that - my memory is not as good as it was!)

Babar the Elephant !

The Jungle Book
Heidi
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
The Wizard of Oz
Last of the Mohicans

Oh and I have my original copy of Raggedy Ann and Andy !

The Velveteen Rabbit !

You've started something, Kirsten! Now I want to go back and read them all!

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

Great post, Kirsten!

In 4th grade, our teacher read us "Little House in the Big Woods" and all the girls were immediately hooked (some of the boys too, though they wouldn't admit it) and ran to the library to devour the rest of the series.

Shortly after that, I discovered The Black Stallion series and LURVED them all!! Last year, I sent my grand niece a copy of The Black Stallion for her 9th birthday and she LURVED IT! :-)

I literally wore the covers off my copy of Black Beauty and constantly kept at least one Marguerite Henry book check out of the library at all times. About 5 years ago, I made the DH take me to Chincoteague Island and I saw the ponies live and in person. It was a HUGE THRILL! I'm going back first chance I get.

AC

limecello said...

Helen - Thanks for asking! I don't know how they went, but I'm done now! :X

Deb -are you our long lost sister too? :P And YES I DID want to be Eilonwy! She had other magic too, yes? (I read all the Xanth and Pern books... for sure.) I *really* like Lloyd Alexander - the Iron Ring was so different from his other books though. :P I think the thing is I teach (only once a week) in the hood. :X

Kirsten - haha I KNEW IT!!! Too bad he didn't like them; which one did he read first? I read them out of order...

Nancy -isn't Susan Cooper terrific? And - did I forget to add Madeline L'Engle to my list? I actually love her Austins books more than the Wrinkle in Time books. I've read Island of the Blue Dolphins upwards of 20 times, and I've read the Witch of Blackbird Pond I'm willing to say more than 30.

Jeanne - definitely! I would like to re-read a number of the Newberry books.

Louisa Cornell said...

Oooh, Aunty! You've seen the ponies?? I am so jealous! I still have my copies of the Marguerite Henry books!

Kirsten said...

Anna, I will definitely look them up -- sounds like great fun!

Kirsten said...

Mornin' Jeanne! :-) (I guess it is morning, when you've had a night like that!) Love your list too! We had an excellent children's librarian who lives down the block and she is an incredible resource. All of us get book recommendations from her -- me included! She always steers me toward the best YAs. :-)

So you were a Black Beauty lover too? Didn't you find it so sad? Man, I just died when they were mean to him!

Kirsten said...

Suz, your book list is a bit more high-brow than mine! I confess I've never read Dickens. I think maybe I need a scarlet letter for that...

Kirsten said...

lime, I tried my son on the first Black Cauldron book - the Book of Three I think it was? I should try it again. Maybe it was just the wrong time...

Kirsten said...

Oh Louisa, let's just spend the day sitting around and reading children's books, shall we?

By the way, if you haven't read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, drop everything and go get it. It's sort of like the Velveteen Rabbit, but absolutely heart wrenching and beautiful.

Kirsten said...

AC, I don't know if I've ever met a fellow collector of Black Stallion books! :-) Yippee! And you actually got to see the ponies? Wow. I am sooooo jealous.

There's a great picture book (name escapes me) of a girl who saved up all her money to buy one of the ponies, and when she got to the auction, didn't have enough to get the one she wanted. But then all the other people who were at the auction chipped in money so she could get her pony. It's so sweet and absolutely TRUE. Wish I could remember the title.

Helen said...

Kirsten
Pastures Of The Blue Crane was about a young girl living on a farm somewhere in Australia it was such a good book but my memory isn't that good another book I remember reading was Daddy Long Legs.

Louisa
I never had my own copies of Enid Blytons books I borrowed them from the library I do wish I had them though

limcello
It must be a great feeling now to be finished time to party?

Have Fun
Helen

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Kirsten said: Suz, your book list is a bit more high-brow than mine! I confess I've never read Dickens. I think maybe I need a scarlet letter for that.....

Kirsten, I think that's why I am so loving the Soundrels of St. James series Lorraine Heath has been doing her last three books. They're based on Dickens rookerie kids from the Oliver Twist novel. AND done in her usual excellent fashion. It let's me revisit that story.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Also, I was a library chick in middle school and had access thrice weekly of every book in the library...let's just say in three years, I read...almost every book in it!!

catslady said...

I didn't get too many books of my own (but lots of trips to the library)and Trixie Beldon comes to mind because they were my books :)

Joan said...

I wonder why? Is it the orphan thing? I'm with Suz, I think it was the indomitable spirit in the face of adversity.

Course, I never read the BOOKS, but watched the series with Colleen Dewhurst as Miranda.

Joan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joan said...

Well now see Treethyme, I do have two colors.

From behind my table around the cabinets to my door is forest green.

From the door on down through my hallway a pale cream called "Innocence"

Yes, come down the hall of "Innocence" LOL

Becke Davis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kirsten said...

You know Suz, I think sometimes the worst part about never reading the classic is that I miss these kind of allusions to other works of literature. I love Lorraine, but I never would have understood the Dickens references!

And yet...I still don't have the patience to go back and read them. LOL.

Becke Davis said...

My son surprised us and painted the kitchen while we were out of town about a year ago. He went with the green, but compromised for me and painted the basement stairway (off the kitchen) the gold color I liked.

Kirsten said...

Catslady, I've never read Trixie, but lots of people seem to love those books. What's the best part? Is she one of those spunky heroines you just want to be like? (but know you probably never will?)

Kirsten said...

I love multicolored rooms! The rooms in our house are very open -- kitchen blends into living room, you know how that is -- so our walls reflect that. Half the kitchen is soft grey-blue, the other couple of walls are a light coffee color, same as the living room. Then the study is sage green. The colors all have to go together, because from where I sit in the kitchen, I can see them all at the same time.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

You know Suz, I think sometimes the worst part about never reading the classic is that I miss these kind of allusions to other works of literature. I love Lorraine, but I never would have understood the Dickens references!..

Ah, but that's the beauty in how she is doing this series...the Dickens references are easily explained in the stories, and if you've read the book, then you're overjoyed at seeing how the kids have grown to be whom they are!

Anna Campbell said...

Lime, he's back, I see!

Goodness, I thought after the big day in the lair yesterday, everyone would have a hangover today. Clearly your wonderful post, Kirsten, drew everybody out of their headache-induced comas!

It's strange I never read the Black Stallion, as I thought I'd read every single horse book known to man (and a few known only to Martians!) when I was a kid. But clearly not. Favorite horse books? Black Beauty (cry!). The Silver Brumby books (cry and cheer).

Other books? Enid Blyton hands down. Loved all of those (although I wasn't a huge Secret Seven fan for some reason). The Sadler's Wells ballet books by Lorna Hill. Wow, I read those till they fell to pieces and then I read them again.

Wasn't a huge fan of Anne of Green Gables. Although I watched the TV series as an adult and liked it. Wonder why it didn't appeal - perhaps the Canadian setting wasn't English enough for me. I was such an Anglophile when I was a kidlet. Thing that's hung around!

Anna Campbell said...

AC, the Marguerite Henry books! How could I forget those? I've got all of those in hardcover with beautiful color illustrations. And one of my most treasured possessions is a pony roundup mug that a friend of mine bought me after visiting Chincoteague a few years ago. She was shocked I'd heard of this obscure place she was visiting to see family friends - and even more shocked that I was so excited that someone I knew actually was going to Chincoteague! She brought back photos. It's very beautiful!

Anna Campbell said...

Louisa, Basil E. Frankenweiler? What a great book that was! My primary school library had it and I had it out on basically permanent loan! Love the idea of living at the Met.

With picture books, it was fairytales all the way for me. I kept reading them even when I was officially too old for them. I remember my local library had a lovely edition of the Perrault fairytales. It wasn't a picture book so I'm guessing it was actually a collector's edition for adults.

Speaking of my local library, they had this great book called Havelock the Dane that I just loved. One of those man born to be king things.

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Ooh, Thanks for the link, Becke!

Louisa you reminded me of a couple more - I adored Heidi too, BTW - but I wore OUT

ALL the Big Red books - like the Lad books, they were great. I STILL remember scenes from those books
Swiss Family Robinson
Tarzan (and every other single book ERBurroughs wrote, including the obscure The Cave Girl)
Witch of the Glens
Red Horse Hill
101 Dalmatians (The ORIGINAL one, not the Disney one, which is by comparison quite brilliant)
The Black Arrow
Captain Blood
and, of course, The Scarlet Pimpernel! (I loved the reference someone put up earlier!)

And yes Kirsten, I cried and cried when they were mean to Black Beauty, but it came right in the end. :>

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

BTW everyone, if there are any of you who loved the horse books when you were a kid, you should read Anne McCaffrey's The Lady. It's a romance of sorts, set in the 1970s in Ireland. It's all about the horses. REALLY a great read a la the old horse stories, complete with pony clubs, races, and great horses.

Ruth C. said...

When I was young I did not have a security blanket -- I had a SECURITY BOOK.!!!!!

Even before going to kindergarten I would carry a book around with me. It was Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I definitely have not outgrown my need for a security book as I usually have one with me except when I'm at work.

I also loved the Terhune books and had several.

Has anyone else read BEAUTIFUL JOE?????

If you can find it ---- GRAB IT.!!!!!

When we moved to a different state, I had to give away a lot of items - namely books, records, comics, etc. I had a lot of 45's and even 78's that would be worth a lot of money today but they were given to friends a few days before we moved -- wonder what happened to them.

Had an Elvis that was put out on the Sun record label.

I read Trixie Belden and LOVED the Scholastic Book Club - couldn't wait until the next order leaflet came out and was on pins and needles until the books I ordered arrived.

I had 6 books in a series and those SBMs (senior brain moments) are working right now so I can't recall the first name of the boy, but the first one was _______ The Jungle Boy. Then I had Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Annie Oakley, Dale Evans, etc. These were all put out by the same printing company and mine were all purchased at a Big John's store.

Here are some more that I remember:

Johnny Tremaine - started my love of history and the American Revolution

Little Women

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Anne of Green Gables

Nancy Drew

Hardy Boys

Ferdinand The Bull

Ivanhoe

A Tale Of Two Cities

The Crucible

Heidi

Hans Brinker and The Silver Skates

I had been an avid reader ever since.

HAVE A WONDERFUL EVENING EVERYONE.!!!!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Oh, I remember Hans Brinker too!

Becke, I went on a hunt when I pulled up the link you sent, because that's not the book. Similar, but not it. The book I read was by Patsey Gray, who also wrote the Sea Star horse books. :> Her Norah's Ark was pubbed in 1966 and went OP sometime in the 80's I guess. Found a copy on Amazon though, by going to Alibris and finding it, then going back to Amazon to order it. Grins. I like Amazon's return policy better! Ha!

Jo Davis said...

Oh, Kirsten,
You've hit on one of my favorite subjects and have taken me back a ways...

The Black Stallion was one of my all-time favorites. My absolute favorite, though, is Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. That's the book that, even as a kid, moved me to think, "Someday, I'd love to write a book half this great..."

Thanks for your post!

Nancy said...

Penney, I loved The Boxcar Children, but we only had one book!

Nancy said...

Barbara Monajem, I discovered Sutcliffe as an adult. My favorite of her books is Sword at Sunset, her Arthurian.

But I'm a sucker for almost all things Arthurian.

Clive Owen, anyone? *g*

Nancy said...

PinkPeony, I loved the Scholatic Book Service. We didn't have much extra money, but my parents always managed to get a couple of books at the book fair and a few in between. And I kept our local library in business. In our small town, I could ride my bike there, put the kick stand down, and know it'd be there when I came back. And the basket held lots of books.

I didn't think anything of the fact that the librarian, Mrs. Wally, always had something to suggest when I walked through the door. Now that I've spent some time teaching, though, I realize she must have known she had a "live one," a kid who would read anything and everything and wasn't just reading to keep the parents happy, and she resolved to encourage that.

Nancy said...

Kirsten, I also came to Asimov as an adult. Robert Heinlein wrote a lot of YA science fiction, but I didn't discover it. The Caves of Steel is the first of the robot novels, of course, but he also wrote a lot of short stories. The man was amazingly prolific!

Nancy said...

Louisa, cops? Demetrius said nothing about cops.

About midnight, there was a guy in the foyer boogeying down in a police uniform, tossing pieces--uh, never mind!

I loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler! What history geek could not? It filled me with yearning to visit the Metropolitan Museum, an ambition I didn't get to fulfill until adulthood. That book might be a Newbery winner, too. The dh has gone to the store and isn't currently here to be asked.

Just BTW, congratulations on your Daphne final. Good luck in DC!

Nancy said...

What about the Andrew Lang "color" fairy books? The Red Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book, and so on? I read all the ones I could find.

Caren Crane said...

Lime, you're back on the GR love. I knew he wouldn't stay away for long! *g*

Kirsten, as to my "old friends" they looked much like yours, only without the horses and dogs. I was never into animal stories unless they were fantasies. I think it came from having a veterinarian father. I saw and heard way too much about animal care to believe animals were anything fun. We had a few pets I adored, but there was no childhood glamor in them for me.

I think I read every Piers Anthony Xanth book ever written. Even when he was obviously sick to death of them and they got progressively more ridiculous, I loved them!

Caren Crane said...

PinkPeony, Scholastic books were the ONLY reason I ever had any books. I remember sweating over whether I could find or beg 50 cents to order a book. Honestly, I think my teachers felt so sorry for me they would have ordered them for me, except they just couldn't play favorites. My beloved fifth grade teacher ordered books for the class she knew I would love. She was the best!

p226 said...

Grade school? I didn't know fiction existed in Grade school. Well, I did, but I didn't bother with it. I remember reading something titled The Battle of Britain. I also remember reading about the war in the Pacific. I very clearly remember one day in fifth grade, yelling out in a silent classroom "That's so BAD!" (Back then, Bad meant "good"). I'd just read about the mining of Truck Island. And I found my great uncle's flight mentioned specifically in the book. I still have the Distinguished Flying Cross he awarded to me (long story). But he'd earned it on that mission. I thought it was beyond cool to be reading about my uncle's participation in the war.

I was always reading that stuff. War history. Constantly. By sixth grade, I'd forgotten more history of WWII than I know now. I knew every battle. Every unit. Every significant commander. I knew the names and careers of several navy and marine aces.

That's all I read.

I didn't find fiction entertaining until high school.

p226 said...

Make that Truk Island. Fingers sometimes operate faster than brain.

Pissenlit said...

There was this guy who worked at my library branch who used to call me The Black Stallion Girl 'cause I kept having them order all the books through the inter-library loan system because our branch didn't have them all. :D

- Bernice Thurman Hunter's Booky Trilogy, Margaret Trilogy, Lamplighter

- Enid Blyton's The Adventurous Four, The Secret Seven series, The Famous Five series

- E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

- Willo Davis Roberts' Megan's Island

- Sheila Lavelle's Trouble With the Fiend

I used to get so excited whenever the latest Scholastic Book forms came in. Bet they drove my mum nuts but she always let me pick one item from each one. But ya, Scholastic was pretty eeeeeeevil. I remember receiving a whole surprise box of books in the mail from them one day. It was one of those, oh-if-you-don't-want-to-purchase-it-then-send-it-back-type things. I forget how old I was but I managed to bug, I mean convince, my mum to keep it.

Louisa Cornell said...

Nancy, I missed the cop in the foyer!! Was that a private performance or did any of the other Banditas see him? Demetrius is notoriously close-mouthed about just about everything that goes on in the Lair. Darn him!

Wasn't From the Mixed Up Files a fabulous book. I longed to live in a museum and spent a lot of time tracking down museum guide books to add to my collection. I was a HUGE history geek. Still am, I'm afraid!

Thanks for the congrats! I'm very excited about the Daphne final! Working like a madwoman to get my synopsis in shape to send for the final judges. Have to have it in the coordinator's hands by Wednesday. This final is for the notorious Manwhore book.

Louisa Cornell said...

La Campbell, I have those beautiful hardback Marguerite Henry books too. The illustrations are gorgeous! Definitely on my Bucket List of places to see. I'm even jealous of your mug!

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Hey Nancy, is Caves of Steel Heinlein or Asimov? :> I love Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land, GLory Road, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls - jeez, you name it, I read it. Oh, Sixth Column, The Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers...Wow...

And Nancy, I'm so with you on the children's librarians. They are WONDERFUL people, aren't they?

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

P226, sounds like you and my DH were in the same mode. He lurves WWII history and most military history. On our first date we spent at least an hour discussing the different names for the Civil War battles depending on if you were North (him) or South (me). Then, we went to the Air and Space Museum? Wow. I saw it all in a whole new light. :>

PinkPeony said...

Nancy-Caren...Just back from digging in through book bins in the garage and I found piles of SBS books priced 50 to 75 cents. I know that was a lot of money back then, because I remember a candy bar cost a whole dime! I was a library regular and the SBS books were the first books I ever bought.
:) Jen

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Pink, I know the SBS now, because of my kids, but I don't remember much about them from childhood. My Daddy is a librarian, so BUYING the books was one of those alien concepts. You borrowed them from the library, of course! :>

My kids love both the library and the bookstore/bookservice. Expensive, but worth it!

Anna Campbell said...

Which mug, LC? The one on the top of my neck or the one in the cup cupboard? Hmm, is cup cupboard a tautology?

Nancy said...

PinkPeony, 50 cents was, indeed, a lot of money back then. A Very Expensive Barbie Outfit was $3.95. With shoes and accessories. And I could get Superman for 12¢.

Jeanne, Caves of Steel is Asimov. Robots of Dawn, I think, is the second one, but I'd have to check.

Anne McCaffrey also wrote a YA about horses, which I think is still in the boy's possession and survived the last weeding of his shelves. I insisted on keeping some of his baby books and picture books because he loved them so much, I thought we (or he) might want to share them with his currently hypothetical children someday. But the books had to come out of his room--too little-kid-ish for him anymore!

Nancy said...

Ruth C.--that wasn't Bomba the Jungle Boy, was it?

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

McCaffrey also wrote another adult regular fiction called Stitch in Snow which was really good too. I think the YA you're talking about is about Pony Clubs. :>

Nancy said...

Ruth C., I forgot to add that I have my mother's copy of The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. It has her name in it and "Christmas 1929." I loved that book.

Nancy said...

Louisa, I didn't see any other banditas in the foyer during the bump and gr--er dance. I was on my way home, being overdue at the time.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. (There's a great country song about that--by Colin Raye, I think).

Good luck with that synopsis.

Nancy said...

p226, how terrific that your uncle earned the Distinguished Flying Cross!

My dad (ex-Navy hospitalman chief, survivor of Corregidor and 41 months as a POW) would've loved to have a kid like you in our neighborhood. He read a lot about the war, though mostly about the Pacific Theater, and none of the kids around shared his interest. I was much more into the American Revolution and, later, the Battle of Britain, to the extent that I was interested in war stories at all.

Ruth C. said...

THANK YOU NANCY -- yes, it was Bomba the Jungle Boy.

And just to tell everyone a little about Beautiful Joe -- Joe was the dog in the story and had been abused as a puppy until rescued and the story continues from there.

One of the best animal books I ever read.

I would love to find another copy.!!!!

p226 said...

p226, how terrific that your uncle earned the Distinguished Flying Cross! ..


He earned three of them.

Jeanne (AKA The Duchesse) said...

Nancy/P226: how terrific that your uncle earned the Distinguished Flying Cross! ..

P226: He earned three of them.

Whoa. Im-press-ive. I bow to him. Without that kind of bravery, where would we be? Makes me proud, you know? And I'm not even related to him. :>

Kirsten said...

Hi Fo(anna)! I'm surprised you didn't sleep the day away after that party yesterday (or was it two days ago for you? How does that time zone thing work, anyway?)

Since you haven't read the Black Stallion, might I recommend you HIE THEE TO A LIBRARY AND GET A COPY?! Seriously. Best horse books ever!

I had to google Lorna Hill's ballet books -- they look fabulous! I'm about to go order some for the little one...

Kirsten said...

Oh, and Anna, I have a beautiful illustrated copy of Beauty and the Beast that I adore, and have brought everywhere with me!

Kirsten said...

Jeanne, did you know there are people in the world who haven't read Heidi? I know, it's shocking, right? My husband had never heard of the book.

I almost didn't marry him when I found that out. He's never seen the Wizard of Oz, either. Frightening.

Kirsten said...

Hi Ruth! Thanks for sharing your list with us!

I find it fascinating that Grimm's Fairy Tales were your security blanket. Those stories are pretty intense! Did you have the old version? Where crows pick out people's eyes and such? I guess no one will mess with you on the playground with that kind of security blanket! :-)

Kirsten said...

Jo -- Where the Red Fern Grows? That definitely goes on my list of "too sad to re-read"! Beautiful, but heartbreaking. Do you go back to it, or does it live in your memory?

Kirsten said...

Nancy, those colored fairy books sound awesome. I had a collection of folk tales from India as a kid that I loved, but I have no idea where it came from or what exactly was in it. But I sure wish I could find it again!

Kirsten said...

Caren, did you ever read James Herriot? I remember all his books and loving them. But I can see how living with real animals all the time takes the magic out of it. I was a total city kid. I kept fantasizing about horses, but really knew I'd never have one. :-(

BTW, I remember scrounging in the sofa cushions for change to buy books too. Except I think maybe that was for Harlequins!

Kirsten said...

Hey p226 -- that's pretty amazing, to be reading about your own uncle in those books! I have a couple of nieces who only like non-fiction as well. They're more into the biographies and whatnot, rather than military history, though...

So when you did get to high school, what type of fiction did you turn to?

Kirsten said...

Hey Pissenlit -- nice to find another Black Stallion girl in the house! The movie wasn't nearly as good as the books, you know? It never is.

Scholastic definitely is evil. The "send it back if you don't want it" is just plain wrong. They don't try that with my kids, thank goodness! I send them enough money as it is.

Now I've got to read The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil...
whatever. It's on the shelf, actually. My son got it for a christmas present. I suppose we will have to crack it open, if so many distinguished BBs are fans!

Nancy said...

p226, three Distinguished Flying Crosses is beyond amazing!

Kirsten, I still have some of those "color" fairy books. Too bad the boy showed little interest in them. He went with fairy tales that had intrepid young heroes for a while but soon decided they were too girly.

Cecile Smutty Hussy said...

My faves from childhood were Nancy Drew books, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Outsiders, Of Men and Mice, Lord of the Flies, Stand By Me, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet... yea, I know... pretty different... but at that time in my life, I just read for the pleasure of escaping my alocholic stepfather.. so anything I could get my hands on I read...

Kirsten said...

Cecile, those are all great books -- no matter what you're escaping from. This is the power of a great book, right? To transform your life, even during dark times.

To Kill a Mockingbird is truly an amazing work of art. I hope it is read by every child, in every school. It's just too important a book to miss.

And I also loved Catcher in the Rye! Good ol' Holden...

Lord of the Flies, now there's a creepy book. There was a "girl" version of it that I read during college -- Wide Sargasso Sea (if I'm remembering right). Makes me shudder just to think about it.

Kirsten said...

Hey all, I'm headed off to bed. Thanks for playing with me today! I've got a great list of new books to read AND foist on the kiddos! Yahoo!

Nikki said...

My favorite was Julie of the Wolves...*sigh*

Now I've been visited by ghosts of books past...

Nikki said...

To Kill a Mockingbird was a keeper too!

Anna Campbell said...

Kirsten, it's been another fabulous day in the lair! Sleep tight! Thanks, everyone, for sharing your childhood memories. It's been great fun.

Fedora said...

Kirsten, dragging in WAY late to say that I just finished reading the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books to my kids--they giggled all the way through, but probably not as much as I did :D We also read and LOVED the Little House books. As a kid, I also zoomed through all of Beverly Cleary's books, Pippi Longstocking, Harriet the Spy, Noel Streatfield's "Shoes" books, Secret Garden, Little Princess, the Moffats, Edward Eager's "Magic" books, and a zillion other titles. I LOVED the children's librarian, although I'm ashamed to say that I've forgotten her name. I owe her a debt of thanks for her patient recommendations week after week!

p226 said...

Hey Kirsten, way late responding. Sorry about that.

But I read horror. King, Koontz etc. Also read some Ludlum.

Laurie G said...

Winnie the Pooh-AL Milne, Heidi, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Beldon, Agatha Christie,LM Montgomery -Anne of Green Gables, CS Lewis, JR Tolkien, Orson Scott Card, EB White- Charlotte's, Louis The Trumpeter Swan, Stuart Little, Shel Silversteen poems and The Giving Tree, Three Mouseketeers- Alec Dumas, The Prince & the Pauper, LM Alcott's- Little Women, Little Men, Lynne Reid Banks-The Indian in the Cupboard, Rebecca -Daphne DeMarnier, Pollyanna, TAB books purchased through school. The Secret Garden-HB, The Snow Queen-Hans Christian Anderson, Call of the Wild-Jack London, The Stranger-Albert Camus, Pappillon,Flowers For Algernon, East of Eden, A Seperate Peace, Catch 22-Joseph Heller, Fahrenhuit 451, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World-Aldous Huxley, 1984-George Orwell, To Sir With Love,Catcher in the Rye-JD Salnger , The Time Machine-Orson Wells, Wrinkle in Time, Madeline D'Engle

Pat Cochran said...

My all-time favorites: The Secret
Garden & Black Beauty!

Pat Cochran