As a kid, I almost always had a book with me. I’d bug my mom to take me to the library where I’d check out half a dozen books and read them as soon as we got in the car. Instead of being scolded for watching too much TV or playing too many video games, I’d get reprimanded for avoiding my chores because I was lost in some book.
I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on from my dad’s Reader’s Digest magazines to the Babysitter’s Club series.
My favorite books were Judy Blume’s hilarious Fudge series which followed around Peter Hatcher and his mischievous brother, Fudge. For a birthday, I got a boxed set of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Fudge-a-Mania and Double Fudge. When I got older, I gave the books away to one of my cousins so she could enjoy Peter and Fudge’s misadventures.
La pregunta: What was your favorite book(s) as a kid*?
*Define kid anyway you want.
Oh my gosh…Harriet the Spy! I always tried to be her, but nothing ever happened. I still haven’t tried a chocolate egg cream. Also, I loved all the cheesy series: Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables. If you liked Babysitters Club, or didn’t but read the books, this website will have you crying: http://whatclaudiawore.blogspot.com/. Good question, Cindy! This brought back so many happy memories. Anytime I would get a couple of dollars, I would spend it on caramels and books…those were the days!
Dr.Seuss in general. He was sort of the MC of children’s literature. Particularly the book about the beings that lived in the trees (can’t remember the title for the life of me!). It was Dr.Seuss’ equivalent to Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy,. Mercy Me (the ecology)”.
Personally, I enjoyed Goosebumps! A lot! Especially the ones where you got to choose the ending or like the direction of the story, you know? I also remember The Giver being pretty great. And Jurassic Park!!! I remember that I read the book after the movie came out, but it was all good because the book was way better. And thats coming from someone who worships the movie.
I read a lot as a kid too. My absolute all time favorite was A Wrinkle in Time. You just can’t beat that demo with the ants and the string!
I liked the Great Brain Series and the Choose Your Own Adventure series.
I like to read the following authors, Andrew Clements, JK Rowling and Mary Pope Osborne.
I can’t tell you how many summers my mother threatened to take away our books if we didn’t do our chores. We were obsessed!
What twentysomething woman didn’t love The Babysitters Club?? I amassed something like 50 books and eventually gave most of them away to a family friend. I’ve heard of a TBC book club in SF made up of nostalgic twentysomethings. Sounds fantastic to me.
Something I still adore is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I read them as a child, did a research paper on them in tenth grade, and have carried a worn copy with me where ever I’ve moved throughout adulthood. It’s one of those books that can be appreciated by both children and adults on different levels.
BTW, I absolutely LOVE that you have a real live kid commenter up above! ^
La Rebelde beat me! I thought I was the only elementary school nerd who lovvvvved A Wrinkle in Time–and the sequels. I still think about some of the scenes in the book as if they were my own weird childhood memories. In high school I was addicted to the Fearstreet series by the Goosebumps author R L Stine. And, of course, I am also kinda embarrased to say–but I can’t deny–that I also read the Babysitter’s Club series in elementary school.
The GREAT BRAIN series! I’m glad there is someone else here who read them as a child. I also had an affinity for my brother’s high school history textbooks.
Harry Potter was early 10′s for me, so I don’t really count them as childhood books.
The Indian in the Cupboard… up until that point I would read and enjoy books assigned in class but that was the first time I started to read a book and couldnt put it down. From then on I found myself a book or two ahead of my class. Anything I knew we were going to read I went and read it weeks before we got to it as a class. Not because I wanted to look smart or be more prepared, but because as soon as I finished one book I felt a need to start another one- I was an addict!
I had forgotten the name of this book, but research for the question brought back the familiar “Sideways stories from a wayside school”. Time to lurk on eBay.
I keep remembering books! This was more of my childhood, but did anyone here read Lois Lowry’s The Giver. That was the first book that truly wowed me. Even now I cherish it a lot.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I never read books aimed at children because I was deep into comic books…at least not until I had to start reading books for school. This is probably why my friends thought it was strange I talked like a super villain. “You will rue the day, Steve!”
When I was young I loved the Sweet Pickle books then I graduated to collecting the Sweet Valley Twin books. I loved going to this little book store on Main Street and finding the latest book on the shelves.
the earliest series i remember following with out a doubt- Madeleine i think it had to do with attending a pre-k and kinder with the nuns of st. francis of assisi
i haven’t stopped reading since…
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13910000/13915195.JPG
-the giving tree
-goosebumps
Gosh, I had so many. Series wise, I was very into The Babysitters Club and Ramona (gotta love Beverly Cleary)…then around middle school I moved on to any and all things Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. Other than that I was into the classics…Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Hobbit, The Wind in the Willows, and of course everything Shel Silverstein related.
My love for books started with Charlotte’s Webb. Other favorites I remember were: Are you there God? Its me, Margaret; Jacob, Have I loved; and Tuck Everlasting. In fifth grade my mom got me a subscription for a bookclub called Especially For Girls or something like that. I was mailed two books to read monthly. I kept that for a couple of years until we came into some tough times and my subscription was not renewed and I ‘graduated’ to thrift store book finds. and i say graduated because by eighth grade i was reading a combination of escandaloso tales of the likes of vc andrews, and jackie collins. The library thing never worked out since our neighborhood had one with such a poor and old selection.
hard to narrow it down. i read all the judy blume books over and over again! i think my favorites were “tiger eyes” and “are you there god, it’s me margaret. in middle school the girls in my class used to pass around “forever” and dog-eared all the “nasty” pages. anyone that read that book knows what i’m talking about. i also loved the sweet valley high and sweet valley twins series (dont ask me why!).
I was the same way, book obsessed! I just can’t understand when people say that reading is boring! It is your portal to other lands, other lives, other times in history.
My favorite books of all times were pretty much everything by Judy Blume. I loved all the Little House on the Prairie books. Charlotte’s Web. And yes, those dumb Sweet Valley High books. As an adult, the books I keep returning to because they feel like old friends is The Thorn Birds, The Women of Brewster Place and Rain of Gold.
I get so excited when I get a new book, even to this day. I will read in the middle of the night, in the bathroom, I’ve even took a book in the shower and stood there reading it before! I know, obsessed!
Nietzsche!
Haha, I haven’t even read Nietzsche as an adult. I did like to read things I wasn’t supposed to, like my grandmother’s maturely themed fotonovelas. Eventually, I settled for Judy Blume.
@chimatli:
Are you talking about Mil Chistes and like those policiacas? the little books?
‘the fat cat’ was great. i still have my old ratty copy. i liked how the cat ate the whole village. don’t worry, it had a happy ending. ‘the boy who would not go to school’ was great as well, although I should have listened to the moral of the story. the book came with a 45rpm that you could play as you read along. the boy eventually wises up and goes back to school.
‘motorcycle mouse’ and ‘how to eat fried worms’. most awesome books ever.
reading ‘old yeller’ really sucked. it’s not like you needed to know life sucks sometimes. it still hurts thinking about it now.
someone mentioned the Great Brain books. i liked those too. i read those in 7th grade, I think. Encyclopedia Brown books were great as well.
I read most of the SE Hinton books. I thought Lois Duncan’s “I know what you did last summer’ was riveting. It was strange to see it made into a teen horror film a couple of decades later. I didn’t see the film.
I even looked through a copy of ‘Our Bodies, Our Selves’ at the local library. It had pictures and drawings of naked women. It also had drawings of sex positions couples could engage in. It’s all about clitoral stimulation apparently. Not that this information was of any use at the age of 12. Childhood’s End? No, that’s a book by Arthur C. Clarke.
Does anybody remember the Deputy Dan coloring books and candy cigarettes?
“I love you this much” because it’s about a mom that takes care of her baby and then the baby takes care of her.