Favorite Books from your childhood.

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

The. Best.

noodles hovar:

...the 'quintessential' children's book! :thumpsup:

I bet this Dr. Seuss book is a 'close' second.

And yes...my kids used to bother me in the kitchen with (when serving eggs & bacon [still ham...right?]),...I would begin the jingle by saying to my sons, "...Would you like greens and ham? My sons would 'loudly' state (w/ sly grins), "Daddddd...[we] do not like them, Sam-I-am. [We] do not like green eggs and ham"!

"If you look upon [ham] and eggs and [hunger], you have already committed breakfast in your heart”. Anonymous

 

[something better]

That’s great. Were G&G in Boy’s Life or Highlights?

Thanks for bringing back. The memories i used to enjoy boy’s life.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Thanks for bringing back. The memories i used to enjoy boy’s life.

Thank @luvmysuper - he ignited the memory.

 

[rahgnar.s]

The Redwall Series from Brian Jacques!

 

[noodles hovar]

The Redwall Series from Brian Jacques!

The feasts!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Hey, all! I grew up on the Whitman Authorized TV Editions for young readers -- original novels based on TV shows like Bat Masterson, Maverick, The Restless Gun, Annie Oakley, and more. My all-time favorite was one of the Roy Rogers series called The Ghost of Mystery Rancho. Texas Ranger Roy battles a killer, a bandit and smuggler who wears a skeleton mask and costume so that not even his minions know his real identity. That identity is kept secret until the penultimate chapter, and it's a real thunderbolt revelation. (I have a copy from eBay and read it some years ago. It holds up pretty well!) It started me on my lifelong fascination with the classic "closed" mystery a la Ellery Queen and Rex Stout.

With the Whitman novels, you never had the feeling you were being written down to; dangerous things happened, and at least in Rancho, people actually got killed. About 1965 the books got weaker -- the 2 Whitman Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels were not as high quality. But the older Western ones hold up. About 10 years ago I bought another 1950s Roy story, The Enchanted Canyon, which had bored me at age 9. It was very well done and projected a fantastic sense of atmosphere that apparently I didn't "get" in grade school.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Regarding 'Dick and Jane' books. I didn't grow up reading them in class in the early 1970s, but there were some on the communal book shelf. I remember liking them, but even as a young child I didn't relate to the kids, even though I was partially the favoured group. Blonde, blue eyed girl, middle class. This might seem petty, but I did know I didn't fit the rest of it. Dresses were chuch and sometimes school wear, I would never wear a dress to play in. While my father did the suit/hat thing, my mom, like me, wasn't in dresses all the time, and though she sometimes wore an apron, it was for baking, or messier dishes she was cooking. None of us wore 1950s fashions. To me, they were almost fairy tales, that world that existed only in books

If I could see those differences as a 6-8 year old, then what was the message to the black kid in my class, or the indigenous girl, heaven knows it wasn't an area that had a large number of others they could identify with. I lived in a semi-rural area. A shop keeper married to a car salesman was 'middle class', if your dad was a lawyer or doctor, you were on the upper end. I'd call us, a minister now working in a church related academic stuff and a homemaker...lower middle class. A very large number of people I went to school with the same or lower class (mechanic, tow truck driver, beautician). A lot of farmers, few rich, most somewhere in the middle veering to lower class, a few probably working poor. Outdated, patched, handed down, home made clothes were not uncommon.

So, how does a little girl in a 1950s dress, with a navy double breasted coat, with matching bonnet fit the image of any of us?

Pedagogically, I'm of a hybrid mind... there is research backing up both. Reading meaningful books that have stories children can relate to, and which reflects the language they do, is of utmost importance. However, before ditching repetitive readers that focus on word recognition and mastery of small units of meaning and pronunciation, do have a place, especially with some kinds of learners. Today we have better choices of books for that.

All that said, I do have a bit of nostalgia, even though I was a very good reader from early on, and had already pretty much out grown them as reading material by grade one.
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I too was already reading when I entered first grade (about 12 years before you did), so the Dick and Janes were kind of dull stuff. The thing that puzzled me, living in the depths of the South, were the scenes with this white stuff falling out of the sky, and this deal with burning leaves in the fall. How's that again?

 

[Benzadmiral]

When I was a boy I didn't do well in school, but I read a lot. I had large collections of comics, Mad magazines and paperbacks, and hot rod magazines.

I read Reader's Digest Condensed Books. I still remember some of the novels I read in them. And I remember being too young to fully understand what the stories were about. Also I read detective stories, by authors like Raymond Chandler, and a series of books on the history of art.

My mother subscribed us to the RDCB when I was in junior high, and we kept on with them for years. I got to read Jaws, Bless the Beasts and Children, Airport, and a slew of other bestsellers of the day -- and novels that have been forgotten now, too.

Peculiar that they rarely chose science fiction in any of the volumes for many years. I think I remember Crichton's The Terminal Man being offered in the early '70s. And years before my mother signed up, I know, they had Clarke's wonderful disaster novel set on the Moon, A Fall of Moondust.

 

[AlBHappy]

The Great Brain Series was always a favorite. And Hardy Boys.

 

[oc_in_fw]

 

[Windigo]

Moomintroll and comet. This edition has the same cover.

 

[SparkyLB]

5 Chinese Brothers.

 

[JCarr]

Although I don't consider them strictly reading for youth, I discovered them when I was young...any of Michael Moorcock's Elric series...still good. Really disappointed that this series never made it to the big screen. Mervyn Peake's, Gormenghast, Titus Groan and Titus Alone.

Apologies, my entry was a bit further advanced than Green Eggs and Ham or any of the Curious George books. Please ignore.

 

[musicman1951]

I'm afraid I don't have much of a memory for almost 70 years ago, but my favorite as a dad and grandpa to read to my gifts was A Special Trade.

 

[FarmerTan]

I'm afraid I don't have much of a memory for almost 70 years ago, but my favorite as a dad and grandpa to read to my gifts was A Special Trade.

View attachment 1593994

Still in print my friend?

I would LOVE to travel back in time. My best memories are of reading to my only begotten. Him curled up in my lap. "Good night moon" and "the Vipper of Vip".... Time flies when you are not looking!

 

[musicman1951]

Still in print my friend?

I would LOVE to travel back in time. My best memories are of reading to my only begotten. Him curled up in my lap. "Good night moon" and "the Vipper of Vip".... Time flies when you are not looking!

I couldn't agree more. My youngest grandson is going to middle school next year. Two in high school and one going to college. They don't fit on my lap very well anymore.

 

[FarmerTan]

I couldn't agree more. My youngest grandson is going to middle school next year. Two in high school and one going to college. They don't fit on my lap very well anymore.

Lol, ain't it the truth. My son is a head taller than me, and I'm not short.

There are certain things that a man can only learn from his children, and I have been so blessed.

 

[emwolf]

These were two big ones for me as a little kid:

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

These were two big ones for me as a little kid:
View attachment 1594299...[another classic]....

emwolf:

"Reading is to mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

 

[Space_Cadet]

"Karlsson-on-the-Roof" by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.
Anyone else?