Elle- The Pokey Little Puppy was like my favorite book ever! There are even some variations (I currently own The Pokey Little Puppy's Christmas or something like that.
Brazen- I loved the Fudge books too!
My others:
Island of the Blue Dolphins -- and all of Scott O'Dell's books
The Giving Tree
Hatchet
Number the Stars & The Giver
Oh, and I was also obsessed with the Sweet Valley Twins (not SV High though)
not children's books, but other books I loved as a kid:
The Diary of Anne Frank
Little Women
Gone With the Wind
The Hobbit
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"We live in an age where unnecessary things are our only necessities." --Oscar Wilde
The Pokey Little Puppy was one of the only children's books at my grandparents house (it had been my dad's) and we were constantly forced to read it or listen to my grandma read it in her Edith Bunker voice so I don't have the best memories of it.
bumblebee wrote: these are mostly younger-kid picture books, but i loved: "corduroy," about a small bear who gets lost in a department store and has to spend the night there until the girl who owns him comes back for him the next day, "where the wild things are," all of the richard scarry books with the detailed pictures where you look for goldbug on each page (like "all around town" and stuff), madeline, and beatrix potter stories (like "peter rabbit," etc.). i have hardcover versions of most of these because it makes me happy to flip through them sometimes. i'm saving them for the kids i will have someday. ramona quimby was my favorite when i got a little older, and i did like the nancy drew books, too. oh! does anyone remember that book about the boy in china who falls down a well? ricky-tiki-tembo, i think? we loved that one, too. -- Edited by bumblebee at 13:29, 2006-02-07
I loved all of these (well, I wasn't that into Where the Wild Things are). My parents used to call me Lowly Worm because I was so skinny. I think we also had that Ricky-Tiki-Tembo on tape as well and my sisster and I would run around repeating his name and driving everyone crazy.
When I was a bit older I was really into the mysteries by John Bellairs. I also loved the Phantom Tollbooth, Roald Dahl books, some Judy Blume (the ones geared towards younger kids like those BrazenCanadian mentioned). I also really liked the Henry Reed series which was about an American boy who lived abroad but spends his summers in Jersey coming up with his own businesses.
My mom still has all my lists from summer reading programs - I hardly recognize most of the titles on them!
What a great topic! I'm taking a course on working in a children's library now (I'm getting a master's in library science) and tonight we all had to bring in a book and read it aloud to the class. Mine was "Pat the Bunny."
Books I loved as a kid (many were already mentioned): 1. Anne of Green Gables series -- I was sooo happy my middle name was Anne spelled with an e after reading these 2. Little House on the Prairie series 3. Basically anything by Roald Dahl 4. Sweet Valley High (not so much into the Twins series) 5. The Babysitter's Club -- I even tried starting one, and I still remember randomly specific details from the series, like what Mary Anne wore to the party where she had her first date with new boy in school Logan Bruno (yes, I'm a dork -- her outfit had some pattern on it that said "Paris, Rome" etc.) 6. The Sesame Street ABC book 7. Shel Silverstein 8. Pippi Longstocking 9. Dr. Seuss 10. Some old book club books my mom had when she was little, like "Jeptha and the New People" and "The Pink Motel" (nothing famous) 11. The Secret Garden
ETA: Thanks to Judy Blume's "Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself," I learned what "bordello" meant.