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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsYour favorite children's book is__________?
My youngest is well into the category of "independent reader", so I asked her to sort through the books she didn't want anymore, figuring we'd donate them to Goodwill or some other group. It made me sad to see our copies of "Blueberries for Sal" and "Make Way for Ducklings" on the pile. How many hours did I log reading those stories to the kids when they were young? It's hard to part with them.
So what is your favorite book that you remember from childhood , or one that you enjoyed as an adult reading with a child?
Mine is "Blueberries for Sal".
Story. Pictures. Perfect.
I'm probably going to take that one off the pile.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)I was allowed to borrow from the library was "Harry The Dirty Dog" and that was my favorite for a while.
Then I liked the "Madeline" books.
When I got a little older, my favorite book was "Perri", a story about a squirrel.
Now my all time favorite children's book is "The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter. Very sad in spots, but lots of hilarity in others.
RevStPatrick
(2,208 posts)Go the Fuck to Sleep.
Here it is being read by Samuel L Jackson:
orleans
(34,105 posts)but it is! i just ordered it from the library!
elleng
(131,459 posts)Like Sal too. and Ducklings.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Last edited Wed Jun 6, 2012, 11:52 PM - Edit history (1)
As I grew older I loved Jack London's White Fang and Call of The Wild. Then as I got older I discovered Science Fiction with Heinlein's Have Space Suit Will Travel.
woodsprite
(11,947 posts)grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)except for A Wrinkle in Time in fourth grade. I loved that one.
Will have to see if our library has a copy of Have Space Suit. I've never heard of it before.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)wonderful book
backwoodsbob
(6,001 posts)Charlotte's web
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)My favorites, though, were any Dr Suess (Fox in Sox #1 because I loved it as a kid and it made my daughter laugh when I read it to her) and Where the Wild Things Are.
HarveyDarkey
(9,077 posts)although most of his children's books are stellar
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)can't even think about the giving tree without tearing up a bit
bluedigger
(17,091 posts)My hippie Dad sent it to me for Christmas when I was eight.
I got around to reading it when I was ten.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)i still have the copy my mom bought me in 92 or 93 and i read it at least once a year. you can tell it's a well-loved copy
bluedigger
(17,091 posts)It was (almost) the same paperback edition my Dad gave me in the 60's. Picked up the whole set and The Silmarillion for $2.50.
To me - priceless!
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)My aunt bought it for me for Christmas one year and read the beginning chapters to me. It's a beautiful book.
grntuscarora
(1,249 posts)It is beautiful.
elleng
(131,459 posts)not really interested in much else as a kid.
After I HAD kids, well, all of the above!
lunatica
(53,410 posts)REP
(21,691 posts)RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)My favorite is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Can barely have my 6 year old daughter read it to me and I'm crying.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)definitely near the top of my list
Response to grntuscarora (Original post)
PotatoChip This message was self-deleted by its author.
Pool Hall Ace
(5,849 posts)"Charlotte's Web"
"Stuart Little"
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Narnia, for sure.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)hands down.
i bought myself a new copy five or six years ago and it sits on the shelf between two of my other favorites - cloudy with a chance of meatballs and alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. i still have all my beatrix potter and pooh books, a half dozen little golden books.
they're my oldest friends and still make me smile.
i know i've read blueberries for sal, but don't really remember anything other than i liked it.
Andrew67
(30 posts)[IMG][/IMG]much appreciated
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)We always give this book to the new parents when their first baby is born.
Sid
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)when my MIL was here on hospice, my SIL gave us this book.
Beginning of life...
End of life...
momto3
(662 posts)Still makes me cry.
distantearlywarning
(4,475 posts)I am 30-something and I still occasionally drag that classic out of my bookshelf and read it again.
peacefreak
(2,939 posts)They are going to have to come to my house to see these:
Miss Rumphius-Barbara Cooney
Stellaluna-Janelle Cannon
Tuesday-David Weisner
sinkingfeeling
(51,501 posts)about a little bear who wouldn't go to school and learn to read. I still have it tucked away at home although it has a lot of crayon scribbles over some of the pages. I'd love to find another copy without the scribbles.
I found it!
grasswire
(50,130 posts)put them aside in a box for the pleasure of reading them to a new generation -- grandchildren. I have some childrens books from the early 1800s that were saved in the family. Precious.
My favorite book as a child (reading age) was Mr. Popper's Penguins. Al Gore says that was his favorite too.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)gave me the best gift a few years ago.
Long story short, I never knew my dad's mom. She left the family when he was 5 and he didn't see her for nearly 50 years, right before she died.
Anyway, after dad died I got into doing my family tree, and connected with a cousin I never knew about either. My grandmother was her great aunt and she knew her. My grandmother gave her a book she treasured from her own childhood... "Ramona" by Helen Hunt Jackson.
When I met my cousin for the first time, she gave me this book. I wish I could have known my grandmother, but I do feel closer to her holding the book she read so many times. I'm nearly 60, so that gives a pretty good idea of how old this book is.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)books are an intergenerational connection and carry meaning well beyond the first owners.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Dr. Seuss was high on the list:
Hop on Pop (the first book I could read, at 4 years old)
Cat in the Hat
Yertle the Turtle
The Sleep Book
Dr. Seuss' ABC
The Sneetches
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Horton Hears a Who
One Fish, Two Fish
Children's Dictionary (Cat in the Hat Books)
Then there was Go, Dogs, Go by P.D. Eastman
Winnie the Pooh series (with original drawings by Mr. Saunders, not Disney)
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Boxcar Children series (especially The Lighthouse Mystery)
Mr. Pine's Mixed-up Signs
The Golden Book Encyclopedia for Children
The Golden Book of World Geography for Children
Children's Encyclopedia of American History
Peter Rabbit
A Treasury of Children's Stories
Scholastic books:
Runaway Slave (The Story of Harriet Tubman)
Rocket Genius (The Story of Robert Goddard)
The Search for Planet X
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Nothing Ever Happens on My Block
Comic books:
MAD Magazine
Mystery Comics Digest (Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, The Twilight Zone)
Uncle Scrooge
Peanuts
Yellow Submarine
Other:
Golden Magazine
That's what I remember off the top of my head
Spike89
(1,569 posts)I had a mad crush on Dorothy Shea in 1st grade and somehow that transferred to Dorothy in the books. I read all 30-odd titles. In essence, the books pulled me from an early/pre reader into a voracious reader.
mia
(8,363 posts)handmade34
(22,759 posts)some from when I was a kid, some from reading to my kids...
Homer Price
Make Way for Ducklings
The Happy Hocky Family (best whole family favorite!!! kid all have wicked sense of humor)
And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street
Chronicles of Narnia
Always Room For One More
Tikki Tikki Tembo ( fun to read aloud - not quite culturally accurate!)
and so many more...
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)This was many, many, many years ago.
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Dr Suess
Shel Silverstien
Broken_Hero
(59,305 posts)followed very closely by L. Alexander's Taran novels....
momto3
(662 posts)My daughter loved this book. Read it to her so often that the binding broke and the pages began to fall out. I still have it with her baby things. I cannot through it out (too dilapidated to donate). I can still recite it from memory 13 years later.
A told B and B told C, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree.......
annonymous
(882 posts)I also enjoyed Dr. Suess books and Nancy Drew.
Sweet Freedom
(3,995 posts)I saved it and recommend it to all my friends with kids.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew
The Moffats
The Bobbsey Twins
Auggie
(31,252 posts)I still have it
On edit: Not a childrens' story, but I remember my mom reading Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Gold Bug" to my brother and I. I was mesmerized by her reading -- it's still one of my favorite short stories of all time.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)I kept my copy and have read it to my kids.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)"I went to sleep with gum in my mouth, and now there's gum in my hair..."
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)"Christmas is Everywhere Including Asia Minor"... bootlegging Jewish granny insists on getting a Christmas tree and convinces her grandson to help her hide her stash inside a snowman right smack on the front lawn.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)my sister got me a new copy for christmas a few years ago
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)At some kind of dinner function. He had been placed next to her at the dinner and spent so much time laughing and chatting (and consuming large quantities of wine) when they suddenly realized they were the only people left other than the hired staff that was cleaning up. She sent him a signed copy of the book on this birthday and wrote a lovely hilarious letter that covered both front and back pages and referenced their "melting under the table" with all that wine while she was so impressed with his being able to recite nearly the whole book word for word despite being 40-something and completely toodled. He also doesn't recall some other things they had apparently talked about nor that he'd let her know when his birthday was or is address. He sadly doesn't recall all that much of the encounter other than barfing for two days afterward and having to hang onto his own head to keep it on his neck... he's not much of a drinker.
I love the book even more as an adult than I did as a kid. What a great idea your sister had in getting you a copy as a gift. In fact, I think I'm going to pick up a copy for myself.
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)i think i need to read that book again, i've had a couple terrible, horrible no good, very bad days lately
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)My dear friends back in NY created this all by themselves. It is basically the life story of Tara, the elder daughter who is Autistic, as written by Mom and set to music Tara herself composed and performed, with neurotypical little sis -- and Broadway-caliber performer! -- Dana on vocals. And Dad? He's their business manager.
http://starabella.com
petronius
(26,614 posts)The Seuss collection, Where the Wild Things Are, Sir Toby Jingle's Beastly Journey, The Giving Tree are all also pretty high on the list.
As I got older it was Oz, Madeleine L'Engle, and The Hardy Boys...
Brother Buzz
(36,511 posts)Mary Anne can dig as much in a day as one hundred men can dig in a week