Great Books Week Day 3: What childhood book captured your imagination?
I grew up in a quiet home with no television or other young people. My grandparents liked to read, and so did I. Books were my trusted friends and companions throughout childhood, and I loved many of them for many reasons. So…. all that to say that narrowing it down to just one book is asking a bit much, so I’m going to share some overall favorites. I’m pretty sure that the Great Books Week police aren’t on patrol!
Picture Books
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Johnny-Go-Round
- Madeleine
- Babar
- Illustrated Fairy Tales
Non-Series Books
- David and the Phoenix
- The Secret Garden
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
- The Little Princess
- Mary Jane
- Prudence Crandall: Woman of Courage
- Brighty of the Grand Canyon
- My Side of the Mountain
- Little Women
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Crazy Horse (Landmark Biography)
- Florence Nightingale
- Helen Keller
- The Little Lame Prince
- Bedknob and Broomstick
Series
- The Oz books
- Raggedy Ann and Andy
- The Burgess Books (animal stories)
- Bobbsey Twins
- Happy Hollisters
- Pippi Longstocking
- Heidi books
- Harriet the Spy
- The Black Stallion
- Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys
- Cherry Ames
- Beverly Grey
Young people’s books I didn’t discover until adulthood, and still enjoy:
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- The Boxcar Children (early books in the series)
- Hank the Cowdog audio books
- Wrinkle in Time trilogy
This is far from a complete list of the young people’s books that sparked my imagination, but it’s at least a start.
Great ones there. Many of those I didn’t discover until homeschooling my daughter.
The thick Winnie the Pooh was a winner for me. I remember poring over the map as if I were there.
And the Oz books and Madeline L’engle books are imprinted on my mind. Anything science fiction or fantasy really spoke to me as a child. I truly entered those magical worlds through books.
There is no way I will remember most them but a few are: Judy Bloom: the pain and the great one.
Where the wild things are, the whole v.c. andrews flowers in the attic series: I can’t believe my mother let me read those at 12 !