The Horse Stories:
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Summer Pony by Jean Slaughter Doty
4-H Filly by Patsey Gray
A Horse for XYZ by Louise Moeri
(Plus a lot of other horse & girl books like Gypsy From Nowhere, The Pony Problem, and The Secret Horse to name a few.)
The Magical Reads:
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No Such Thing as a Witch by Ruth Chew
(And all the other Ruth Chew books!)
The Rebel Witch by Jack Lovejoy
The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum
Summer Camp Reads:
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Laura's Luck by Marilyn Sachs
Just Plain Maggie by Lorraine Beim
The books with mischievous kids:
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Me and My Little Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Egypt Game by Zipha Keatley Snyder
Survival reads:
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Two on an Island by Bianca Bradbury
Mind Call by Wilanne Schneider Belden
Science Fiction Reads:
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The Rains of Eridan by H.M. Hoover
The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key
The Star Beast by Robert A. Heinlein
(Plus a lot of other Heinlein novels!)
The orphan stories:
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Adopted Jane by H.F. Daringer
Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner
(And The Boxcar Children, too!)
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A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Adopted Jane by H.F. Daringer
Surprise Island by Gertrude Chandler Warner
(And The Boxcar Children, too!)
And, of course, the suspenseful, scary reads:
Which include all of Lois Duncan's books!
I could go on and add the Prydain Chronicles, all the Narnia books, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Ellen Tebbits, the Little House and the Little Maid series and many more...but this post is already too long. If I'd been a child when the Harry Potter series came out, I'd include those, too. Because I really love those books, but I first read them as an adult, so technically they don't count as childhood favorites. But as you can see, I've loved books and reading my whole life. And these childhood favorites are some of the reasons why!
Happy Reading!
That's a fun list, Lark! For me, I read Nancy Drew, thrillers by R.L. Stine, and not to mention those choose your own adventure books (oh how I miss them!) And yes, I wish Harry Potter books were published then. :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVED choose your own adventure books! They were so much fun. And I still love reading Nancy Drew mysteries. :D
DeleteI never knew there were so many Oz books-I think I maybe read three or four! I did read Summer of Fear and enjoyed it. I only recently read I Know What You Did Last Summer.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Down a Dark Hall was Lois Duncan's scariest book, but I liked Summer of Fear and A Gift of Magic the best. :)
DeleteNo such thing as a witch certainly looks interesting! That cover stuck out to me right away.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a fun kid book! I loved all of Ruth Chew's books when I was growing up. Still do, actually. :)
DeleteWhat a great selection! And the same genres you choose today, except maybe for the horse books. :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that funny how I still kinda read the same? I noticed that, too. :D
DeleteI really liked Robert Heinlein's books when I was a kid. Good choice.
ReplyDeleteMy TTT.
Thanks, Lydia! Heinlein does have a lot of fun reads. :)
DeleteHi Lark, great list and I must try some of them. I don't know why but I have trouble remembering any books I read prior to middle school. I rememember though in 7th and 8th grade reading Paul Zindel, Snowbound by Henry Mazer and Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack by M E Kerr. The only book I remember reading from when I was really young involved a boy named Henry who I remember lived on Henry Street and he had a dog but now I am thinking thanks to the magic of google that I got the Henry St wrong and that what I was really reading was Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary. I remember enjoying the book alot and might have read a few more in the series.
ReplyDelete:D I read a lot of books by Beverly Cleary, too.
DeleteWhat a fun march down memory lane as I read through your list. The covers alone evoke another time and era. Love them. My Childhood favorites
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how a simple book cover can evoke another time and era, isn't it?
DeleteOh my gosh I love that cover of the Heinlein book! So many of those older covers just get me all nostalgic lol. And Surprise Island- I remember that one! Fun stuff!
ReplyDeletePrydain, the Little House stuff... oh my gosh I'm getting all these post ideas now! Ha!
It's funny how many memories these old books bring back! Doing this post made me totally nostalgic, too. :)
DeleteLittle Princess was also a favorite of mine. I love your list with all those genres!
ReplyDeleteHere's my TTT
Thanks! I had fun making it. :)
DeleteWhat a great look at your childhood. I kind of took a different twist but am definitely seeing some old favorites as I blog hop!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you did your list! I thought it was a fun twist.
DeleteThat's a great, varied list! I used to love horse stories too, and I remember enjoying a few of the Oz books.
ReplyDeleteI definitely went through a girl and her horse phase! :D
DeleteWhat a great list! I really need to read the complete Oz collection. I've only read the first one and am so curious about the rest. :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Ashley! I have to say, the first Oz book, while good, is NOT my favorite. There are several other Oz books that are much better! Like Ozma of Oz, Tik-Tok of Oz, and Glinda of Oz. :D
DeleteEven kid-Lark read survival books! Did you ever read Z for Zachariah? I think that might be the only apocalyptic book I read as a child.
ReplyDeleteThe only book we have in common from childhood on your list (some you noted I did read as an adult, however) is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I really wanted to live in a museum after reading it!
I think I read Z for Zachariah...but I don't remember much about it. And I wanted to go live in a museum after reading The Mixed-Up Files, too. I mean, wouldn't that be fun?
DeleteAw, how fun (and cool) is this list -- and the covers! Are <3
ReplyDeleteThanks, Verushka! :)
DeleteI love the Oz books. I'd forgotten about Little Brain! I need to share those with my girls. A Little Princess is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of the Great Brain books but I think my favorite was always Me and My Little Brain. Although Great Brain at the Academy is a close second. :)
DeleteI'm ashamed to admit most of these are new to me. I have only read a couple of them as an adult. Among my childhood favorites would have been the Chronicles of Narnia, Nancy Drew, the Girls of Canby Hall series, and The Girl of the Limberlost.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Narnia books, too. Especially the ones with Lucy in them. :) And I still love Nancy Drew.
DeleteI'll just be over here BURSTING INTO RAINBOWS at your list of horse books! Those are all my favorites too, except I haven't read 4-H Filly. But now I want to.
ReplyDeleteThe only Bradbury book I've read is A New Penny, but Two On An Island is on my TBR. As for Lois Duncan,I've only read Down a Dark Hall and Killing Mr. Griffin, but those others all look good.
"Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic" is the only one of those books I know, but it was one of my mom's old books and I must have read it a hundred times.
I loved all the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle stories as a kid; they always made me laugh. Thanks for commenting! :)
DeleteGood choices, and I love how you grouped them by theme! I notice we have some of the same ones on our lists, though there are others on your list I never read or even encountered.
ReplyDeleteI left out Heinlein's juveniles because I didn't discover them until the last year of junior high (8th grade); my favorite then was probably The Rolling Stones, but I read pretty much all of them. I mentioned The Forgotten Door in my post -- glad to see someone else read and loved it! But I totally forgot about the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, though there was a year or two when I adored them...and the Amelia Bedelia books. My own "survival read" favorite was Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. Oh, and I just remembered a sci-fi book I really should have included: Arthur C. Clarke's Dolphin Island!
There are at least ten or twenty more favorite childhood books that I forgot, or didn't add to this list, that I kid of wish I had. But when you've loved reading as long as we have it's hard to list them all, isn't it? :D
DeleteI wish I remembered even a fourth of what I read. I did read a lot, but the majority of my childhood reads were library lends, so I didn't keep the book to remember the titles. I did read a lot of Nancy Drew, and started reading Agatha Christie when I was around 12, I think. I read some of the Lois Duncans with my kids, but I don't remember which ones.
ReplyDeleteI've always been reading, too. I remember looking forward to our trips to the library, excited about checking out new books to read. Great post, Lark.
Thanks, Rachel! That's cool that you started reading Agatha Christie at such a young age. :)
DeleteI was a HUGE Lois Duncan fan back in the day! I also remember really liking the Oz books. Fun list, Lark! It brought back a lot of memories :)
ReplyDeleteThe Lois Duncan books were a lot of fun, weren't they?
Delete