Favorite Childhood Books

SaintSunniva: Such a lovely secret...the hidden garden, coming to life.

aulsmith : Didn't like romances even then.

RuMuse: Secret joy provides meaning

ahef1963: Loved this story.

Diane-bpcb: Seemed magical to me.

sturlington: My father read it aloud to me when I was 5 or 6. It's a wonderful memory.

Drapetsona: actually, I never read it as a child. I wish I had.

ahef1963: A childhood favourite; I read it so often that the spine fell apart.

Diane-bpcb: MAJOR SPOILER: (Haven't figured out the new Spoiler offering in LT.) Will never forget reading somewhere something by a girl who always fought with her sister, and how she felt when this sister, having read the book first, calls out, "Beth died."

sturlington: Meg is the first heroine I wanted to emulate.

ahef1963: Loved this book. It's probably the first fantasy book I ever read and re-read.

timspalding : I hated this book. Pippi's life terrified me.

deslivres5: Her pigtails and her monkey captured my attention. Her wild adventures and unorthodox lifestyle were an eye opener.

deslivres5: I remember loving the passages where she would eat fresh cheese when in the mountains. Yum!

aulsmith : Too gooey

ahef1963: A great favourite of my children, to whom I read it countless times.

deslivres5: I grew up in NYC and wanted to have that same adventure in the museum with MY younger brother.

ahef1963: Because of this book I took my young children to museums, where we always had fun planning where we'd hide out if we lived there.

merrystar : I never liked this one for some reason

Diane-bpcb: A friend, who had taught grade school got me to read this finally. How did I miss it all these years!! (We read "Stuart Little instead in school, which I also loved.)

SaintSunniva : I have never liked it - too weird, too scary, the queen, the cat, the hookah...Alice herself.

ahef1963 : Not a huge fan of it. I found it more creepy than anything.

timspalding : Scared me. Seemed needlessly cruel. I still feel this way.

ahef1963 : I was always unsettled by the idea of an elephant king, and I was bothered by a book printed in italics.

ahef1963: I didn't read this until I was in my 40s, but loved it just the same.

Drapetsona: Great book of my childhood, although very creepy. Couldn't sleep after reading it, but I had to go on...

aulsmith : I do not like Green Eggs and Ham. I do not, do not. There I am

sturlington : Tedious.

timspalding : Spooky. I think I read it too young.

ahef1963: One of the best children's books out there.

sturlington : Did not read until college.

Anjali.Negi : Not a book for children

aulsmith : Too weird for me. All that mumbo-jumbo about remembering being born.

Bookish59: My love of mysteries started early!

Diane-bpcb: In addition to loving the mysteries--although I no longer read mystery stories--, I loved the set of blue-green cloth bound books which I sorted and re-sorted on my bookshelf.

ahef1963: Didn't read until adulthood, but thought it a beautiful book.

Drapetsona: When I finally came to read it after having collected so much bubble gum pictures of the Disney movie, I found it astonishing and very adult. I loved it. Favourites: Rikki Tikki, the little seal and the elephant boy.

aulsmith : Liked it the first time, but was bored on the re-read

timspalding: I remember the revelation that his tutor was a half-dwarf as… mind-blowing!

ahef1963 : I found this terribly creepy.

sturlington: I did not read this until I was an adult and had my own child, but this is a terrific book for children.

ahef1963 : I don't like stories being told within stories, and this book had far too much of that.

timspalding: I loved Ferdinand.

Nycticebus: I loved the gentle bull, but more, I loved to trace the beautiful drawings.

sturlington: All-time favorite.

Bookish59: Loved to read English books; still do.

sturlington : Did not read until college.

timspalding : Scared me.

aulsmith : I liked the elephant and the boa constrictor, but then I lost the thread.

ahef1963 : In grade 13 French we spent an entire term - five months - reading this in French and it dragged on forever. Now I loathe it.

aulsmith : I liked the way they used the stuff they borrowed, but I didn't really like them.

ahef1963: I used to build little homes for Borrowers in my dresser drawers. I loved this book.

timspalding : Spooky.

Bookish59: Another favorite!

ahef1963: My first poetry book! It had such far-reaching importance in my life.

timspalding : Terrifying.

ahef1963: This was my favourite book to read to my sleepy children.

Bookish59: Another favorite; so glad it's listed here.

ahef1963: Read in university for a children's lit course. Liked it so much that I found copies of the rest of the series.

Diane-bpcb: Loved this E.B. White book, which we read in school. Don't remember much about it.