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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood Faves

This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) is childhood favorites.  You know, I'm not sure I can even pick just ten books that were my favorites as a child.  But, I'm going to try (and cheat to include series):



The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Seriously, I collected these.  They may not be the best written (or most exciting by any means), but for some reason, I really liked this series of books about a family of bears.

Best Friends for Frances by Russell Hobar 
I think this one stands out because my family had the audio version on record (oh, that dates me) of the story.  Frances is still a family favorite, though I can't recite the audio version word for word as my sister still can.

Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
The silly antics and mishaps of these amphibious friends were so entertaining.  I still get a kick out of them today.  (Added bonus, we had a few of these on record as well - my first introduction to the world of audiobooks :)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare  
I remember thinking that THIS had to be the best book ever written!  I was over the moon when my 5th grade teacher was giving away some books and this happened to be one of them.  I snatched it up like it was candy, and I still have that well-loved copy.

Enchantress of Crumbledown by Donald Marshall 
This is a book I got for Christmas one year, and you've probably never heard of it, since it is from an LDS publisher (Deseret Book) and I believe is now out of print.  For some reason, the story of children who ran away and stayed with an eccentric old lady made me long to run away.  Which, you know, I did on multiple occasions (mind you, it was usually to the backyard or the nearby park for a few hours). 

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner  
Speaking of running away, I think this got me started on the idea.  Plus, my grandma had an old abandoned railroad car in her yard.  Never mind it was infested with rodents and other unsavory creatures, it was magical.

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene  
I would not be the avid reader I am without this never-ending supply of cookie cutter mysteries.  I don't think I was ever clever enough to figure out the mystery before Nancy, but I devoured these every week from the library.

The Babysitter's Club by Ann M. Martin 
I'll be honest, I wanted to be Mary Ann and have Logan as my boyfriend.  But I was probably more like Kristy.

Sweet Valley Twins by Francine Pascal  
Rounding out my childhood series obsessions is this delight.  I loved the twins and so wanted to be as stylish and grown up as they seemed.  Plus, the drama!

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell  
This one was a little later, about 7th grade, but this is the first book I became seriously obsessed with and had to check out every book about it (and its movie) that I could find.  My dad visited Georgia and went to a museum for me and took photos of memorabilia.  I even got a collector's spoon and coasters.  A little bit crazy, I am, about my reading.

What were your childhood favorites?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

7 comments :

  1. The funny thing is that I'm familiar with every book you listed, but I've never read any of them (except a few Berenstain Bears). I feel like I missed out on so much growing up as a non-reader.

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  2. Jenni, but the good thing is, you can discover them now! And the really bad ones we read as kids and feel nostalgic about, you can simply recognize as bad :)

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  3. I loved the Sweet Valley Twins (and Sweet Valley High)! I totally forgot them! And The Frances books were great too. :) Wonderful list! Thanks for visiting my blog today. :)

    - Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl

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  4. Who didn't like Sweet Valley or Babysitters back then. Great list. Here's my Top Ten

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  5. I loved the Babysitter Club books too. I can't believe you read Gone with the Wind when you were THAT young!

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  6. Jana, SVT and SVH were such a big part of culture at the time I was growing up - no wonder lots of people remembered them!

    GF Book Mom, they were great weren't they?

    Boriquaz, thanks for stopping by!

    Jenny, I think I was 13, but maybe 14. That's not that young, is it? I always hear about all these people reading adult books when they were in elementary school, so I figure I'm about normal :)

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