What was your favourite book when you were a kid?

Question

Title? Author? Reason?

Answer 1

Oh, my all-time favorite would still have to be Tom Sawyer. I had a picture-book version before I was five. My sister gave me the real thing when I was eight or nine, and for several years I read it at least once a year. Eventually it led me to Huckleberry Finn, which is still the closest I think we've come to the Great American Novel. In the fifth grade, I was in the operetta (trading a blue bottle for a chance to white-wash the fence), and as a bearded adult I was an extra in the 1973 movie musical w/ Johnny Whitaker and Jodie Foster. I read it aloud to my own five children, and they enjoyed it as much as I had.

More important, it was this book by Mark Twain that made a place for realistic literature for children, stories about real boys instead of King Arthur's knights. It (with Little Women for girls) led the American breakaway from British children's literature. With Tom and Huck, and Jo Marsh, American kids began to see themselves in books written for them.

OK, I know, Tom eventually became the sorta stereotypical all-American (naughty) boy, and the book has some racist sterotypes that, however much we might like to ignore them, are very much a part of our past. Parents reading the book to their children these days will need to have open discussions of these cultural flaws.

But you asked for my own personal favorite. It's gotta be Tom Sawyer. He still gets his fence white-washed the easy way (that's American enterprise); he still lies to Aunt Polly; he still tries to impress Becky Thatcher; he still becomes blood brothers with Huck, he still gets lost in the cave and shows up at his own funeral. Yep, he's still the barefoot boy all us guys wanted to be.

Answer 2

Can't give just one. Loved: Doctor Doolitle series by Hugh Lofting; the Oz books by L. Frank Baum; Betsy-Tacy-Tib series by Maud Hart Lovelace; Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I loved books that involved animals, fantasy, and other children.

I was an only child with a vivid imagination and looked for stories that were out of the ordinary or had other children in them, preferably ones about several children.

Answer 3

The Great Brain series by John D. Fitgerald, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder...

Answer 4

Behind the Attic Wall By Slyvia Cassedy

Answer 5

The Pigman, Paul Zindel

Cocky and alienated, two sixteen-year-olds set out to take advantage of an elderly man by asking him to contribute to a nonexistent charity. When they come to Mr. Pignati's house to collect his check, they find a lonely and slightly eccentric retiree who greets them warmly and with respect. A friendship grows, and John and Lorraine are trusted with their friend's house. When this trust is betrayed, the teenagers must ponder the meaning of their actions and the effect their actions have on other people.

I liked it because the kids in the book were around my age at the time I read it and I could relate to them.

Answer 6

The Battle of the Bulge by John Toland. As a nine year old, I was fascinated by the images of white cloaked German soldiers pouring through the Belgian woods and the brave American soldiers who faced that terrible onslaught.

It's impossible to imagine how truly terrifying that was for those involved.

Answer 7

young kid-The Seven Chinese Brothers ( each had a special power) and Stone Soup (hungry soldier tricks villagers into sharing) and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ( a girl and her brother hide out in a museum because she is obsessed with knowing if a statue is by Michaelangelo)

older- Nancy Drew series

Answer 8

The Crystal Shard
R.A. Salvatore
At 11 years old, the perfect amount of philosophy, sword fighting and great characters. The hero had a sense of honor and friendship and was different and prevailed over prejudice.
I was starting feel like the only kid who thought about stuff like that, and then I found my kind of hero.

Answer 9

Beverly Clearly.........she did all the Ramona Quimby books, Otis Spotford, Ralph S. Mouse..

Also Judy Blume.........remember Super Fudge and Blubber?

Answer 10

noisy nancy norris.
dont know author.
it was about a noisy girl that would never be quiet and was always being told to quiet down.
she lived in an apartment and always disturbed the lady who lived below her.
nancy never realizes how loud she really is.
One day her neighbor gets sick and she HAS to be quiet, shes
so quiet the sick neighbor thinks something is wrong with NAncy and asks her to please make some noise.

and Curious George goes to the hospital ( he swallows a puzzle piece)
The little engine that could ( liked the pics.)
Edward and his purple crayon...loved the imagination of drwing.
Where the wild things are ( again the pics)