Books We Loved As Children

perennialreader: Such a sweet book. Loved the heroine!

kaulsu: My first chapter book. Hated that it ended!! Just wanted to go on forever. Loved learning that we don’t all speak the same English language. Ended up marrying an Indian!!

BookDoc16: Read it in my early teens, and instantly felt a connection to the characters.

kaulsu: Not sure I read this under twelve. Fascinated that Math could mean more than 2+2. Also, interested to learn, later in life, that a friend knew the author.

Verkruissen: I think this was my gateway book into the fantasy genre.

SusanBraxton: The first book loaned to me by a friend

cindra-cat: When I first read about Lucy finding that door and meeting Mr. Tumnus, all bets were off. Reading was my escape.

BookDoc16: A story that explains almost everything about real life. Every child should read it when they can understand it.

thurstonhsreads: My mother read this to me when I was little, and I read it to my daughter last year. It's a truly special work, being simultaneous so simple in concept and so deep in meaning. I look forward to reading it my son when he's older!

kaulsu: A good introduction to historical fiction, without making a production of it.

kaulsu: Such a favorite as a young adult. BUT, I began reading this and later the Ring series to my son at age 5. Does that count?

Bookish59: This book and those that continued the story were the magically compelling escape I needed.

thurstonhsreads: I read this for eighth grade English class, and certainly didn't appreciate it at the time. When it comes to books that truly capture the imagination, I cannot think of any that surpass Tolkien's Middle Earth series; The Hobbit specifically is a great choice for kids, as it was written for his kids!

fionag11: Bedtime story! My dad read it to me.

traceylkb: First read (and re-read) a copy from my school library. My parents eventually bought me a copy, which I still have. It's been with me through many moves and decades of life events. (And an added remark: I disapprove of every movie version for not being sufficiently loyal to the book.)

perennialreader: Beginning of a love affair with a wonderful series.

waltzmn: I'm sure my friends would agree that I'm still down that rabbit hole.

tardis: This stands in for the whole series, which I devoured

kaulsu: FIRST Nancy Drew?

traceylkb: These books taught me, at a very young age, to enjoy the experience of reading.

SF_fan_mae: The start of my life-long love of reading mysteries!

perennialreader: Gorgeous writing and story. Just right for a young girl who had never been around horses.

barbgarcia1987: I never read Anna Sewell's original story. My copy (which I have always loved) is an illustrated adaption by Eleanor Graham Vance with illustrations done by Phoebe Erickson.

diddydoos: As a child I was obsessed with Black Beauty! 💕

perennialreader: So many in the series to choose from, but I loved this one.

elkiedee: And the rest of the series

perennialreader: Big horse, big heart. What an adventure!

BookDoc16: This book/series made me want to start my own kid-detective agency!

BookDoc16: Still my favorite Mark Twain -- over and above Huckleberry Finn, which actually disappointed me.

kaulsu: Of course I enjoyed it as a child, but got much more out of it in college.

BookDoc16: The most powerful story I read as a boy. Led me to "White Fang", which was nearly as good.

cindra-cat: Charlie was the best.

joyblue: This is my absolute favorite children's book and among my favorite books for any age! I still reread it regularly, and have read it to others over the years—not just to my children, but also to a friend recovering from brain surgery. I have so many editions of it, and also have a T-shirt sporting its cover.

kaulsu: At 12, I moved to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. I found this book in a small, private, English medium library. Both my stepmother and I enjoyed it!

Bookish59: I loved the concept of efficiency the father worked on helping control chaos and disorganization.

Charon07: Let this stand in for all the Oz books. I read every one in the public library.

elenchus: Selling tickets to the town's first indoor watercloset is, indeed, indicative of the Great Brain at work.

Hartsellang: Of the 2 books that I discovered in storage in my 40s, this was one of them, corners tattered. I think it may have been the book that started me on a path of deep empathy but also deep attachment to a few stuffed animals.

Cecrow: Our teacher read it to us in fourth grade. Scary, adult-themed, fantastic.

elahrairah: best rabbit odyssey ever.

Cecrow: The one stand-out animal story I really loved (and its sequels).

BookConcierge: I loved all of Marguerite Henry's books. I read them over and over.

CarltonC: Our English teacher started reading a portion of this to us every Wednesday afternoon. I had soon cajoled my Dad into borrowing a copy from a colleague and I read it repeatedly in the following years.

barbgarcia1987: When I found The Lord of the Rings I re-read it so many times that my copies are delicate.

waltzmn: I turn out to have been almost the youngest person to have read "The Lord of the Rings" before J. R. R. Tolkien died -- I was eleven, and had read the book perhaps a year earlier, and I was heartbroken that (I thought) I would never get to read "The Silmarillion." My eleven-year-old self did not understand the incredible depth of LotR -- the way Tolkien could describe a character just by his verb endings and word order; the "Long Defeat" as a religion-free interpretation of the Fall of Man, the incredible amount of assimilated folklore, the incredibly poignant tragic ending that looks like a happy ending. But it was all there waiting for me as I gained the skills to understand it.

elahrairah: at secondary school i was dropped down a set in english following disappointing results. one day in class the teacher said to me "what's that on your notebook". i had written quotes from the lord of the rings in elven runes around the border of the book. "you've read the lord of the rings? what else have you read?" and that was how my school learned that the reason i wasnt doing well in english was because i was so utterly bored. of course, there's a lot wrong with the lord of the rings, but as a kid it is mindblowing.

hipdeep: Including the prequels. (Even if I was well past 12 when I realized how good Taran Wanderer really is.)

waltzmn: When I was sick one year, my parents took "The Book of Three" out from the library, and so introduced me to my very first Romance (in the medieval sense of the term). It's not quite "The Lord of the Rings," but it's a lot more internally logical than new things such as Harry Potter.

tardis: Still a favourite series, which I reread once in a while.

BookConcierge: Stevenson's collection of poetry made me a life-long fan of poetry! "The Land of Counterpane" is still one of my favorites!

joyblue: I loved this as a young child. Sadly, I pretty much hated it when I reread it as an adult. I wish I hadn't reread it—I should have left it as a happy memory.

Hartsellang: Oh! The exploration! The discoveries! My 3 siblings and I each had a Richard Scarry read and learn book that we'd use to challenge each other to find details in the drawings ( this was long before Where's Waldo).

2wonderY: Every girl wants an Uncle Alec, though she might not know it.

BookDoc16: I read a LOT of animal books in my younger days. This one always stood out to me. So much so that I found & bought a signed copy years later.

TampaTeresa: I devoured as many animal books as I could find at the library. Circa 1960-65. Not that many fiction titles. Also general non-fiction about herpetology especially, and aquariums. Yeah I was a nerd. ;-)

barbgarcia1987: I loved ALL her books.

perennialreader: 5th grade teacher read this book aloud to our class and I read it on my own soon after. Read several times as an adult. It never gets old.

kaulsu: I really couldn’t believe this book ended, I was so wrapped up in it!

BookDoc16: Believe it or not, the *1st* Dr. Suess book I had read to me! Loved it then, love it now.

perennialreader: Great way to learn counting. Loved the illustrations too.

BookDoc16: Read it years before Disney made the heavily adapted animation. I still love the original.

BookDoc16: Another animal-story book. It made me love Jim Kjelgaard's works, of which I read many more.

Cecrow: When the teacher says he'll have to take the belt to himself for not teaching well enough, and the kid breaks down crying.

Cecrow: Hilarious, relatable, still great.

CarltonC: Powerful and unsettling.

elenchus: Classic Seuss, both the verse and the illustrations. Read to my kids, as well. I read and loved a lot of Seuss titles, but this is the keystone and that's why I'm bothering telling you so.

masterdeski: can't pick a favorite, read the whole series more than once as a child.

perennialreader: Saw the movie when a young child. Read the book later. Cried for both.

masterdeski: and the deities and demigods!

elkiedee: And lots of other books by Noel Streatfeild - this limit of 10 books is impossible!

Stevil2001: This was my favorite Narnia book. I love travelogue fantasies, I love Reepicheep, and Eustace is my favorite Narnia protagonist.

slimikin: What Stevil2001 said. :D

Hartsellang: What a pleasure as a small person to feel the textures as my mom read the book to me. It was a very clever touch and learn format for early readers.

tardis: I loved all of Enid Blyton's mysteries as a kid. They don't hold up so well now, though

BookConcierge: I read all the adventure series at least twice.