International Children's Book Day

Happy International Children's Book Day! Chosen by IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) in honor of the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, this is a day to celebrate books for children.

What are some of the treasured books from your childhood, Thingamabrarians? What children's books do you enjoy today?

>1 AbigailAdams26: From my childhood, Dr. Seuss taught me to read. He taught me to enjoy reading, poetic language, imagination, and those crazy Seussian characters he drew. He knew me.

I just finished Eyebright and found it to be wonderful. Very sad (a three-hanky story, to be sure!) but *so* well written, with really great characterizations and descriptions. As an adult, I had so much sympathy for Eyebright's parents, too, thanks to the glimpses at depth of character.

I have very poor memories of most of my childhood, but the ones of visiting the library when I was 6-8 are vivid. (1990-1993) I liked to start looking at the big books from the A's or the Z's and move along each time. I never quite got to the P's or S's, especially since I kept going back to reread.

Let's see... Emily's Runaway Imagination was one of my very favorites. and Indian Captive I reread several times. "B" is for Betsy and Betsy's Little Star. The Boxcar Children, I think I only managed one or two, and then got the next two books in paperback from the book fair. Oh and Laura Ingalls Wilder for another author from that back row. I even read her autobiography!

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I never read Betsy-Tacy as a kid, somehow, but picked them up in 2018, and know i would have adored them at age 8. I did read Pollyanna around then, in an Apple Classics paperback, and loved it - but it was a lot more meaningful to reread it as an adult with bed-tethered disability. What Katy Did is another I never read as a kid, but picked up after 2018 when I thought I should visit with the books I'd missed. I am glad I read it as an adult, after my disability began, and after I understood more about 19th century ideals, because it resonates so much with me. I wouldn't have really appreciated the advice Cousin Helen gives to Katy - most readers nowadays think it's appalling! but I was nodding along, thinking that it's exactly what i had figured out for myself, though the motivation for the behavior is different. (I really need to get around to reviewing it! but i have so many thoughts!)

Neither of my parents were much in the way of readers, so they weren't really sure what to offer me. My mom had a 3rd grade teacher friend, though, who passed on a bunch of books, including most of Anne of Green Gables with the front covers torn off.

My favorites were always historical fiction or stories written "a long time ago". Oh, Caddie Woodlawn is another! And there's one nagging at me that I just can't remember.

Once I learned about the American Girls series when I was 10, I was hooked for life historical/old timey stories. That was soon after my old 4th grade teacher gave us a bunch of 1950s copies of Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins, and that first version of the Bobbsey Twins, with a girl nearly dying from jump-rope, further solidified the interest.

So as I mentioned, in 2018 I wanted to visit the books I'd missed, and started a very slow attempt. Around 2022, I got to wondering about what was so unique about Nancy Drew, and why not read the big series right before her? I had a few volumes from Patty Fairfield that I had enjoyed, and knew about Grace Harlowe. So I picked up Marjorie Dean and had an utter blast. Well, I needed more! Next was a 1920s Girl Scouts series. Yes, yes, more! 😆 and then the Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods and that series, and I wasn't just visiting things I'd missed, but truly enjoying these old series and the clichés and bits of historical insight. I was especially fascinated by a common thread in all of them of "how to be good" or "how to be an American girl". It was chiming with my long-time love of the AG series, too...

So I asked for non-fiction about girls books for SantaThing in 2024, received Turning the Pages of American Girlhood and was inspired to read deeply in girls' series (and girls' books in general, now) from 1860-1930. Chronologically, as near as I could.

The rest is history?? but truly, I really enjoy seeing these depictions of life in a previous day, like a funhouse mirror, but still! And it's interesting to me to track the evolution of American culture/expectations of girls through the fiction they were given. (I think that's partly Pleasant Rowland's fault, for giving Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly the same items and book themes, adjusted for year and place (and class).)

sorry this post is so long... i could go on for ages and ages about the enjoyment I get from old children's books and all sorts of things I've learned or insights I've had, interesting comparisons, etc.

My answer will be short as I didn't really read books but remember a handful of fairy tales that didn't really leave an impression, and would catchup later, so it's fantastic that there's a day to celebrate this, if I had then I would say The Hobbit would be a strong frontrunner.

The Stinky Cheese Man, and Other Fairly Stupid Tales was groundbreaking when I read it at age 9. "you can do that?!"

I love picture books, the interplay between art and text, and especially in the last 20 years or so, when genx artists and writers got to them. Chronicle is one of my favorite pb publishers (thanks LT Early Reviewers for the intro!) but Eerdmans Young Readers and Candlewick are excellent, too, and I recently discovered Flying Eye Books.

Roger is Going Fishing was one I received through LTER. I gave it to my 2yo nephew, and he insisted upon it almost every night for ages. They still read it to the younger kids - it's such a fun play of sounds and images.

Jenny's First Catch has continued popularity with them, too. Nephew was fascinated with birds and sis was always looking for nonfiction. We liked that it's about Florida wading birds, ones that live where we do. And at the zoo recently, we saw a young spoonbill - nephew said laughing "look, it's Jenny!" fully 6 years after I first gave him the book, evidence that it's still a favorite for him and his younger sisters.

Hard to go back that far in time (I'm 76, 77 in Oct), but my best childhood memory is the 2 Alice books; my current favorite edition being The Annotated Alice. As a child, always preferred reading on my own to being read-to -- possibly why I avoid audiobooks -- the Seuss books seemed to be too "baby" to me when I was first introduced to them. Recently revisited Mary Poppins via an omnibus e-book, which I liked, though they didn't supersede Lewis Carroll. Started out 2026 reading 3 of L. Frank Baum's Oz books for the first time. Liked the way he seemed to be able to create strange creatures in an atmosphere of tolerance that seemed unexpected for his times, though his human children seemed a bit boring at times. The ones in Mark Twain's novel seemed more interesting. All things considered, I've been more focused on exploring the strangeness of adulthood in fiction.

>3 keristars: I have not read any of the books you've mentioned, certainly not growing up. I did read Wilder's first one, Little House in the Big Woods and tried to read Anne of Green Gables, both in the last few years. I liked Wilder. I couldn't stand Anne, but found the old brother and sister she lived with interesting. My mother loved Nancy Drew growing up, but I haven't gotten around to reading any of those types of mysteries, not even now.

Your enthusiasm for reading historic and traditional girls' stories is wonderful to read. Have you thought about starting a thread somewhere dedicated to your explorations and thoughts? Seems like I remember you followed some blogger who had a blog theme for....some niche, I'm sorry I can't remember what but I was astounded when I saw how much there was and how lovely to read her enthusiasm was, too.

After Dick and Jane and Dr. Suess taught me to read, I still didn't read much. I lived on a farm and there was a lot to do, chores, but mostly being outside having fun.

But when I did read, I liked biographies, which is strange because I can't remember the last biography I've read it's been so long. I remember reading about Helen Keller, then her teacher Annie Sullivan, about Harriet Tubman (as an adult I got to see, quite by chance, the house she owned late in life, opened to other women--it was thrilling to me). There were so many individuals I read books about, it's hard to remember them all, even though I've tried. Oh yes, I read a biography about George Washington Carver, too. I think at that point I must have lived where the school library had a good librarian, stocking lots of non fiction with 1960s' kid appeal.

Truth is, I've read more kids classic fiction with my own girls when they were growing up and then with my granddaughters before they moved to Colorado. In fact, I still read little kids books, with or without a kid nearby. They have a quality of optimism that is refreshing, and provide an infusion of goodwill toward man that I need at this moment in history.

>5 keristars: The Stinky Cheese Man, and Other Fairly Stupid Tales was groundbreaking when I read it at age 9. "you can do that?!"

Lol! That was not yet written when I was a kid, but I read it with my girls. The youngest one loved it. To this day our preferred reading is very different. And i say, viva la difference!

>6 featherbear: My mother, too, much preferred reading on her own, silently. I never understood that which just goes to show you can't lump readers into a big group. For me, if I now listen to an audio book, the narrator has to be just right, and sadly many of them I don't think are. I think that is why I didn't enjoy Anne of Green Gables recently. I found the narrator irritating, too chipper, too flip, or something. I read about 1 out 50 in audio books. Overall, I still prefer the voice--and speed!--of the narrator in my head.

I did adore Anne as a kid. Her flights of fancy and the scrapes she got into with Diana were just wonderful (I thought!) but as an adult, I have much less patience for all the romanticness Anne loves. I'm much more interested in the other villagers and the town gossip! Pat of Silverbush was my very favorite because I identified with her so much - clinging to home and disliking any change at all.

The Blue Castle is a lovely romance if you want something a little more adult than Anne. If you, like me, loved the older characters and gossip, the 4th Anne book, Anne of Windy Poplars is great. And Rilla of Ingleside is really a good account of the War and growing up.

L.M.Montgomery was so skilled with humorous sketches of village folk, and I think that has a good deal to do with her lasting popularity.

>6 featherbear: I need to get to reading Oz, too. I've only ever read the first, in one of those abridged "Illustrated Children's Classics". I had no idea there were more than one until relatively recently.

I suppose I do have fewer years to sort through to recall my childhood reading. :) It helps a bit that my interest often reminds me of things I'd read.

>7 DebiCates: I still read little kids books, with or without a kid nearby. They have a quality of optimism that is refreshing, and provide an infusion of goodwill toward man that I need at this moment in history.

I think that's part of why I never stopped reading them. I read YA well into adulthood, but eventually found that there was just too much adolescent angst to enjoy the rest of the story. I enjoy adult books plenty, and really like getting into something challenging and strange, so it's not about liking childish things. (Heck, I enjoyed much of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, which is about being a middle aged woman!)

Also, yes, I have an on-going thread for my old timey children's books, in Tattered But Still Lovely. Thoughts as I'm reading, things I've learned or found interesting, and sometimes I even write a review (lol)

(the other one I told you about is Lucynka Staron, who blogs about romance pulp magazines, 1920z-1940s)

>10 keristars: Lucynka Staron, that's the one!

I just favorited (starred) your thread Reading "Turning the Pages of American Girlhood" and Girls' Series. There is a wonderful lot already there I'm so glad to see. I may have to just let myself start at the next post and over time get to know more. You make it all fascinating. April I've taken on my own project so am happily overwhelmed with that. I'm doing a post each day on The Poetry Collective by way of celebrating National Poetry Month.

I'm not adverse to challenging adult books either. I see, though, I am going to have to beg out of an upcoming group read of The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner's a great writer; I've read quite a few of his novels. But right now isn't the time for me and Faulkner.

I am calling this my "Lofi" reading era. At least until we see what happens November 2026, or maybe it turns out, even with a good outcome I may never rebound from this trauma.

My most recent Lofi was *terribly* lofi, ha, Thrush Green by Miss Read. I think I have all in the series, so I'll be regularly hanging out with the English villagers circa 1950-1960s for a while.

>10 keristars: Helpful suggestion: read the Oz books in order of publication; I began I believe at ca #3 & it had numerous references to the earlier stories; the origins of the various eccentric characters are often quite interesting & are only described when they are first introduced.

I was so fortunate that my parents bought the 8 volume Book Trails along with our set of encyclopedias. We pored over the stories and the saturated color illustrations.

In the next generations though, our top favorite book of all time is The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR.
We make sure every baby gets a copy. Oh! I know of a newborn! Hey, AbeBooks…

>13 2wonderY: That Book Trails series looks fantastic!

It reminds me of the Childcraft companions to the World Book encyclopedia my grandparents got in the 60s, and kept around. I was always excited to visit them and have an opportunity to pull one of the volumes from the shelf. My favorite was the one about different cultures.

>12 featherbear: thank you! I will be sure to go chronologically when I get to Oz. :)

>14 keristars: I'm old enough that *I* bought a World Book encyclopedia set back when my oldest was about 5, from a door to door salesperson no less, and it wasn't cheap. I wanted her to use them for school and her own curiosity. (I used it a lot for my own.) I forgot that it came with a set of the Childcraft series as well. How fun to remember.

Another thing it came with that will seem so incredibly quaint now was the 100 coupons that you could use to send to World Book with a question and they would answer for free, one question, one coupon. We didn't use them up and I wish I had saved those letters we received in reply. :(

>15 DebiCates: I used the World Book for school myself! So if my grandparents had the same hopes, they were fulfilled. :)

I'm the "Oregon Trail" generation, the early millennials who grew up with a mix of computers and analogue, so even though I used the World Book in elementary and middle school, we had Encyclopedia Britannica on disks in high school.

How neat about the question coupons! It kind of puts me in mind of that Katharine Hepburn movie, Desk Set. I always thought that would be a fun job.

>16 keristars: I've never seen Desk Set! It looks like a light-hearted sweet romp. Another tidbit from you that will fit right into my current mindset. Thanks Keri.