Books that you read in childhood, that you find yourself going back to

What books did you read as a kid and have revisited as an adult? For me, one would be the Chronicles of Narnia. My mom have me a box set published in the '60's or 70's when I was a kid, and I read it so many times that one or two of the books actually started falling apart. I've been rereading the books lately, and I'm finding them just as spellbinding and enoyable as when I was a kid. Another would have to be the Time Quartet by Madelaine L'engle. I read this once or twice when I was a kid, but don't remember them much at all. I'm rereading the series at the moment and really enjoying it, especially since I actually know something about Quantum Physics, etc, now.

I read Chronicles again about 18 months ago. I actually got a lot more out of it as an adult. I'm going start reading the Nancy Drew series soon. I'm curious to see how much I like them now.

It took me several years before I could come up with the name of Dark is Rising series, but when I finally remembered it I bought it and reread it. I plan on rereading at least a Wrinkle in Time since it's been about 20 years reading it last. The sugar creek gang is the only other set of books I remember reading before high school (Except for Louis L'Amour, which aren't really childhood books), though I know I read quit a bit back then.

It's not letting me post. Testing....

I reread the Chronicles of Narnia all the time. Other favorites are the True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson and Rules of the Road. I think I have all of the Madelaine L'engle books, but I've only read the first one, and didn't understand it (though I would like reread it, and finally read the rest of the books in the series).

That was very strange. Let's try this again:

At the end of last year, I reread a number of Lynne Reid Banks books and found them just as enjoyable (if a little shorter :) as they were when I was a kid. Also, books like The Egypt Game and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

There are some books I've reread off and on since I was younger - Tamora Pierce's Tortall books and Diane Duane's Young Wizards books, for instance.

Some books I've tried to go back to and didn't like - I tried to reread Through the Ice by Piers Anthony and...someone else, which I really liked when I was in I think middle school, and I hated it.

The Chronicles of Narnia
Baby-Sitter's Club series--when eating or taking a bubble bath...I can finish them up in a half-hour--brings me back
Bridge to Terabithia
Alice in Wonderland
anything Shel Silverstein
The Brothers Grimm
The Ramona Series
The Superfudge Series

and some random ones like:
How to Eat Fried Worms
Chocolate Fever
The Chocolate Touch

Hmm, let's see, there are quite a few. Some that I only rediscovered in the past year when I moved a lot of books from my mother's basement to my basement (thanks to LT).
First there's Die Unendliche Geschichte and Momo by Michael Ende. They are two of my all-time favorite books and quite different when I read them as an adult.
Of course there's Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and once a year A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
I reread all of Roald Dahl's childrens books and enjoyed them just as much as I did years ago.
And finally two favorites for the tomboyish rebel girl in me: Die rote Zora und ihre Bande by Kurt Held and Ronja Räubertochter (Ronia, the robber's daughter) by Astrid Lindgren

As a young girl I grew up reading Trixie Belden books and Nancy Drew. My sister found me 3 books of Trixie Belden and gave them to me for Christmas. I read them again and loved them.

I also find myself returning to Ann M. Martin's Babysitters Club books. It's a fun reminder of books I loved a long time ago. And I will never grow tired of A Wrinkle in Time. My copy is falling apart. I should find myself a new copy.

Wind in the Willows, the whole magic series by Edward Eager, Roald Dahl books, Wrinkle in Time, Phantom Tollbooth all stand the test of time. I re-read a few Narnia books as an adult and was very turned off by the Christian symbolism that went way over my head as a child. I think "encoding" your beliefs into childrens lit thinking you'll somehow program them doesn't really work. Maybe that's why so many kids love things like Lemony Snickett (and me my Roald Dahl). They just want a good story, they don't want to be preached at.

I've gone back and reread so many of my favorites from when I was a child, but I'll name Little Women,The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild as books I have turned to multiple times, both for myself and to read with my kids.

Definitely Narnia. I've read the books more than twenty times. Sadly, I went through quite a long period where I could not read them; the BBC's made-for-TV versions scarred me so badly that I couldn't envision the characters my way anymore. (I'm a visual reader. I have difficulty with film adaptations of books that mean a lot to me because I know just how things ought to look, and the image on the screen rarely matches the one in my head. Some things aren't huge, but others - like Reepicheep being a guy in a mouse suit - are gigantic issues). Thankfully, I eventually got through that troublesome period, and I've read the books a couple more times since then.

When I came back to them, I was truly amazed at just how allegorical they are. I grew up in a very secular household, so I had absolutely no knowledge of most basic Christian things. It was a lot of fun to go back over the books as an adult and see how Lewis incorporated Christian elements into the stories.

Another series I've come back to again and again, and one that has consistently meant a lot to me, is The Chronicles of Prydain. I always seem to find myself reading them when I need a little pick-me-up. There are things that annoy me about them, but overall they make me really, really happy. I still count Taran Wanderer as one of my top three favourite books of all time.

I may go back to read the Narnia series someday; when I was younger, I just couldn't get into that world (I think it might have been because I had just finished Lord of the Rings, and anything compared to that would have seemed pretty meager). Perhaps I shouldn't admit this on a book-based site, but I did like the recent Disney movie.

But next on my reading list is the "Tripod" trilogy (although there seems to be four books) by John Christopher, which I remember really enjoying. The graphical version in Boys' Life led me to read the books. It will be interesting to see if I still like them ... the paperbacks are pretty slim.

Just an FYI: I read somewhere that Lewis stated at some point that he did not write the Narnia books as a Christian allegory. So, whether or not so saying he incorporated them as though he did it intentionally isn't quite accurate.

Child_of_Light, I believe you are mistaken, and that Lewis stated that Narnia is deliberate Christian symbolism. He said he did not like the term "allegory", but used another description. The man was Christian through and through, and wrote accordingly. See the Wikipedia entry for Narnia. His quote on this subject is included.

#14 - xicanti : (I'm a visual reader. I have difficulty with film adaptations of books that mean a lot to me because I know just how things ought to look, and the image on the screen rarely matches the one in my head

A lifetime of reading and visualizing makes it almost impossible for me to contemplate seeing a movie of a text I've read. I know it just won't meet my vision. I can, occasionally, read a book after seeing its screen version, usually to flesh outsomething handled weakly - but then I can't visualize the book in any other way than it was presented on the screen. I don't like such a limitation.

Having had the "benefit" of the trailers and publicity, I know how different the screen versions of several fantasies are from the way I see them. It's heresy to me that humans could appear in such roles. To me, for example, hobbits are sort of a cross between Pogo and a hedgehog. (If you don't know Pogo, well.....)

Except for the books (like Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island) that we read to our son, the things that I have reread are mostly poetry like 'A Child's Garden of Verse' and individual poems like 'The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere'.

I've reread the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little house series several times. Also the first 3 "Anne" books by L.M. Montgomery. In the last year I've reread several Noel Streatfeild books Apple Bough White Boots and When the sirens wailed. Also, The silver sword by Ian Serraillier. And finally Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Swallows and Amazons was throughly enjoyable and just as good as I remembered. Now I want to get my hands on some of his others, particualrly Swallowdale, Pigeon post and Picts and Martyrs.

I often re-read my childhood favorites:

Chronicles of Narnia
Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Phantom Tollbooth
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Homer Price
Johnny Tremain
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Ok, why don't we put together a list of must read classic children's lit? I'll start us off:

in no particular order:
the Chronicles of Narnia
the Time Quartet
the Earthsea Cycle
His Dark Materials
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings

I think I got all the series there, anyone else have any to contribute?

(Note: This is has stood the test of time stuff, that each generation reads and enjoys, stuff like Boy in the Girl's Bathroom does not qualify)

My all time favorite childrens books are:
Where the Red Fern Grows
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Little House series
Hans Christian and Grimms Fairy Tales
Old Yellar

Little Women
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
The Black Stallion

(touchstones STINK lately)

My favorite childhood book is Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary and I still have a copy my mother bought my daughters. I love that book! A friend and I are planning a fall trip to Prince Edward Island and I will reread Anne of Green Gables before I go. I don't think I will get much out of rereading The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew (except The Secret of the Old Clock), or Cherry Ames, Student Nurse so I'll leave those to my memories.

There is a German children's book I read in German called Immensee. I lent it to a neighbor and never got it back. Has anyone heard of it?

#25

Well kageeh I think you just demonstrated that 15 people have heard of Immensee - happy reading :-) The power of Librarything eh?

#22 - I'd definitely add The Chronicles of Prydain to that list, (as I mentioned above, they've really stuck with me), as well as L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books. Though I don't think they're quite there yet, I hope Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing Trilogy will someday make it on such a list. I consider them among the best books I've come across in the past few years; I recommend them to everyone, and I have yet to hear that someone I pressed them on didn't enjoy them.

The Time Machine

despite the socialism.

It was the Time Machine that first got me thinking about the distant future. I often wonder about it and would like to find a book that does a serious job of dealing with it (not something where we are all wearing white and hatred has been eradicated).

That is probably why I read The Book of the New Sun. Turns out Wolfe's future looks a lot like the Middle Ages.

Definitely Pinocchio and Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca, which I know has never been translated into English (unfortunately).
Little women, Peter Pan, and several books from La Biblioteca dei miei ragazzi, which I collect.
Unfortunately, in Italy, when I was a child, not many English and American classics were translated, so I had to catch up with them as I was older...and happy was I to do it!

#28 ever heard of Firefly? Haven't read the book adaptations, but the short lived TV show and movie are amasing. The show is a blend of modern, future, and American Old West tech. People fly around in spaceships, but dress in old west styles, and use blasters which look like old west revolvers and rifles, as well as modern weapons. The show centers around the crew of a firefly class ship (which is where the title comes from) who are war vets who make their living working on the outskirts of the known universe doing illegal jobs, smuggling working as hit-men, bodyguards, etc. Its a refreshingly different view of the future, and its unfortunate that Fox cancelled the show after a measly 14 episodes.

#30 -- I did see the movie and enjoyed it. Never saw the series.

31> the Series was MUCH better than the movie, but I still liked the movie.

Deniro- I have the series on DVD and watch them all the time. I was out of the country when Firefly originally aired, so I never even heard about it until the movie came out, but when I saw the series I couldn't figure out what was wrong with Fox!

You should really watch the series and then see the movie again Deniro, it should make a lot more sense to you. The movie was the creator's attempt to wrap-up the series and bring it to a conclusion, so there's a lot the viewer is already expected to know and understand that isn't explained in the movie.

Nice thread. (Born in 1963) My love of reading really took off with a huge box of books my great-aunt gave me. Her next door neighbor's 3 daughters had outgrown them, and they would have been thrown out. That treasure chest included:

Trixie Belden
Nancy Drew
Donna Parker
Cherry Ames
Vicki Barr
Hardy Boys
Dana Girls

And trips to the library included toting home - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Walter Farley, Marguerite Henry, Robert Arthur (Alfred Hitchcock & The Three Investigators Series).

A few that we read in school that I remember fondly include The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Where the Red Fern Grows and Lord of the Flies, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, all Roald Dahl and going way, way back to Carolyn Haywood and her Betsy books, Snowbound with Betsy in particular.

Alot of my favorites have already been mentioned -- but two of my favorites that I didn't see:

Watership Down
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

I just read Island of the Blue Dolphins. I never read 'youth oriented' books (except for Nancy Drew) when I was a kid, so it's wonderful reading them now. I also regret not having read them in childhood. I'll be sure to pass that wisdom on to my children.

Right now, I've started collecting a few copies of Nancy Drew books to revisit when my TBR get pared down a bit.

Along with

The Chronicles of Narnia
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
and A Wrinkle in Time

I would like to add:

The Last Unicorn. A wonderful romantic fairy tale, touching and humorous, that should really be reprinted as a young reader novel rather than shelved in the adult sci-fi/fantasy section, as the major chains do.

Mara: Daughter of the Nile. Less well known than the others, it is a spy thriller with a thumping plot and fascinating characters in a vividly drawn historical setting (ancient Egypt).

So many of mine have already been mentioned. Here are a few more. To list all my favs would have to go on and on and on :)

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward, same author as Porgy and Bess

The Peterkin Papers
The Secret Garden
Beatrix Potter stories

I completely forgot about Island of the Blue Dolphins! Now I'm wondering what other books of mine are still at my folks house. I might have to visit soon. ;)

The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books were probably my favorites growing up. I would get them from the library numerous times over the years. I'm tempted to stop by my old library on the way to my parents to see if the books are still there. (If that building ever comes up for sale, I'm buying it and moving in.)

Beverly Cleary--Ellen Tebbets, Henry Huggins, Ramona

Beatrice Potter

EB White: Charlotte's Web was my favorite, but I also liked Stuart Little
Tom's Midnight Garden

'The Moffats and One Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

anything by E. Nesbit

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (thanks for the memory, buddy!)

The Looking-Glass Library published a number of wonderful books in the late 1950s and 1960s and I read almost all of them.
Anything illustrated by Edward Eager, Edward Gorey, or Hillary Knight

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes!! What a wonderful memory flash I just experienced!
I would have to nominate (or actually second the nomination of)
Laura Ingalls Wilder books
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series
Witch of Blackbird Pond
Marguerite Henry books
Eleanor Estes - I forgot about her. Loved them all.

What a great thread!

#40, I completely forgot about the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, but I loved them! Thanks for reminding me

I used to read the books my mother brought home from the library so childhood book memories include all the Agatha Christies (loved Miss Marple dearly). Wind in the Willows was a huge fave. The Enid Blyton Island/Mountain/etc. of Adventure series. The Secret Garden.

Nice thread. I don't seem to have the hang of the touchstone thing. Editing...aha, square brackets.

nearly forgot: A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. Re-read it every Christmas Eve.

So many books from childhood that I have to read frequently!

However, I regularly read Grimm, the thousand and one nights, Treasure Island, Alice, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, His Dark Materials (obv a recent addition), simple takes on the Arthurian legends, The Once and Future King, The Hobbit, Where The Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, One Fish Two Fish, Fox in Socks, Lynne Reid Banks, various poetry anthologies, Animal Farm, Oscar Wilde's short stories, classic ghost stories and several guides to birds. Many more I can't think of off the top of my head. Phew.

I've asked some kids I work with to write about their favourite book. So I'll get a youthful perspective when I gather the data (i.e. get their homework in). ;)

I see a few books that I remember. Wow, I totally forgot about the Babysitters Club. I used to love reading that series.

A really good YA book I read when I was younger was Eva by Peter Dickinson. It touches upon what makes a person human. A human body? The brain? The story is about a 14 year old girl that is in a tragic accident and her body dies but a new procedure allows the doctors to remove her brain and place it in a chimp's body. She's the same girl only in a different body.

I'm currently reading Where the red fern grows. I had forgotten about this book too until I came across it on the used book shelf at the library today and bought it. I just had to read it again!

Thanks, all for the reminders of things I loved and want to reread.

Has anyone heard of SMILING HILL FARM by Miriam E Mason? Wonderful family chronicle from American settler days onward. If you want to see how popular it was and is yearned for, go to Amazon and read the reader reviews. There is even one from the author's granddaughter. To my knowledge, not in print now and decent copies are quite expensive, but I keep watching.

Anyone remember Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree? I still regularly reread bits of it, forty years later!
And of course Peter Pan.

Ah Mrs Piggle-Wiggle... I rebought one of those just last year when I saw it on sale, even though I already own them all in old battered copies. And I recall liking Eva too when I read it from a school library, I should read that one again, the plot still intrigues me to this day.

#48 KwikSilver - I loved that book when I was little! It's been years since I read it, (probably fifteen or sixteen, at least; eek!) but pop biscuits have alway stuck with me. My mother used to buy me these little koala-shaped biscuits filled with chocolate creme, and I'd always pretend they were pop biscuits.

I should reread it.

Every now and then: Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack, Harriet the Spy. I remember a book called Toby Tyler which I've been meaning to find and read again. Nothing can replace those feelings you get as a child when a book totally captures your imagination, but it's nice to be able to attempt revisiting those feelings.

I recently reread the great brain by john fitzgerald. It was just as fun as I remember it from my childhood.

Kwiksilver, I grew up on the Disney cartoon of Peter Pan and don't think I ever read the original book. After seeing the newest live action movie of it earlier this year, I found it on the internet and read it, and found it to be quite different than I remembered. Apparently the only thing that was the same was the plot at its most basic level, and the characters, most of which were toned down significantly for the cartoon. For example, I don't remember Peter coming within seconds of murdering one of the lost boys by stabbing him through the heart with an arrow in the cartoon. Peter and the story itself are significantly darker and a bit more disturbing in the original and I honestly kind of like it. Barrie meant for Pan to be an amoral child that you could never really decide whether you liked him or not, and Hook was supposed to be a bloodthirsty cold-hearted evil pirate captain. Disney, in my mind, ruined the story when they made Peter a happy go lucky teenager (I seem to remember he was supposed to be ten or so in the book, if that) and Captain Hook a blundering bufoon. Of course Disney seems to destroy every classic story they touch, and proceed to ruin it by making multiple sequels.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Berry Patch
Cheaper By The Dozen
Thee, Hannah
The Call of the Wild
White Fang
A Little Princess
Arabian Nights
Little Women
Little Men
The Wind in the Willows
Just Wilberforce
The Dark Is Rising series
Little House on the Prairie series
The Black Stallion series
Misty of Chincoteague series
Horton hears a Who! - memorized this one!
Last of the Mohicans
Mutiny on the Bounty
The Deerslayer series

#54 - 'Of course Disney seems to destroy every classic story they touch, and proceed to ruin it by making multiple sequels.'

Well said, throughout the whole post.

I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books as a child, and when I reread them as an adult, I was surprised to find them not terribly well-written. But then my younger daughter, who could really use a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in her life, discovered them, and they regained that soft spot in my heart.

Mrs. Pollifax books!

In the sixth grade, I was supposed to read "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe". I think I read that in like a day and then went to the library and got the rest. Needless to say no other homework got done that week.

I loved the "Anne Of Green Gables" Series I swear I had a crush on Gilbert Blythe (maybe I still do) as a girl.

I remember that every time I read "Bridge To Terabithia" I cried like a baby. I even made up a tune for that song "I see a land..." I haven't read that since I was a kid but I still love it. Gotta go see that movie.

Hey, did anyone else read "The borrowers", a book about little people?

Besides the Narnia books, I reread my old Nancy Drews as a guilty pleasure. And Elizabeth George Speare's "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" which resonated with me as a child who grew up in eastern Mass. and was steeped in local history, including the Salem witch trials. I remember reading the original Sherlock Holmes stories as a kid, and now can't believe that anyone would every consider them appropriate for kids. They're full of murder, sexual perversion (The Illustrous Client), drug use and more.

I just started receiving Nancy Drews. I can't wait to start reading them again.

I reread a little book that no one has heard of, The Lion's Paw by Robb White.

I LOVED the Borrowers series. Also am a big Anne of Green Gables fan, but my favorite is late in the series: Anne of Ingleside. All the gossip in it reminds me of being a kid listening to my mother and her four sisters talking over their tea, mainly stories about friends and relatives long dead or about things that happened to them when they were kids. Always was fascinated. The best part of Ingleside is the quilting bee, when the gossip and everyone's private thoughts are told, and then next when ANne remembers what happened at Peter Kirk's funeral. It all rings so true.

My set of hard cover Nancy Drews are my most beloved and prized possession.

Has anyone mentioned Harriet the Spy? I loved that book as a kid.

#59 & 63 Me too, I loved The Borrowers series, I was so happy to share them with my daughters and read them again, they're great.

The Anne books have always been favourites of mine too, I inherited some from my mom and made sure I got the rest of the series. My favourite is Rilla of Ingleside. I grew up listening to my mom talking about what it was like to live through the war (WWII), waiting for news, hoping it was good. Rilla was sort of like a WWI version of my mom's experiences. I loved all the gossip too in the other books, L.M. Montgomery got it down pat didn't she? Have you read The Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea stringcat? They're great for small town intrigue and gossip too.

Henry's Quest by Graham Oakley.
A great little picture book set in a post-apocolyptic England. The main character, Henry, is sent to find the mysterious petrol.

Now I am the biggest sucker for post-apocolyptic fiction.

A post apocalyptic picture book? Sweet. lol.

Ahh... The Borrowers. I own them all. Including the very short Poor Stainless. Now I need to branch out and buy The Littles series.

E. Nesbit is still very readable as an adult (and 100 years after first printing, I might add). Also, anything by Cynthia Voigt. I still love the Vesper Holly books by Lloyd Alexander. Or anything else by him for that matter.

Tom's Midnight Garden and The Root Cellar are both good time travel stories.

And any of the All-Of-A-Kind Family books.

Anyone else remember The Trolley Car Family?

And a side note about the commentary on Narnia: no matter how hard they try, authors will always insert something of their own beliefs into their books. Lewis simply wasn't trying very hard. Neither was Phillip Pullman in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Consider Pullman the anti-Lewis. Dahl inserted some of his own beliefs into his stories as well. It wouldn't be human to do otherwise.

I introduced my 8-year-old to the All-of-a-Kind Family recently. She is hooked.

#70, I loved the All of A Kind Family books.

I can't reread most of my childhood books. The harsh light of experience and taste...

Fairy tales might be an exception, although now they tend to bore me. And some comics, such as the Asterixes and the Tintins hold up very well. But then they do have a huge adult following as well.

I can think of only one childhood book I still read almost every year: Yuri Olesha's "Three fat men".

If I were to be mummified post mortem, I'd be clutching that book in my dessicated, black hands.

Hugh Lofting's Dr. Dolittle books. Love the pushmi-pullyu.

>72 LolaWalser:: Oh yes, of course, how could I forget the Asterixes?! They were such a big part of my childhood. My mom has every one in German, and one of them is in French. I guess it was the first book ever that I tried to read in French.
Still today, whenever I spend time at her house, I read as many of them as I can. I think they hold up very well. I enjoy them just as much as I did when I was a kid. I bought the first six volumes myself and I'm sure over time I'll buy the rest as well.

Asterix...my sister has them all, and I used to read them every time I went to see her (she is quite older than I). Her copies are in Italian, but I believe there is also one in Latin...

I didn't discover Asterix until I was in high school, but I still love them. They're so much fun, and the names are all so clever! I found it rather odd that they're considered primarily children's material, though, given how much raunchy stuff, (ie, the Roman orgies), there is in them. I guess maybe North American expectations differ from French expectations when it comes to what's appropriate for younger readers.

The Winnie-the-Pooh stories by A.A. Milne. They read completely differently as an adult, and even more charming. You realize that the characters are character traits in people you know. I've nicknamed one of my co-workers Eyeore, for instance. When asked a question he inevitably waffles and takes the dark view.

I adopted Eeyore as my avatar in a Yahoo music group. 'Nuff said. ;)

#69 > rbtanger .... I DO remember The Trolley Car Family! The title was familiar, but I had to peek at the cover to bring it all back. I haven't read it in years, but I think our old copy is still at my family's summer place. I'll have to check it out when the snow finally goes away.

I had two favorites that in the last year I have hunted down at ABE and purchased. Everyday Life in Ancient Times published from 1956 to 1961 by National Geographic, is history the way it should be presented. It has sections on Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome that include thirty full page illustrations of historical events and everyday life with a corresponding full page narration of the material in the illustration. The authors are excellent including Edith Hamilton and Rhys Carpenter. I will still pick it up and page through it.
Another volume from National Geographic published in the same period is Indians of the Americas. The illustrations are what I remembered and it is a good book for adults or children. I don't understand why the emphasis on illustrations in children's books is discarded for adults. I think this is a mistake and adults can benefit from a good picture just as well as children.
One other book that has stayed with me are Rudyard Kipling's Just So stories. I have always loved the language, the stories read like poems. They also take me back to my first encounters with books when they were doors to new and exciting worlds.

Ahh! I'm delighted that someone else remembers Trolley Car Family! I loved that book so much. The Scholastic paperback version with which I grew up eventually dry-rotted and fell apart. I spent weeks on Alibris, Abe, etc. tracking down a good condition copy. I now own the hardcover first edition for which I only paid $10, I think. I instantly reread it and enjoyed it as an adult as well. Now my son can eventually love it!