Favourite book as a child

[Thur]

My fav book was The Giving Tree By Shel Silverstien (I think) When my daughter was born my husband ran out and bought that book for us. I thought That was a really sweet thing for him to do.

[karmadust]

Alright, one of my favorite books was the Little Golden Book, "Mister Dog" about Crispin Crispian and his little boy. Except I recently found a copy and reread it and it starts out, "Crispin Crispian was a conservative." hahaha. what a bizarre way to start a little kid's book! then he goes to the butcher and picks out this really gross looking meat for his boy and him to eat....it's the last book in the world i would ever choose to read now! but there was something about it that i loved as a little girl. go figure.

[emmapresley]

my aunt bought me 'would you rather?' by john burningham when i was about 7 or 8..it's ace..

i still have the same copy which i've read to my own kids as they've grown.
it stimulates debate about (sometimes) manky choices ;) (...but has nice choices in it too!!)

[auntierozzi]

I loved the Blackberry Farm stories by Jane Pilgrim when I was little and read them every night to my children at the moment and they love them. I also liked 'Mary Mary' and 'Milly Molly Mandy', 'Miffy', 'The Cat in the Hat' etc...(drives me 'round the bend to read it now) I loved 'The Great Pie Robbery' by Scarry. That was probably my favourite book when I was little.

[RedWellies]

Ha, so many memories being brought back to me!! Mrs Pepperpot, Dogsbody, The Magic Faraway Tree, Famous Five....I read TONS of books as a kid. I loved reading, still do.

As a small kid I loved Noggin the Nog and the books by Beatrix Potter. When I was older I loved animal books such as The Incredible Journey and the Silver Brumby series. I liked poems too, especially From a Railway Carriage. (http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/84.html)

[auntierozzi]

That's a lovely poem RW. Do you ever read poetry now?

[RedWellies]

Yes, not for a year or so because my books have all been packed up but I love Thomas Hardy particularly. I also have some by WH Auden, and a few compilations.

[hollybee]

Funny-I can't remember what my favorite books were as a young child. My daughter's favorite was "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear." My son liked one called "Grandpa's Teeth." We also like all the James Stevenson books. My son (a big 3 year old) refuses to listen to storybooks anymore, so we read a lot of Beverly Cleary. His favorites are the Henry Huggins books.

[karmadust]

i used to love henry huggins!!!!!!!! henry huggins and the paper route was my favorite :)

[Charlotte]

Flat Stanley was cool!

I was obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie series, I think i had all but one of the books. I used to play at being Laura Ingalls!I was also crazy about the Calamity Jane film.
George's Marvellous Medicine :D I tried to make my own version but never gave it to my grandmas!
I liked the Just William series as well.
A book called Crummy Mummy and me about a little girl whose mother was a punk and had a boyfriend called Crusher Maggot.

When I was a bit older I loved and reread loads The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailer and The Machine Gunners (excellent book)

[Risker]

I think my favourites were noggin the nog and captain pugwash.

[Marrers]

I loved the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blython I think.

When I hit my early teens I was mad on Jennings and Mallory Towers - they made boarding schools seem so cool and I spent several years dropping all the catchphrases into my conversations . . . fossilised fishcakes, I must have sounded like a right prat!

ETA I just remembered a book that made a real impression on me in my mid-teens (when the library was my escape from unhappiness at home) was Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer. I must buy a copy and re-read it! I loved it all the more when it inspired a Cure song.

[hollybee]

i used to love henry huggins!!!!!!!! henry huggins and the paper route was my favorite :)


We are re-reading "Henry Huggins" and Henry and the Paper Route". My son also loves "Ribsy," and "The Mouse and the Motorcycle." They are such fun to read out loud, too. Another favorite of mine was "Bunnicula."

[karmadust]

ha! yes! i forgot all about Bunnicula! ah, to be a child again :)

[hollybee]

When I first read Bunnicula to my daughter, I read chapter after chapter to her. She was falling asleep, and I kept saying "Just one more chapter!" My kids are listening to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing on tape. I'm always disappointed when they turn it off.

[Pisces]

i used to love henry huggins!!!!!!!! henry huggins and the paper route was my favorite :)

Oh my gosh! I LOVE Beverly Cleary books. I mainly read ones about Ramona. Ramona the Pest and Ramona Forever were my top 2 favourites.

[hollybee]

Emily's Runaway Imagination is another good one-it's very autobiographical. My kids like Henry and the Clubhouse and Beezus and Ramona (we had to buy the tape set from the library when we lost one-then we found the second tape, so we've heard it many, many times).

[Smoothie]

i was still a child, when the first harry potter book came out. so i'd have to say harry potter.

[Cherry]

George's Marvellous Medicine :D I tried to make my own version but never gave it to my grandmas!

I just finished reading that today to some 7 year olds :D They've been gripped. I was really shocked by the ending - I hadn't remembered what happened to Grandma!

My fave Roald Dahl was Matilda. I too tried the reinactment. I tried to move things just by looking at them, and remember being a tincy bit disappointed that it wouldn't work!

[LuC]

Charlotte's Web! I read it dozens of times.

[emmapresley]

ohhh..and 'mog the forgetful cat'

'mogs christmas'...and 'mog and the baby'

but recently judith kerr wrote 'goodbye mog' and it made me cry cos mog dies and it's quite sad :(

[Marrers]

I just remembered a book that made a real impression on me in my mid-teens . . . . Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer.

I got a copy from Amazon Marketplace (for 25p + postage) and it arrived this morning. I have re-read the last section and it made me cry all over again! :o

[absentmindedfan]

Matilda. From the age of four I could read fluently and every Saturday I'd go to the library, get a full card of books out (Roald Dahl's, Enid Blyton's, short novels etc) read them concurrently all week and return the next Saturday to do the same. I identified with Matilda, I was a lonely child and I too outsmarted my dad at an early age. I never saw it then but looking back I see that my mum has been a bully all my life and favoured my brother over me so much that outsiders can see it the first time they meet the family. I found solace in the fact that Matilda, too, escaped into books and that, like me, they were the security holding her life together.
I've never found a teacher that acted as a kind, secure mother figure to me but I have found many people in my life that I can rely on and the more I realise this the better I feel. My friends are my family now, some of them need looking after, some look after me (though I still need to let my guard down and allow them to) and I am lucky enough to find people that I feel very safe around.
So I guess I am like Matilda.

[Poison Ivy]

but recently judith kerr wrote 'goodbye mog' and it made me cry cos mog dies and it's quite sad :(

Oh, my daughter brought that home from school last year and we sat and read it together....it's so sad:( ....I was so choked by it I could barely get the words out:o

[Orange-powered]

ohhh..and 'mog the forgetful cat'

'mogs christmas'...and 'mog and the baby'

but recently judith kerr wrote 'goodbye mog' and it made me cry cos mog dies and it's quite sad :(

I can't believe mog dies! i didn't know that... I grew up with them! I used to like The lion, the witch and the wardrobe before I knew about the religious subtext but I still like the general story even though i haven't read it for years. Roald Dahl definitely, but I don't know which one as I read loads and liked all of them! maybe The Witches.