Books that were important to you growing up.

[Shirley MacLaine]

Shirley M, that reminds me of all the "dirty books" we passed around the classroom as kids. In my generation it was Clan of the Cave Bear and its sequels with their increasingly purple prose, and in my mom's generation it was Lolita. Surest way to get kids to read something? Ban it.

Flowers in the motherfucking Attic!

[herebedragons]

Gingerjo: I loved Bloomability too! I haven't thought about that book in years though :-)

[daisyfern]

Hatchet and Spoon River Anthology

[FiddleDD]

I still love Hatchet, it was such an amazing book.

I thought of another one, My Side of the Mountain. Kid runs away from home and lives alone in the woods. I'm surprised my parents weren't more worried... :lol:

[spookyginger]

Some that I may have missed but haven't seen here yet:

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

The Ghosts of Mercy Manor by Betty Ren Wright

Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy

Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens (I think there's a Book of Ghosts, too, but his stories are so great for young sic-fi readers)

The Cay and Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylore

Megan's Island by Willo Davis Roberts

The Sweet Valley Series by Francine Pascal

Scary Stories for Sleepovers by R.C. Welch

The Scary Stories Treasury by A. Schwartz

Dinotopia by James Gurney (I'll admit, I loved this one mostly for the pictures...which are excellent. It reads more like a travel journal)

And of course the Berenstein Bears for very young readers. I still have my entire collection.

[Shirley MacLaine]

Some that I may have missed but haven't seen here yet:

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

The Ghosts of Mercy Manor by Betty Ren Wright

Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy

Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens (I think there's a Book of Ghosts, too, but his stories are so great for young sic-fi readers)

The Cay and Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylore

Megan's Island by Willo Davis Roberts

The Sweet Valley Series by Francine Pascal

Scary Stories for Sleepovers by R.C. Welch

The Scary Stories Treasury by A. Schwartz

Dinotopia by James Gurney (I'll admit, I loved this one mostly for the pictures...which are excellent. It reads more like a travel journal)

And of course the Berenstein Bears for very young readers. I still have my entire collection.

Ah, mega cosign to Maniac Magee and The Cay / Timothy of the Cay... and I don't know what Scary Stories for Sleepovers is, but how about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?

did anyone mention Island of the Blue Dolphins? or a bunch of Karen Hesse shit... Out of the Dust, Music of Dolphins, Letters from Rifka?

And Running Out of Time by Margaret Haddix!

[spookyginger]

I loved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! I think it's part of the same series as Scary Stories for Sleepovers.

I remembered a couple more that I forgot:

Jacob Have I Loved

The Wild Children

Anything by Ray Bradbury (I read The Martian Chronicles and most of his short stories in middle school..Barnes and Noble currently has a nice leather bound version of most of his works)

Z For Zacharia (creepy book about nuclear holocaust)

[Tesseract]

I love the lists! They are bringing back many memories! As a child I was either moving or reading. There are way too many books to list and probably many I've forgotten the titles of, but remember the essence of the story.

My all time favorite book was A Wrinkle in Time and everything else written by Madeline L'Engle. Let's see... In no particular order...

Ender's Game and anything OSC

Pippi Longstocking

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

All the Laura Ingalls Wilder books

Brave New World

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and many of her others

Heidi

Blueberries for Sal

One Morning in Maine

A bit of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and subsequent books

Alice in Wonderland & Though the Looking Glass

Hans Brinker

Booksby Lois Lowry, Ursula K LeGuin

Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn

There are just too many to list :)

[Shirley MacLaine]

Jacob Have I Loved

Z For Zacharia (creepy book about nuclear holocaust)

I forgot about both of these. Wow! I kind of want to go on a rereading binge.

[spookyginger]

When I saw this thread I went to look on all of my bookshelves. I don't have any kids yet but I'll admit that part of the reason I'm excited to have kids is so that I have an excuse to re-read all of these books! It's a much larger list, of course, than what I currently have on my bookshelves. I imagine when I start having kids I'll start making trips to the bookstore once a month. It's very tempting to re-read some of them now!

[Shirley MacLaine]

When I saw this thread I went to look on all of my bookshelves. I don't have any kids yet but I'll admit that part of the reason I'm excited to have kids is so that I have an excuse to re-read all of these books! It's a much larger list, of course, than what I currently have on my bookshelves. I imagine when I start having kids I'll start making trips to the bookstore once a month. It's very tempting to re-read some of them now!

A few years ago, I was drinking with friends and we had this idea to have a weekly book club based around books we loved as kids, and we drew up a whole list and planned the whole thing... and then of course never got it off the ground. But I still think that would be super fun.

[spookyginger]

Doesn't FJ have a book club of sorts? It'd be fun to do a kids' book book club. I'd totally be in! And with ebooks so widely available, it'd be easy. Of course, I wouldn't mind purchasing a new paperback every once in awhile, especially if I plan to save them for future children.

[silversurealism]

I would say the two that stand out the most are Fahrenheit 451 (I still have major Ray Bradbury love) and The Giver, which I read in 4th or 5th grade. They aren't fluffy, feel good books, but they made me think, which I valued.

[fatcat]

The Chronicles of Narnia and Tamora Pierce's books are the first ones that come to mind.

[KookaAllStar]

It was around that time that I got really into Harry Potter... I wasn't into any sort of fantasy before that, but me and HP are going on a decade long love affair.

I also used to read the Bailey School Kids "Dracula Doesn't Rock and Roll", "Elves Don't Wear Hard Hats","Frankenstein Doesn't Start Food Fights". They were not super long so they kept my attention and I remember them being pretty humorous as well.

[EVA]

For me, it was A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle. I'm not religious, so the religious overtones weren't as appreciated by me, but the universal themes of life, death, growing up, and love were definitely some I could relate to.

Even today, it's the book I go to when I'm feeling the most down. That and Troubling a Star.

[linnea27]

Another vote for Kit Pearson's Guests of War trilogy. I still have it, actually. I loved so many of her books... The Daring Game, A Handful of Time...

Beverly Cleary's autobiography A Girl From Yamhill

Sarah Ellis's Pick Up Sticks and A Family Project

Judy Blume's Here's To You, Rachel Robinson

eta: omg, my mom gave me the Clan of the Cave Bear series when I was in grade six. I don't know wtf she was thinking, but I did love the series. It helped to answer a lot of questions I had about the birds and the bees.

There is a huge age gap in my family and my mom recently asked me to lend the series to my younger sister, who was 12. I gave her only the first book but when she devoured that she demanded the rest. Since my mom flipped her lid about the sex scene in the last Twilight book, I asked her if she was sure she wanted me to lend the entire series to my sister. She's like, of course, they are EDUCATIONAL, I had you read them at the same age. I had to pick a passage at random to read to her (and it wasn't hard to find a risque section) and her face turned kind of purple.

I am actually re-reading Valley of Horses right now. lol. I have only read as far as Plains of Passage... those were all that was out at the time and I heard the newer ones suck.

[blue_the_puppy]

they aren't the most stimulating, but i adored the babysitters club. actually, that shouldn't be in past tense. i have almost all the bsc books on my kindle :embarrassed:

man, this thread is bringing back memories .. i haven't thought about betsy tacy or the five little peppers... in ages.

a tree grows in brooklyn is still one of my all-time favorites.

oh and bridge to terabithia .. the movie was ok but the book is a zillion times better.

[tehfanglyfish]

The Little House books for sure. I'm in my early 30s and I still have my set from when I was 6ish. When I'm feeling extreme stress, they're my go-to for calm and comfort. Plus Laura Ingalls Wilder was one kick-ass woman!

I also second everyone who mentioned Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, and Walter Farley (Black Stallion).

I devoured the Nancy Drew series when I was around 7-8; I couldn't get enough of them. Bridge to Terabithia is another one that sticks with me from around the age of 8.

When I was 14, I was obsessed with Amy Tan and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. (IMO, Anne Rice's newer work is shit.) Oh, and I met Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Trilogy at age 14 - those books were definitely life-changing and helped make me into the person I am today :D

[snusmumriken]

eta: omg, my mom gave me the Clan of the Cave Bear series when I was in grade six. I don't know wtf she was thinking, but I did love the series. It helped to answer a lot of questions I had about the birds and the bees.

.

I, uh, pretty much ONLY read the birds-and-bees bits of that series, when I was probably 12-13. Is it worth going back and actually reading the whole book? For plot rather than sexytimes?

And as for the BSC as other posters brought up--yes! I especially loved (love) the Super Specials. I recently tried to watch the TV show on Netflix and it was painful to behold. But I do love the "where are they now"-type blog posts one can find around the internets :)

[crazyforkate]

they aren't the most stimulating, but i adored the babysitters club. actually, that shouldn't be in past tense. i have almost all the bsc books on my kindle :embarrassed:

man, this thread is bringing back memories .. i haven't thought about betsy tacy or the five little peppers... in ages.

a tree grows in brooklyn is still one of my all-time favorites.

oh and bridge to terabithia .. the movie was ok but the book is a zillion times better.

Considering that I'm supposed to be a grown-up, I kind of feel sheepish but - where did you get them? I don't mind paying for them (I, uh...don't pay for ebooks very often), would just like to know where they are. PM me?

And Linnea, my mom gave the Clan of the Cave Bear books when I was 9 having read them years ago, then proceeded to use them as a tool of education.

Me: Mom, a kid at school said "blowjob" today and got in trouble. What is that?

(Mom flips through "The Mammoth Hunters")

Mom: Here. Read this.

You would never believe she was married to an archbishop.

[lemonhead]

Hmm. I do remember some of the books mentioned here. Especially the Little House series, all of the Beverly Cleary books, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew...but when my family got seriously fundy, my reading choices became extremely limited.

Suddenly I found myself with books from the Christian bookstore. For example, the Elizabeth Gail series (Hilda Stahl), the Mandie books (Lois Leppard)...not exactly literary greats, but better than nothing for a kid who was so desparate for reading material I would sometimes read the phone book and dictionary.

Then when I got to age 13-14, my mother allowed me to start walking to the public library by myself, and I discovered the amazing worlds of Stephen King, Frank Herbert, and erotica :D That was fun until she asked the librarian for records of the books I checked out. :( The End.

[Patsy]

Can I recommend BSC fans check out the comics made of #1-4 by Raina Telgemeier? They are ADORABLE.

[julie paradox]

Most of the ones I think of keep getting mentioned.

Heidi was the one that taught me to read (I wondered for years why I remembered the later parts very clearly but the first chapter only conceptually, then my sister told me she'd read it to me and I could read by the end of it).

Mallory Towers, embarrassingly (and St Clare's). I've read them since and they are dreadfully written (I kept yelling "show, don't tell!"); but of course I didn't realise that at the age of four. Still remember reading the first page, with the illustration opposite. Darrell Rivers was very excited. My sister and I used to play we were at MT. Large parts of this game, from the point of view of the adults, apparently involved us running round the garden shrieking "Potty!" (For those who don't know, Miss Potts was the first form's form mistress.)

Chalet School, definitely. I picked up one of the books (about number 12 - Joey is writing a novel) from the floor at the age of about 8 and began reading it where it was open. After a chapter or so I thought I should probably start at the beginning. Then I went and found the first one. (Never found out whose page I had lost for her.) From that point on I lost interest in Enid Blyton (only read about 4 of the Famous Five.) Wrote fanfic before it had a name. When I was twelve my nightly prayer (no doubt itself a result of these very same books) included the line "thank you for our dolls and toys and games and books and Chalet School".

Dimsie Maitland! (another school series, set just after WW1)

The Growing Summer, by Noel Streatfeild. Also the Gemma and Sisters series. Read Ballet Shoes but it didn't have the impact it seems to have on a lot of people.

A Little Princess. The Secret Garden I read a bit later and again didn't seem to have its usual impact.

Chronicles of Narnia (and oh, the cry of the seagulls! Have you heard it? do you remember?) Made a tune for Reepicheep's lullaby.

Jean Plaidy (historical novels). We had several which began with the protagonist as a small girl - Elizabeth I, Minette, Catherine de Medici (that was an interesting one) - which dragged me in. I remember reading about Lucy Waters suffering from a condition that often afflicts "those that have led her way of life" and assuming she was exhausted from all the travelling! (Yes, I'd gathered she did The Baby-Making Stuff without being married (which was ok because it was a king). I just had a few gaps in my knowledge.)

I notice several people mentioned Jane Eyre. I started that when I was about 12 and couldn't get on with it (I think I gave up around about the time she arrived at the house). Not sure why. I resisted Jane Austen for ages because they were conflated in my head, and only took up Persuasion because the music teacher read us a passage ("I can suffer no longer in silence" etc). By that time I had read most of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels so had no trouble with the worldview. Have read Jane Eyre since, but never got over the ridiculous narrative conceit in Wuthering Heights.

Never finished Lord of the Rings either. I'd forgotten this until we listened to the radio adaptation years later, and I realised that somewhere in the bleak grey stoniness of the bleak grey stones of the bleak grey stony landscape of bleak grey stony Mordor I had got fed up. The interesting romance was complete as far as I was concerned (Eowyn and Faramir, in case anyone is confused) and I couldn't see why it took pages and pages and pages just to walk through terror and chuck the ring in the fire. I know, I have no soul. (And I read Gone With the Wind, so it wasn't the length.)

[julie paradox]

Also: I used to believe that I Didn't Like Science Fiction. Then I read "A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair" by Nicholas Fisk which I thought was fabulous, and realised that, yeah, okay, some fringe Science Fiction was good. Then my aunt lent me Asimov's Robot short stories and I realised that I was waaaaaay beyond the fringe.