Favorite children's books

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TsukiRyoko

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Name some of your favorite children's books, either from when you were a child or storybooks you like to read to your children. If it's a big collector's book, then please tell me your favorite story in the book.

When I was younger, I used to love this huge blue book with golden tipped pages. It seemed like it had a million stories in it (though I'm sure it seemed bigger when I was younger). I can't remember the name of it, but it had all the classics in it- Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, the whole shebang.
 
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No.

Oh all right then.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Charlotte's Web - EB White
The Twits - Roald Dahl
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce

All of which captivated me as a kiddywinkle, all of which I read over and over again as an adult.
 

TsukiRyoko

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No.

Oh all right then.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Charlotte's Web - EB White
The Twits - Roald Dahl
Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce

All of which captivated me as a kiddywinkle, all of which I read over and over again as an adult.
When I was younger, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe scared me so bad I couldn't sleep. Every time the lion died I freaked, and I was afraid that "the bad lady" would get me in my sleep for knowing about the secret world of Narnia :D
 

Mr Flibble

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Ooh yes the gold-tipped books were the best. I still have my Legends of King Arthur one, which was probably what got me into fantasy.

Richard Scarry was great, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Black Beauty ( I was obsessed with horses), the Narnia books.

Actually I would pretty much read anything, but those are the ones I remember most vividly.
 

Polenth

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I liked a lot of books as a child. Some favourites were the Griffin Reader Series (Sheila K McCullagh), 'The Horse and His Boy' (C. S. Lewis) and most things by Roald Dahl. In poetry, I liked Ogden Nash and Lewis Carroll.

Not much has changed, except I've read more children's books. Some recent favourites are 'The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman), 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' (Jeff Kinney) and 'The Gruffalo' (Julia Donaldson).

Giant monsters are always a plus, for any children's story.

(I posted a list of some of my favourites to my blog yesterday, coincidentally enough).
 

Jenan Mac

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Our co-op (homeschoolers between 9-11) has been reading a bunch of the books, mostly (but not all) on the Newbery and Sunshine State Reader lists. Some of the favorites were My Side of the Mountain, Flush, and Out of Patience. The hands-down winner belonged to AW's very own Toothpaste: Alex and the Ironic Gentleman.

As for little bitty kid books, my all-time favorite is Ferdinand.
 
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tehuti88

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I loved the "Serendipity" books. The illustrations and lush landscapes in the backgrounds, for example in "Morgan & Yew" (I think that's what it was?--about a sheep who was jealous of a unicorn's horn), had me wishing I could go to those places. I always wanted every one of those books but I had only a few, there were just so many of them.
 

nevada

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I didn't read a lot of children's books when i was little and regardless, the ones i did read were dutch. lol but there were some.

I had my mom's complete collection of grimms fairytales. unabridged, unedited for little kiddies. with illustrations by anton piek. ( i was going to link but the addie was huge. lol he was born in 1840 and his illustrations are amazing.)

I read a book called Puck of the Petteflet. (a flet is an apartment building) about this kid who lives by himself in an apartment building with strange people and creatures living there.

and there was a book about some teenagers who travel back in time and get involved in the children's crusade, books about WWII and books the old sailing ships of the 16th and 17th century. I would classify those as lad lit but i loved them anyway. A very schmaltzy book about a teenager who becomes a ballerina, works in a circus and falls in love with a russian horse acrobat who dies, overcomes his death and finally stars in a triumphant ballet of Theseus and Ariadna (or something like that).. very, very shmaltzy. lol

i read wrinkle in time in dutch and i remember being so impressed by it. and then i read it again last year when she died and i was so disappointed.

that was all before i hit about 11, at which time i moved on to more adult books.

and then, one day, in canada, i was about 13, i found the books by Sally Watson in the library. And I read them all, over and over again. They were amazing.
 
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TsukiRyoko

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Has anyone read The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling? I thought it was cool that she wrote it after its mention in The Deathly Hallows as a way of completing HP. My mom picked it up for me as a Christmas present ("Andrea, you're the only person I know who reads children's books in college, and read 500 pg novels when you were twelve"). The stories are fun, I would have enjoyed them quite a bit as bedtime stories when I was younger (especially Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump :D)
 

Blondchen

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I'm going to totally date myself but...

Superfudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
Help! I'm a Prisoner in the Library by Eth Clifford
The Littles by John Peterson
The House With a Clock In Its Walls and The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt by John Bellairs
Below the Root by Zilpha Keatly Snyder
and the Susan Cooper Dark is Rising series.
 

K1P1

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Melisande by E. Nesbit (and every other book she's written, but Melisande is a real gem)
Lucy Boston's Green Knowe books
Zilpha Keatly Snyder's books
 

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My favorite picture book was The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Every writer should have that. It really shows the power of a great "hook."
 

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Just was reading the "Frog and Toad" stories (A. Loebel) to my toddler the other day. I loved them as a kid - the illustrations are imprinted on my brain, and they're brilliant.

"The whole world is full of buttons," Toad said. "And none of them is mine!"

Drama, mystery, angst, what more can you ask for?

Love them.
 
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trickywoo

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I loved the "Serendipity" books. The illustrations and lush landscapes in the backgrounds, for example in "Morgan & Yew" (I think that's what it was?--about a sheep who was jealous of a unicorn's horn), had me wishing I could go to those places. I always wanted every one of those books but I had only a few, there were just so many of them.

OK. So I grew up on these too and loved them as a kid. But when I reread them as an adult, they totally creeped me out. The one with the fat cat who has no friends? So she exercises and diets and then she has friends! A lot of them have these ... um ... unfortunate morals to the story that don't quite cut it.

Don't want to crash your childhood memories, because it was a sad discovery for me, but I was totally appalled by them when I read them again.
 

Kate Thornton

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Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
All of her books, actually - I liked The Wouldbegoods series a lot, too.

Teenie Weenie Town - William Donahey

The Flying Islands of the Night - James Whitcomb Riley

The Arabian Nights - Kate Douglas Wiggin & Nora A. Smith, Illustrations by Maxfield Parrish edition

The Enchanted Places - Christopher Milne
 

alleycat

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I'll add the Frog and Toad books to the list.
 

swvaughn

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Oh boy...

Where the Wild Things Are
Harold and the Purple Crayon
A Wrinkle in Time
Any Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book (especially this one that had dragons and wizards and spiders and some kind of fluffy deadly stuff that no one believes existed because I can't remember the details, but I remember this one option word for word from the end of one section: C. You are a flashlight. Turn to page 68...)
The Honey Bunch series
Christine (yeah, I started on Stephen King early)
Goodnight Moon
The Pokey Little Puppy
The Saggy, Baggy Elephant
The Great Big Elephant and the Very Little Elephant
Tikki Tikki Tembo
Where the Sidewalk Ends

Right, that's all I can think of for now. :D
 

selkn.asrai

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Oh! How child are we talking?

For picture books:

The Runaway Bunny.

The Velveteen Rabbit.

All things Beatrix Potter.

Make Way For Ducklings.

Ferdinand.

When I got into the novel-reading stage, I loved Nancy Drew and Lois Duncan. And the Dear America series. I adored all historicals. Summer of the Swans made me cry; so did The Lottery Rose. I loved anything to do with ghosts, like Wait Til Helen Comes and Stonewords.

Once I hit 12, though, I wandered from the YA section for Fiction & Literature at the bookstore. Now, when I get assigned to work in Childrens, I get excited. It's so peaceful and innocent back there. And they have a lot of amazing and beautiful picture books that I didn't have growing up.
 

TsukiRyoko

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Any Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book (especially this one that had dragons and wizards and spiders and some kind of fluffy deadly stuff that no one believes existed because I can't remember the details, but I remember this one option word for word from the end of one section: C. You are a flashlight. Turn to page 68...)

Oh jeez, I remember reading those books as a kid. I loved those things! I never seemed to pick the right options, though, since my character always got into some sort of trouble and I'd have to skip back x amount of pages to get back on track. It was then I decided that I would not make a good adventurer, and should stick to playing video gaems and reading instead of breaking into creepy abandoned houses and following trails of goo.
 
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