What books or authors did you love growing up?

mommy3b2c

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:24 pm

amother wrote:

Harry Potter of course- it holds a special place in my heart because I was growing up as the books were still coming out. I was always within a year or so of Harry's age in each book, so I really feel like I grew up with him.

Then of course the classics like Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and a bunch of others mentioned here. I'm surprised no one mentioned A Wrinkle in Time- loved that one!

Now, does anyone remember the Dear America series? It was a series of fictional diaries by young teen girls living through different events in American history- American Revolution, Civil War (there were a few on that period, including one from the perspective of a slave who had taught herself to read), the Oregon trail (that one was my favorite), the Alamo, and there was even one about a Jewish girl on the Lower East Side who had come from Russia at the turn of the century. I LOVED that series, it really made me into a history buff, and to this day my favorite genre is historical fiction.

I’m glad you mentioned a wrinkle in time. My father made me read it age 7, and I really didn’t quite get it, so I read it agian at 9, and I still didn’t quite get it, so again at 12 and at 15, and so. And I still don’t quite get it!!!!!! What am I missing? Should I try again?

And I just thought of another one, walk two moons was great. And island of the blue dolphins and hatchet.

sequoia

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:26 pm

Island of the Blue Dolphins is amazing!

I also love Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Mommyg8

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:27 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

I did a report on it in college. I hadn't realized that she was a very strong xtian, and was trying to create some kind of religious sci-fi...
The book was good, but once I read that I lost interest...

rgr

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:27 pm

sequoia wrote:

Louisa May Alcott
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Selma Lagerlof
Astrid Lindgren
Hans Сhristian Andersen

I’ll add more later

Extra points if the author had 3 names I see LOL

Mommyg8

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:28 pm

And, did anybody else here read the three investigators? Loved that series.

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:29 pm

Oh my gosh! Can't believe I forgot, all the Zylpha Keatly Snyder books, like The Egypt Game! Awesome books.

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:30 pm

sequoia wrote:

Island of the Blue Dolphins is amazing!

I also love Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Loved those too, this is a great trip down memory lane.

Hatemywig

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:37 pm

Enid Blyton

mommy3b2c

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:38 pm

Mommyg8 wrote:

And, did anybody else here read the three investigators? Loved that series.

You just pulled something out of the deep recesses of my brain. I’m amazed at myself! Jupiter, right? And the parrot 2-2-2 b or not 2-2-2 b! I can’t believe I can actually remember those details!!! I must be brilliant! 😀

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:45 pm

Ok, three more:

The Yearling
The Oz series
The Black Stallion series

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:49 pm

The Secret Garden
Little Lord Font Leroy
Old Yeller
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn

amother

Powderblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:50 pm

The Indian in the Cupboard

perquacky

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 9:55 pm

Love this thread, especially since so many of the books mentioned are or were published by the company I work for.
And to the person who mentioned the Bobbsey Twins and Cherry Ames--I loved those too and inherited several old copies from my mom. But we're totally dating ourselves!

cbsp

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:05 pm

SpottedBanana wrote:

Please wait until she's older! I remember being so freaked out about the aunt having to sit perfectly still for two hours a day with a rod strapped to her back and other scary parts of the 19th century. My point is, make sure that she can understand that we don't do that kind of thing anymore -- harsh punishments etc.

I'm leaning in that direction. But I also just re read A Little House on the Prairie and think she's not ready for it either. She already read Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, The Wizard of Oz, many Magic Treehouse books. Not sure these are all that different...

Back to OP, haven't seen these mentioned :
(secular)
3 Investigators
Pick-a-color Fairy Tale books
Z is for Zachariah (the first S/F book I read)
Lois Duncan
Anne McCaffery (Pegasus)
Robert McCloskey (Homer Price, Ducklings)
Jane Yolen
Asimov (and his assorted pseudonyms)
Robin McKinley
Gail Carson Levin
Mary Poppins (beyond the first book)
The less popular Shoe books
Select Piers Anthony series (would not recommend for a frum audience)
Madeline L'engel
The Tripods series
Damon Knight
Star Wars novels
Mama's Bank Account
Karen Killilea and the sequel
The Trouble with Tuck
Roald Dahl

(Jewish)
Happy is the Heart by Sarah Birnhack (her other books came out when I was already an adult)
Dovid Mayer
The Yellow Star
A Treasury Of Chassidic Tales - Torah and Festivals
The Medrash Says
English Tzenah Urenah
Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet
Book of Our Heritage
K'tonton
Forever my Jerusalem
All for the Boss
Satan Simcha
Marcus Lehman
The Heavenly City
Lilmod u'li'lamed
Hanoch Teller's "Soul" series
Guard your Tongue
Best of L.I.G.H.T
Yoshke the Dumbell
The Golem

I think I'll stop here.

amother

Slateblue

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:07 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

Oh yes, Walk Two Moons, how did I forget that? I went through a stage where I reread it every Shabbos for a few months LOL

BetsyTacy

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:10 pm

cbsp, you are thorough. Honestly, the Karen books gave me all of my Roman Catholic Church knowledge- a bit heavy for a young kid.

I am more of a reader than a poster on imamother, but I will always post on book threads!

amother

Cerise

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:10 pm

I read The Yellow Star as a 7 or 8 year old and was extremely traumatized. I would not recommend a detailed Holocaust book like that for such a young reader.

Laiya

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:29 pm

Mommyg8 wrote:

I remember loving it as a kid. I read it with my kids last summer and got a very different perspective!

cbsp

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:43 pm

amother wrote:

I read The Yellow Star as a 7 or 8 year old and was extremely traumatized. I would not recommend a detailed Holocaust book like that for such a young reader.

Oh, agree. My list included all the books I remember reading and re reading growing up (through HS). I think I bought The Yellow Star and Dovid Mayer with money I received for my bas mitzvah, so I was a bit older when I read it.

dee's mommy

Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:48 pm

I have been thinking about this for a long time.

Since I define "favourites" as books I read over and over again, I will list:

As a very small child:
The Cat in the Hat. (It was the first book that I ever read by myself, and I read it many many times.)
Mr. Pine's Purple House (I don't know the author, but this was a book that was frequently read in our house in my earliest days.)
A is For Annabelle. Truthfully, I only got to read this twice in the school library in kindergarten, but I always remembered it and the beautiful artwork. I found a copy when I was an adult, and that is the one I have.
Charlotte's Web (The first chapter book I ever read)
A lot of fairy tales and books about ballet
There was a series of books called "Help Me Be Good" by Joy Berry that my parents bought for me when I was very young. They are kind of like non- Jewish middos books and I have to say, they really shaped me. (Keep in mind, I did not grow up frum, so you won't find any frum books on this list.)
There was another series of books known as "Value Tales" by different authors about various people in history associating a particular value. The one I owned was "The Value of Facing a Challenge, the Story of Terry Fox." There were a lot of others in the series that I borrowed from the classroom and library, so I read these books about Helen Keller, Sacajawea, Elizabeth Fry, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, Beethoven, Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur and so many others. I don't know if these are still in print, but these were wonderful books.

As a bit of an older child:
Books by Judy Blume almost all of them, especially Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, Are you There G-d, it's Me Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge.
Ramona Quimby books (Beverly Cleary)
A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, particularly Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon I started to appreciate others much later in life.
Behind the Attic Wall (Sylvia Cassidy)
When the Dolls Woke (Marjorie Filley Stover)
Little Women
The All of a Kind Family Series
The Neverending Story (Michael Ende)
Island of the Blue Dolphins (was part of the school curriculum but I loved it so much I read it over and over again.)
Ballet Shoes (Noelle Streatfield)
On Stage Please (Veronica Tennant)
Children's History of Israel. (I don't know the author, but these were two books that my grandparents gave me that were basically stories from Chumash and Tanach, but I read those over and over again.

When I started my preteens there was of course
Sweet Valley High books (the height of sophistication when you are eleven years old!)
Satin Slippers Series by Elizabeth Bernard(This was a series about a teenage girl who went to a professional ballet school, but it was very like a soap opera in a way, like Sweet Valley High)
There was a series of books that I read a lot , also about a young girl who aspired to be a professional ballerina by Karen Strickler Dean: Maggie Adams, Dancer, Stay on Your Toes, Maggie Adams, and Between Dances, Maggie Adams Eighteenth Summer. (As you can see, I was very into ballet)
The Sisters Impossible (J.D. Landis) Another Ballet one.)
Maybe Next Year (Karen Hest) Yet another ballet book.
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (yes, I did read that a lot in my pre and early teens)

I think I will stop before I get to my teenage years. That might not be so pretty.

Last edited by dee's mommy on Tue, Nov 14 2017, 10:53 pm; edited 2 times in total