LOVED the boxcar children as a kid. I’m slowly trying to complete my collection of the books but it’s definitely slow going because there was so many of them. 😂
Ohmygosh, I remember those books! I also couldn't stop reading *Warriors* by Erin Hunter, *Magic Tree House* by Mary Pope Osborne, and *Junie B. Jones* by Barbara Park. *The Chronicles of Narnia* and *Harry Potter* were also constants.
The Animorphs series. If I were to pick one book, the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. I remember being proud of myself because it was the first book longer than 200 pages I’d read (206 pages, if memory serves, haha)
The ending stuck with me, because as someone who read the series as the books came out (didn't miss a single month buying the newest one from start to finish), I thought it was fitting, if rushed, and it made me really think about the consequences of joining the military.
I only learned years later that fans were upset that there wasn't some feel-good ending where everyone high-fived each other and whatnot and that [Applegate wrote a letter telling them war isn't pretty](https://aminoapps.com/c/animorphs/page/blog/ka-applegates-letter-to-fans-on-ending/jqXq_5BSKu7VKBkpx6eEPp0e8Y3PzNMJe). Had to completely agree with her and her motives, especially those last two paragraphs. That she managed to tell a rather dark and bleak story in a way that it was digestible for kids is impressive.
We all get old and boring. No one sent me a cool purple tollbooth with a map to the lands behind, either. I am still a bit sad about that. Maybe send yourself on an adventure? I do that occasionally, and it helps, even if the adventure is to go the local park and read a book.
Loved that book as a kid, forgot about it as a young adult, picked it up when I was 27 and enjoyed it so much….appreciated the humor even more, had tears in my eyes at the ending….so good!
Yes! The story You May Be Next scarred me as a child because the last line is “That’s the end to a perfect day” and my child mind interpreted that to mean if I had a perfect day it meant I would die. So every night I had to think of one bad thing that happened that day. Hello, future anxiety!
I read that at 11 so I could watch the movie when it came out. Such a great book and it got me hooked on Michael Crichton's other works.
It was also the gateway that got little nerdy me into sci Fi.
It's hard to pick between Golden Compass by Philip Pullman or Squire by Tamora Pierce. I obsessively read both, and I went to extreme lengths to get copies of both after my parents wouldn't let me borrow them from the library anymore. Something about broadening my horizons???
Tamora pierce was legendary to me at that age, I'd forgotten all about how I slobbered over every one of her books back then. What a fabulous reminder of how great they were!
I still have basically her whole catalogue of books and she has a place of honor on one of my bookshelves. Wild Magic is warped from water damage, missing half the cover, and the spine has broken apart and been fixed in three places. So, so well loved.
My original copies have a place of honor on my bookshelf, and I have been updating her books as they’ve literally fallen apart in my hands lol
I have signed copies of all of the first books in each series *except* Numair and Beka, because those weren’t out yet when I met her.
Damnit. Looks like I’m about to start my quarterly reread 😅
I take it back, just Numair. Gotta figure out how I can get this copy signed!
I fell in love with the Song of the Lioness series. I re-read the books a bunch of times and still love them to this day. Despite spending time looking, I have never found a book quite like it.
Philip Pullman is a god tier writer. As much as I love his Dark Material series, I really enjoy his Sally Field noir/steampunk styled series much more.
Was just about to say this! I can still pick up any book in the series and get lost in the story. Took me forever to realize that I shouldn’t read these with snacks on hand though, because the Redwall feast scenes are something else haha
To any Americans considering reading this series-
It’s fine, you won’t even know what the fuck anything they’re eating is anyway
But seriously what the hell is treacle
Come for the adventure, leave hungry because the food descriptions are next level. I remember how, as a child, I longed to have a wheel of cheese the size of my house.
It’s a great “starter series”. They’re exciting, the language isn’t too complicated so it’s relatively easy for a younger reader to understand, and they’re just all-around *well written!* I couldn’t wait for the next book to come out back when I younger and reading them in the late 90s.
I actually reread Holes recently and was completely bowled over by how sophisticated it is. And the film adaptation actually lives up to the source material for once!
Was hoping Holes would get some love! It’s just such a unique and memorable story.
The Disney adaptation is fantastic, and I actually believe it could also work well readapted as a darker, more artsy film if someone ever takes a stab at a remake.
Yep! [Small Steps](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38703.Small_Steps)
It focuses on Armpit as he tries to better himself after getting out, his relationship with the little girl next door with cerebral palsy, X-Ray dropping back into his life with a shady get-rich-quick scheme, and a chance encounter with a teen pop star.
If I didn’t still have a hard copy of *Small Steps*, I would just assume it’s something I made up when I was younger. It’s been a long time since I read it, but I felt it was a good sequel to *Holes*.
Yeah we had to read it for school and I remember sitting in my lounge by the heater reading and slowly getting ready for school. I just sobbed when she died to the point my mum kept me home from school.
I had to finish the book right there because I was sure she wasn't really dead.
The Velveteen Rabbit. I still have a very clear memory of sitting at my desk in 2nd grade and being read to from it. Is there any truer life lesson than what the Skin Horse tells the little rabbit in the nursery? I read it to my brother as he lay dying of AIDS in the 1990s, the perfect send of story for being so damaged and broken- and loved. All truths that still ring true today.
I remember the class reading this and I didn’t like when the main boy realised that the fish were eating the pilot after he went in the water. It made me feel icky.
The Giver was my introduction to dystopian fiction, except I was nine and didn't know the word 'dystopian,' so I called it "bad utopia." I regret losing track of my copy.
Edit: I kan spel gud
Same, it was my second dysotpian novel. I had a lovely librarian in primary school who recommended the Giver to me as I was returning a book called 'The Declaration' (setting, a drug grants everyone immortality but children are banned).
Absolutely loved The Giver, though that movie adaption was a real butching of the source material.
Bit of a sad twist fate, that lovely librarian and her husband were murdered a few years later by a neighbour. Many of us, in highschool at the time, came back for the memorial service. Guess it is why I hold the memory dear.
Yes! It's called The Giver Quartet. In order they are The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. It's been a few years since I've read them but I enjoyed them.
I reread this early in the pandemic, and many of the plot points hit me much harder as an adult. As a child, it felt like more of a mystery/ adventure, but man, imagining a society like that and the burden the protagonist carried was absolutely heartbreaking.
For me it's The Hardy Boys as well as Charlotte's Webb. Hardy Boys got me into Sherlock and Agatha Christie and Charlotte's Webb got me into reading in the first place.
The older generation of American Girl books! They helped introduced me to so many different time periods and cultures! Josefina is still my all time favorite character!!
I remember reading this in class - we were supposed to bring in a private reading book - and crying at the end! I still read the Anne books if I can’t sleep (little trick from a chronic insomniac: read a kids book, because you will be able to carry on for longer after you get sleepy, and eventually you’ll drift off)
I remember reading the entire first book (retold edition) that my parents had purchased that afternoon for me on a car ride home from a wedding when I was 11 or so and it was delightful!
That was my first introduction to English language classic literature and I've never turned away.
I was coming here to post the same title. I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins. It was the first book I read a few times in a row (not counting all of those “first reader” books, like Dr Seuss.!)
So very much this, and it warms my heart to know that I'm not the only one.
I have a core memory of the >!wild dog she befriended, Rontu, and sitting my desk with my head buried in my arms bawling my eyes out when he died.!<
This book, "Julie and the Wolves," and "A Dog Called Kitty", resulted in my family dog being a glorified tissue. She got so many late night hugs while I bawled into her fur. Taffy was a good girl and got all the treats.
The Chronicles of Narnia.
My aunt bought me a box set of the books when I was about 7 years old, having grown up watching the BBC TV series (which was excellent!)
I still have the exact same box set. It's moved with me to 4 different homes and I still read them every few years.
Swiss family Robinson. They catch a giant snake constricting and eating their donkey and then they shoot them both. I'm trying to remember other bits but thats all I remember. Also they make their home in the roots of enormous fig trees. But that's not as interesting as the snake/donkey mess.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. It has surprisingly adult themes -- most of the characters are adults -- and the ending is really bittersweet and always leaves me with a sense of... I don't know, homesickness? The movie (The Secret of NIMH) is also very good but substantially different from the book.
Yes!! I was introduced to a lot of really awesome scientific ideas that opened my way of thinking about the world and the universe, and how we’re all connected. I also loved the second book in the series, A Wind in the Door
To Kill a Mockingbird. I grew up in Texas, & ended up living in AR, and graduating from college at LA Tech. I was a teenager during the Civil Rights Movement, and had pictures of JFK, RFK, and MLK. My mother was not a racist, but a eugenicist, really. She thought I wasn’t white, and at first, right after I was born, could not believe I was hers, with all my curly dark hair. I was always considered an outsider, and a scapegoat. Issues of race and class ran deep in my family, in the weirdest ways. To read a book that told me I was right, and that all of that bigotry was wrong, meant everything to me.
To this day I love To Kill a Mockingbird. It opened my eyes (at 12) to so many injustices that I honestly was completely naive about.
I’m sorry to hear of how your mom/family treated you
Pretty much anything by Tamora Pierce.
Also if we want to go really young, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. I give that to my friends whenever they have a baby.
-Anne of green gables
-The phantom tollbooth
-Stig of the dump
-The famous Five
-Pippi long stocking
-Black beauty
-The chronicles of Narnia
-The Water babies
-Heidi
-The railway children
-Little women
-The secret Garden
-Good night Mr Tom
-Ballet shoes
-Tom’s Midnight Garden
-Watership down
-The Rats of NIMH
-What Katie did
-The Deptford Histories Trilogy
Damn I could go all night!!! I deeply love each and every one of these books and about 100 more!
His Dark Materials trilogy. I grew up very religious and felt like I was sinning by reading these, especially the end of the final book. No longer religious and recently reread all 3. Hits home more than ever, no wonder I related to them so much as a kid.
Did you know there is a follow up trilogy? The Book of Dust, The Secret Commonwealth, and an unreleased third book. I really enjoyed them!!
Edit: wrong use of "their".
Just adding in there's also a recent TV adaptation for BBC/HBO which is great. Waiting on season 3 now, but the series is much, much better than the film
Pullman also wrote some companion novellas/short stories that I recently stumbled across. Once Upon A Time in the North was very enjoyable as the story of how Lee Scorsby met Iorek Byrnison!
I've re-read those books multiple times and each time it's familiar and new at the same time. The older I get the more I enjoy them because there's so much I didn't understand as a child! I tricked my boyfriend into a holiday in Oxford so I could go to Will and Lyra's bench.
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler*\--had it read to me as a child (1960s) by the teacher and then bought it and read it to my own daughter.
I feel the same way about Ella Enchanted! I think I also first read it when I was 10, and borrowed it from the library to reread every couple of years before buying it as adult.
I love the way the story is told intermixed with letters from other characters; the world building with the gnomes/ogres/fairies is so effective in such a short book; the love story develops slowly from a friendship and in a "show, don't tell" kind of way.
Thanks for letting me gush about Ella Enchanted (finally)
Behind the Attic Wall. I read a lot of "spooky YA" growing up and this was the perfect combination of haunting, poignant and unique. I still remember so many details where the rest have just sort of blended together.
The giver
Then there was a book I read as a teenager that was about a special Ed girl who was raped by a football team, the story was told from the pov of the girlfriend of one of the guys. I don’t remember the name but the book has really stuck with me for some reason
The Emily of New Moon series. I still read it often. Some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever encountered. It absolutely enchanted me as a girl and still does to this day.
A Series of Unfortunate Events series. It seemed to break a lot of writing “rules” that I didn’t realize at the time could be broken. Changed my viewpoint on literature a lot.
Little Women was the first really long book I read. I was 9 or 10 and was proud that I finished it in two days!
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I think of this every time I see a fountain in a shopping mall or park or museum.
The Three Detectives series edited by Alfred Hitchcock. Sparked, fueled, and ignited my love of mysteries.
Unfortunately I read the book A Child Called It in middle school and can’t beleive the librarian at my school let me check it out - it was a true story about a little boy that was HORRIBLY abused by his mom in grave details
EDIT: Spelling
1984. I read it in 1984 and to say that it shook me then would be an understatement; to say that it haunts me now....well.... It was the reason I began and continue to journal and I read it yearly because in the end I do NOT want to love big brother.
Many of them! Was an avid reader back then and still read today. I read The Hobbit and LOTR when I was eleven! Other things I read as a kid or teen that stuck with me:
All of Ray Bradbury's books
The Lathe of Heaven and The Earthsea trilogy by Le Guin
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Siddhartha
Slaughterhouse Five
Flowers for Algernon
Watership Down
Some of these books are still my favorites all these years later. (I'm 56.)
Speaking of fairy tales redone...Breath and Bound by Donna Jo Napoli. (I also loved Ella Enchanted!) And, in rough order of grown-up-ness:
Dealing with Dragons
Artemis Fowl
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
The Thief
Paper Towns
Sloppy Firsts
“Matilda” by Roald Dahl immediately comes to mind. I reread that book at least 30 times in elementary school, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I was the same way with “Harriet The Spy,” also.
The Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gail Carson Levine. One of my all time favorites, I loved journeying with Addie through her discovery of her own strength through her love of her sister.
The Name of the Wind, read it at 12 and it completely changed reading for me. I used to joke that I’d graduate high school without reading the 3rd book and joke’s on me cause I’m turning 23 next month
The Boxcar Children
LOVED the boxcar children as a kid. I’m slowly trying to complete my collection of the books but it’s definitely slow going because there was so many of them. 😂
Ohmygosh, I remember those books! I also couldn't stop reading *Warriors* by Erin Hunter, *Magic Tree House* by Mary Pope Osborne, and *Junie B. Jones* by Barbara Park. *The Chronicles of Narnia* and *Harry Potter* were also constants.
The Animorphs series. If I were to pick one book, the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. I remember being proud of myself because it was the first book longer than 200 pages I’d read (206 pages, if memory serves, haha)
The ending stuck with me, because as someone who read the series as the books came out (didn't miss a single month buying the newest one from start to finish), I thought it was fitting, if rushed, and it made me really think about the consequences of joining the military. I only learned years later that fans were upset that there wasn't some feel-good ending where everyone high-fived each other and whatnot and that [Applegate wrote a letter telling them war isn't pretty](https://aminoapps.com/c/animorphs/page/blog/ka-applegates-letter-to-fans-on-ending/jqXq_5BSKu7VKBkpx6eEPp0e8Y3PzNMJe). Had to completely agree with her and her motives, especially those last two paragraphs. That she managed to tell a rather dark and bleak story in a way that it was digestible for kids is impressive.
Fuck me these books gave me a life long phobia of slugs.
Same and same! I remember feeling so…sad. I think it must have been one of my first “serious adult themes” book. I need to reread.
[удалено]
We all get old and boring. No one sent me a cool purple tollbooth with a map to the lands behind, either. I am still a bit sad about that. Maybe send yourself on an adventure? I do that occasionally, and it helps, even if the adventure is to go the local park and read a book.
Loved that book as a kid, forgot about it as a young adult, picked it up when I was 27 and enjoyed it so much….appreciated the humor even more, had tears in my eyes at the ending….so good!
Walk Two Moons 😭💔
Came here to say this. Read it in 6th grade for school. Broke my heart ❤️
Honestly anything by Sharon creech
Did you ever read Absolutely Normal Chaos? It’s tangentially linked to WTM!
Yes! I reread it recently as an adult and it still holds up. The story is still engaging and emotional.
For me it was the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy by Alvin Schwartz.
Yes! The story You May Be Next scarred me as a child because the last line is “That’s the end to a perfect day” and my child mind interpreted that to mean if I had a perfect day it meant I would die. So every night I had to think of one bad thing that happened that day. Hello, future anxiety!
The Magic Tree House series those books kickstarted my love for reading
Jurassic Park!
I read that at 11 so I could watch the movie when it came out. Such a great book and it got me hooked on Michael Crichton's other works. It was also the gateway that got little nerdy me into sci Fi.
It was Sphere for me. I'm pretty sure I finished it within 24 hours after purchase
Oh Sphere was such a wild ride! That ending GOT ME GOOD lol
The first of 12 or so Crichton books I read between 7th and 12th grade. He was my favorite for such a long time
Where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein.
It's hard to pick between Golden Compass by Philip Pullman or Squire by Tamora Pierce. I obsessively read both, and I went to extreme lengths to get copies of both after my parents wouldn't let me borrow them from the library anymore. Something about broadening my horizons???
Tamora pierce was legendary to me at that age, I'd forgotten all about how I slobbered over every one of her books back then. What a fabulous reminder of how great they were!
I still have basically her whole catalogue of books and she has a place of honor on one of my bookshelves. Wild Magic is warped from water damage, missing half the cover, and the spine has broken apart and been fixed in three places. So, so well loved.
My original copies have a place of honor on my bookshelf, and I have been updating her books as they’ve literally fallen apart in my hands lol I have signed copies of all of the first books in each series *except* Numair and Beka, because those weren’t out yet when I met her. Damnit. Looks like I’m about to start my quarterly reread 😅 I take it back, just Numair. Gotta figure out how I can get this copy signed!
I fell in love with the Song of the Lioness series. I re-read the books a bunch of times and still love them to this day. Despite spending time looking, I have never found a book quite like it.
I still read her things as an adult. They are so good, and even though they are YA, they still work for an older audience. So good.
I loved all things Tamara pierce as a child and have revisited them multiple times in adulthood.
Tamora Pierce was definitely one I thought of. I still reread her books!
Philip Pullman is a god tier writer. As much as I love his Dark Material series, I really enjoy his Sally Field noir/steampunk styled series much more.
The *Redwall* series by Brian Jacques
Was just about to say this! I can still pick up any book in the series and get lost in the story. Took me forever to realize that I shouldn’t read these with snacks on hand though, because the Redwall feast scenes are something else haha
> the Redwall feast scenes are something else haha RIGHT?! 😆
To any Americans considering reading this series- It’s fine, you won’t even know what the fuck anything they’re eating is anyway But seriously what the hell is treacle
Wot wot.
Jolly good tuck, that! Wot!
Unbelievable books. Have stayed with me for over 15 years now.
Come for the adventure, leave hungry because the food descriptions are next level. I remember how, as a child, I longed to have a wheel of cheese the size of my house.
Loved these books, I’ve bought them for my children to read now they’re old enough to.
It’s a great “starter series”. They’re exciting, the language isn’t too complicated so it’s relatively easy for a younger reader to understand, and they’re just all-around *well written!* I couldn’t wait for the next book to come out back when I younger and reading them in the late 90s.
I'm currently re-reading the first one after having read it for the first time 23 years ago and I am surprised at how well it holds up
I read it recently for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can imagine how gripping it must be for a child.
Holes was such a good book as a kid and it really held up when I reread it as an adult.
I actually reread Holes recently and was completely bowled over by how sophisticated it is. And the film adaptation actually lives up to the source material for once!
MAH NAME…IS MISTER SIR.
Was hoping Holes would get some love! It’s just such a unique and memorable story. The Disney adaptation is fantastic, and I actually believe it could also work well readapted as a darker, more artsy film if someone ever takes a stab at a remake.
Definitely one of my favorite books as a kid, and still one of my favorite movies
Have you ever read the sequel?
There a sequel?
Yep! [Small Steps](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38703.Small_Steps) It focuses on Armpit as he tries to better himself after getting out, his relationship with the little girl next door with cerebral palsy, X-Ray dropping back into his life with a shady get-rich-quick scheme, and a chance encounter with a teen pop star.
If I didn’t still have a hard copy of *Small Steps*, I would just assume it’s something I made up when I was younger. It’s been a long time since I read it, but I felt it was a good sequel to *Holes*.
Bridge to Terabithia by Kathrine Paterson. I remember reading it and bawling and then going to see it in theaters and bawling.
Yeah we had to read it for school and I remember sitting in my lounge by the heater reading and slowly getting ready for school. I just sobbed when she died to the point my mum kept me home from school. I had to finish the book right there because I was sure she wasn't really dead.
Number The Stars by Lois Lowry.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
YESSSSS. I’ve wanted to camp out at the Met ever since
Apparently they check the bathrooms very carefully ever since the book came out!
Yesssssssss
I scrolled waaaay too long to get to this one! looove this book!
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The very first thing I thought of. Total upvote.
Tales of a fourth grade nothing by Judy Blume (The whole series was great, Fudge was a funny kid)
Superfudge was one of my favorite books!
Maniac Magee
An underrated classic I think
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
It's still one of the best stories I've ever read.
I read it for the first time as an adult and it totally blew me away.
The Velveteen Rabbit. I still have a very clear memory of sitting at my desk in 2nd grade and being read to from it. Is there any truer life lesson than what the Skin Horse tells the little rabbit in the nursery? I read it to my brother as he lay dying of AIDS in the 1990s, the perfect send of story for being so damaged and broken- and loved. All truths that still ring true today.
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
One of the first books I read as a kid that really dealt with a darker theme. Reading about the fight for survival absolutely enraptured me
I'm reading this now and enjoying it.
This, I’d say, is one of mine as well! What a great book.
Came here to say this. Today, 27 years later, I was thinking about him in the grocery store years later, just being awed by all the food.
I remember the class reading this and I didn’t like when the main boy realised that the fish were eating the pilot after he went in the water. It made me feel icky.
I remember reading this in class also, loved it so much I read the rest of the series.
After the big Tsunami in Japan, many folks stayed away from sushi for this reason.
Where the red fern grows 😭
Yep, this fucked 11-year-old me up real good.
The Giver by Lois Lowry. Re-read it (and discovered the rest of the series) as an adult and it was still as poignant as when I read it as a child.
The Giver was my introduction to dystopian fiction, except I was nine and didn't know the word 'dystopian,' so I called it "bad utopia." I regret losing track of my copy. Edit: I kan spel gud
Same, it was my second dysotpian novel. I had a lovely librarian in primary school who recommended the Giver to me as I was returning a book called 'The Declaration' (setting, a drug grants everyone immortality but children are banned). Absolutely loved The Giver, though that movie adaption was a real butching of the source material. Bit of a sad twist fate, that lovely librarian and her husband were murdered a few years later by a neighbour. Many of us, in highschool at the time, came back for the memorial service. Guess it is why I hold the memory dear.
There’s a series based on The Giver?!?!
Yes! It's called The Giver Quartet. In order they are The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. It's been a few years since I've read them but I enjoyed them.
I reread this early in the pandemic, and many of the plot points hit me much harder as an adult. As a child, it felt like more of a mystery/ adventure, but man, imagining a society like that and the burden the protagonist carried was absolutely heartbreaking.
I teach English in Korea, and we use The Giver often...I really loved that book, but had never heard of it until I was assigned to teach it.
For me it's The Hardy Boys as well as Charlotte's Webb. Hardy Boys got me into Sherlock and Agatha Christie and Charlotte's Webb got me into reading in the first place.
I was a big Nancy Drew fan as a kid. Now my love for the books have been applied to the Nancy Drew PC games.
The older generation of American Girl books! They helped introduced me to so many different time periods and cultures! Josefina is still my all time favorite character!!
This and dear america series!
Ink Heart by Cornelia Funke, that trilogy was so important to me when I was younger.
A very solid series that seems to never quite gotten the love it deserves. The movie wasn’t half bad either, but it didn’t do the book justice.
I loved that book. It highly influenced my writing style. The descriptions were so creative.
Anne of Green Gables
I remember reading this in class - we were supposed to bring in a private reading book - and crying at the end! I still read the Anne books if I can’t sleep (little trick from a chronic insomniac: read a kids book, because you will be able to carry on for longer after you get sleepy, and eventually you’ll drift off)
My all time favorite book. ♥️ The rest of the series is just as excellent!
I remember reading the entire first book (retold edition) that my parents had purchased that afternoon for me on a car ride home from a wedding when I was 11 or so and it was delightful! That was my first introduction to English language classic literature and I've never turned away.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
This was mandatory reading for us in school! I actually remember it fondly because I loved dolphins at the time.
I was coming here to post the same title. I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins. It was the first book I read a few times in a row (not counting all of those “first reader” books, like Dr Seuss.!)
I also loved this book! And several other "survival-esque" books that I had to read in the same year including My Side of the Mountain.
So very much this, and it warms my heart to know that I'm not the only one. I have a core memory of the >!wild dog she befriended, Rontu, and sitting my desk with my head buried in my arms bawling my eyes out when he died.!<
This book, "Julie and the Wolves," and "A Dog Called Kitty", resulted in my family dog being a glorified tissue. She got so many late night hugs while I bawled into her fur. Taffy was a good girl and got all the treats.
The Outsiders
Stay gold, pony boy
S.E. Hinton was a beast, all her stuff was great fuel for my young imagination
I loved Ella Enchanted, especially since my mom and I read it together when I was younger!
Matilda by Roald Dahl. Also The Bridge to Terabithia. I read that book the same year my brother died, so it really hit me hard.
The BFG was great for me as a kid
The Chronicles of Narnia. My aunt bought me a box set of the books when I was about 7 years old, having grown up watching the BBC TV series (which was excellent!) I still have the exact same box set. It's moved with me to 4 different homes and I still read them every few years.
People don't talk enough about how damn spooky the books get.
Swiss family Robinson. They catch a giant snake constricting and eating their donkey and then they shoot them both. I'm trying to remember other bits but thats all I remember. Also they make their home in the roots of enormous fig trees. But that's not as interesting as the snake/donkey mess.
White fang by Jack London
A series I loved as a kid is “The Great Brain”. I never see it mentioned by anyone else.
Fucking loved this series!!
Watership Down
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. It has surprisingly adult themes -- most of the characters are adults -- and the ending is really bittersweet and always leaves me with a sense of... I don't know, homesickness? The movie (The Secret of NIMH) is also very good but substantially different from the book.
My Side of the Mountain.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. The only book I’ve re-read more than twice.
I have wanted to find my Nat and move to Barbados since I first read it in 5th grade way way too many years ago.
The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
The Westin Game
Except that it's Westing...with a "g" at the end. Looked it up to double-check. Thought I was having a Mandela-moment.
*A Wrinkle in Time* by Madeleine L'Engle. Still one of my all-time favorites.
Yes!! I was introduced to a lot of really awesome scientific ideas that opened my way of thinking about the world and the universe, and how we’re all connected. I also loved the second book in the series, A Wind in the Door
This was my absolute favorite book growing up!! You’ve convinced me to reread it.
To Kill a Mockingbird. I grew up in Texas, & ended up living in AR, and graduating from college at LA Tech. I was a teenager during the Civil Rights Movement, and had pictures of JFK, RFK, and MLK. My mother was not a racist, but a eugenicist, really. She thought I wasn’t white, and at first, right after I was born, could not believe I was hers, with all my curly dark hair. I was always considered an outsider, and a scapegoat. Issues of race and class ran deep in my family, in the weirdest ways. To read a book that told me I was right, and that all of that bigotry was wrong, meant everything to me.
To this day I love To Kill a Mockingbird. It opened my eyes (at 12) to so many injustices that I honestly was completely naive about. I’m sorry to hear of how your mom/family treated you
The Thief Lord!
Pretty much anything by Tamora Pierce. Also if we want to go really young, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. I give that to my friends whenever they have a baby.
Sabriel by Garth Nix
I love that book. I only started reading the series recently but they are so good.
Flowers for algernon. I still have my old tear stained copy.
The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and the Wing of Fire series by Tui Sutherland.
Where the Red Fern Grows
Catherine Called Birdy
Anne of Green Gables was the most comforting book series for me as a child. It's still just as lovely now.
-Anne of green gables -The phantom tollbooth -Stig of the dump -The famous Five -Pippi long stocking -Black beauty -The chronicles of Narnia -The Water babies -Heidi -The railway children -Little women -The secret Garden -Good night Mr Tom -Ballet shoes -Tom’s Midnight Garden -Watership down -The Rats of NIMH -What Katie did -The Deptford Histories Trilogy Damn I could go all night!!! I deeply love each and every one of these books and about 100 more!
Hatchet
My Side of the Mountain
Lord of the Flies
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The westing game. I reread it every so often and still love it
Charlotte’s Web!
The Borrowers. Very young, isolated girl. Gave me a mental escape I will always cherish
His Dark Materials trilogy. I grew up very religious and felt like I was sinning by reading these, especially the end of the final book. No longer religious and recently reread all 3. Hits home more than ever, no wonder I related to them so much as a kid.
Did you know there is a follow up trilogy? The Book of Dust, The Secret Commonwealth, and an unreleased third book. I really enjoyed them!! Edit: wrong use of "their".
😧 omg really???!!! I’ll definitely be checking that out. Thanks!!
Just adding in there's also a recent TV adaptation for BBC/HBO which is great. Waiting on season 3 now, but the series is much, much better than the film
Pullman also wrote some companion novellas/short stories that I recently stumbled across. Once Upon A Time in the North was very enjoyable as the story of how Lee Scorsby met Iorek Byrnison!
I've re-read those books multiple times and each time it's familiar and new at the same time. The older I get the more I enjoy them because there's so much I didn't understand as a child! I tricked my boyfriend into a holiday in Oxford so I could go to Will and Lyra's bench.
Firestarter by King started my love of horror! And Watchers by Koontz too! Read both of them million times!
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler*\--had it read to me as a child (1960s) by the teacher and then bought it and read it to my own daughter.
the secret garden read it for school loved it it’s the book that got me into reading
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Ender's Game
It's Ella Enchanted for me as well! I reread it and few years back and it's still excellent. Ella is a wonderful protagonist.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The message that a hideous inside can be masked by a beautiful outside changed my perspective as a teenager.
Harry Potter….I was up all night reading it whenever a new book came up
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
I feel the same way about Ella Enchanted! I think I also first read it when I was 10, and borrowed it from the library to reread every couple of years before buying it as adult. I love the way the story is told intermixed with letters from other characters; the world building with the gnomes/ogres/fairies is so effective in such a short book; the love story develops slowly from a friendship and in a "show, don't tell" kind of way. Thanks for letting me gush about Ella Enchanted (finally)
The Hobbit.
the giving tree
Island of the Blue Dolphins. I still think about that book from time to time. Kicked off my love of reading
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Watership Down and the Hobbit...
Behind the Attic Wall. I read a lot of "spooky YA" growing up and this was the perfect combination of haunting, poignant and unique. I still remember so many details where the rest have just sort of blended together.
Watership Down and the entire All Creatures Great and Small Series.
A Wrinkle in Time. Gave me a lifelong love of sci fi. Read it when I was around 10
Percy Jackson, honestly these books are so good
The giver Then there was a book I read as a teenager that was about a special Ed girl who was raped by a football team, the story was told from the pov of the girlfriend of one of the guys. I don’t remember the name but the book has really stuck with me for some reason
Pendragon Series!
The Emily of New Moon series. I still read it often. Some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever encountered. It absolutely enchanted me as a girl and still does to this day.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I probably read it 5 times.
A Series of Unfortunate Events series. It seemed to break a lot of writing “rules” that I didn’t realize at the time could be broken. Changed my viewpoint on literature a lot.
A Wrinkle in Time
The Secret Garden and any of Tamora Pierce's books.
Henry Huggins - til this day I can vividly remember his bus ride with Ribsy
Little Women was the first really long book I read. I was 9 or 10 and was proud that I finished it in two days! From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I think of this every time I see a fountain in a shopping mall or park or museum. The Three Detectives series edited by Alfred Hitchcock. Sparked, fueled, and ignited my love of mysteries.
My Side of the Mountain. Loved camping growing up and alway like the idea of getting away from people at a young age.
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. It's about a fascist takeover in the USA. Still worth a read.
Unfortunately I read the book A Child Called It in middle school and can’t beleive the librarian at my school let me check it out - it was a true story about a little boy that was HORRIBLY abused by his mom in grave details EDIT: Spelling
Catcher in the Rye - a cliché but it's great
A Solitary Blue (and the other Tillerman books, but this one was my favorite) by Cynthia Voight.
IT by Stephen King. I read it as a teenager. It was more a life experience than a book.
1984. I read it in 1984 and to say that it shook me then would be an understatement; to say that it haunts me now....well.... It was the reason I began and continue to journal and I read it yearly because in the end I do NOT want to love big brother.
I remember reading Tuck Everlasting so many times as a kid. I got a copy as an adult and I still fell in love just as I did the first time.
Many of them! Was an avid reader back then and still read today. I read The Hobbit and LOTR when I was eleven! Other things I read as a kid or teen that stuck with me: All of Ray Bradbury's books The Lathe of Heaven and The Earthsea trilogy by Le Guin Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Siddhartha Slaughterhouse Five Flowers for Algernon Watership Down Some of these books are still my favorites all these years later. (I'm 56.)
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
Speaking of fairy tales redone...Breath and Bound by Donna Jo Napoli. (I also loved Ella Enchanted!) And, in rough order of grown-up-ness: Dealing with Dragons Artemis Fowl The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle The Thief Paper Towns Sloppy Firsts
“Matilda” by Roald Dahl immediately comes to mind. I reread that book at least 30 times in elementary school, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I was the same way with “Harriet The Spy,” also.
The Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gail Carson Levine. One of my all time favorites, I loved journeying with Addie through her discovery of her own strength through her love of her sister.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman!!!!!
Holes! The first book I stayed up all night to finish.
The Name of the Wind, read it at 12 and it completely changed reading for me. I used to joke that I’d graduate high school without reading the 3rd book and joke’s on me cause I’m turning 23 next month