What book did you like most when you were young?

[WillParkinson]

My Side of the Mountain.

When I was young I so much wanted to be this boy.

[HopeHoops]

1. "Okeef the Otter" - and I have NOT been able to locate it. I had it in the early 70's.

It was about a pet otter who got into all kinds of mischief. Very good book.

[KC]

8. Looks good, is this it ?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0671292811/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[HopeHoops]

9. Thanks. Yes that's it. I got a PM earlier with a link. I've looked before and come up empty.

I think I'll put it on my "wish list" for Christmas.

[suninvited]

11. you sure it wasn't okee?

on edit: I started to post this then had to take the dog out, I see somebody beat me to it.

[HopeHoops]

12. I remembered it as "Okeef" because it is short for "Okefenokee" (that's in the book).

Perhaps that's why I couldn't find it.

[Tobin S.]

2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A close second was the Black Stallion series of books by Walter Farley, which sounds like they might be along the same theme as your favorite.

[Ineeda]

3. A Girl of the Limberlost

by Gene Stratton Porter. My sister loved it too, and found copies for both of us many years later. I read it and loved it all over again.

[TZ]

4. Thats a very good book

One of my favorites growing up..I don't know if I can pin down just one but some others that made an impression...were Judy Blume's "Are You There God, Its Me Margaret", "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles (thanks for reminding me of how much I liked it, Motely), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/The Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl are the ones that really stand out. I also liked very much the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden female sleuth series...

[PassingFair]

15. I read all of the Trixie Belden books and most of the Nancy Drew...

Trixie was more up to date...

My favorite book by FAR growing up was a book
called

"The Teddy Bear Habit"


also, I liked E.L. Konigsburg, especially
"FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER"

Anything where kids are loose in the city.

[TZ]

24. I just remembered some that I really enjoyed

the books about Pippi Longstocking...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Longstocking
This was who I wanted to be like for a long time

[Art_from_Ark]

64. My 4th grade teacher read "Mixed-up Files" to us after lunch

It was a spellbinding book.

Also Pipi Longstocking-- I was particularly interested in her treasure chest full of gold coins.

[WinkyDink]

34. Trixie Belden was the BEST of the girl detectives! I've started to re-collect!

[raccoon]

5. How young? I'd say HEIDI when I was in elementary school.

THE TIME MACHINE when I was 15, and for some years thereafter.

[WinkyDink]

6. "Swiss Family Robinson," as a child. All "Poirot," a tad older. After 16? "Catcher in the Rye."

[Brickbat]

7. That is SUCH a great book. I love it and I've passed it on to my kids.

[av8rdave]

10. My two favorites were The Begatting of the President (Myron Roberts) and Our Gang (Philip Roth)

Those two books started a lifetime love affair with political satire.

[LeftinOH]

13. All the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. They're not "little girl" books,either-

they're about childhood on the prarie, and they're wonderful.

[Dulcinea]

71. Mine too.

I devoured them all. I also loved Greek & Norse myths.

[tigereye]

74. yes, I very much liked those- but that was a hard-life!

[suninvited]

14. I loved that book

I also loved

A Back-fence story and Softly Roars the Lion. They are both pretty obscure childrens books, but they were my favorites. I must have read each of them a couple of hundred times.

[Arkansas Granny]

16. When I was in grade school, I read every book I could find by Albert Payson Terhune.

One of my favorites:


I also enjoyed "Flicka" by Mary O'Hara.

I was an avid reader as a child, but these books really stand out in my memory.

[auntAgonist]

17. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

[WinkyDink]

33. I had a wonderful vacation a few years ago on PEI, and visited her grave, home, etc.!

Now I should read the books :-)

[pacalo]

66. Yes! I loved that book!

When I was in elementary school, I loved Beverly Cleary's Ramona books.

[fizzgig]

81. i still read anne of green gables from time to time

one of my favorites

[MiddleFingerMom]

18. The series of Oz novels by L.Frank Baum...

.
.
.
.
.
...he wrote about 20 of them.
.
.
.
We had some copies from 1906 (maybe 1916) and some from 1932. The earlier
books had FANTASTIC (and SCARY) pen-and-ink drawings and the latter had
much less satisfying color plates.
.
.
.
They were MiddleFingerMomMom's favorites when SHE was a child.
.
.
.
I used to read them to her after she slipped beyond speech with Alzheimer's.
.
.
.
They made her smile beautifully.
.
.
.

[hayu_lol]

19. The Oz books were expanded to 32...

with various contributors. Really great books and very well written.

As of about 20 years ago, Baum's grand daughter Ozma was alive and well in OC CA.

[SteppingRazor]

20. I was a big Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass fan.

When I was 10 or so, I even wrote my own fan fiction placing me in Wonderland. ... and that is the most embarrassing thing I have ever admitted on a public Internet forum.

[MorningGlow]

21. TONS

Nancy Drew; the Little House series; all the Judy Blume books; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (but I didn't like the others in the Narnia series till I was older). Also a bunch of single titles/small series like Half Magic, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and the Ramona books.

Yeah, I was a big reader--how'd you guess? ;)

[Iggo]

22. John Carter of Mars.

[TuxedoKat]

23. Gosh there were so many...

The Borrowers series, Magic by the Lake - Edgar Eager and anything else he wrote, Nancy Drew books, Red Fairy book (and other colors too), Little House series, The One Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (good message about bullying there, made a big impression on me), Tom Sawyer, Henry Huggins and other books by that author. I never read these but my sister liked one called The Ship That Flew and someone I knew liked The Bears of Blue River. I liked My Side of the Mountain too.

[spinbaby]

25. There are so many to choose from

The favorite book of the moment varied with age. I was quite hooked on the Happy Hollisters series for a while, also the Bobbsey Twins. Loved the Enid Blyton Adventure series. "Call it Courage" made a big impression as did another book called "The City Underground," which seems to have vanished into obscurity. I still have many of these books and am shocked by how racist some of them are. When I read them as a child, I didn't notice that at all.

[IcyPeas]

47. I loved the Happy Hollisters too...

I used to get them at my parochial school library. Mysteries for young children. I don't think they are in print any more.

Never realized at the time all the stories had a religious bent to them. Oh well, that was then.... I still liked them.

[tigereye]

75. me, too! (also went to Catholic School, not sure if they were there or at our

local library.) And there were a lot of em -fueled my life-long love of mystery series, I think. I don't remember the religious aspect.


Surprise, here they are!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?r=1&isbn=9781452865065&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-The%20Happy%20Hollisters-_-9781452865065

[ismnotwasm]

26. Black Beauty

The first book I read over and over. I went on to read most children's 'classics' and I liked them all, but I went through a horse book period, as many little girls seem to do. It's how I learned to draw too, I wanted a horse so bad I became a decent free lance artist by drawing them, not that I do much with it these days.

[HappyMe]

27. There are several

"Plain Girl" about an Amish girl, "Amy Moves In", "Little Women", Nancy Drew books, Beverley Cleary was a favorite author.

edited to add Bobsey Twins, Borrowers, Miss Hickory.

:D I love to read.

[bif]

28. "The Natural" when I was about 12 or 13.

Than "Catcher in the Rye".

[pokerfan]

29. I remember reading that

I enjoyed it but I think I liked The Hobbit more...


Also Encyclopedia Brown:


And Edgar Rice Burroughs:

[CBR]

30. Andrew Henry's Meadow

[jobycom]

31. Every book ever written or thought of, whether they were in or out of print.

I'm just trying to trump all the folk who can't pick a favorite and who don't realize that "book" is singular. :o

"The Hobbit," I guess, was mine, until I read "Catcher in the Rye" and "Siddhartha" when I was fifteen. Then my understanding of fiction expanded, so I didn't really have just one.

[MorningGlow]

36. Silly Joby

Big readers can NEVER pick "just one" book. Ever!

[jobycom]

41. Yeah they can.

If they can't pick a favorite, they don't understand love. They've never been in love. I remember the books I've fallen in love with. Their spell lingers like a scent. I can name them. I can feel them. I can conjure the magic I felt when I read them, even the moment in each when I first realized that book was the one, unique, not like all the mass produced pulp fiction one chews through out of boredom, but the reason one reads in the first place. I can remember my favorite. If someone can't pick a favorite, they've never had a love affair with a book, they've just used them for cheap diversion while secretly yearning for something else.

Not being able to name a single book is exactly the same as not being able to propose to a lover. They don't understand the true meaning of a book.

[Joe Fields]

32. Tom Sawyer. (I'm a Twain freak)

[demmiblue]

35. Misty of Chincoteague

[kimi]

38. Oh yes!

Marguerite Henry! Read everything she ever wrote!

[kimi]

37. So many, and I still read some today

Comfort reading, kind of like comfort food. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Pippi Longsocking, the "Henry Reed" stories, Beverly Cleary, Enid Blyton (as a kid overseas I got a lot of her boarding-school books, the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series), books by Ruth M. Arthur ("The Saracen Lamp", "Portrait of Margarita", "A Candle in Her Room" etc), oh, and yes, the books by Albert Payne Terhune. Wow, I could add to this list forever.

[michaelslomo]

39. My Side of the Mountain

I did n't read the book, but I very much liked the movie.

[DoBotherMe]

40. Boxcar Children and

Daddy Longlegs. I loved the descriptions of living spaces and mundane household objects. And now that I am an adult, my passion is home decor. Just a big kid! Dana ; )

[Sisaruus]

42. Aftert reading it, I aspired to be a homeless orphan

The Boxcar Children was a childhood favorite. My mother gave me the whole series for my 50th birthday.

And now they have a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Putnam-CT/Gertrude-Chandler-Warner-Boxcar-Children-Museum/132555343731

[Sisaruus]

43. After reading it, I aspired to be a homeless orphan

The Boxcar Children was a childhood favorite. My mother gave me the whole series for my 50th birthday.

And now they have a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Putnam-CT/Gertrude-Chandler-Warner-Boxcar-Children-Museum/132555343731

[Tom_Foolery]

44. My Pet Goat...

Just kiddin'!! I was obsessed with the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald Sobol. I was lucky to have a mother who enabled my book addiction; so whenever it was time to place our Scholastic Book Club order at school, I would go overboard. When the order came in, my teacher would remove a few books for the other students and then hand the whole box to me. Thanks, Mom!!! I miss you everyday!!!

[distantearlywarning]

45. The String In The Harp by Nancy Bond.

Also The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

[Odin2005]

46. The Boxcar Children and the Laura Ingles Wilder books.

God, I just ate those books up when I was around 8yo.

In my teens I read most of Isaac Asimov's books.

[IcyPeas]

48. do favorite fairy tales count?..... if so,..

I always loved The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen.

or should fairy tales be a different thread altogether?

[TuxedoKat]

76. Did you ever read

all those Fairy books, like the Red Fairy Book, the Green Fairy Book, etc.? I forget the other colors. I loved reading fairy tales too and mythology. I still have a beautifully illustrated book of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales that someone gave me as a child.

[IcyPeas]

77. We had record ALBUMS of Hans Christen Andersen stories!!

The records weren't the size of regular L.P.'s but they were larger than a single 45. My brother and sister and I loved listening to them. I remember there was also music including "the flight of the bumble bee"

aahhh memory lane............

[Xipe Totec]

49. Jules Verne - The Adventures of Captain Hatteras

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Captain_Hatteras

[Capn Sunshine]

50. The 21 Balloons

I think this book just captivated me in fourth grade. I also read "The Mark of Zorro" inspired by the Disney Series of the time.
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer were of course icons that the LAUSD had as required reading in the third grade.

[flying rabbit]

51. The three investigators

with Alfred Hitchcock guest starring.

[Chellee]

52. Charlotte's Web.

All of the Nancy Drews, The Boxcar Children.

[MrMickeysMom]

53. lots of these...

[Kat45]

54. The Outsiders.

I loved that book.

[iris27]

55. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

13-year-old girl finds herself in the middle of a mutiny.

It's the only book I remember fondly from my youth that actually stood up to an inquisitive re-read (unlike, let's say, Where the Red Fern Grows).

[Skittles]

56. any Enid Blyton book

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=enid+blyton+collection&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=1104489401&ref=pd_sl_90p0yhwqbf_b

[hunter]

57. The boys' first book of radio and electronics by Alfred Powell Morgan

I was obsessed with electronics. My next huge book obsession was a TTL 7400 series integrated circuit manual. Eventually I built my own computers.

I read Tom Swift books too. Horrible things when I look at them now. Everyone wants a girlfriend who brings them sandwiches just because they are brilliant. Little did I know I would be bringing sandwiches to girlfriends who were far more brilliant than I.

Okay, so I wasn't totally illiterate as a kid. How about A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time

[nolabear]

58. Black Beauty, Beautiful Joe, White Fang, So Dear to My Heart

Ring of Bright Water, Huckleberry Finn, Nancy Drew, Jules Verne, Jesus, damn near everything. Books kept me alive.

[Lisa0825]

59. When I was little, "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "A Fly Went By."

When I was growing up, all the Nancy Drew, Pippi Longstocking, Mushroom Planet, and Judy Blume books.

[Dinger]

60. LIttle House In The Big Woods

by Laura Ingalls wilder. I loved all of her books actually.

[CBR]

72. Some of my faves as well! nt

[GrpCaptMandrake]

61. "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine"

It was well out of print and impossible to come by, but my mother and father (Depression-era)had both cherished it, so I got to read it and it was a stunning bit of Appalachian intrigue and romance.

It's still a classic to me, albeit a largely unknown one.

[TorchTheWitch]

62. Dune

and The Hobbit. I should add The Wizard of Id and The Phantom Tollbooth since I was just reminded of them in another thread.

There was also a book I really liked a lot that I can't remember the name of that was about a guy that dreamed things and would wake up to discover that his dreaming the things had made them happen. I wish I could remember more about it and what the title was since I'd really like to read that one again.

[kath]

67. TTW, do you know about this site?:

http://www.loganberrybooks.com/stump.html Stump the Bookseller

It's an awesome place to figure out the title of a dimly-remembered book from childhood. You can search their archive of solved "mysteries" - there's a decent chance someone else has already been on there looking for the same book. Or, for $2, (it used to be free when I used it, 5 yrs or so ago), you can post your question as a "book stumper".
It's such a fantastic site!

[TorchTheWitch]

68. Oh thank you!

I'll try that! I've been trying to figure out what the hell the name of that book is since I was a kid.

[CrawlingChaos]

63. Watership Down

Also profoundly loved:

A Wrinkle in Time
The Railway Children
Wind in the Willows

[TorchTheWitch]

69. A Wrinkle in Time! THAT's it!

That was another one I wanted to add but couldn't remember the title for the life of me. I've been sitting here googling trying to figure it out. I hate it when something is right on the tip of my brain but just escapes me.

That was a really cool book. Wasn't a movie made of it fairly recently? I'll have to look into that.

[Art_from_Ark]

65. I had lots of favorites

Brighty of the Grand Canyon
The Boxcar Children series (especially Lighthouse Mystery)
Little House on the Prairie
Golden Book Encyclopedia and Geography (6-volume set)
Anything by Dr. Seuss
Any Peanuts comic book
A Child's Illustrated Guide to US History (it ended with the election of Nixon in 1968)
A Guide to US Presidents (ended with Lyndon Johnson)
Unfinished Symphony: Stories of Men and Music
The Scarlet Pimpernel
A Guidebook to United States Coins

[sakabatou]

70. One of my faves was "Dinotopia"

Mostly for the art.

[tigereye]

73. Probably the Happy Hollisters (some vision of WASPish family life, I suppose)

and then I wanted to be the characters in a Wrinkle in Time.

[Demoiselle]

78. Mistress Masham's Repose, by T.H. White

He's the author of The Once and Future King, as you know. This is the story of a ten year old orphan named Maria who lives in her family estate called Malplaquet (with a palace that's bigger than Blenheim, but crumbling) with her nasty governess, overseen by an equally nasty Vicar, her guardian, whose name, appropriately enough, is Mr. Hater.
One day, she wanders alone on the estate, rows a leaky boat to an artificial island in the middle of an artificial pond, both of which are infested with weeds....to discover, when she gets onto the island, that the grass under and around the little cupola'd folly is very short...like a bowling green. She wanders further, and discovers a walnut shell on the ground. Swaddled in the walnut shell is a baby. She leans over, not believing her eyes, and suddenly feels a stabbing pain in her ankle. There, shrieking at her, with a spear in her hand, is a woman. The spear is 6 inches long, the woman is 5 inches tall.

Turns out, the ship's captain who rescued Gulliver went back and searched the lattitude and found Lilliput. Since the Lillputians were at war, they were vulnerable, and the captain scooped up many of them, brought them home to England and made a living exhibiting them in a tiny circus, in various Great Houses in England. But he was a drunk, and one night he passes out on the grounds of Malplaquet, falls off his horse, and the Lilliputians, whom he transports in his saddle bags, escape and set up a life, hidden, until Maria comes upon them hundreds of years later.
That's just the beginning. It's about hiding the defenseless from their exploiters, preventing "big" people from controlling and bullying "little" people....and its loaded with jokes about English history.
I was twelve when I discovered it. I've never met anybody else who's even READ it!

[Bertha Venation]

79. That was a GREAT book. I loved it.

I don't know when it came out or when I read it, but I am 47 now and I would read it again today.

[Bertha Venation]

80. _Harriet the Spy_ by Louise Fitzhugh

close runner up Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

[grasswire]

82. Al Gore and I both have the same favorite book.

Mr. Popper's Penguins.

[cynatnite]

83. "Where The Red Fern Grows"...

That was my favorite book growing up. I just loved it. I can't count the times I've read it.