Favorite children's book from when you were a child?

[skottichan]

Serendipity and Leo the Lop, I still own the ones I had when I was little.

 

[Huntn]

Hmm, A single book would be The Hobbit, read about the 5th grade. I was born in 1953. One of my favorite school events was the Book Fair. When I discovered I could go on adventures while staying at home, I became an avid book reader before 5th grade. Other favorable mentions were Charlott’s Web, Dracula, Hardy Boys and Tom Swift series, 1984, and one of those scientific Dinosaur books full of illustrations. I could read that over and over.

There was this other book, I can’t remember the name, about a group of people who travel back to the time of the dinosaurs. I remember a Dino stampede and one of the people got caught in the middle, and afterwards all they found was a bloody spot. Now that was sobering for a 4th grader!

 

[Nermal]

I enjoyed a lot of Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings (not sure how common his books were outside AU/NZ). My favourite was probably "Matilda"; I'd love to re-read it but one of my parents threw it out

Well, as luck would have it, Mum found a copy of this the other day when manning a charity stall so I now have it again (same edition, too). It was interesting to re-read now that I'm old enough to fully understand it.

 

[scubachap]

Good thread. Little story about my brothers favourite book. He found a picture book in the library in which a boy had saved up for a firework rocket and I think if I remember the story correctly, everyone kept asking him to let it off with them. In the end he got fed up with everyone else and found a deserted beach and let it off on his own. My brother loved it and every time we went he got it out and spent ages looking at. He kept pestering my mother to buy it but books could be tricky to find in those days and it wasn't in our local shop. Eventually my mother read it (wondering why he liked it so much) and then quietly mentioned to the librarian when we next returned it that she was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a boy having his own firework. She later got a call from the library to thank her and mention that the book had been pulled from not only all the libraries but that the publisher had actually now recalled every copy. When my brother found it out that not only did the library not have it any more but you couldn't even buy it he was furious. When he then found out that it was actually all our mother's fault he was apoplectic... If you mention it, its still a sore subject 43 years later.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Good thread. Little story about my brothers favourite book. He found a picture book in the library in which a boy had saved up for a firework rocket and I think if I remember the story correctly, everyone kept asking him to let it off with them. In the end he got fed up with everyone else and found a deserted beach and let it off on his own. My brother loved it and every time we went he got it out and spent ages looking at. He kept pestering my mother to buy it but books could be tricky to find in those days and it wasn't in our local shop. Eventually my mother read it (wondering why he liked it so much) and then quietly mentioned to the librarian when we next returned it that she was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a boy having his own firework. She later got a call from the library to thank her and mention that the book had been pulled from not only all the libraries but that the publisher had actually now recalled every copy. When my brother found it out that not only did the library not have it any more but you couldn't even buy it he was furious. When he then found out that it was actually all our mother's fault he was apoplectic... If you mention it, its still a sore subject 43 years later.

Perhaps an over-protective over-reaction on the part of your mother.

Explaining casually why it might not be a really brilliant idea to have your own firework might have been better.

When we were kids, my mom bought us a series of the wonderful "How & Why" publications - dinosaurs, the solar system, and many others - brilliant publications.

 

[Krayzkat]

All the Roald Dahl books, all the Narnia books, Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven, Famous Five, and the series about a flying chair and giant tree.

 

[scubachap]

Explaining casually why it might not be a really brilliant idea to have your own firework might have been better.

To be fair to her she didn't really make too much of a fuss - she was just surprised by the content and sort of mentioned it to the librarian when she returned it rather than making an official complaint. The whole thing sort of snowballed. (I think even in the mid 70's a picture book aimed at young kids that just about broke about every rule in the Firework Code was a bit of an issue. Particularly as most of our bedrooms from late Sept to early Nov resembled Kim Jong-un's with all the secret stockpiling of rockets and bangers.)

 

[arkitect]

Favorite children's book from when you were a child?

That'd be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Other books I read as a child and liked are too many to list.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

That'd be The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

Other books I read as a child and liked are too many to list.

A beautiful book.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Another book I loved - but it hadn't been published when I was a child - was The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.