As a child, what was you favorite book that you read? Mine was Mary Poppins. What was yours?

[debm55]

[Sun-Moon]

1. Where the Wild Things are

[debm55]

3. Thank you , Sun-Moon. I read that book to my class.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. The Black Stallion, I just loved that book.

[debm55]

4. Thank you very much for sharing with us. Diamond_Dog. Also,read to my class. I did a Teacher Read classics for my class.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Reading aloud is a lost art, good for you Deb!

My 4th grade teacher read aloud to us The Boxcar Children and Little House books. I liked that too.

[debm55]

8. Thank you very much, Diamond _Dog.

[pandr32]

11. Me, too!

I forgot to add that one to my list!

[True Dough]

5. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

I was a rather precocious little fella.

[debm55]

7. Thank you very much for sharing with us. TrueDough.

[True Dough]

9. Yoknapatawpha County

I remember it like it was yesterday!

[debm55]

12. I don't remember that one. Thank you for sharing. True Dough.

[True Dough]

15. That's where The Sound and the Fury was set, deb.

I was just elaborating a little. It's Sunday, I'm loquacious.

[debm55]

19. Thank you Thank you. A recommendation for you would be Hatchet or Julie of the Wolves. Chrispin, or The Island of the

Blue Dolphin or The Yearling.

[Polly Hennessey]

26. Oh, I just love it when you are loquacious 🤭

[True Dough]

38. How unusual

This is my normal predicament:

[Easterncedar]

53. Dang. That was a tough go for me in high school

And I loved the movie with Yul Brynner

[The Blue Flower]

61. You read it as a kid?

I found it difficult as an adult, and I was an English major. I'm impressed.

[True Dough]

66. Psst...

Sometimes I'm guilty of exaggerating and using sarcasm here on the DU for comedic effect (not always successful, mind you).

This may be one of those occasions.

[debm55]

78. Yes don't flatter yourself. And use the sarcasm emoji.

[True Dough]

80. Oh, look at that! There's a sarcasm emoji! Will I use it?

[debm55]

82. You should .if what you are posting is sarcasm. That is why it is there.

[True Dough]

83. What about these other ones?

[pandr32]

10. I grew up with lots of favorites.

There isn't one better than others because so many were wonderful and memorable.
Just some:
Treasure Island
The Pearl, The Pony (both short, but wow!)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Jean Val Jean (a condensed book from Les Miserables)
Little Women
Any and all fairy tales

[debm55]

16. Wonderful selections, Thank you for sharing with us. pandr32.

[applegrove]

13. Go Dog Go! I loved the big dog party in the canopy of the tree.

My Montesori teacher would prompt me to get a book and I always got that one much to her sagrin.

[debm55]

17. Thank you very much applegrove. Thank you for sharing your book selection

[Diamond_Dog]

20. I also loved Go Dog Go and could read it before I went to school

[applegrove]

21. I was 4 at Montesori. I don't think I ever read it until I read it to my nieces and nephews.

I leart to read later than 4 and my parents didn't have the book.

[Diamond_Dog]

22. My mother was a reading teacher

But it took zero effort on her part to make me a bookworm!

[applegrove]

27. My grandmother taught me to read 3 letter words

when i was 5 but I just memorized them. In grade one I did the same thing in French. Total memorization of words. I still don't get phonics at all. When l learn a phonics rule today, I try, I can't remember it after a period of time. My spelling and proof-reading is atrotious. I can't read novel words. I've taken many english classes to try and learn grammar but to no avail. I am a total dyslexic but I love to read, particularly non fiction. I don't always get all the themes in a book but my general knowledge increases with each book I read as novel ideas sink in.

[mucifer]

14. Charlotte's Web.

[debm55]

18. Thank you very much. I cried at the end of book. But it is a classic. Thank you mucifer.

[malthaussen]

23. "Wind in the Willows." n/t

[debm55]

25. Thank you very much, malthaussen. I loved that classic.

[MoonlightHillFarm]

24. The Secret Garden

[debm55]

28. Thank you very much, MoonlightHillFarm ----another classic.

[Easterncedar]

55. Still a favorite

One of the reasons I am a gardener

[Polly Hennessey]

29. For me always and forever, The Secret Garden.

[debm55]

34. Thank you Polly Hennessey for sharing with us. I loved it too

[no_hypocrisy]

30. Two books, both biographies

The Story of Helen Keller Lorena Hickok (yes, the journalist who was besties with Eleanor Roosevelt, and

Helen Keller's Teacher (Anne Sullivan). ?c=1

[debm55]

36. Wonderful , outstanding books, Thank you, no_hypocrisy, I read the second book in my classroom. Classic books

[no_hypocrisy]

75. I *STILL* have both in my library.

That special to me.

[debm55]

96. I had other books twenty copies of each that we would read together or in reading groups. I took them when I left

teaching and donated them to a grade school in s poor school district next to mine. I kept one copy of each for myself.Do you ever go back and reread them. I like to do that.

[MuseRider]

31. Constantly reading so I will guess

it was of the Albert Payson Terhune dog books. I was totally taken by them. I read lots and lots but those were my favorites.

In Jr. high and up it was more Sci Fi and Fantasy.

[MuseRider]

33. Sorry...BOOK

I guess it would be Lad a Dog.

[debm55]

37. Thank you very much, MuseRider. for sharing with us.

[dflprincess]

32. Anne of Green Gables

At the time it amazed me that both my grandmother & mother had read it when they were kids. (It was a new book when grandma read it).

[debm55]

40. Yes. outstanding book that is a Classic because it held up over generations and time.Thank you dflprincess.

[womanofthehills]

100. My favorite childhood book too - Anne the red headed orphan

I read the whole Anne of Green Gables series. Starts when she is 10 and I remember reading about her wedding.

I went back and reread the first book. Anne is in almost every chapter accused of something she did not do - so you instantly feel so sad for Anne.

Once in grade school, a teacher accused me of something another kid did. I almost could not believe something like that could ever happen to me - I felt like Anne.

My daughter was really into the Dorrie the Witch series. So into Dorrie That after I read her all the series, I had to make up a Dorrie the Witch story to tell her every night before bed.

[Chasstev365]

35. Mike Mulligan and the Steam shovel and all of Virginia Lee Burton's other stories

[debm55]

44. I read that book to my son. Brings back memories. Thank you Chasstev365

[terip64]

39. As I got older, I loved Nancy Drew, but as a kid I loved The Cricket in Times Square.

[debm55]

48. Thank you very much, terip64. I two loved the Nancy Drew series and the Cricket in Times Square.

[Xavier Breath]

88. I can't believe someone said what was going to be my answer.

I had a paperback version that was dog-eared from multiple readings.

[Ritabert]

41. Any of the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mysteries

[debm55]

49. Thank you so much. My local library had the complete set of both. They were free at the time. So I read and read. to my

hearts content.

[samplegirl]

42. Charlottes Web

Nancy Drew

[2naSalit]

43. All of the above plus...

Heidi. It was probably the last of that sort of literature I remember reading.

[debm55]

47. Thank you very much, 2naSalit. I remember reading through the shelves at our mill town Carnegie Library. Little Women,

Heidi. Pollyanna, .

[2naSalit]

50. We were...

A reading family, we went to the library often and had a small library at home as did my grandparents. Theirs was much larger. We also had teachers read to us in school back then. Also traveling thespian troupes who would come and perform some of the stories we knew and some we didn't already know. Schools really were quite good back in the the northeast in the 1960s.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

45. The Hobbit/LOTR!

Still a big fave. I was so jealous in later years when a virtual friend told me her dad had traveled a lot to the UK and had sent her first editions of the entire series.

Of course, the movies were so well done, they did nothing but cement the stories as my all-time fave.I still wish I were an elf.

[sinkingfeeling]

46. "The Wind in the Willows". Still have it on my bokshelf.

[Mz Pip]

51. The Enormous Egg

when I was little.
Then I became a Nancy Drew fanatic, along with every horse themed book, The Black Stallion books, Flame, National Velvet. I read them all.

[Easterncedar]

52. A Wrinkle in Time, The Secret Garden

The Little Princess, Little Women, Eight Cousins, Parsifal Rides a Time Wave, Joe's Boys, The Princess and The Goblin, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, At the Back of the North Wind, Heidi....

I loved to read.

[biophile]

54. The Black Stallion

Also Black Beauty but it was sad in many places

[debm55]

60. Thank you very much, biophile. I agree with you about the sad places in the book. Reading a book you bond with the

Characters, I did read Black Beauty, Old Yeller and The Yearling. but I still loved. the books.

[SheltieLover]

56. The Saggy, Baggy Elephant

Loved it!

[livetohike]

57. Misty of Chincoteague. I loved that book. n/t

[choie]

58. Bread and Jam for Frances

Bartolomew and the oobleck (dr. Seuss)

Winnie the Pooh

Babar

Little House books

[PJMcK]

59. The Boxcar Children

Their adventures and mysteries captivated me in elementary school. There were lots of books in the series!

[greatauntoftriplets]

62. The World Book Encyclopedia.

I'd take it to bed to read. Learned a lot from it.

[yellowdogintexas]

102. I loved reading the World Book

I actually had my mother's 1939 set
The print was very tiny

[Endlessmike56]

63. As a younger child I liked reading the Golden Books series.

When I got older it was Call of the Wild by Jack London.

[Rhiagel]

64. Franz: a Dog of Police

2nd grade. It was the thickest book I saw in the library, so i went for it.

[Alpeduez21]

65. Great topic. Harriet the Spy

Which I took as part fiction part instruction manual

Lord of the Rings
The Alfred Hitchcock boys series
The Mad Scientists Club
The Great Brain series

[wcmagumba]

67. Two series of books, The Sci-fi/fantasy books by Andre Norton and the Tom Swift books by Victor Appleton.

Also, books by A. E. van Vogt were favorites...Sorry, I can't pick just one...maybe, "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.

[UpInArms]

68. Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Little_Shepherd_of_Kingdom_Come/OnA6AQAAMAAJ

I think I have probably reread it another 20 times

[surrealAmerican]

69. The Phantom Tollbooth

.

[jgo]

98. likewise

[Borogove]

70. The Time Machine and War of the Worlds. H. G. Wells was ahead of his time.

[Onthefly]

71. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

[debm55]

97. Thank you very much, Onthefly. Loved that story.

[zeusdogmom]

72. Cherry Ames series

She was the most amazing nurse to my 9 year old eyes.

But the book that probably made the greatest impression on me was Three Came Home by Agnes Newton Keith, a memoir detailing her experiences as a civilian prisoner in a Japanese interment camp in North Borneo and Sarawak during WW2. My sixth grade teacher read it aloud to the class every day after noon recess. I remember borrowing the book from the teacher so I could actually read it again. Pretty heavy subject matter for 11 year olds.

[debm55]

95. Excellent selections, especially the second.Thank you for sharing with us. Three Came Home lit a spark in you. Sometimes

I like to go back and reread the stories that i read to my classes even if they were for 5, and 6 grade. To read it as a 70 year old. with a different view of life. They still speak to the heart and soul.

[chowmama]

73. Kim by Rudyard Kipling

And Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain.

Also cookbooks and anything by Andre Norton.

[debm55]

94. Thank you very much for sharing with us.chowmama. Love your selection.

[OldBaldy1701E]

74. Salem's Lot. Read it many times by age 12. (n/t)

[debm55]

93. Thank you OldBaldy1701E for sharing with us.

[nikatnyte]

76. Half Magic by Edward Eager

A captivating book about four children in middle America of the 1920s finding a magic charm that only grants half of their wishes--but they never know which half it will be!

[debm55]

91. Thank you very much, nikatnyte. Half Magic. sounds very interesting.

[FullySupportDems]

77. The Jungle Book

And before that, Heidi. The mountains and the jungle lived in my imagination. My earliest one was The Tent. I wish I could find that one now, it was a very simple early reader, and still funny.

But maybe I should say The Hobbit and LOTR, because they were magic and I was absorbed for many months.

Thanks for the fun trip down memory lane Deb! 😊

[debm55]

79. Thank you very much, FullySupportDems.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

81. Anderson's Fairy Tales, 1930 edition

Last edited Sun Jan 18, 2026, 09:53 PM - Edit history (1)

I read it while I recuperated from whooping cough for six weeks when I was in third grade and staying with my godmother and godfather so my brother and sister didn't catch it. My aunt Anna had this lovely BIG old book of fairy tales and I fell in love with it! Read it cover to cover...."The Wild Swans", "The Snow Queen', "The Tinder Box".... man, I DISAPPEARED into those stories!



(Oops! Had to edit.)

[debm55]

92. Thank you very much for sharing that Fairy Tale . Wonderful. Thank you some_of_us_are_sane

[3catwoman3]

84. So many possibilities.

My mom was the oldest of 4 - 3 girls, then a boy. The book was given to her when she was about 10, in 1932+/-, and was purchased at a Dayton's department store somewhere in Minnesota, based on a teeny tiny sticker on one of the front pages. She and both her sisters read the book many, many times, and some of the pages have seriously tattered edges, and others are tear-stained from where they all cried over some of the sad parts of the story - or so I was told.

My grandmother had the book re-bound for me in 1963, at the Hutchinson (MN) Maplewood Book Bindery - that is noted in ink, in her handwriting about 3 pages in, under mother's name and street address written in pencil, probably in my mother's somewhat childish hand.

The book has 12 illustrations, including the one on the cover. The artist was a C M Burd - Clara Miller Burd, born in 1873. The cover and 3 of the others illustrations are in color. One B&W illustration page is missing -according to the list of illustrations, there is supposed to be one on page 230, but there isn't. Page 230 is present, but is all print, no picture. She did the illustrations for Little Women in 1925. She also did work in stained glass, and for a time worked for Louis Tiffany of the famous Tiffany lamps.

This book will soon be 100 years old. I consider it a family treasure. An antiques seller on Etsy is offering this same edition for $140.00.

I also loved Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time. I always thought it would make a great movie, and I know 2 versions have been made. I've not seen either of them, as my mind has created such vivid images of all the characters that I'm quite sure I would be disappointed in the movies. I know the 2018 version shows the 3 old ladies as looking rather glamorous, which they definitely do not in the book, and the Murray family was cast as biracial, which makes it impossible for Mrs. Murray to have the flaming red hair and violet eyes that L'Engle so often refers to in the book.

[debm55]

89. A Wrinkle inTime is a great book. I have never seen the movies, but have read it to my class and they loved it as did I

Thank you very much 3catwoman3 for sharing with us.

[electric_blue68]

85. I'm thinking National Velvet, Black Beauty. But very soon after...

I think I saw my first Science Fiction Book - a paperback on my dad's side of my folks bureau. Early 1960's.

Having already been exposed by TV's Million Dollar Movie to Forbidden Planet, a few atomic monster movies (but not the Japanese ones), Twilight Zone, and The original Outer Limits (usually; eeeks!) but not yet to Star Trek... I was intrigued!
Didn't understand it all (the paperback), but on my way to bering hooked! And then came "A Wrinkle in Time".

[debm55]

86. Thank you very much electric_blue68. I couldn't remember the name of another book I read and it was "A Wrinkle in Time"

My class loved it.

[ExtraGriz]

87. Little house on the prairie

and Call of the wild

[debm55]

90. Thank you very much, ExtraGritz for your two selections. Excellent choices

[Aristus]

99. "The Hobbit". I got a copy after seeing the animated TV version in 1978.

I was ten. It was the longest book I had ever read all the way through at the time. I became a JRR Tolkien fan on the spot.

Nowadays, I have paperback reading copy, the limited hardback edition with slipcover, the annotated version, an edition illustrated with watercolor paintings, a German-language edition, and one in Latin.

I like “The Hobbit”, is what I’m saying…

[LisaM]

101. The Betsy-Tacy books, set in Minnesota.

Interestingly, two of them, kind of rare for the time, deal with prejudice against Syrian immigrants. The books are set between about 1897 and 1918, and they are semi-auto-biographical, so the author, Maud Hart Lovelace, was recounting real events. The Syrians in her home town, Mankato, lived in a part of town called Timcomville (sp) but she called it Little Syria in the books. When I was little, I thought it was pronounced like "Sigh-REE-ah".

[yellowdogintexas]

103. There were several favorites

Tom Sawyer I must have read it 5 or 6 times
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates
Treasure Island
Kidnapped
Nancy Drew
Bobbsey Twins
All fairy tales
Mythology stories
Eight Cousins and the sequel Rose In Bloom
Little Women
Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons
Seuss any and all
Babar I still love Babar!!!

[woodsprite]

104. Two actually - Charlotte's Web and Anna and the King of Siam. nt

[Permanut]

105. Tom Sawyer..

First book I ever owned. Got it in 1957 and I still have it.

[multigraincracker]

106. ZOTS

About a man that gets an unusual power of killing some one by pointing his finger