Most Memorable Reads as a Young Reader

What are your most memorable reads as a young reader?

The most memorable was Shadow Castle. It was a scholastic book, and it was printed in green ink. I must have read it a hundred times.

The funny thing is that I lost my copy somewhere along the line, and I decided one day, in a nostalgic mood, to see if I could find a copy. I went to Amazon and could not believe the reviews. Hundreds and hundreds of people just like me took the time to write lengthy reviews about this beloved
book.

Another memorable book was Understood Betsy. I will always remember when Betsy was given the reins in the horse drawn carriage and had to figure out for herself how to turn it.

And finally, I guess, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower which introduced me to the wonders of a different culture (the thing that Rumor Godden was best at.)

Those are the top three, but the odd little Candy Floss and the Pippy Longstocking books were also well loved.

I read everything by Lois Lenski when I was in elementary school. I recently re-read Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, and found it sensitively done and engaging.

I also loved adventure books. The Last Cruise of the Jeannette was a favorite. It was based on a true Arctic expedition.

In junior high, it was all Daphne DuMaurier, Lawrence Schoonover, and MAD magazine.

And then Marx, Vonnegut, and Underground Comix in high school.

I grew up reading Biggles books by W E Johns, and series such as The Secret Seven and The Famous Five by Enid Blyton . And of course Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. For some reason I also vividly remember enjoying Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, and have reread it from time to time since then.

We were set to read "The Woman of Rome: A Novel (Italia) by Alberto Moravia (Author)" in about 1950. We studied it and discussed it for a whole term. I'm sure us schoolboys learned a lot from it.

https://www.librarything.com/work/105092/195837490

Johnny Tremain -Esther Forbes
Freddy the Detective -Walter R Brooks
The Speckled Band -Conan Doyle
Tom Sawyer -Twain
oh, right, also
Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls, Trixie Belden....

I loved the Little House series and read books like that. My first grown up book was Jane Eyre which I devoured in 8th grade. I then went on to all the Jane Austen's. No more children's books for me until I read them to my children.

When I was younger, say under 10, I was smitten with Charlotte's Web - I read it several times, to the point of having the first chapters virtually memorized.

In junior high, my best friend was Jewish and she loaned me her copies of the All of a Kind Family series, and I loved them all. I also picked up my mother's copy of Jubilee Trail, and like CW, I read it many times. She helped me understand some of the nuances that went over my head, but it was still G-rated enough for me to enjoy it, with the trail adventures, history, etc.

There are so many more, but these are what spring to mind first.

Fun discussion! :)

As a child, pre-teen: Pippi Longstocking and Little House books. As a teen: Danielle Steele romances!

>9 Tess_W: I remember Pippi! Those were a lot of fun. Big red pigtails and a brother-sister set of besties, IIRC.

I liked Pippi Longstocking too! Also Anne of Green Gables.

The first books I can recall having at home to read were Laura Lee Hope's The Bobbsey Twins books.

I went through the usual "dog" and "horse" periods during elementary school. Because we had collies when I was growing up I loved reading Albert Payson Terhune's books such as Lad, a Dog and Lad of Sunnybank. The books of Walter Farley (Black Stallion and Island Stallion books) and Marguerite Henry (King of the Wind, a particular favorite; Misty of Chincoteague; Justin Morgan Had a Horse; Brighty of the Grand Canyon; and Black Gold) represented my "horse" period.

In junior high, I discovered science fiction, and later fantasy, especially books by Andre Norton. The first Norton book I read/purchased was Star Man's Son, also published as "Daybreak-2250 A.D." Other favorites were The Beast Master and Lord of Thunder; Catseye; the Solar Queen novels: Sargasso of Space, Plague Ship, Voodoo Planet; and, of course, the Witch World novels: Witch World, Web of the Witch World, and Year of the Unicorn, among so many others. I collected most of Norton's books through her final ones published before her passing. I also enjoyed Robert Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land; Tunnel in the Sky; The Star Beast).

One other early purchase that made an impact on my youth was the book One Man and his Dog by Anthony Richardson. I read this every year for a number of years, although it has been decades since I pulled it from the shelf to enjoy again. I may have to do that this year with this long-out-of-print title.

>6 Crypto-Willobie:. Ah, yes, Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew were well read, in addition to a a series about a nurse. Does anyone remember Cherry Ames?

>11 krazy4katz:. I loved Anne of Green Gables as well, but I can't remember how old I was when I read it.

>12 jpaschal:. Now that brings back some wonderful memories. Walter Farley, Marguerite Henry and Albert Payson Terhune were all staples in my house growing up.

>13 vwinsloe: I loved Cherry Ames!

>13 vwinsloe: my sister collected and read Cherry Ames!

>12 jpaschal: Yes! The Bobbsey Twins!

>16 krazy4katz: There are children in most of us.
Before about 1950 in England any books we kids could get our hands on were falling to bits because paper just was not available. As a result, many of the titles mentioned here were not available to us until years later.
For instance, I never heard of Charlotte’s Web until I bought the 50th anniversary edition. Same with Stuart Little. And the guy with the one acre farm still cracks me up. I read them all quite regularly. (I don’t admit it to the rest of the family)

>17 Novak: I probably should go back and read those right now. Adult books are just too much at the moment. I need a break.

OK, I went back to my library, because I still have some of my children's books. I should really give them away but… Finn Family Moomintroll! Five Children and It, Little Women etc.

>19 krazy4katz: Part with them at your peril !!

As I type I have reached forward and among my Lee Child titles, drawn out Neil Gaiman's "Fortunatly, the Milk". What a breath of fresh air. Don't try and tell me this is a kid's book.
I have fallen in love with a drawing of "Mad Matilda the Girl Buccaneer" who does not even have a part in the saga.
OK, it dates from only 2013 but is as much a classic as Huckleberry Finn. (Next to it on the shelf)
Oh dear ! I used to daydream in school of actually being Huck.

>14 perennialreader: & >15 Tess_W:. Cool! I have never before met anyone who knew about Cherry Ames!

>15 Tess_W: I just found out in October that my older sister became a nurse because she read Cherry Ames and Sue Barton books.

I read The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew voraciously. I still have some of my books in those series! I also read a lot of books that we ordered from Arrow and Tab book clubs by Scholastic, and still own them as well. Mystery in the Pirate Oak and Follow My Leader are two of the first ones I got in 6th grade.

>2 vwinsloe: Interesting that you should mention Miss Happiness and Miss Flower as that is one of my faves and also it has been running around my brain lately.

>22 LadyoftheLodge: I also read The Bobbsey Twins and inherited a couple dozen books that were my mothers. She is now 88 and the books are in very poor condition, but there they sit on my shelf!

Bobbsey Twins. I still have 4 old ones that were my mother's from the 20s with beautiful old-fashoned B & W plate illustrations.
Nancy Drew
Mary Poppins
Little House series by Wilder
Betsy/Tacy books by Lovelace
Secret Garden
Heidi
A Little Maid of Old Connecticut & others in the series by Curtis
Lassie Come-Home
Curious George
Millions of Cats

and I loved Mother Goose rhymes and fairy tales. I still do!

>24 nrmay: I went through the entire Bobbsey Twins collection at the library. I still own The Bobbsey Twins at Home, one of the two I actually owned. At the Seashore was the other one, I think.

I devoured Volumes 1 (Poems of Early Childhood) and 2 (Storytelling and Other Poems) of the 1949 Childcraft set. I read bits and pieces of the other volumes and incessantly looked at them.

My First Book of Prayers. Lovely artwork. I still love a picture book to this day.

Heidi, which I still read now and again.

We had a "Big Book" version of A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and we loved it to pieces, literally (pun intended). We could recite some of the poems word for word.

Our family also owned the Childcraft set. My fave story was Nanette Visits the Chateau.

>13 vwinsloe: I'm now thinking hard about Cherry Ames. I do recall a book about a student nurse. The book starts with her walking down the sidewalk on her way to a home visit, maybe? and she's musing about the difference between local New Yorkers and tourists, because she believes that locals are always looking up at the skyscrapers in awe, while tourists are pretending to be unimpressed.

That's an odd tidbit to suss from my memory, but that's how I recall this story opening. And one family she visits doesn't have a table to eat at, so she recommends they get one because eating while seated is better for digestion.

Sounds more like visiting nurse stuff...? It was my sister's book, with a picture of a girl in the classic nurse's cap on the cover. 🤔

>13 vwinsloe: >28 terriks: I've only read the first 4: Student Nurse, Senior Nurse, Army Nurse, Chief Nurse.

Amazon has them in sets. It looks like LT shows 27 volumes.

The two most popular nurses' series at that time were Cherry Ames and Sue Barton. If you don't find your book in one list, it may be in the other.

There were quite a few
David and the Phoenix by Ormondroyd
Lost Dog Jerry by Robinson
The entire John C. Winston series of science fiction novels - with the first read being Son of the Stars by Jones
Star Guard by Norton
Falcons of France by Nordhoff and Hall
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
and The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Doyle

>30 MerryMary: I have gotten some lovely reprint editions of Sue Barton. My sister and I collect Cherry Ames and also Nancy Drew books. And I just acquired an original copy of Julie Jones Cape Canaveral Nurse which used to be on my oldest sister's book shelf. It looks just as I remembered it! I was fascinated to find out just recently that my sister was influenced to become a nurse by reading the nurse novels and watching the doctor shows on TV. (Doctor Ben Casey and Young Doctor Kildare and The Young Interns.)

>17 Novak: Thank you for reminding me of McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm! It's been 50 years since I've read a McBroom.

Hello not sure if you all Americans here but I see only one reference to Enid Blyton, perhaps its an English or colonial thing.

However I devoured most of what she wrote. The two series that stand out were The Wishing chair and The Faraway tree.

I must one day finish my cataloging of all of them.

>34 bergs47: I must one day finish my cataloging of all of them.

Be prepared for a long job. Enid Blyton was one of the world's most prolific authors and absolutely wonderful.

Was she popular in US?

>34 bergs47: I must one day finish my cataloging of all of them.

Be prepared for a long job. Enid Blyton was one of the world's most prolific authors and absolutely wonderful.

Was she popular in US?

>34 bergs47: ETA. I note you live in Africa. Do you know why African elephants have big ears?

>36 Novak: Yes its to keep off the flies.

I read voraciously from an early age, and can still recall reading s story from the Yellow Fairy Book to my parents, aged 4.

I read all my mother's Nathaniel Hawthorn books, but can remember nothing of them now.

But when I was 11 we visited friends who had a collection of Georgette Heyer and I was instantly hooked. (And so was my mother, when I showed her what I was reading. Between us, we own all the historical books. She, now aged 92, is currently comfort-reading them all.)

>37 bergs47: That could well be true, but us Enid Blyton fans reckon it's because Noddy won't pay the ransom. 😎

>34 bergs47: not sure if you all Americans here

No, we're not all Americans, although there are certainly a lot of them on LT. I think I was the one to mention Enid Blyton. She was definitely hugely popular (and prolific, as >36 Novak: says) in Britain.

My young reader list, I'm afraid, would fill a library of its own. Farm kid, raised an an "only" (siblings grown and gone by early grade school days), and long summers to fill!

By series: All the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Trixie Belden (no doubt contributing to my mystery addiction now), the entire Oz series by L. Frank Baum, Little Women and all its children, Heidi and all her children.

By sixth grade, I was given permission to graduate to some of Mom's "approved" adult authors: Jean Plaidy and Barbara Cartland jump to mind, as well as Christy, which gets a reread every year or so. I'm overdue.

As a child: Bobbsey Twins, Andy Hardy, Nancy Drew, The Happy Hollisters, Tarzan books, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Shirley Temple's Fairy Tales', Little House Books actually anything that was in the bookmobile or in my teacher's personal library--our elementary school did not have a library. As a teen: anything by Jean Plaidy, Daphne Du Maurier, or most romance novels. As a young 20-something--Danielle Steele. Debbie McComber, and Julie Garwood. After having my fill of romance novels, I then moved on to more adult books! Even now, when I'm feeling sorry for myself (rarely) or have just read several heavy back to back non-fictions, I will resort to a romance novel--read about 5-6 of them per year. I call them beach reads.

Paddle to the Sea was a book I read over and over. I still think of the Great Lakes in the ways Holling pictured them — Superior as a wolf; Huron as a trapper with a pack on his back.

As a teen (about 16 yo. or so) I remember walking around my suburb at 6am after I had just finished The razors Edge thinking...

I have never reread it. I was/am a little bit scared that it will NOT live up to my memories...

But thanks Group, it is now on my TBR pile :-)

Guido

Black Beauty and all the works of Marguerite Henry, followed by The Black Stallion and its sequels and everything else in the local library kids' section about animals. Also, Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and others in the kid-detective genre.

>44 guido47:

I also encountered Larry Darrell at that age and the book pretty much blew my mind. As an adult in a superficially different era, I still find the book has important things to say in its look at life's conflicting values and priorities.

... and his brother Larry Darrell...

The first ones I remember reading on my own were The Bobbsey Twins but I do remember reading all kinds of books from the school library. Later there were the Nancy Drew books but when my brothers were given some Hardy Boys I switched to them. There were also comics and publications from the Girl Scouts and my brothers' Boy's Life. When at my grandparents houses I read anything they had; Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, etc. In their books I found my father's set of The Junior Classics - everything from poetry to myths to Aladdin's adventures then several books by Booth Tarkington. At my other grandparents house I came across a number of Shakespeare's plays and some old novels the summer before high school. I currently have most of these on my own shelves. Then Barbara Cartland until I discovered Georgette Heyer and also Tarzan and any science fiction I could find. I also read all the stories and a ton of the nonfiction articles in The Book of Knowledge.

>45 WildMaggie: Oh, I forgot all about the fourth grade horse story phase! I checked out Misty of Chincoteague so often from the church library I think I filled a checkout card singlehandedly! There was also a series beginning with Papa's Wife that I trafficked heavily in.

I wasn't a big reader as a youngster, but became more so with adolescence. I can still remember reading Mutiny on the Bounty,

I read everything I could get my hands on when I was young. The first book that I remember checking out of a library on my own was Mr. Popper's Penguins. I loved that story and have visited it more than once as an adult.

>36 Novak: Lets not go into the Noddy/Big Ears relationship not appropriate for this group lol.

Well as you say a lot of work to do.
You have 30 books and 30 works by Enid Blyton.

>54 bergs47:

Jasper Carrot has an interesting comment regarding Noddy on his version of The Magic Roundabout (on YouTube), although it might also be deemed inappropriate.

For me, the most memorable book from my youth was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I still occasionally think about the book and I re-read it several years ago.
More thought and remembrance... All of Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Typical boy stuff.

I loved the Bobbsie Twins, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. My best friend and I were always looking for mysteries to solve, but never found one.

My all time favorite book from 4th grade was The Princess and The Goblin, by George MacDonald written in 1872. Somehow the words Princess and Goblin stuck with me for years, and at one of the schools I taught at, I found that book in the Jr. High Library. I promptly checked it out and devoured it at one sitting. My 5-year old wanted me to read it to her so I did, several times. Then I found a beautifully illustrated abridged version which I gifted my then pre-teen daughter. Now I also have that book. Still love it.

I also went through every horse book I could find, and declared one night to my parents I wasn't going to bed until they bought me a horse. Needless to say I went to bed many nights without a horse.

Reading Pride and Prejudice was terribly romantic. I loved it.

My mother had a Tales for Teeny Wee book that was hers as a child and had lovely illustrations. It had wonderful fairy tale stories. I am contemplating getting one. I see there are some available on Abe's Books. But, yikes, prices!

It appears that no one has yet mentioned Beatrix Potter. My mother had kept all the titles she had had in her childhood, printed from the original plates, probably before World War I.

First, they were read to me at bedtime, but later on I read them over and over, delighting in the detailed illustration. then in the late eighties and early nineties, my sister introduced them to her daughter. Thus the same copies were an introduction to books for four children and worked their way through three generations of my family.

I also see that nobody has mentioned Thomas the Tank Engine. A superb series of books, beautifully illustrated, based on a real interest in and knowledge of railways by the author, Rev W Awdry. Later incarnations by his son lost the magic, and the animated video series were dumbed down somewhat, although it was nice to hear Ringo Starr's voice narrating the first TV versions. It has spawned a lucrative spin-off for the dozens of preserved heritage railways in the UK, who hold "Thomas" events with their locomotives dressed up to look like the characters out of the books, and usually one of their volunteers acting the part of the Fat Controller. It's also lucrative for Awdry's estate, which charges a fee for the use of Thomas' name and image.

>59 librorumamans: Love Beatrix Potter! I still have vivid memories of my fourth birthday when a cousin gave me The Tale of Jeremy Fisher in its distinctive little white square format and the circular paintings on every right hand page.
Back in 2012 I did a marathon nostalgic read of many of the books.I see I added 14 stories to my group shelf.Should be more.Another reread looms on the horizon........
All time favourite? Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

>59 librorumamans: Loved Beatrix Potter. Just bought Peter Rabbit for my granddaughter this week.

Our school had a reading half hour every day,and of course lots of them were old literary classics,very little popular stuff.But many of those books have become permanent fixtures in my life. Cut to the bone,these were my faves

Louisa May Alcock - Little Women
Lewis Carrol - Alice in Wonderland/Looking Glass
Alan Garner - Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Kenneth Graham - Wind in the Willows
Roger Lancelyn Greene - Robin Hood
H Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines
Tove Jansson - Moomintrolls
Charles Kingsley - The Water Babies
Rudyard Kipling - Kim
C S Lewis - The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe
C S Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
E Nesbit - House of Arden
Mary Norton - The Borrowers
Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
Barbara Sleigh - Carbonel
Johanna Spyri - Heidi
Robert Louis Stephenson - Kidnapped
Noel Streatfeild - Ballet Shoes
Rosemary Sutcliffe -Eagle of the Ninth

Eek! That is the cut to the bone listof books that got intomy heart by the age of 11.

>60 John5918: My kid loved Thomas the Tank engine, though my husband and I had some qualms about the way capital, in the person of Sir Topham Hat, wielded absolute power over labor, in the person of the engines. It seemed like a system of benevolent slavery. We used Thomas stories as a springboard to talk about labor rights, collective bargaining, and the value of hard work. :-)

My post >4 John5918: reminded me of the Biggles series, and I started rereading some of them. To my surprise I'm enjoying them, although I notice now how dated they are, jingoistic and militaristic, things I didn't notice fifty years ago. But they're still fun.

>65 John5918:

Did you also read the Rupert Bear books, John? I liked them a lot as a very young reader, especially that you could, as you wished, enjoy them solely as graphic stories by reading only the top part of the page or read them as narratives in the text at the bottom.

>66 librorumamans:

Yes, I'd forgotten them. I also seem to remember there was a Rupert the Bear strip every day in the Daily Express (which means I have to admit that my dad read that rag every day!)

Talking of daily strip cartoons in newspapers, the Daily Nation here in Kenya still runs an Andy Capp cartoon every day. I love it!

>67 John5918: I learned about the pool hall from reading Andy Capp here in the States. I always liked Mrs. Andy Capp and her polka-dot headscarf.

Like a lot of girls, I was (still am!) horse-crazy. Loved all the C.W. Anderson horse books, mostly because of the gorgeous pen & ink illos. Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley books were right up there, too.

But ... probably my favorite was the Wyoming trilogy by Mary O'Hara -- My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming. I still have them, and have re-read them many times. One of the most surprising things about them, reading them as an adult, is how adult they really were. O'Hara matter-of-factly discusses breeding and sterilization of horses -- the reason Ken wants "a little filly" is because he was traumatized by seeing the colt crop gelded. In "Thunderhead", he manages to get Flicka bred by a neighbor's stallion because he wants a colt to race. Throughout the series, the parents have various marital problems and at one time consider separating.

Pretty heavy stuff for "kids' books". (Of course, most of that went over my head in the original readings!

Side trip re The Black Stallion. I don't remember when I read it -- probably about junior high -- but it was my first collision with a misplaced modifier, and it scarred me for life. :-)

In one scene, Alex has taken The Black out on a race track for the first time (they have been rescued and settled in New York). The horse runs so fast that his mane whips into Alex' face and makes some small cuts. Afterward, he goes home.

And I'm paraphrasing here, but ... "he looked in the mirror at the cuts on his face and gritted his teeth as he poured mercurochrome on them."

Wait -- HE POURED MERCUROCHROME ON HIS TEETH????

I **knew** there was something seriously wrong with that sentence, but it took me forever to figure out what Farley really meant, and years to identify it as a misplaced ("squinting") modifier.

>70 LyndaInOregon:
You would have made a good copy editor. That's what I do now. I find things like that all the time.

>70 LyndaInOregon: LOL to scarred me for life! Those misplaced modifiers jump out at me all the time!

I must have been a ghoulish kid. I adored H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines especially the gruesome bit where Gagool, the ancient witch woman, tries to scuttle under a huge stone door which is inexorably lowering..... she gets crunched,and I loved it! lol.The book used to open on that very page because I read it so much! :0)