Monday, February 24, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday REWIND! Childhood Favorites

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The topic for February 25 is Top Ten Tuesday REWIND! (Pick from previous topics that you want to do again or may have missed). Since I just started this blog and am doing this purely for fun, I have done practically no Top Ten Tuesdays, so I decided to start at the top with the very first topic ...
Childhood Favorites

So in no particular order besides they came to mind this way, here are some of my favorite books from when I was a child ...

0) Andre Norton - I read as many of her books as I could get my hands on. Strangely enough, I never saw any of the Witch World books, so I have never read them. Initially I didn't know the author was female, and when I found out I was very, very excited. 


1) Peter Pan - in whatever incarnation I could find it. I read various versions of the Disney Peter Pan, I read the original J.M. Barrie story in a variety of forms, I read a script version of the stage play. I loved Peter Pan.

2) Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - I like lots of this author's books but this one is undoubtedly my favorite.

3) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I can't count how many times I have re-read this book in various forms.  My favorite version was the Annotated Alice that I checked out from the library ages ago.  I am now lusting after the gorgeous new edition of the Annotated Alice that came out last year.

4) Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck.  I remember liking several of his books, but this one in particular I re-read several times.

5) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler  by E. L. Konigsburg. Oh my god - running away from home and living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ?  Too awesome for words.  It is just really lucky for me that I was nowhere near New York as a kid.

6) Ellen Raskin was totally a go to author for me.  I worked to track down everything she wrote.  I loved The Westing Game, The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues and Figgs & PhantomsThe Mysterious Disapperance of Leon (I Mean Noel) - I was never quite sure what to make of that one. The artwork was always fascinating and the stories were very different from anything else I had ever read.


7) The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - I always loved the idea of conducting a sunset.

8) Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell was another favorite. 

9) Judy Blume books were pretty much a staple of my childhood.  Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret was pretty groundbreaking for its time.

10) A Wrinkle in Time and the sequels by Madeleine L'Engle were early favorites too.

10.1) Where the Sidewalk Ends is a book of very weird poetry by Shel Silverstein that I really loved as a child.
 
10.2) Oh, sheesh - I forgot The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, as well as the rest of the Narnia books. Those need to be on here. These were the very first boxed set of books I ever owned.

I think I had better stop now. This is gonna start getting messy - well messier.

Well, since I apparently can't stop ... here is a shout-out to a couple of children's book series that I have been enjoying as an adult ...

1) Ursula Vernon's Dragonbreath books are hysterical. The humor works on a level that both my 11 year old son and I can both enjoy. I think the second one, Dragonbreath: Attach of the Ninja Frogs is my favorite one out of the series, though I have really enjoyed them all.

2) Jessica Day George's series Tuesdays at the Castle is also lots of fun, though the second book ends with a total cliffhanger, which is rather stressful for kids. 





1 comment:

  1. If you haven't read The Scent of Magic by Andre Norton, do it!!! Apparently it's a series though (just found that out), so you might want to start with the first one, though I don't think they involve the same characters. Both Andre Norton and Island of the Blue Dolphins made my list today as well!! I also have an inkling of remembrance about reading The Westing Game, and now I'm going to have to go look it up. My memories conjure up good feelings about it. You've posted some great books!!

    Check out my TTT @ Books Are My Thing

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