What Book Did You Want Your Life To Be Like When You Were A Kid?

[WillParkinson]

Mine is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I so wanted to be that boy in the book. To live off the land and be, pretty much, by myself.

[jimbo fett]

1. "Chronicles of Narnia"

Those books started by love of the fantasy genre. I read them over and over as a boy.

Later I moved to books such as "A Wrinkle In Time."

Now, it's Tolkein, Donaldson and Card.

[tigerbeat]

27. i second that....

i would read them like once a week. i actually got to live out my fantasy a bit when i was cast as edmund in a youth theatre production of "lion, witch and the wardrobe."

i also liked a book called "the phantom tollbooth" which was pretty keen.

[Droopy]

2. The Black Stallion

I would fantasize about being the boy in that book. I can't remember who wrote that, but I think he/she was a genius.

[WillParkinson]

3. Walter Farley...

It even has it's own website!

http://www.theblackstallion.com/

[Bluzmann57]

4. "Tom Sawyer"

Grew up in a Mississippi River town, about 200 miles or so upstream from Hannibal, MO. Always thought that kid had it made.

[mikehiggins]

5. Lad, A Dog by Albert Paysune Terhune

Didn't want to be a dog but the life the people lived was so much better than the four floor walkup railroad flat I grew up in that it seemed like heaven.

Food on the table, new clothes, seperate bedrooms, no roaches and a big dog as your best friend.

How could you not want something like that?

[OldEurope]

6. Bibi.

By Karen Michaelis, a Danish writer. Bibi tells the story of a girl whose mother died and whose father is working for the railway in Denmark. The little girl is travelling through Denmark all alone, and I always had liked to be as indepedant as Bibi. At the end she meets her grandparents and learns that she is a countess, but she keeps her freedom and open mindedness.

[aquart]

7. Tony and the Wonderful Door by Howard Fast

[diddlysquat]

8. The Wizard of Oz

It was a magical escape from my real life as a child.

[WillParkinson]

10. Good choice!

Welcome to DU!

[Bertha Venation]

9. My Side of the Mountain

was a great book. I re-read it a few years ago.

My picks: Brighty of the Grand Canyon and Harriet the Spy.

[TNDemo]

11. Casper the Friendly Ghost's.

I wanted to live in that enchanted forest.

[oneighty]

12. Edmund Dantes

The Count of Monte Cristo

Great wealth, unrequited love, revenge, sailing off into the sunrise toking on some "Wow! That is some good stuff."

All a little boy could want!

180

[Robb]

13. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

...I had some issues as a kid. ;)

Just kiddin'. Actually, mine was My Side of the Mountain as well. :thumsup:

[WoodrowFan]

14. hummm

You mean BESIDES Teenage Asian Teenage Hitchhikers got to Camp? Alfred Hitchcock's Three Detectives

[WillParkinson]

15. I also liked the Detectives!

Them and Encyclopedia Brown.

[mitchum]

32. So did I!

and Brains Benton

[beyurslf]

16. Boxcar Children.

When I got older, The Hobbit

[curse10]

17. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

by E. L. Konigsburg.

It's about a brother and sister than run away to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. :-)

[gator_in_Ontario]

18. That was mine too

glad I'm not the only one that found that idea fascinating....

[SiobhanClancy]

19. Nancy Drew

Plenty of adventures,no school,a snappy little roadster and very little adult interference. What's not to like?:)

[curse10]

22. How could I forget Nancy!

I read all 56 of the original books. Loved them. :-)

[solinvictus]

20. Dracula

I read it when I was 9. My mom wouldn't take me to see the awful Frank Langella movie adaptation, but the book opened more to me.

[OldEurope]

21. Wow!

I liked Bram Stoker, but I was 15.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

23. The Borrowers

[Breezy du Nord]

24. This is really stupid, but...

In fifth grade I would dream of being Harry Potter's girlfriend.

I still lke the books alright, but my passion has cooled somewhat.

[jimbo fett]

25. Okay, now I feel REALLY old.

[Breezy du Nord]

26. Oh, don't feel bad

I'm DU's resident baby. ;)

[AlienGirl]

28. Anything by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Only thereby could it possibly be weird enough for me.

Tucker

[LWolf]

29. My side of the mountain.

I read it countless of times. I'd still love to live on the side of a mountain by myself. I just finished reading it to my class a couple of weeks ago. And it still works.

Also...the hobbit. I wanted to live in Middle Earth. I knew from an early age that I didn't belong on this one.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

30. Harriet the Spy

I would practice by climbing trees where I knew the neighborhood kids would be playing, and then just hiding there and observing everything that went on.

Runner-ups were probably The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Heidi and Green Gables books, and Dracula (hey, I was a goth little kid).

[mitchum]

31. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

lightin' out for the territories...

[CBHagman]

33. Pippi Longstocking always seemed to be having a ball.

And there was always chocolate involved somewhere. I didn't have Pippi's brazen spirit, but I was equally mystified by multiplication tables.

[gold_bug]

34. A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle.

[populistmom]

37. Me too!

The whole series was my favorite! Welcome to DU, gold_bug! :hi:

[regnaD kciN]

38. I probably would have said the same...

...except that I didn't read it until I was 21.

[HEyHEY]

35. Same as me will

God I loved that book

[WillParkinson]

36. I just found out...

It's a trilogy of books! One of them is called, "Frightfuls Mountain" after the falcon.

I may have to find them.

[LWolf]

40. I have them.

Although they are currently in the hands of my 5th and 6th graders, who couldn't wait to get ahold of them after I read them the first book. They were written much later.

No spoilers here, although I will say that the subject of captive birds is explored, and I like the young man Sam turns out to be.

[WillParkinson]

41. Very cool...

Thank you for the info. I'll have to check it out.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

39. Taran from the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER BELOW
























The assistant pig-keeper who rose to become High King and marry his love Eilonwy, the temperamental, foot-stamping Princess with the red-gold hair.

DTH