If you were to recommend 10 books from your youth, what would they be?

[XemaSab]

I'm defining "youth" as from 5 to 12. A particular series may count as one book.

[UTUSN]

1. The Red and the Black, by STENDHAL. Yes, I *am* GORE.

A 7 volume biography of Woodrow WILSON, and, NO, I am NOT a Shrub fraud.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

2. I can't think of ten

even though I was and am a reader but Treasure Island comes to mind and so do the Tom Swift books.............

[Lyric]

3. Mine:

The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series (which is 6 small books in and of itself, but only counts for one here, lol)
D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
Black Beauty
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
A Wrinkle in Time
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Julie of the Wolves

[Aristus]

4. Mine: (no order...)

1. The Hobbit.
2. The Phantom Tollbooth.
3. The Pushcart War.
4. Slake's Limbo.
5. The House Of Stairs.
6. Dr. Seuss's The Lorax.
7. Ramona The Pest.
8. The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe.
9. Deathman, Do Not Follow Me.
10. The Martian Chronicles.

[Danger Mouse]

5. Well...

'Miss Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'
'A Cricket in Times Square'
'The Hobbit'
'How to Eat Fried Worms'
'A Wrinkle in Time'
'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' (and its sequels)
'My Teacher is an Alien' (and its sequels - loved those books!)
'Sideways Stories from Wayside School'
'Old Yeller'
'Bridge to Terabithia'

Those are the first ten I could think of that I loved as a child!

I have to add 'where the sidewalk ends,' 'the lorax,' and 'the mouse and the motorcycle' here, too, before I forget them!
I used to read so much as a kid. Wow.

[lost-in-nj]

6. Richard Scarrys

series




this book is the best

anything that has FIND GOLD BUG
the kids LOVE it


oh my daughter loved where the sidewalk ends


lost

[appal_jack]

7. i was mostly into sci fi & fantasy back then...

-The Chronicles of Narnia (read to me & my younger sister by my mom when I was ~6, and I re-read many times thereafter)
-Also, CS Lewis' Space Trilogy (requires will suspension of disbelief so not really sci fi, but are great nonetheless - I read these around ~10)
-Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy (read around age 10)
-The Lord of the Rings (age 11)
- Madeline L'Engle's _A_Wrinkle_In_Time_ and all the sequels. (I read these beginning in maybe 2nd grade)
-Anything by Dr. Suess (for the early end of your age range) but particularly _The_Lorax_ (which I missed-out on in childhood).
-Anything by Leo Lionni (sp?) like _Frederick_ (again for the younger ages)
-Maybe _Hope_for_the_Flowers? (didn't see this until college, but figured I'd mention it)

I don't really remember her books well, but I recall liking Beverly Cleary when I was really young (7?) and first reading non-picture books on my own.

-app

[Catshrink]

14. I'm glad you mentioned the Earthsea Trilogy

I was going to buy it for my nephew who is turning 11 but wasn't sure he was old enough. Sounds like he'll be fine with it. He doesn't live nearby so it's hard for me to judge.

[Left Is Write]

8. Let me see...

From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

The Saturdays

The Borrowers

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

What The Witch Left

Fifteen

Ellen Tebbits

Blubber

The Outsiders

Santa Mouse

[Kali]

9. books by Gerald Durrel

James Herriot
Dr. Seuss
comics
Nancy Drew stories
kids books from museum gift shops (still have a bunch - authors not well known)
nature guide books - reptiles, insects, plants/flowers, and I suppose birds too :P

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and "The Elephant's Child."

My Dad used to read those stories to me when I was 4 or 5.

The Nancy Drew mysteries (yes, I'm old).
Brave New World
The Bobbsey Twins books (those were really old; they were my Mom's)
There was a book about Vikings that I really liked but I can't remember the name
Red Planet

And a bunch more that I can't think of right now.

[Danger Mouse]

11. Hey XemaSab, what books would you recommend?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Well.........

"The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer"
"The Prince And The Pauper"
"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea"
"A Journey To The Center Of The Earth"
The "Five Little Peppers" series
The "Nancy Drew" series
"Pride and Prejudice"
"Little Women"
"Death Be Not Proud"
"Wuthering Heights"
Short stories of Edgar Allen Poe
"One Thousand And One Nights"
"Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats"
"Marjorie Morningstar" (Herman Wouk is a relative)

As a precocious little bugger whose wonderful and literate mother taught me how to read when I was three years old, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house where everything was always available for me to read - including the evening newspaper, which I always got to read first, even before my father got it. All the magazines - Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, Time, Newsweek, Life, Look, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, Harper's Bazaar. And, my aunt, the shady one, always dropped off the "bad" magazines that she so religiously read, and then I got to read them - movie magazines, Confidential, things that no longer exist.

It was the greatest gift my parents could have given me - the love of the written word.

What a great question, by the way. What prompted you to ask?

[Doremus]

13. Nancy Drew, the Secret Garden, James and the Giant Peach

Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Diary of Anne Frank, Call of the Wild, Black Beauty.

[RevolutionaryActs]

15. Okie dokie:

A Wrinkle In Time
The Search For Delicious
Superfudge
The Hobbit
Where The Wild Things Are
Horton Hears A Who
The Rats of NIMH
Ella Enchanted
At Ivy Acres
Where the Sidewalk Ends

[Ava]

16. in no specific order

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Running Out of Time
Lord of the Flies
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Harry Potter
The Giver
Holes
The Phantom Tollbooth
Nancy Drew (The Sign of the Twisted Candles was my favorite)

[Richardo]

17. Well, I read '2001: A Space Odyssey' in one afternoon when I was twelve.

Let's see, working back from there:

Alice in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There
Penrod and Sam
Emil and the Detectives (I recently read this again - it did not age well)
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
On Beyond Zebra
If I Ran the Zoo

[azmouse]

18. Trixie Belden series

Little Women
Little House on the Prairie series
Pippi Longstocking
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Amelia Bedelia
The Phantom Tollbooth

[Kali]

23. I was trying to remember Trixie Belden!

Could only think of Nancy Drew.

My 5th grade teacher read all the Little House on the Prairie books aloud - also Where the Red Fern Grows.

[realisticphish]

19. Anything by Roald Dahl, Laura Ingalls WIlder

I remember loving the Boxcar Children books, though I realize now that they were getting pretty bad by the time I stopped reading them (~ 30 books in). I think there are 100+ now.

Oh, and of course, "The Hobbit"

[Shine]

20. I absolutely LOVED Madeline L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time"

Very thought provoking. Plus, it was the first of a whole series. Very cool.

My 12 yr old dtr ended up doing a book report on it this year for 6th grade, in fact. :thumbsup:

:hi:

[MilesColtrane]

21. .

"My Friend Flicka"
"The Mad Scientists Club" series
"The Black Stallion" series
"Dune" series
"That Quail, Robert"
"The Red Badge of Courage"
"A Wrinkle in Time" series
"The Martian Chronicles"
Asimov's Robot series
"Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters" and the rest of Jean Shepherd's (author of "A Christmas Story") books

[Kali]

22. ah "That Quail Robert"

I remember it! I wonder if there is a copy somewhere around here?

Another horse book I just rememberd was Smokey the Cow Horse.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. Bambi and Bambi's Children by Felix Salten

Alcott's Little Women and Little Men
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
The Golden Treasury of Poetry selected by Louis Untermeyer (my first introduction to poetry)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The "Real" Book series by various topics and authors (I particularly remember enjoying the one about Clara Barton)
Donald J. Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Basil of Baker Street (and others in the series) by Eve Titus

And I know it's extra, but I think these are important from a cultural standpoint:
Mother Goose
and Aesop's Fables
Any good Collection of Fairy/Folk Tales...I had Reader's Digest as a kid...It included the Grimm Bro's, selections from the Charles Perrault collection, Hans Christian Anderson, and many others. Many contemporary collections include folk tales from Africa, Asia, Australia, and Native American lore. They're part of our cultural history, and need to be remembered. :hi:

[EastTennesseeDem]

25. Ooh! This sounds fun

1.) "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
...and there is no close second.

The rest are unranked.

"The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian" by Lloyd Alexander
"Death Be Not Proud" by John Gunther
"The Chronicles of Prydain" (series) by Lloyd Alexander
"The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
"Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry
"A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
"Onion John" by Joseph Krumgold
"Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson
"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle

[Art_from_Ark]

26. I don't know if I would recommend all of them, but

the 10 books/series that most intrigued me during that time were

Anything by Dr. Seuss or P.D.Eastman
The Boxcar Children series (especially The Lighthouse Mystery)
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Winnie-the-Pooh series
Peanuts comic books
Golden Book Encyclopedia
Golden Book World Geography
United States History for Children (ended with the Apollo X moon mission)
Unfinished Symphony: Stories of Men and Music

[blueraven95]

27. Are you creating this list just for the heck of it

or because you are trying to figure out a good library for a youth?


I would add to what has already been mentioned:

Just about anything by Diana Wynne Jones, but Witch Week or Charmed Life are good starts
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (actually just about anything by her is good)


5-12 is a huge age range, so for the younger crowd
Nate the Great books
Encyclopedia Brown books
The Mushroom Planet books
the first few Boxcar Children books

Not from my childhood, but I would recommend anyway:
just about anything by Tamora Pierce
again, just about anything by Patricia Wrede
Terry Pratchett's children books - Wee Free Men is the first, I think

There are so many others, but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head.

[suninvited]

28. Most of the ones I would recommend have been listed

Mouse and the Motorcycle was my FAVORITE in my earlier years, and just about all of the Beverly Cleary books are wonderful for younger children.

Softly Roars the Lion by Mel Ellis was a very special book to me. I don't think it was ever mainstream popular.

One of the books I would not recommend for that age group is Diary of Anne Frank. I read it at the age of 12, and it was way too upsetting to me. I think I cried for weeks after reading it, and went into a very deep depression. I would recommend it for older children, I just think 12 was too young. Or perhaps I was too sensitive.

On edit: Meant to reply to the OP.

[fight4my3sons]

29. the S.E. Hinton Books

The Outsiders
Tex
Rumble Fish
That Was Then This Is Now

[AwakeAtLast]

30. Those would be on my list, too.

:hi: