what were your top favourite books growing up?

**canadian gardener** · 01-09-2006, 12:38 PM

I always had these ones go with me everywhere I moved, and often packed along in my knapsack as I travelled:

The Chronicles of Narnia set-- I read the first book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at age 8 when an aunt sent it to me in hardcover. I still have that and the paperback set of the rest.

Dad taught me to read that summer between gr 2 and gr 3 and once I "got" phonics and he helped me get started I just took off. (I still wasn't reading with the look say method at the end of gr. 2, but once phonics was introduced to me I decoded written language and I jumped to reading CS Lewis and Georgette Heyer within the first year)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (didn't care for the Hobbit as much) That summer mum died I was 14, life was chaos around me, dad started drinking and I stayed up late reading the Lord of the Rings one week all week, I couldn't put it down.

my Bible-- constant comfort in uncomfortable situations.

and the ones that didn't travel with me but I hated to be without and re read constantly were:

Enid Blyton. I absolutely adored the Adventure series. 8 books called the Sea of Adventure, Castle of Adventure etc.

Georgette Heyer's regency romances-- she was historically accurate, possessing perhaps the greatest collection of papers and source documents from that era anywhere but also an accurate and amusing judge of character, similar to Jane Austen. I started reading these ones at about 8 or 9.

The reason I remember that last one back then is because I tried and tried to get my little sister to read Georgette Heyer after she finished reading her way thru a little Dr Seuss. She didn't care much for my pressure or my taste in books. Nor did she have the lag and sudden jump in reading ability.

and some of the favourites as I grew older:

Jane Austen -- I discovered her when I turned 15 and loved her sharp sense of people's motivation and character.

PG Wodehouse-- anything I could get by him. Always made me laugh. A favourite of my rancher grandad who learnt to like his books back when he was a college kid at Cambridge in England before he emigrated to Canada. He had a terrific sense of humour that comes across in all his books. So well written. I started reading him by 16.

Isaac Asimov. I just loved his sci fi and also the Heinlein books. I started those around age 11 along with Conan the Barbarian which were distinctly inappropriate at that age but I loved them anyway.

Oh and if you are liking CS Lewis, and a grown up then I recommend his science fiction trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, That Hideous Strength and the other one, I forget it's name right now. I have them upstairs and have loved them since my early teens.

I wouldn't recommend them to any child younger than 14 simply because by pushing them too early they might not enjoy them later and these are written for adults, not children. It's not the content, that is pretty much ok, it's more the complexity of plot and writing.

**FreesiaE** · 01-09-2006, 12:48 PM

I remember my friends and I all found V.C. Andrews in 3rd grade. "Flowers in the Attic" was my first real adult book. It is still one of my favorites! I also enjoyed series books as a child; Sweet Valley Twins/High, Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, etc.. Oh, and RL Stein books; scary

**Scattymum** · 01-09-2006, 12:51 PM

The Narnia series and the Anne of green gables series were absolute favourites.

I too loved Enid blyton, ( I loved the adventure series too margery!), also the famous five series, the adventurous four, the magic faraway tree.

I loved school type series, Mallory Towers, Trebizon and Chalet school.

I really got into a set of books my mum read as a child called the Abbey Series by Elsie Oxenham, I must have read them a thousand times! They are very rare books now and we are still looking for the last 2 to complete the series.

Arthur Ransome - I loved Swallows and Amazons, Big Six etc

getting older I fell in love with Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I'm sure there are loads more but I cant think of any more for the moment!

**homesteadmamma** · 01-09-2006, 01:07 PM

The Little House on the Prairies Series

A series on animals (can't remember the title)

Charlotte's web (continues to be one of my favorites)

Actually most any book. I was a reader and spent many hours waiting for my dad to pick me up after work, at the library.

I only wish a Bible would have been one!!

**canadian gardener** · 01-09-2006, 01:09 PM

Oh Scattymum, Swallows and Amazons, yes me too. Arthur Ransome.

And I enjoyed Daphne Du Maurier too.

Did you like Josephine Tey? I loved her mysteries and also Dorothy Sayers. If you like Daphne DM you might like them too.

Freesia my dd adored some of those series books you mentioned. Her big one was some horse series I forget who the author was, and also the Black Stallion ones.

**rebecca** · 01-09-2006, 02:02 PM

Nancy Drew mystery series.

**canadian gardener** · 01-09-2006, 02:09 PM

You ladies are mentioning some wonderful books.

Charlotte's Web
Anne of Green Gables
Little House on the Prairie

The Nancy Drew and Hardy boys books are terrific as are any of the series books, they consolidate young readers skills as the kids rush thru page after page to see what happens next.

Margery Sharp, I forgot her Rescuer series. Loved those.

Anybody remember "the Borrowers"?

**Scattymum** · 01-09-2006, 03:09 PM

oh Charlottes Web - I loved that book! and the Nacy Drew Mysteries.

Margery - I have read Dorothy Sayer but not Josephine Tey - I will have to see if she is in our library

Thought of some more that I really enjoyed
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The little Princess? Francis Hogsen Burnett
The Railway Children, E Nesbit
Ballet Shoes and White Boots - Noel Streatfield
James and the Giant Peach and the BFG - Roald Dahl