Favorite Children's Book?

[-ANTM-]

King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

[marybethp]

We're currently reading the Junie B. Jones series and The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids. My daughter is in kindergarten and while she loves hearing the stories, she can try to read it herself (if she just musters up some patience every once in a while! )

I like the JBJ series, actually better than I originally did, but I don't like some of the freshness that kid gets away with. I'd love a word with her mother

[MysticalChicken]

I loved, loved, LOVED the Mrs Piggle-Wiggle series. I only have (yes, I still have them!) three of the four books (missing "Hello, Mrs Piggle-Wiggle," although I have read it), but as a child I would just devour them. Sometimes I still read them--I love characterizing the kids.

I had some of the Frances books too ... the only one I can remember right off hand is "Bread and Jam for Frances," ... wasn't it like, Frances only wants bread and jam and everyone else is eating stuff like hard-boiled eggs and spaghetti (not together!)? That book always made me hungry.

Loved all the Ramona series. I used to have all of them, but I lost "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" on an airplane years and years ago.

I only read two Judy Blume books, "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing" (which everyone in my 4th grade class was required to read), and Superfudge. I still love the lines in Superfudge that go something like "Now I had a brother called Fudge, and a sister called Tootsie. I think what my parents really wanted was a candy factory."

Berenstain Bear books--definitely. I even had one that was bilingual (English and Spanish).

Oh, and I can't forget my favorite, "Anne of Green Gables," by LM Montgomery. Oddly enought, AoGG was the only Montgomery book I read as a child; the rest of the series, I was well into my teens and 20's before I read.

[Broadway]

I might have posted this way earlier in this thread, but yesterday I was thinking of this book again.

Back when I was little I had one of those book/tape combinations (were they Golden Books??) of these two horses that wore animated hats. The hats' names were Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet. I will always remember the haunting song that played on the record at the end... when the horses were separated.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else in my age range??? (I'm 36..ack)

[Onyx]

Chronicles of Narnia, hands down. I loved the fantasy aspect of the series, didn't really understand the religious overtones at the time though.

I agree with the Ramona series. I remember an excerpt when Ramona complimented her teacher on her "elephant legs". To this day,I recoil in horror every time I notice a wrinkle around my stocking-ed ankles.

[Critical]

When I was growing up, the only way we could get out of housework/chores was if we were reading (which was seen as the only more worthwhile pursuit than chores). I read a lot!...not just to get out of doing work, but because I loved it.....the getting out of chores thing was a side benefit! Anyway...

I loved anything by Judy Blume when I got older and Beverley Cleary to a lesser extent. Until I was about 10 though, nobody could top Roald Dahl. My favorite was and will always be James and the Giant Peach, which I must have read at least 20 times. The edition I had was illustrated with wonderful pencil drawings that are still so alive in my mind that I refuse to see the Tim Burton movie. My other favorite was The Hobbit, which I think my mother first read to me when I was about 7. I re-read it about once a year.

[TARfan_Carrie]

I remember listening to my stack of Disney read-along books w/ 45's on my portable record player - loved them!

In my later elementary years, I read most of the Nancy Drew books, and some other Nancy Drew-type series - Nurse Cherry Ames and Judy Bolton. Mom was a big fan of garage sales!

Also:
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Amelia Bedelia
Anything by Judy Blume
Sweet Pickles series
Shoes for Angela by Ellen Snavely (my sister's favorite as well)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle series

[Chorita KaBoom]

Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

The Encyclopedia Brown series - Donald J. Sobol

Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh

All of Dr. Suess' work.

[Critical]

Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

How could I forget Where the Wild Things Are!!?? I LOVED that book (still do). When I was a kid, my aunt co-owned a toy store in San Francisco called Where the Wild Things Are. They got the rights to the name from Maurice Sendak, with the agreement that, if the store closed, the rights would go back to him. Eventually, they did close the store but when it was open, I got the best presents from my aunt!

[emeraldsong]

When I was growing up, the only way we could get out of housework/chores was if we were reading (which was seen as the only more worthwhile pursuit than chores). I read a lot!...not just to get out of doing work, but because I loved it.....the getting out of chores thing was a side benefit! Anyway...

I loved anything by Judy Blume when I got older and Beverley Cleary to a lesser extent. Until I was about 10 though, nobody could top Roald Dahl. My favorite was and will always be James and the Giant Peach, which I must have read at least 20 times. The edition I had was illustrated with wonderful pencil drawings that are still so alive in my mind that I refuse to see the Tim Burton movie. My other favorite was The Hobbit, which I think my mother first read to me when I was about 7. I re-read it about once a year.

Lucky you -- my mom took away our books so that we would do our chores. I still remember the horror of my mom taking a half finished book out of my hands . . .

James and the Giant Peach is a classic -- I also really like Danny, Champion of the World. Avoid the Giant Peach movie -- the book is much better.