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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Some Favorite Childhood Books

Charlie Lovett's Escaping Dreamland had a great deal to do with the books we read in childhood that helped shape the people we are today. Reading that book made me think of my own childhood favorites, and my thoughts have been percolating away ever since so I thought I'd go down to my keeper shelves and bring back a few of those favorites that I've hung on to. Now it's time to share them with you. Perhaps seeing some of my favorites will bring back memories of your own. I know you've got them!

I actually remember the three little books that were the first ones I read all by myself, but I graduated very quickly to chapter books, so I won't include those three here. Besides, I couldn't find any pictures of the covers to show you. (Does that mean I'm getting old? Naaaaah!)


The first author whose books I read voraciously was Thornton W. Burgess. Most of his books were library books, but I do have a couple of my own.

Even as a young child, I knew that animals did not wear clothes and that they did not speak any language that you and I could understand, but Burgess had a knack for telling stories, and he imparted so much knowledge about the animals his tales were about!

I showed an interest in my grandmother's glorious flowerbeds from an early age, and she was only too eager to fan the flames, even going so far as to choose a book by a favorite author.

Just the sight of my grandmother's handwriting brings back so many memories!

Another early favorite book. Hitty was a doll, and the story is told in her voice. Mom would read her adventures to me, and I was very proud when I could finally read them for myself!

My grandparents weren't the only ones who encouraged my love of reading. Mom's handwriting takes me down Memory Lane, too.

I think Hitty was the first book that made me realize that inanimate objects could have stories, that almost all things have some sort of history, and because I read Hitty, I became interested in the stories objects could tell.

My next obsession was Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series. For me, these were fantastic stories that fostered a love of history and biography.

Illustrations can be so important in children's books. I've included many from my favorite childhood books, but I do remember being proud of the fact that the Little House books didn't have quite so many, and that meant that I was really growing up!

But deep down, my favorite kind of books were books about animals, especially horses.

I absolutely loved Wesley Dennis' illustrations for Marguerite Henry's books!

C. W. Anderson's Blaze series was another favorite. I read a lot of books from the 1920s through the 1940s at the library because it took my mother time before there was a library board in our village that actually believed in spending money on books.

As far as horse books go, Walter Farley's books were my favorite. I'd read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (mostly The Hardy Boys), but I found myself returning over and over again to the adventures of the Black Stallion.

Another series I was obsessed with was the Childhood of Famous Americans series. I had to search high and low for the blue covers that I remembered as a child.

The other thing I remember so well about this series is its silhouette illustrations. I read every single book in this series that Mom bought for the library. The range of the biographies was impressive, but I was thrilled to see that diversity has finally given so much more depth to this series that's still going strong.


Well, those are my favorite books from my childhood. Now the question is... what are some of yours? Inquiring minds would love to know!

19 comments:

  1. These are so nice. We read Marguerite Henry's books about the horses at Chindoteague, and loved the illustrations.
    An early book I loved was The Pokey Little Puppy. Got older and then loved the Beverly Cleary books about Henry and Ramona and Beezus. Then went through the Hardy Boys and then raced through the Nancy Drew books.
    I know I read a lot more books, but don't remember them. We used the library when I was young. I was 3, the youngest ever to get a library card at our branch.
    I couldn't bear to read The Black Stallion because I knew the horse was mistreated in the book.
    I hated animal abuse at a young age, even reading about it.

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    1. 99.9% of the books I read as a child were library books. When Mom the librarian got a supportive library board and she could actually begin ordering NEW books, I loved when the shipments would arrive. Those big heavy boxes! Those brand-new books! The smell! Being able to unpack them was such a treat-- even the adult books. I was in heaven.

      By the way, I remember The Pokey Little Puppy, too.

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  2. I see many of my favorites! I'm going to have to give this more thought, but I notice the blue biography and remember loving the books in our classroom library with blue covers and others with orange--biographies and history, I think. I read them all!

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    1. Yes, those Childhood of Famous Americans biographies changed from blue to orange covers and non-silhouette illustrations. I read every one I could get my hands on.

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  3. I loved this post, Cathy! It made me remember all of the childhood books and series I loved. And you have some great ones there, too. I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and when my daughter was old enough, we visited the Wilder home in Mansfield, MO. We also went to De Smet, South Dakota, the 'little town on the prairie.' A great experience for both of us.

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    1. I wouldn't mind visiting those places myself!

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  4. It's great hearing about your childhood books! I loved any series books such as Raggedy Ann and Andy, the Wizard of Oz books, Little House, and Black Stallion as well as favorite author series. We had books from the Weekly Reader book club where we found Edward Eager's Half Magic books and Eleanor Cameron's Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. I was in the third grade before they let us into the school library. Good thing my mother took us to the city library. The Live Doll series by Josephine Scribner Gates was another favorite. Others such as Grandfather and the Honey Tree (not positive about that title) and any books about horses were also treasured. I won't go on.....just love books!

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    1. Thanks so much for taking the time to mention so many of your favorites! I love it.

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  5. What a fun post Cathy! My bookshelves contain almost all of the books you shared. But many of them I wasn't introduced to until I had kids and was looking for good books for them to read. One of my sons especially loved the Thornton Burgess books. We all loved any Marguerite Henry book. We read all the Little House books. I read those as a child also. We also read many Childhhood of Famous Americans books.

    As far as what I read, I remember the school librarian recommending From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg to me in about 3rd grade. I loved it and it felt like a grown-up book to me. I read all of the Encyclopedia Brown books. I remember seeking out books about dolls. I have never read Hitty, but have heard of it. I read the Raggedy Ann and Andy books. I also had a hard time with animal books. I was too tender hearted.

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    1. It seems to me that Hitty won at least one award, so I'm not surprised that you've heard of it. I loved that book so much that my grandmother bought all the pieces and actually made me an old-fashioned doll with a china head, arms, and legs as well as a complete (circa 1840s) wardrobe for her.

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  6. You are so lucky to have so many of those still, Cathy. I love seeing pictures of them because it's obvious how much they still mean to you.

    We didn't have (probably for economic reasons) books in the house when I was a kid, but I can still remember the library books I was reading at that age. That's probably why I am still such a big promoter of public libraries today...I owe a whole lot to my small-town, one-room library. Didn't own a book until I was twelve or thirteen, I think...

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    1. The photos of the books through Marguerite Henry are, indeed, my books, but I only have about three more because I was in pretty much the same boat as you growing up. Mom was a single mother who raised me by working a variety of part-time jobs and a small widow's pension. Thank heavens, she was the librarian of the village where we lived! I literally grew up among the stacks, and for a voracious reader, that's the best place to be. I didn't start gathering books around me with abandon until I had graduated from college and had a good job.

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  7. What fun memories. I have some books that are labeled from various Christmases and such and a copy of Little Women that was my mom's and is inscribed from my great aunt and uncle. Betsy-Tacy, Laura Ingalls, Anne--they were are read many times. The Martha Washington book reminded me of one we had called Nancy Hanks of Wilderness Road, about Lincoln's mother. We also spent a lot of time at the library-- could check out as many as I could carry in my arms! (I always thought that was my mom's way of making sure I spent a little bit of time outside too!)

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    1. In good weather, I did a lot of my reading outside-- usually up in an old apple tree!

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  8. Reading outside in an old apple tree is the stuff we city kids dream of. I read in my little room up against a window with a big oak tree's branches almost touching my window, and the sun streaming in.

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  9. It was as close to reading in an apple tree that I, in Queens, N.U., was going to get.

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  10. My interest was captured by the Thornton Burgess cover. I devoured all those books at my local public library. The Black Stallion series was one of my favorites as I was raised on a horse ranch in Montana. "Lad a Dog" and others by Albert Payson Terhune because how could I not love dogs. My first grade teacher started every morning by reading a chapter from a Little House on the Prairie book and we all loved it. I went on to read the whole series on my own. What wonderful memories your post brought back.

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    1. Terhune was another favorite of mine because, as you said, how could I not love dogs? Thanks for stopping by!

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