Today is National Young Reader's Day

Today is National Young Reader's Day, and I took the opportunity to ask my listeners what books they enjoyed reading as a youngster and what books they read to their children now. Here are some of the replies I got on Facebook:

The Little Princess

Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drew and any biographies

Jack London's The Call of the Wild and the Little House series...
My boys like me to read Roald Dahl's books to them: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda, and The BFG.

The Little House on the Prairie Series and The American Girls Collection

Roald Dahl books, as well as Women and Biographies

Al the dog books (Big Red, Irish Red, etc) from Jim Kjelgaard. He wrote at least 20, I think

A couple of years ago I wrote this post on Young Reader's Day, so bear with a re-run:

I've been a voracious reader ever since I could string words together on a page, and I had some definite favorites as a child.

I blogged about some of my favorites on 12/15/05:

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I went to a British school for two years, and read "Jane Eyre" at the age of eight or nine. It remains one of my favorite books of all time other than the Bible...probably my very favorite.

I remember one Christmas, when I was nine or ten, I got several classics, including "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, and "Villette" by Charlotte Bronte. But probably one of my very favorites was a large anthology of Enid Blyton.

Enid Blyton was a British writer who was very prolific. I loved everything she wrote, including a series she did about a girl's boarding school called "Malory Towers."

[NOTE 11/14/06): I'm delighted to find that you can buy many Blyton titles new now, and they are also available new or used on sites like eBay and amazon.com.]

The anthology was a huge,almost coffee-table size book full of her stories. I loved that book and wish I knew where it was today. (By the way, I still have many of the hardcover books my parents gave me in those days, and re-read them every now and then...even the ones that were for children.)

(I blogged last year about my delight in finding one of my childhood favorites, "Red Knights from Hy Brasil," by Christine Savery.)

It was during this era that I also fell in love with Noel Streatfield's "shoes" books, C.S.Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, and anything by Louisa May Alcott.



Beirut also had a Christian bookstore in those days, owned by a British missionary society. They had a great selection of books from Moody Press (anybody remember the Danny Orlis series?) as well as many by British authors. Again, I still have many of those books.

And today I ordered another of my childhood favorites...

It's "Auntie Robbo," by Ann Scott-Moncrieff.

I've probably read this book at least once a year throughout my entire life. The problem is, my copy--yes, the paperback one my parents bought for me circa 1966--is coverless and missing the last couple of pages of the book.

The engaging, quirkily humorous story is about an eighty-something Scottish lady who is highly eccentric and stubbornly independent, and who totally refuses to act her age.

Seen through the eyes of her great-nephew Hector, who is a boy of eight or nine, Auntie Robbo is a highly admirable and fascinating character. The two live a carefree and rather undisciplined life in the Scottish hills, and Hector's perfectly happy with the status quo.

When the second wife of Hector's late father shows up to claim him as her own--Hector has never met this obnoxiously annoying lady until now--Auntie Robbo and Hector go on the run. Their adventures make for delightfully absorbing reading, even at my advanced age.

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I did get my copy of "Auntie Robbo," by the way, in very good condition, and thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it.