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| The Favourite Book. Honor C. Appleton (1879 – 1951, English) |
This is Children's Book Week, so I'm bringing back a post from the archives about my favorite childhood books. What were yours? Let me know in my comments section!
I've been a voracious reader since I was able to string words together. Interestingly, I don't have much of a memory of the books that were read to me before I could read myself, but I vividly remember the books I loved as a child.
Here is a nod to some of them.
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, is the first full-length book I remember reading. I was eight years old.
This is a picture of the actual version I read. It was an abridged version, but I loved the illustrations. In my mind, that is still what Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy look like.
My Aunt Jean (sadly no longer with us) had recommended it to me, saying "You'll cry your eyes out and back in again!"
This was just before my family went to Beirut, Lebanon as missionaries. We were in New York City for several days before our ship sailed, and my parents bought me beautiful hardbound copies of "Little Men" and "Jo's Boys." I was in heaven.
This book laid the foundation for my lifelong love of The Chronicles of Narnia. I saw British friends reading it at Manor House School in Beirut, and that sparked my interest.
Even as a child, I was able to see the spiritual parallels. Years later, I made sure my own children read them.
I received this book as a Christmas gift when I was a little girl, and it was a treasure trove for me! I also loved Blyton's "Mallory Towers" series.
I received this book as a Christmas gift when I was a little girl, and it was a treasure trove for me! I also loved Blyton's "Mallory Towers" series.
This was the first Noel Streatfield book I read, but I think I probably ended up reading all of them. They were all about children who were very talented, either as skaters, dancers or actors. I enjoyed them immensely.
I was delighted when the books were actually mentioned in the movie, "You've Got Mail."
Those are just a few. You can read here about my other favorites, Auntie Robbo and Red Knights from Hy Brasil...and here about what my love of a childhood book has to do with a murder in an English village!
Reading enriched my childhood and continues to do so today!
What were YOUR favorite books as a child?
2 comments:
Both my parents were voracious readers, so I got read to a lot when I was very little. I loved Elsie Holmlund Minarik's Little Bear books (with charming illustrations by Maurice Sendak!). I remember being enchanted by the Beatrix Potter books. I saved Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddleduck, Squirrel Nutkin, The Tailor of Gloucester and Tom Kitten and loved reading them to my son when he was a tot. How gratifying to see that he loved them too, as well as Crockett Johnson's Harold of Purple Crayon fame in various adventures, Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library (I think I can *still* recite Chicken Soup with Rice and parts of Pierre) and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House In the Big Woods. I also loved a couple of old books called When Life Was Young on the Old Farm in Maine and Haps and Mishaps at the Old Farm by a C.A. Stephens. They had belonged to my aunt and were published in 1912 and -13, AIR. I don't remember how old I was when my mother did this clever thing: she started reading Little Women to me and, when I was hooked, she stopped and just left the book out. So *naturally* I had to find out what happened to out girls (I wanted to be Jo, AIR) and I started reading all by myself and then proudly updating my mother on what was going on in the March household. Then I went on to Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books, Louisa May Alcott's Little Men and Jo's Boys (my big ambition was to open an orphanage for a while afterward) and Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. I also enjoyed books written by my mother's friend Jean George. The Hole in the Tree was my favorite.
Then at about age 12, I started reading what I considered more "adult books" like Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, the wonderful autobiography of Helen Keller (possibly my inspiration in becoming a speech therapist) and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
I loved Heidi, Little House On The Prairie series, The Secret Garden, Nancy Drew Mystery Series - that's just a few. I've always been an avid reader!
~Cecelia Dowdy~
http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/
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