A Small Victory

I wonder how many millions of kids have dreamed of stowing away inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on the book listed 4th?

Oh MEMEMEMEE!!! I literally DREAMED about it.

Someday, I plan to re-read Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" series.

I would like to re-read the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. The Hardy Boys also.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Thank you for the public service - I fucking loved that book but had forgotten about it. Didn't they go into a fountain to get change for food? And I think I remember the food came from an "automat," I hadn't run into that word before.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was my absolute number one. The rest of the Narnia Chronicles were also good, I thought.

The Hobbit was good before I read LOTR (which made the light tone of The Hobbit seem strange in retrospect). I really liked The Once and Future King.

The Dahl collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More was pretty kickass.

Hubris:

"Income, Claudia, income!"

(I can't believe I still remember that line from over 30 years ago.)

JFH,

Awesome quote!

I guess I should be honest. I used to devour every book I could get my hands on, including my sister's Harlequin novels when I was in elementary school. The first one I read was Heart of Stone by Janet Dailey ("Brock was adamant that his life-style and Stephanie's would never allow a relationship to grow. He was constantly traveling and led a sophisticated, jet-set existence. Stephanie was happy in her work at the quite New Hampshire inn").

I was forever warped by reading those things. I subconsciously believe that every relationship is supposed to start with the two people hating each other due to external circumstances, love then evolving aginst all odds, a subsequent gigantic mutual misunderstanding leading to tears and separation, then a stormy fight, then the rage dissolving into relief and a passionate embrace.

Not that that isn't healthy.

Pretty much the entire output of Daniel Pinkwater ought to qualify. [Although I had the misfortune of not encountering him as an actual child...]

Superfudge and Fudge-a-mania, but not Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing?

Pretty much what Michele listed along with the Xanth series (own 'em), anything about King Arthur. "Shadow Castle" by Marian Cockrell, "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle, "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. In jr. high I discovered a series by Michael Moorcock, "Elric of Melnibone" which I keep going back to as well.

The "Adventure" books by Willard Price,
Susan Cooper, Madeline L'Engle and best of all "The Weirdstone of Brisingamem" by Alan Garner.

Oh and an awful lot of Mike Moorcock and Perry Rhodan

• Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Ur-Lord and Unbeliever
  - the first trilogy was kick ass, the second trilogy sucked harder than the suckingest sucker that ever sucked.

• Piers Anthony - one or two of the early Xanth books, one from the 'Bio of a Space Tyrant' series.

• 'Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser' Series - Fritz Leiber

• Doon/Bored of the Rings - parodies from Harvard Lampoon that are simply outstanding.

• Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

plus, Crazy Mixed up Files and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

If a collection of old 'Omni' stories is available I'd like to read those - the story with the bugs of different colors that form societiesother and , the one where the guy is cloned and consciousness is sent into clones so he can die serially, the one where people end up volunteering to sit in chairs and have there optic nerves, auditory nerves, and finger tips cut off so they can spend their time thinking ... it'd be good to know the names of those stories.

For some reason I never quite bought into 'Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe' and, having reread Narnia recently with my older son, I still don't like it very much.

My favorites were the Freddy the Pig books by Walter R. Brooks. Talking animals, aliens, evil rats, robots, trouble, danger, gunplay, and a pig who was a self-styled detective. Also the three cows, Mrs. Wiggins, Mrs. Wogus and Mrs. Wurtzburger. Written at an easy-to-read level, and yet full of really good humor and thoughtfulness. It's also sprinkled with enough upper-level words to make a kid improve his vocabulary.

Totally friggin' awesome, and still amazingly interesting reading as an adult.

Danny Dunn series, anyone? Unfortunately, most of these books (like Tom Swift books of an earlier generation than mine) do not survive well into the modern era; most of the science was bad and had been disproven, even when I read them in the early 70s; still I loved 'em.

• The entire Bunnicula series by James Howe.
• The Vampire Files by P.N. Elrod.
• And, of course, also Ender's Game or anything else in that series by Orson Scott Card.

Oh yeah! And just about any "Choose your own adventure" book every created.

Came across this blog at random, so thought I'd post a quickie ...

"The Mad Scientist's Club," by Bertrand Brinley. What a great read.

Oh, God. Gotta love the "Wrinkle in Time" series, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Talk about a trip down memory lane. I'm going to have to raid my bookshelves tonight and get me some of that.

i bought the witch family for my brother a few years ago because i thought it was the one he remembered that he kept telling me about... but he said it was the WRONG witch family book. 'there IS no other witch family book', i yelled. and i kept and reread the book. still love it. and all the edgar eager and e. nesbitt books as well :)

I loved the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books. I would always get killed, of course, but what fun it was.

I have also read and re-read Lloyd Alexander's series about Taran- The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, Taran Wandered, the Castle of Lyr, and the High King. They were written in 1969, and I still like them.

Finally, to show my youth, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman started the Dragonlance chronicles back in the day, and I have worn those books out so much that I had to buy them again. Great stuff.

I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. They were right up there with Encyclopedia Brown. If I remember correctly, "Zork: The Forces of Krill" gave you the chance to cheat. At one point, one of the options involves an object (I forget what) that doesn't actually exist in the book. Of course, if you choose to cheat, the book nails you for it.

Yes! I adored From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and A Wrinkle in Time. I also religiously read series ranging from Animorphs to Sweet Valley High. Then there's The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and pretty much anything by E.B. White and....there are just too many others.

I loved the Edward Eager books, and so did my daughter. It was the book that finally motivated her to really read (at age 8.)

Fog Magic/Secret Garden

I didn't get to read Phantom Tollbooth till I read it to my girls earlier this year. Both loved it.

Momo/Neverending Story--but I read them when I was older...still great books

Hobbit/Lord of the Rings

Watership Down

I'll go post more on my blog.

The House with a Clock in its Walls, by John Bellairs, and the other two(?) books that follow. Loved 'em. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. The automated donut maker. Pardon Me, You're Stepping on my Eyeball by Paul Zindel.

For really little ones, the Frog and Toad series. And Mouse Soup. New classic toddler books include the Carl the rottweiler series.

And of course, the Narnia series, Phantom Tollbooth, and the Judy Blume stuff.

Jeff R. beat me to mentioning Daniel Pinkwater, but his books are still hilarious. I don't think I'll ever tire of The Snarkout Boys and the Avocodo of Death.

I came from a family of readers - we had bookcases lining the walls and we were never told, "You're too young to understand that book." I became a voracious reader; I usually had two or three books going at a time (still do), and my oldest son is the same way.

These were my favorites as a child/teenager:

The Phantom Tollbooth: Norton Juster
Encyclopedia Brown series: Donald J. Sobol
The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings trilogy: J.R.R. Tolkien
Gone With The Wind: Margaret Mitchell
Stranger In A Strange Land: Robert Heinlein
Chilhood's End: Arthur C. Clarke (I just found a copy of this in the secondhand bookstore we frequent to give to my daughter)
I Capture The Castle: Dodie Smith
Little Women/A Round Dozen/An Old-Fashioned Girl/Eight Cousins: Louisa May Alcott
The Betsy-Tacy Series: Maud Hart Lovelace
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: E.L. Konisburg
The Borrowers series: Mary Norton
Black Like Me:Robert Bonazzi
We Have Always Lived In The Castle: Shirley Jackson
Caddie Woodlawn: Carol Ryrie Brink

Ahhhhhh Michele. The Phantom Toolbooth is my favorite.

Jumping to Conclusions!!