The Secret Garden and Little Women.

Half Magic, and the sequels.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Harriet the Spy

Pippi Longstockings

My favorite all-time book is The Phantom Tollbooth. It, along with Dr. Seuss (deliciously read aloud by our dad) seeded or fertilized my delight for language and wordplay.

Black Beauty. My mother read it to me before I could read, and I read it so many times I had the first chapter memorized. Another book I remember was Toby Tyler, about an orphan boy who ran away and joined the circus. It was so sad, it made me cry.

The Pokey Little Puppy was a favorite as a book that I read over and over again in kindergarten. As a young elementary school reader I loved Judy Blume books. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great.

Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupéry

All of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books

I had a book of short bedtime stories given to me by my godmother. It was called The big book of bedtime stories. Or the big book of fairy tales. Or something like that. There was a story for every day of the year. Some were more than one part. All i really remember was that it was big and blue and there was a story about a talking donut and his story was 12 parts. One for each month. I imagine it detailed his adventures in trying to avoid getting eaten. I loved that book. I asked my mom about it when my nephew/godson was born, as i wanted to give it to him. She told me she had donated it. :( I have been trying to find a copy ever since. The godson in question is turning 9 this Wednesday though, and likely won't find it as fascinating as i did. I would still like to have it though. I haven't thought about that book in a really long time.......off to ebay!!!!!!

I read all the time, but particularly remember my grandmother sending me ‘Heidi’ which I loved. Then Little Women and of course I read all the Nancy Drew. I didn’t read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn until I was a bit older but I loved that book.

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys

I enjoyed the Old Mother West Wind series and the volumes of Grimm Fairy Tales.

Little Women

Little Men

Paul Bunyon stories

Uncle Remus tales

The Yearling

Black Beauty

Stories by O'Henry

Comic books: Katzenjamer Kids; Roy Rogers; The Lone Ranger; Archie; Superman

Phantom: Son of Grey Ghost by C.W. Anderson

The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

A favorite would have to be Charlotte's Web, but I did enjoy reading the Goops and How To Be Them. Later I did read quite a few Nancy Drew and then consumed all the Sherlock Holmes.

Growing up there was 2 large bookcases filled with all the children's series books of the time (1930's and 40's) in my home. Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Maida's Little House. So many books, I loved reading as did my siblings. When I was about 10 my Mom enrolled me in a book of the month club. The book I think back to the most is "Step To The Music" by Phyllis Whitney. These days, I can picture the covers and story line of so many of my so loved books, but can't come up with the titles.

1. charlotte's web
2. trumpeter swan
3. harriet the spy
4. little house on the prairie series

looks like Houzz has done another update!! "ordered list", small print while typing & video!

All of the Heidi books, and everything Louisa Mae Alcott wrote.

I'm going to go back to the my earliest favorite books. I was probably 2 or 3 years old.

We only had a few books at home but I recall one about "a little brown bear"and a nursery rhyme book. Later I remember a book about a dog who became an obedience champion. When I was 10, I spent mornings in the library while my mom worked at a bank. After I read Nancy Drew, Eight Cousins, Black Beauty & Lassie (which made me cry), the kid's room was boring, so I began reading the classics upstairs and that's where I found Pride & Prejudice (my all-time fav). I read all those books when I was way too young to understand them. I didn't discover any of the other classic children's books until I went to college and they were mentioned in a literature class. I read everything then and was captivated. Yay books!

All of them. My favorite was the dictionary (we must've had some really souped up version because it had all types of indexes) and encyclopedias. My favorites to read to my son were Tawny, Scrawny Lion and How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long. His favorites to hear were the Velveteen Rabbit and Where the Wild Things Are (long before the movie. He hated the movie. He often hates movie versions of his favorite books. How normal!). If I never read that book again I'll be fulfilled ;) "That very night in Max's room a forest grew.."

I think he really liked Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus more than he let on because he was always making references.

@ 3yo: It was a little golden book, about a kitten falling into a can of blue paint. @ 6 yo: Little Mermaid & The Emperor's New Clothes. @ 8 yo: Jungle Book.@10 yo: The Hobbit

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Rob, if I were a little child now I think my favorite would be the Pigeon books! Soooooo funny!

The Winnie the Pooh books are probably my earliest memory, followed by Grimm's Fairy Tales (which gave me a few bad dreams!!), both read to me by my parents. After I began to read on my own, it was no holds barred - I read everything I could get my hands on and begged to be taken to the library. It was a long time ago and I don't remember more than just a few but I did read (and collect) all the Nancy Drew's and Hardy Boys mysteries, Cheri Ames, Student Nurse. And because I was seriously into horses as a young girl, I read all the horse stories I could find - Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, The Black Stallion, National Velvet, Misty of Chincoteague, King of the Wind.

I also remember developing an interest in Mark Twain and John Steinbeck as a pre teen........I have a distinct memory of reading Of Mice and Men in our old basement rec room in the house we moved away from when I was only 11 or 12.

I also was crazy about all of the Black Stallion series! How could I have forgotten that?

My daughter was also a reader/read to -- I think she was around 9 when we both discovered the books by Edward Eager (she loved Half Magic) and through him, those by E. Nesbit (The Story of the Treasure Seekers and others) and those are now among my favorites also.

I was unaware of the Chronicles of Narnia until the adaptation on PBS aired in the late 80's. Another favorite series now.

I think that my parents really didn't emphasize getting us "children's" books and so I read a lot of the books and magazines they had, or my older siblings had, plus I was another who liked to browse the encyclopedia.

Dr Seuss and Mrs PiggleWiggle :) I also read the secret garden but I think I was a pre-teen/teen at the time. My mom also bought me a set of books that came with tapes to listen to and read along. I couldn't even begin to remember what they were called.

Read just about anything I could get my hands on - still do. I read all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books, Annie Oakley, Black Beauty, Zane Grey. I had a BIG book of children's stories that I read and reread many, many times. When I was in Junior High, Mother and I would walk to the library and each one of us would pick out 3 or 4 books to read each week.

First books I remember truly liking was the Frances series. "Bread and Jam for Frances", etc. All of us were big readers, my parents took us to the library just about every Saturday until we left the nest.

Being able to browse the little kid's book section again was one of the best things about becoming a parent. Picture books for the littlest ones are so soothing. "Grandfather Twilight" was a favorite of ours.

Lily316 - I didn't know anyone else even knew of the Uncle Wiggily books. They were at my Grandparent's house and I loved them! (The bad pipsesewah)

I think I was 6 and during the summer I read my older brothers science and history books. I was fascinated. He was in grade 8, I think.

The Boxcar Kids

The Door in the Wall

I have no memories of being read to. All the books I can think of are ones I read or that I read to my children so they are children's books but not necessarily read when I was a child. Ramona the Pest, Encyclopedia Brown, Charlotte's Web, Junie B Jones,Dr. Seuss. Animal Ark;

Baum's Oz books (all of them), and The Little Engine that Could (I kept a copy in my office when I worked for AT&T).

I love this thread! Too many for me to count - Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, Summer at Buckhorn, The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew, To Kill A Mockingbird (as I got older). Right now as an adult I have a current favorite 'childhood' book - The One And Only Ivan.

Nicole, that would be Color Kittens. Many of thise popular Golden Books are still in active reprint. There is another sweet one about the bunny who finds an egg. Can’t remember the name but the illustrations are lovely.

My favorite was The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I also liked another book by Rob White which is not very well known, the Lion’s Paw.

Oh, I loved The Black Stallion. I used to play-act the book with my brother's black stingray bicycle as the horse. My bike was red, for "Big Red", another horse book.

I still have all my childhood books. One book that I loved was a book my friend across the street from me had, a huge alphabet book. The pictures in it were wonderful. I also liked the school books we had like Mr. Whiskers. I loved Mary Poppins, Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew. Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables. Five LIttle Peppers. We had a set of Beatrix Potter books with all the little animal sketches. As I got a bit older I started reading the classics like Jane Eyre, Little Women, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn. I really loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and still do.

All the Little Golden Books when I was a young child. I'm not sure much else was available at that time (born in 1943), at least not in the midwest (DH grew up in the East and had far high quality books). When I was about 9-10, I discovered Nancy Drew and loved them. Then the Janet Lambert books captured my heart - oh my but I loved those books! As a younger teen, I adored The Yearling.

BPath, was 'Big Red' about the racehorse Man O'War? If so, I had that one too!

Heidi, and the Grimms and Anderson Fairy-tales.

OklaMoni, I liked Heidi, too. When a housing development went up downthestreeet, all the excavated dirt was put in a huge pile. As the grass grew in it, I play-acted Heidi on it, climbing the Alps. Heidi triggered my lifelong love affair with the Alps.

Grimm and Andersen were and are just a little too weird/saddening for me, though there are some sanitized versions that I can handle.

raee, I don't recall if my Big Red was about Man o' War lol! I remember that I loved such a book but for the life of me I can't remember the story, which is odd because I remember a lot of my childhood faves. Hmm, I wonder why I can't remember? I don't own it anymore, either. Maybe he was pushed out of my memory by Lucky Lucky White Horse, and The Crooked Colt, and The Last Pony, and...

I loved The Golden Books when I was little. The Color Kittens, and especially one called Busy Timmy. Oh, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. I also liked Little Black Sambo but never felt it was racist, I was too young. I just remember thinking that butter made from melted tigers would be delicious. Of course now I recognize that the racial slurs were dreadful.

i read every Bobbsey Twins book and I’m sure every book written about horses. I never liked Dr Seuss so much except Bartholemew And The Oobleck. Loved that one.

i loved Gone With the Wind and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was lucky to have a library within walking distance so I always had a reading book, which is what we called them to distinguish them from text books, which we called schoolbooks.

We read a lot in my family, my mother was a major reader and we were taken to the library every two weeks with grocery bags to bring home the stacks of books we selected. I read everything. My first literary foray however was getting into the book case at my grandmothers where all my mothers childhood books were shelved and wrecking havoc at the age of an unsupervised two. We owned all the golden books for the little ones and tons of picture books and the book of Knowledge that had short stories and tales and Nancy Drew who I despised(why did her boyfriend Ned or her dad always have to save her?) but read anyway, we had a series about some silly girl named Penny, oh crimeny the Happy Hollisters! I loved Little women and the rest of the books but it hurt my soul that even Jo threw in the towel and joined female subjugation in the end. However my favorite book for reasons that I don't understand was Lost: A Moon by Paul Capon. It is an obscure little Scifi classic about some kids taken to Phobos a supposed moon of Mars by an ancient alien space craft who have to figure out how to get back home. I read and reread it. DH got me a copy a couple of years ago and it holds up as a story but I still don't know why I was so enamored of it.

We had a large family and older kids were expected to read to younger ones. I don't remember learning to read. My mother put no limits what so ever on what you read at any age.

ETA: One of the funniest memories of books was my least brother's desire to do to school with the rest of us. He would stand in line with us but got left behind every day(we got picked up at our gate) so one day he having worked it out in his 2 1/2 year old mind went out to stand with an arm load of golden books thinking that having books must be the key, poor kid.

My mother being a teacher saved some of the discarded Dick and Sally books she had when she taught 1st grade. She taught me to read when I was four years old. I reread those first grade books over and over. I was so happy when I got to 1st grade and there were new Dick and Sally books! When I opened my reader I was so disappointed!! New cover and picture illustrations, but the same words. I was mad and complained to my teacher which got me in trouble with my mom.

The first thing I ever read by myself was "The Velveteen Rabbit". More a story than a book, I think. My favorite books as a child were Walter Farley Black Stallion series, and Jim Kjelgaard books. Also Albert Payson Terhune Lad a Dog series. Also loved Where the Red Fern Grows and The Voice of Bugle Ann. I loved animal books.

Bpath. There was an older book titled “Big Red A Wild Stallion”. By Rutherford Montgomery. The more recent book was about Secretariat.

I also read all the horse and dog books I could find along with Nancy Drew, Happy Hollisters, my brother’s Hardy Boys and the We Were There series.

Before I could read I remember going through our World Book encyclopedia - I guess it was just a picture book for me. And like dedtired my favorite little book was Little Black Sambo. And of course as a kid I didn’t recognize the derogatory tone but was entranced by the colorful illustrations and the tale of the tiger turning into butter and all of those pancakes.

We had a collection of books called Childcraft. There were volumes with fiction stories, poems, non-fiction, tales from around the world like folk tales and fairy tales, all kinds of good reading. I loved those. I also liked the readers at school, so many stories in one book! And anything my older brother was reading for school, I grabbed next.

We had a math book in 8th grade where every chapter began with an appropriate passage from Alice in Wonderland. I never did understand math but I did memorize all those passages lol. My grade school history books often had stories inset on the page. I never liked reading the history (the politics, the battles!) but if something was presented in a story it sank in.

When I was small, my mother read "Mother Goose Book of Nursery Rhymes "... I memorized every one of them .

My Mother read me "How the Grinch Stole hristmas' when I was about five. I later loved the TV cartoon version voiced by Boris Karloff. Later I read "The Luck of Daphne Tolliver".