I may have missed it, but I was totally into mythology in elementary school. I also loved The Once and Future King by T H White and several books about Merlin.
The Phantom Tollbooth; The Hobbit; A Wrinkle in Time; Watership Down; Flowers for Algernon
I read Island of the Blue Dolphins several times and gave a copy to my reading pal that I have been mentoring for the last 9 years when she was a rising 5th grader. I checked that out of the school library multiple times and had another book, Samantha’s Secret Room, that I also checked out repeatedly. As an adult, I called multiple used book shops using toll-free numbers (back before the internet) to get a copy of that one because I had loved it so much as a child.
I also loved The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. Our church library had so many different Nancy Drew titles and I would swap those out every Sunday. I think I also borrowed a number of Bobbsey Twin titles from that little library as well. I own about 8 Bobbsey Twin titles and started re-reading to see if I wanted to go there with D years ago and was taken aback by the dialogue, finding it a bit racist and sexist, so I never even tried to get D interested.
The Black Stallion books. Any horse book, really. Along with many of those already mentioned—Narnia,
Trixie Belden, Encyclopedia Brown, Little House, Anne of Green Gables, Marguerite Henry, Anne McCaffrey.
I also really loved Robinson Crusoe.
Oh gosh, how could I have forgotten Noel Streatfeild? I’ve read all the books I could find of hers including a fictionalized autobiography and an early adult novel.
You SRA fans might enjoy this article
https://bookriot.com/2017/05/04/a-box-of-nostalgia-the-sra-reading-laboratory/
Does anyone remember a paperback series of biographies from the 60s/70s? I think they were Dell and had a little picture of a horse in a circle somewhere on the cover? Loved those too!
And speaking of libraries, over Christmas break I visited my old neighborhood for the first time in 10+ years, and took my kids into my local library, which I probably hadn’t gone into in 35 years. So many memories!
I love this thread.
I just reread Nancy drew book about the clock, as someone mentioned that on this page. So Nancy and her friends are 18, but no mention of college. The two girls who are the unlikeable, snobbish ones, are 18 and 20? When their father loses his $ and their inheritance, they both have to go to work. Nancy is too good to be true but no racist remarks. So I guess I should reread another from the series, written later.
Some of you may like to know that my school still uses SRA and Scholastic Books are still around and very reasonable. You can even buy them online.
My sister is about to live my favorite Scholastic Reader books, Misty of Chincoteague and Stormy, Misty’s Foal.
Thirty five cents, if I recall. Sister and her daughter are going to Chincoteague in a few weeks.
Scholastic not only has the fliers at school but there is often a book fair once or twice a year. I’ve been to their warehouse sales and you can get books for 50 cents or $1. My aunt writes young adult books and it is fun (but kind of sad) to find her books in the bargain section.
The Nancy Drew books have been rewritten repeatedly on re-issue. When I was a little girl, I read my mother’s copies of a few of them; those would have been the original 1930s books. They seemed old-fashioned. “Roadster” was not a word in common use in my childhood, as it was in my mother’s childhood, for example. But that didn’t impair my enjoyment.
I enjoyed Nancy Drew books but one author that has not been mentioned is Carolyn Haywood. I remember in elementary school her stories based on the character Betsy were my favorite.
B is for Betsy
Back to school with Betsy
Betsy and the Boys
Betsy’s Busy Summer
Betsy’s Little Star
Betsy and the Circus
Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick
Betsy’s Play School
Betsy’s Winterhouse
Merry Christmas from Betsy
Snowbound with Betsy
Carolyn Haywood also had an Eddie series. Reading those books had me convinced that I would grow up to write my own books but that didn’t happen. I made sure to have my daughter read the Betsy series and I never got tired of reading them again and again.
What I liked about the stories is that they reflected simpler times. Summers off from school spent eating watermelon, waiting for the arrival of the ice cream truck, and playing with neighborhood children. One story was about the excitement of the first day of school and finding out who the class teacher would be. Another story was about how summer was so hot that the young boys tried to see if they could fry eggs on the sidewalk.
Does anyone but me remember The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew? I know I read it (or were there more than one?) several times. Mostly I remember the youngest little Pepper was named “Phronsie.”
My sister read the Five Little Peppers books. She had several, so it was a series. I don’t believe I was allowed to touch them.
So many familiar titles although it doesn’t sound like people have been rereading them all along but rather fond nostalgia. I still have my childhood copies of Misty and Sea Star, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Sonny Elephant (which appparently is a collectible), and Peter Pan.
When we visited my grandparents, we would read the Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift books from my mother’s childhood.
Edward Eager was the first author whose name I learned so I could read more of his books after I discovered Half Magic - one of my mother’s life lessons. When I was in high school, she sat down one day and read me the first chapter of Rebecca to get me to read the whole book. Although I certainly wouldn’t consider that a childhood book!
Did anyone else read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and her magical techniques for misbehaving children? The one that particularly sticks in my head when reading all the diet threads is the one with the set of tiny dishes that gradually grew bigger for the kid that refused to eat.
@Wellspring I loved the Five Little Peppers! I read my mom’s copies (actually they may have been her mom’s or grandmother’s–they were very old.) Funny how you remember a name–I still connect the name Jasper with those books, fifty years later.
I thought of two more!
“Homer Price” and “Centerburg Tales” by Robert McCloskey. Very clever books. I loved the doughnut machine stories.
I, for one, detested SRA. It had absolutely nothing to do with my process of figuring out how to read, and how to read better. All it taught me was that nothing interesting was going to happen at school.
The author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is Betty MacDonald who also wrote The Egg and I and other books about her family during the depression and after the war in the Pacific Northwest. Now those are books that I read as a teenager and still reread occasionally now.
I’m with you JHS. I hated SRA. I always read out of the top of the box by about the second week of school, just so I wouldn’t have to do it all year.