@raclut. I knew those Betsy books well because my sister’s name was Betsy (goes by Elizabeth now)!
@Marylin, you brought, back old memories…my first grade teacher used to read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle to the class every day after lunch…best part of the day!
I liked SRA because it appealed to the Aspergery part of my brain. I only had it in sixth grade and it was infinitely better than listen to other people reading out loud from some horrible reader. Luckily I also have memories of 6th grade English that better. Our teacher read us a bunch of books I enjoyed - The Pearl and Booth Tarkington’s Penrod (boy does anyone read that anymore??!) are what I remember, the year before, both Winnie the Pooh and Silent Spring. We also had a reading log where I and another boy were in battle for top place, and a poetry memorizing contest which I won. I know I liked SRA, but I don’t remember a single thing from it. I did used to play school with my stuffed animals and somewhere I still have my SRA type questions I wrote for them.
The Dark is Rising, the FIRST book, was amazing. I found the rest to be such a disappointment, that even though they are in my bookshelves, I haven’t read them again.
That is the ONE exception on my list which is almost exclusively what I late in life realized was orphan-romance - A Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, and then as an adult, a full-on obsession with Harry Potter. I think my early experience with the disappointment of the follow up books in the Dark is raising series influenced my HUGE respect for JK Rowling in continuing to bang out amazing books at a pace worthy of Stephen King (with the exception of book 5 LOL). Thinking about it, even the DiR series was similar to orphan-porn in that Will Stanton didn’t REALLY belong in the family he was born into. Sure, he was theirs, but he was also so much more than that.
I vividly remember looking around my front yard, and watching my brothers fighting and throwing rocks at each other, my younger brother and sister tearing off their clothes and streaking around, and sitting on the stoop, just miserable, because I realized that they all LOOKED JUST LIKE ME. Which meant that there wasn’t some mistake, that I really belonged with this family, and I didn’t have “real parents” out there looking for me. It was a dark moment of the soul, and I was only 5. LOL
@intparent Yes to Green Knowe series. Love these. I will always reread Harry Potter series and another british series starting with Weirdstone of Brisingame(sp?). Also Wrinkle in Time. Love the Heinlein youth novels as well - Tunnel in the Sky, etc. Always fun to reread Trixie Beldon and Nancy Drew. Mixed Up Files also a favorite and one my D who is a teacher reads aloud to her 3rd graders.
@scmom12 I could never get my kids interested in Green Knowe. But I am charmed by that series. 
Yes to the Betsy-Tacy books and to Noel Streatfield - loved all the “shoes” books.
Probably my first chapter book was B is for Betsy but I don’t think I ever read them when I got older.
Also Elizabeth Enright - The Saturdays, the Four-Story Mistake.
I also loved books by Jean Little. She wrote about kids with disabilities and I found them to be thoughtful and eye opening. She was blind from birth.
I read the Five Little Peppers, probably multiple times because somehow I had a copy of it.
Some of these I have not really read as an adult, but such fun to remember all the wonderful books. I was an avid reader (still am) and spent many hours in the library. Too many books and not enough time.
In The Keep Of Time, Margaret J. Anderson. I like Scottish history and stories, and this one fits the bill!
The Neverending Story. The book is much more detailed than the movies. (which is usually the case)
The Hobbit. Because Tolkien.
@mom2and There was a Jean Little book called “Home From Far” that I liked. About a girl whose brother died in an accident, and her family adopted another boy with the same name. I tracked it down & reread as an adult.
The two Elizabeth Enright books I read and were charmed by were Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away.
Those were great also Garland.
I found this list and it is interesting to see how many of the books we have all loved made the list.
http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/07/07/top-100-chapter-book-poll-results/#_
And then there are some published when our kids were young. I recall reading books like Maniac Magee and The Watsons go to Birmingham, when my kids were reading them for school. A few of the “oldies” I never read like Swallows and Amazons or Where the Red Fern grows.
This list also made me remember my 4th grade teacher reading Charlotte’s Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to us after lunch.
The other book on this list I remember is Diamond in the Window, followed up by The Swing in the Summerhouse, which was another magic book I still remember.
College student here…
Don’t know if this was mentioned already, but “The Little White Horse” by Elizabeth Goudge is a book I have read about 20 times, and keep coming back to. It’s a slightly more obscure children’s fantasy book from the 1940s.
As someone who grew up with them, I definitely pull the Harry Potters off the shelf occasionally as well, especially the first, third, and last for some reason. Narnia is great, especially because I can plow through 2-3 of those in an afternoon.
I loved many of the books already mentioned, but these two, read in junior high, really affected me, and I still reread them every few years.
Randomly searching our library shelves, I chose Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien, and had my first experience being truly worried about our civilization. I think I lived in Pollyanna world before reading this one. (If you are tempted, read the book and do not watch the movie- it is nothing like the book.)
After this, I read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, which I snuck off my dad’s nightstand. It was equally eye opening and upsetting. Our town was not diverse and I had never considered that life from another point of view could be so difficult, unfair, and unequal.
@psychmomma I just reread Z is for Zachariah last year!
^ Me, too! I still like it as an adult, and it brings back my initial feelings from childhood.
I love this thread! So many good books mentioned.
One of my favorites that I read with my kids was The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.
Someone up thread mentioned the Bill Peet picture books! Favorites at our house!
Another favorite ‘little kid book’ is Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go.
Okay, reviewed that top 100 list in post #129. I’ve read 63 of them. And just added 5 to my TBR list to check out. (So I guess I’m not just rereading, but still reading new YA fiction!).
Has anyone read Treasure at Flying Spur? Another favorite of mine that I still have and have read again as an adult, but I suspect it is not widely known.
I love “children’s” books. One of the best parts of having kids has been finding the perfect read-alouds for each one at each age. It’s also been so fun to rediscover my old favorites.
But even before I had kids, I frequently read and re-read children’s and YA books, and I will continue when our kids are grown. It’s my way to unwind, to escape, to renew. Comforting, entertaining, thought provoking . . . And inspiring—maybe I’ll write one one day.
For those who are liking Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Headless Cupid is my favorite. I love the combination of spooky chills, classic teenaged behavior, and the healing power of family life.
I had a favorite when I was a kid–“Among the Pond People.”. It was illustrated with photographs and told stories of frogs and nymphs and water bugs.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Joy in the Morning
The Trumpet of the Swan & Charlotte’s Web (and later, EB White’s essays and NYer columns)
LOTR
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Sound of Music bios
Diary of Anne Frank
Autobiography of Helen Keller (not a children’s book, but I am/was big into history and biography and I got started early)
The Chosen and other Chaim Potok books (not so much YA, but I was interested in Judaism and I devoured Potok’s books)
Heidi (and last summer, I actually went to the town where the books were based and visited Heididorf!)
The Glory & the Dream by William Manchester (good gossipy 1300-page history of US from 1932-1972; first read it in 8th grade and many times since)
That’s a nice list in #129. I have read just over half, but 8 of the first 10 and 24 of the first 30. I realize that I haven’t read so many of the books published after the mid-90s, except for Harry Potters.
One thing I noticed: Charlotte’s Web is the #1 book ever (not arguing with that), but Stuart Little doesn’t even make the top 100? The books I have read on that list are all more or less wonderful – and I say that having already outed myself as not a big Little House on the Prairie fan from the other thread – but many of them are definitely a little less wonderful than Stuart Little. Other inexcusable omissions: nothing by E. Nesbitt (much appreciated in this thread) or Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island isn’t top 100??), and no Once and Future King.
In general, there are only two books on the list published before 1900, and only four more published in the first three decades of the 20th Century. Not quite balanced. Not to mention some severe Anglo/US-centrism.