Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week.
This week’s top ten topic is Top Ten Tuesday REWIND — pick a past topic you missed or one you want to revisit! Looking back at topics from before I found the wonderful world of Top Ten Tuesday, I decided to go with a list of the ten books (or series of books) that I remember loving the best, so long ago in the distant days of my youth…
1) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In early readings, I wanted to be Beth (go ahead, psychoanalyze me based on that little fact!), then envied Amy her world travels, but finally came to appreciate Jo in all her prickly glory. Pop culture references to Little Women always make me happy — like when Joey read it on Friends. Classic, in so many ways.
2) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. It just never gets old. I’m trying to convince my 10-year-old to read it, mostly so I’ll have a good excuse for rereading it myself.
3) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. Seriously, wouldn’t you love to run away to live in a museum? This books was responsible for my mad scribblings, throughout my youth, of a whole bunch of half-written stories involving running off to exotic locations and having crazy adventures.
9 of my top 10 childhood favorites — I can’t believe I still have all of these!
4) Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager. I read this book as a kid and loved it — but years later, all I could remember was that it was about kids entering into an imaginary world throught their toy castle in the playroom. I had no idea about the title or author and was never able to track it down, until my daughter came home with Half Magic by the same author, and something just clicked into place.
5) The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I just adored these books as a kid, and didn’t know enough at the time to be bothered by some of the outdated attitudes. I loved Laura and her family, the crazy struggles for survival in harsh circumstances, and of course, the love story between Laura and Almanzo. Whoa, those blizzards! I still get cold thinking about the kids trying to get home from school during a wild snow storm. Brrrrr.
Merry, Rose, and Christmas Tree June
6) Merry, Rose and Christmas Tree June by Doris Orgel. This story of a girl and her dolls just really stuck with me, and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I finally tracked down a copy. The fact that it’s illustrated by Edward Gorey just makes it even more of a win.
7) The All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor. My sister and I could not get enough of these books about a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of New York in the 1920s. Inspiration for many a game of make-believe at our house — we even asked to take on dusting chores so we could play the button game. (If you’ve read the books, you’ll understand).
8) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. Oh, come on, admit it — you cried when you read this one, right?
9) Tall and Proud by Vian Smith. I went through a phase where I read everything I could get my hands on about horses.* The only thing better than a horse book was a book about a girl fighting a dreadful illness. So what could be better than this terrific book (out of print now, I believe) about a girl with polio who learns to walk again for the sake of her horse?
*I felt like I should only include one horse book on this list, but it was a close call — so here’s my special little shout-out to the books of Marguerite Henry, most especially, Misty of Chincoteague, Stormy: Misty’s Foal, and Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West.
Horse books!
10) Light a Single Candle by Beverly Butler. In the same spirit as #9, this book about a girl dealing with blindness really resonated with my tween-self’s love of fictional heroines bravely battling illness, disability, or some other dramatic/tragic life event.
I didn’t think I’d come up with ten, but now that I’m on a roll, it’s hard to stop!**
**I realize that I excluded Judy Blume’s books, which should certainly be on this list — but since I did a whole post about Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret last year, I figure I’m covered already.
What are your favorite books from childhood? Share your childhood reading memories in the comments!
Brian Selznick is described on the title page as “a novel in words and pictures”, but that doesn’t really do it justice… I’ll just say that I was moved, much more so than I expected to be, and really relished the experience of reading this lovely book with my 9-year-old son. I’d recommend it for parents and children to read together, but also wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to adults to read on their own.
epic hero should be: noble, selfless, fearless in battle, utterly committed to his righteous cause.
From Codex Alera by Jim Butcher:
8) Jon Snow: I get the chills every time Jon repeats the oath of the Night’s Watch: “Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.” Jon has the power of his convictions, but he’s not afraid to shake things up. Again, no spoilers, but suffice it to say that Jon Snow is one of the main reasons I’m practically frothing at the mouth waiting for book #6 to show up. 
Bookshelf Fantasies 