FirstBook polled a bunch of people on what book (or series) got them hooked on reading; below is the top fifty list. Just for fun, look it over and put a plus in front of those you remember reading (or being read) in your childhood, a minus in front of those you don't remember reading.
+ Nancy Drew series, by "Carolyn Keene"
+ Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr Seuss
- Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
+ Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
+ The Cat in the Hat, by Dr Seuss
- The Boxcar Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner
* Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
- The Poky Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey
+ Go, Dog, Go!, by P D Eastman
+ Are You My Mother?, by P D Eastman
+ Curious George, by Margret and H A Rey
+ Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
+ The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper and Loren Long
* Goodnight, Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
+ Dick and Jane series, by William H Elson
* Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary
+ The Bobbsey Twins series, by "Laura Lee Hope"
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
- Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
- The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
* The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley
- The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
+ Heidi, by Johanna Spyri
- The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
+ A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
* Harry Potter series, by J K Rowling
* Clifford the Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
+ Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren
- Anne of Green Gables, by L M Montgomery
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
- Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
+ The Hardy Boys series, by "Franklin W Dixon"
+ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr Seuss
* The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C S Lewis
- Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
* Winnie the Pooh, by A A Milne
- The Baby-sitters Club series, by Ann M Martin
+ Horton Hears A Who, by Dr Seuss
- Amelia Bedelia, by Peggy Parish
+ Hop on Pop, by Dr Seuss
+ Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs
* Encyclopedia Brown series, by Donald J Sobol
+ Mrs Piggle Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald
+ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
+ The Wizard of Oz, by L Frank Baum
* Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans
+ The Bible
+ Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson
+ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
* Ramona the Pest, by Beverly Cleary
I've varied the procedure slightly by placing an asterisk (*) in front of the books I've read, but which I didn't read as a child. (I'm using 12 1/2, the age at which I moved from Michigan to Illinois, as an easy cutoff date.)
And which book got me hooked? My sister says she used The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, to teach me to read when I was three; that's certainly the first book I remember. Other books I remember from early days are The Guns of Shiloh, by Joseph A Altsheler (I had a heck of a time convincing the school librarian that a second-grader was capable of reading that book); The Sinking of the Bismarck, by William L Shirer, the book that really got me interested in WW II, and by extension, history in general; and The People That Time Forgot and Thuvia, Maid of Mars, which - when I was ten - were my introduction both to science fiction and to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
H/T to Jen, quoting Blog from the Windowsill.
got it....
3 years ago
1 comment:
I like your addition of the asterisk, to add another level of detail. I have too poor a memory to know what I read when, but I'm impressed by people who remember in detail.
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