Favorite Books for Children/Young Adults?

[Kay Henderson]

This week I reread for the umteenth time my childhood favorite, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I never fail to by charmed by the heroine's mercurial personality and talent for getting into scrapes. Like most good literature, it profits by rereading, for you get different things out of it as you approach it from different places in your life. There are a number of other books in the series, but the one I return to is the first.

When I taught, the book I enjoyed reading aloud most (and the students liked it too!) was Gary Paulson's Hatchet. In this tale, 13-year-old Brian is the sole survivor of a small plane crash in the Canadian woods. Over the course of weeks, he must use all his wits to live. Like Anne, Hatchet is a book so rich that the reader gets something new out of it with each rereading.

Anyway, rereading Anne got me to wondering what YOUR favorite books for children and/or young adults might be.

[Jazzmatazz49]

I just finished reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my second graders. They love that book, and they are about to begin Charlotte's Web on their own. Some others that I've read aloud are My Father's Dragon and The Whipping Boy .

[Grace]

I loved Johnny Tremain (an American Revolution story), Cherry Ames books (kind of like The Hardy Boys mysteries, only Cherry is a nurse), and I know I would have loved Harry Potter as a kid (I love them now as an adult!! ).

Gosh, there are so many more I loved, but I'm having trouble remembering the names of them??? One was about a kid who time travelled back to old New York city before it was named New York city. The currency of the time was wampum beads......I reread that one a million times (so why can't I remember the name then??!! ).

I'll post more as I think of them.....

[mcraig13]

For young adults--and me--Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy--the Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Also Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy--The Ruby in the Smoke, Shadow in the North, and The Tiger in the Well.

For older children--Katherine Paterson's books including Bridge to Teribithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Jacob Have I Loved.

[Molli526]

Little House on the Prarie. I am currently working my way through the series.

Harry Potter as well. I re-read the 5 books before starting LHotP.

[Molli526]

Thought of a few more...

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

James and the Giant Peach

[lisalee]

My favortie children's literature include Johnny Tremaine, The Outsiders, and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler .
There are so many others too!

Lisa

[eas11]

I know this was discussed here before, a few years ago, but I can't find the thread
Anyway, I loved The All-Of-A-Kind Family series, by Sydney Taylor.

Ellyn

[mbrogier]

My favorites were Johnny Tremaine, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to be followed by Charlie and the Glass Elevator. My favorite of the Anne books is Rilla of Ingleside. I also loved the Narnia series. Of course Mark Twain and Charles Dickens wrote some pretty good stuff, too.

[kjl]

Nancy Drew books were my favorites when I was young. I would lie in my bed in the morning reading, and could not put the book down until I was finished! Such good mysteries.

[slknight]

Add me to the list of those who love Johnny Tremaine. In fact, I'ved got a copy on my bookshelf. Also love all the Anne books; my favorite is the third one, Anne of the Island. I also really like a Canadian book called Prisoner of Louisbourg.

[Aesha]

I'm not sure how young you're thinking, but I loved "There's A Boy in the Girls Bathroom" by Louis Sachar, and the Wayside school books by the same author. ALso, though it was scary, my favorite book when I was yougner was Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. Man, I used to loooooove book orders from school- though my mom didn't, I think, because I always wanted too many. Heh.

[SueK]

I loved the Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew series.

DD1 (who will be 8 soon) likes The Boxcar Children, and books by Judy Blume such as Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Ramona the Pest, Double Fudge, etc. She also likes a series about the Bailey School Kids, or something like that. They are cute little mysteries.

[Peggy]

I agree with so many of the books already mentioned!!

I loved the Laura Ingles Wilder books... the "Little House" series and the Anne of Green Gables series.

Also, Gary Paulsen's The Hatchet and the follow-up book The River.

When I was really young, I loved the Beverly Cleary books. (FYI - not to be anal-retentive, but Ramona the Pest and the other Ramona books were written by Beverly Cleary, not Judy Blume.)

I also really liked Cheaper by the Dozen and Little Women.

In high school I loved the classics from England: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Dicken's Great Expectations and David Copperfield. I love literature from that time period!

Oh my, I getting very nostaglic!!

Peggy

[MrsReber]

I cannot remember who the author is, but my mom started me on a series called "The Keeping Days". It was great. It was set a while back and it followed on girl, Letitia. Later on in the series, they switched viewpoints and it was told through Letitia's neice. I really enjoyed the whole series. It's either at my mom's house or in my attic, just waiting for my daughter to read when she's old enough!

[Gilgamesh37]

Wow--I'm kind of surprised to see Johnny Tremaine listed so much. It was one of the few books from my childhood that I absolutely refused to finish. There was some scene (something with a blacksmith forge? someone burning their hand?) that grossed me out so bad that I refused to keep reading, even though it was a class assignment. Pretty much the only time this Little Miss Goodie Two Shoes bucked the teacher. Too funny.

Love love love the Naria chronicles. (we did a play of LWW in 4th grade, I was Mr. Beaver)
All the Moomin books by Tove Janssen
Phantom Tollbooth
Witch of Blackbird Pond
The Madeline L'Engle books--wrinkle in time et al
All the Nancy Drew and Happy Hollister books

[pinky]

I LOVE children's books - especially intermediate/young adult fiction.

My list is comprised of what I read when I was younger, but there are also some books that I read that I didn't REALLY appreciate until I was older - like 20.

I loved when I was younger:
From the MIxed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - actually, I even love that now. Now whenever I go to the Met, I think of all the magic the museum held for Claudia and Jamie and can't help but smile.

anything by Judy Blume - just found out they're going to make movies from her books, the first one being Deenie! Her stuff took me from being about 5 (Fudge) to an adult (Wifey, Summer Sisters) - love her!

The Ramona books - Ramona and her Father is probably my favorite - I love when she gets that nest of burrs stuck on her hair and her dad has to help her.

The Baby-Sitters Club, although for some reason they were in 8th grade when I was in 3rd, and when they finished the series like 3 years ago, they were finally graduating.... and I was an adult!

Harriet the Spy

All- of -a- Kind Family

The Outsiders is still one of my absolute favorites. I can quote the book pretty much verbatim



A Wrinkle in Time - when I reread it as an adult, I got so much more out of it - I probably shouldn't have tried to read it at 6 years old.

the Phantom Tollbooth had the same effect on me.

There are so many, it's ridiculous! I could go on forever. I think there are a lot more books when I was younger that made a really important impact on my life than when I became an adult.

[ccooney]

They've been mentioned but I just wanted to second:

CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia
and Madeleine L'Engle's Time Trilogy (Wrinkle, et al).

Also L'Engle's Many Waters and Ursula K LeGuin's Earthsea series.

[colleency]

Elementary School - The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, which was one of my dad's childhood books; Boxcar kids; Nancy Drew; The Little Princess; Watership Down.

Junior High/High School - Whatever Science Fiction I could get my hands on; Xanth series; anything by Mark Twain.

There were tons more. I spent a LOT of time during high school lunches in the library.

[knunes]

Three that I have really enjoyed reading to my daughter this year (she is 9, but I think up to 12 would enjoy them):

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards Andrews (yes, the Julie Andrews of Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame!)