Thursday, October 1, 2009
My Childhood Favorites
Stephanie Faris chose Favorite Books from Childhood as the topic for this week's Group Blog.
My mom insists that I was reading by the time I was three. It's probably true because I remember reading chapter books during the six weeks I was in kindergarten.
(My mom taught me math, too, so I got to skip right up to 1st grade a month and a half into the school year.)
I loved books. I must have read Where the Wild Things Are and James and the Giant Peach about a million times each.
My grandma used to get so mad because I constantly had my nose stuck in a book. She would yell, "Why can't you look outside and enjoy the scenery?!" I never had a clever retort. I'd always just shrug my shoulders and go back to the spot where she'd interrupted.
I read a LOT of books as a kid. And almost every time those Scholastic book order forms came home, I'd immediately pick out a half dozen that I really wanted. My mom usually let me order two because you always got a third one free.
One day, in fifth grade, I found a book that I just had to have.
(Image courtesy of bscwiki.com.)It was the second in the series, and after I read it, I needed the other three. I was hooked. I wanted to join the Baby-Sitters Club.
I read every single book that came out between 5th and...I'd say around 9th grade. All told, I think I stuck with the series up to about book 45 or so. Plus there were the Super Special Editions and one or two mysteries thrown in there, too. I didn't finish reading the 100+ books that Ann M. Martin wrote because I just got too old for them, but part of me always wondered if Mary Anne and Logan ever got back together.
Of course, I also read Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, and I LOVED The Hardy Boys. But when I think back to my childhood favorites, I always think fondly of Kristy and Claudia and Stacy and Mary Anne and Dawn and Jessi and Mallory and all the rest. They were cool girls and around my age and I wanted to be just like them. Minus the lobster earrings.
What are some of your favorite books from childhood? What are some books you read with your kids now? Visit Steph in the City to add your link!
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OMG! I loved the Baby-sitters Club books too! I started with the Baby Sitters Little Sister series though. I was visiting my parents a couple weeks ago and heard a line from TV that caught my attention. It was one of their movies!! Although way out of demographic, I had to watch the rest : )
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think my sister read Baby-Sitters Club. She also had Cheerleaders and Sweet Valley High...those were slightly after my time, although I read them anyway. I loved YA romance even after I wasn't supposed to be reading it anymore!
ReplyDeleteI never really got into the Babysitters Club even though I tried...I just wasn't that kind of girl no matter how much I tried to force myself to be. I loved the boxcar children...i couldn't get enough and would love to read it again!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at your grandma yelling at you to get outside . . . my younger sister would get soooo mad at me, because I was always engrossed in a book. I didn't dare set it down to go to the bathroom, because she would take it and hide it—refused to return it until I went outside with her and played!!
ReplyDeleteI read all the Nancy Drew Mysteries and thought I would grow up to be like her...LOL
ReplyDeleteHi Karen
ReplyDeleteOooh, I forgot about The Babysitters Club! I loved those to!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Love your blog to! Am now a follower!
LBM xxx
P.S - Good luck with getting your work published!
I read a ton of the Baby-Sitter Club books. They were some of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble when I was a kid getting into reading. It was until Junior High that I really started reading and it was Sweet Valley High that I loved! hahaha. Then I got hooked on the Christopher Pike books.
ReplyDeleteI was addicted to Nancy Drew. I read ALL of them. And the Hardy Boys. And Encycolpedia Brown. How did I not become a detective?
ReplyDeleteSo I never read Baby-Sitters Club, probably because my mom never got them for me.
ReplyDeleteBut I read Boxcar Children series, which I loved as a kid.
Like you, I read a million books as a child (and still try to). I read in the bathroom, and would hog the bathroom forever, reading in peace.
Very clever idea for a post! Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteI always liked to read as a kid, but I became an AVID reader when I was about 10 and we moved to Colorado. For a kid from San Diego, Colorado winters were brutal. It was too cold to play outside more than 30 minutes, we were also dirt poor and couldn't afford much entertainment, so as a family, we would go to the library every week and get books. I would check out about a dozen books at a time and go back for more each week.
ReplyDeleteAt that time, I was really into Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and the Ralph S. Mouse books.
As a kid, I loved Judy Blume and Bevery Cleary. Also loved The Hobbit, but never got into the rest of the series. And Harriet the Spy.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher though, I've found more and more "children's" books to love. Holes is one of my favorites EVER, and the movie just didn't do it justice. Read it aloud to every class I had until the movie came out.
I loved the Sweet Valley books. I just read earlier this week that Diablo Cody is doing a movie of them. OMG!
ReplyDeleteYAY! I think I've read nearly all of these books. I might want to start again. haha
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I love BSC!!!!! (Well, I used to...) lol. I wanted to join their club when I was younger.
ReplyDelete