1. Cowardly Clyde, by Bill Peet (and ALL things Bill Peet)
2. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig
3. Pierre, by Maurice Sendak
4. My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett
5. Frog and Toad, by Arnold Lobel*The "possibly" means that this list could very well change over time...there's so many good books to remember.
Ooh, memory lane, eh? That sounds fun. I don't know if I can come up with 5 books, but I'll try.
ReplyDeleteThere was a golden reader book called Arthur's Spaghetti Manners. I don't know who the author was. I was too young to care at the time. The book was about a young alligator learning his table manners. It taught me how to eat spaghetti (my favorite meal) the right way, and the wrong way. ^,^
Of course, all the Dr. Seuss books were the best. I loved those. I can't pick out just one, 'cause we owned a bunch.
Ooh, there was Pretzel, about a dachshund dog who grew so long he could literally make a pretzel out of himself. He tries winning the love of a black girl dachshund, but she's snooty and doesn't like long dogs. But she does in the end. ^,^
Hmm, I can't seem to remember any other highly influential children's books, so you'll have to be satisfied with three. Sorry.
Here are mine (as you said, subject to change):
ReplyDeleteFrom the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald
The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene
Awesome! Here goes!
ReplyDeleteThe Jungle Book (young reader put our by Disney it came with a record. For the younger kids you'll need to google that and find out what a record is.)
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (the entire black cauldron series was one of my earliest reads and I loved them.)
Watership Down by Richard Adams (huge but I read it when I was 12.)
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Funny that Kirk likes Dragon Books and Linda's are eclectic and mine are almost all animal books. hmmm.
ReplyDeleteAs for picture books, THere's A Monster at the end of This Book. Its Grover and he's scared f himself.
ReplyDeleteSadly as a middle grader I only remember reading Babysitters Club.
The first book that I couldn't put down was "The Outsiders" by SE Hinton. That book started my love of reading.
Little Black Sambo
ReplyDeleteWhere the Wild Things Are
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
The Poky Little Puppy
I don't know how much middle grade stuff I read as a kid. I'm sure there was a lot more than I remember. Anyway, these are the books I remember most vividly.
Okay, I put my five down before I read the other comments so I wouldn't be influenced, but now I've read them. I LOVED Watership Down, but I don't think I read that till junior high. That one reminded me of Where the Red Ferns Grow (the first book I ever cried over). I don't know why, but my school reading lists were not very good. I read most of my favorite books on my own with the exception of Pride and Prejudice which I had to read in a high school English class and remains one of my favorite books to this day.
Dude I can't believe none of you picked Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd what about the Magic School Bus?!?!?!
Yeah, those weren't ones that I read. I do, however, remember going to a book store with my family and seeing the Clifford books and wishing that I could get them, but I just KNEW my parents would say no so I never asked for them.
ReplyDeleteSad, I know. :)