In honor of Children’s Book Week, I thought I’d list a few of my favorite childhood books:
Written by Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, The Poky Little Puppy was probably my all-time childhood favorite. I don’t know that I cared about the story much, but I loved the illustrations.
I don’t have a copy of Gus Was a Friendly Ghost (written by Jane Thayer and illustrated by Seymour Fleishman, but I remember liking it enough that I wrote my name in it (probably without permission; I considered all pink and purple books my property because those were my favorite colors, so logical…) I also remember the rat having a lot of personality, maybe being a bit rude at times?
Gus & the Baby Ghost, also written by Jane Thayer and illustrated by Seymour Fleishman, is another book that I’m pretty sure I wrote my name in. This is another book that I haven’t seen since I was six years old (we moved and I think the book got left behind). I loved the idea of there being baby ghosts, and I was fascinated by the idea of learning how to take care of babies from a book. I think this book inspired my later obsession at age 6 or 7 with a vintage copy of Dr. Spock’s baby book that I found on our home bookshelf.
I also remember loving a book about a kitten chasing its tail and sleeping in the sun, but I have no idea what the book was called.
Favorite stories from collections of stories whose titles are also forgotten include a story about the buds a Pussy willow branch coming to life as a bunch of tiny gray kittens and another story about dolls coming to life once their owners fell asleep. Anyone know the title of either story?
And yes, I was a girly girl (really the only one from six girls in my family) if this post hasn’t already told you that…
What favorite books do you remember from your childhood?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
The Poky Little Puppy was the 2nd book I bought for my son–because it was my favorite as a child too.
I also loved the Pokey Little Puppy. I think people remember that because we now have 3 copies, plus a puzzle! I had forgotten about the Gus books!
I have a terrible memory for this sort of thing, so sometimes it’s not until I see a book that I remember that I used to read it! But I do remember liking Harold and the Purple Crayon, Curious George books, Danny and the Dinosaur, and There is a Monster at The End of This Book (starring Grover). Later I too loved Beverly Cleary.
Hi again- forgot to mention that Enid Blyton was a British children’s writer. She was extremely prolific, and much loved there and in many of the British colonized countries. She is, however, sadly relatively unheard-of in the US. She writes about boarding school capers, mysteries/adventures, and fairies/pixies/elves/fantasy/children. E and J are too young for the former two genres, so we are reading all about the fairy world and naughty/good children now! I was very surprised that they would even sit through a story but they actually do, especially E. I think Emma might like some of the fairy stories but Johnny might have to wait another couple of years!
@becca, hmm it probably made it through Guatemala then…I’m pretty sure it was gone by France. Now that you mention it, I do remember something about ghosts visiting too. I thought that baby ghost was adorable.
I don’t know these books, but they all look cute :)
I wish I could remember as far back as when I had Little Golden books, too. Alas, I am too old. What I do remember was Enid Blyton. I still have my childhood Blytons and am reading them aloud with the girls. Here are some of what we are reading now with Emily (4.5 years) and Jenna (2.5 years):
http://bupbilla.blogspot.com/2009/02/reading-aloud.html
The Pokey Little Puppy is one of my boy’s favorites. I remember Gus and the baby ghost! I’m sure I can think of more but one that pops in my head is Ameilia Bedilia, I got that for E’s 4th bday, still makes me laugh. =)
There is one book that I learned to read with when I was little. I cannot remember the title, therefore I cant find the book. I remember the plot pretty well, I must have read it a billion times! Its about two brothers who try to find their mom the best mother’s day gift. It was such a cute book, I just wish I could find it.
I remember the Gus and the Baby Ghost book! So it must have made it through the first few moves… I adored that book! There were three other ghosts who visited, or something–a sad one, and old, and maybe a fat one? Something like that :)
Those are great books. I read so many books when I was a kid. I probably read those too. The ones that I remember the most are books that I read in 3rd-6th grade. I read the whole Babysitter’s Club series, Sweet Valley High, and a few Beverly Cleary books. My mom was also a teacher so we were all exposed to tons of books growing up.
I’m waiting for the day my daughters are old enough for the Ramona Quimby books. I couldn’t get enough of those. (BTW, my mom taught 1st grade so I have a lot of her books. I’m pretty sure I ran across one of the Gus books at Halloween…now I’m going to go to the basement to check on that).