Favourite Children's Books

What were your favourite reads as a kid? If you have children, what do you read to them now? Or as an adult, what children's books can you still enjoy?

 

Lots of Dr Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen were probably my 3 favorites

The illustrations are key to these books







just so WACKKYYYY

 

Mentioned in another thread: "The Iron Man" by Ted Hughes, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark" by Jill Tomlinson. Also used to love Enid Blyton!

 

Where the Wild Things Are was such a great book.
Loved, Sleeping Dragons All Around, I always thought it was so cool, and as I got a little older, I loved Little House on the Praries and The Bridge to Terabithia.

 

The Hungry Caterpillar
The Jolly Postman
The Chicken that could Swim
Child's play books (remembering grandad, danger kid etc)
I used to love anything that came from the Banana Book collection.

 

At various stages of my childhood: The Hungry Caterpillar, Meg and Mog, anything by Roald Dahl (except perhaps Matilda - never really liked that one quite so much, and his revolting rhymes weren't my cup of herb infused water) . Also loved The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings - though the latter wasn't strictly a children's book. More recently I've got into the Harry Potter series and, even though I'm a bit too old for it now, I will read it to its conclusion. Also I really enjoyed the His Dark Materials trilogy....

 

Ooooo yeah Roald Dahl, of course a favourite for many children. The irony of it being that he hated children!
Also, I didn't used to read these, but I loved being told Greek mythology as bedtime stories.

 

one of my faves was My Friend Mr Leakey by JBS Haldane, which probably dates me somewhat ...

 

Anything by Dr. Seuss
Anything by Shel Silverstein (especially Where the Sidewalk Ends & A Light In the Attic)

I loved when my mom used to read me Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Those were good times.

And I love the Harry Potter books. I don't think there is such a thing as "being too old" for them. I've got the first six and will be getting the next/last one when it comes out too.

 

Yeah! We're cool!:tongue:

 

Also remember really enjoying Treasure Island, read that lots....

 

the dark is rising series. that was beautiful. my dad bought me this compendium of shakespeare translated for small children. not as dull as one would think. it helped me later. babar, i loved my babar collection. i'm a shameless harry potter fan, too. growing up, if it had words on it, i read it. didn't even care. sometimes i would take soup cans into the bathroom with me to read.

i never really liked dr. seuss. but i ADORE shel silverstein. i just read The Giving Tree to my daughter, and she really loves it.

 

oh, yeah, and i love The Voyage of the Bassett, got that one for my daughter. it's so beautiful. And the Red Ranger Came Calling. the illustrations and the story are hilarious AND warming. man, i love childrens' books, especially the great big, beautifully illustrated ones. and pop up books.

 

I liked Jackanory - rather than reading books or haveing them read to me.

 

Maybe that explains your abysmal spelling!:tongue:

Serious point that - I think reading a lot as a child is what gives you a firm grounding in language, getting used to patterns of punctuation and word formation. It's something that's impossible to pick up in any other way.

But yeah, I also used to love Jackanory, such a great programme that was - and there's nothing like it anymore. Watching it again as an adult it still stands up as a great show - Kenneth Williams being a particular favourite.

 

oooh ... I forgot about Babar. I did love Babar as well when I was ickle.

The Giving Tree is a brilliant book!

Oh, also forgot to mention "The Bridge to Tarabitha" saw Crucified Dreams mentioned it and that became a BIG favourite of mine when I was a bit older (10ish or so). I absolutely loved it. Probably one of the first books to make me cry.

 

Well i never had anybody to read to me when i was a kid - as i came from a broken home and nobody had the time in the childrens home. So Jackanory was what i had to be content with. I also paid little attention at school - i was always 'average' and teachers hate 'average' kids imho. :nopity:

You are correct though - since i have been posting on forums my spelling and punctuation has improved [if you can imagine that to be true ] - that is through reading more - no doubt about it.

Well they have brought it back recently. Two versions infact.
I agree with you on Keneth Williams and it holding up well - even today.

 

Did anyone read Goosebumps books or Point Horror books?

 

Narnia was my bag.

 

sorry ... they didn't really come along in my generation (god now i feel old)
however i did love choose your own adventure books and encyclopedia brown.