The Wonderful World of Children's Lit

[Prairie Rose]

I didn't see a thread about children's books. Who could ever forget Beverly Cleary's books about Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and Socks? (A couple of years ago, I felt a profound thrill of happiness when my young nephew won a paperback copy of Ribsy in school.) How many hours spent in gales of laughter at the antics of Amelia Bedelia? In awe of the almost musical journey of The Runaway Bunny? I could go on and on, but I will yield the floor...

[OtterMommy]

I am a huge Beverly Cleary fan.  I loved her books as a kid and couldn't wait to read them to my kids when they were old enough--and, a bonus...there were books I read to the kids that were new to me.  I think the last 2 Ramona books were published after I had aged out of them, but was able to enjoy them as readalongs to my children!

[dubbel zout]

I bought a couple of Beverly Cleary books in the past few years that were favorites of mine when I first read them: Fifteen and Mitch and Amy. Cleary was so good at capturing adolescent behavior in a realistic and sympathetic fashion.

[Prairie Rose]

I also have a big spot in my heart for Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw. When I first read it (I believe in 5th grade), I was struck by the fact that this book told a story in the form of letters and a journal.

[Spartan Girl]

Joining in on the Beverly Clearly love. The Ralph and Ramona books were a fundamental part of my childhood.

As were the Amelia Bedelia books—I take things literally, but not to the same extent she did lol. Gosh, what else did I remember reading? There were so many: Frog and Toad, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, The Berenstein Bears…

Edited February 27, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[Prairie Rose]

My sister wasn't and still isn't a big reader, but she loved Amelia Bedelia. Who didn't laugh out loud when she was told to make a date cake and cut out the dates from a calendar before putting them in cake batter? Or the time she played baseball and stole home plate (aka a dinner plate from home)? Why do I feel she was a bad insurance risk? 😂

Does anyone else remember the Miss Nelson books? Miss Nelson is a meek pushover of a schoolteacher who finally goes to creative (and most likely cathartic) measures to control her unruly class.

Going back to Ramona, I just love that she named her doll Chevrolet. Even when she got bigger, she thought it was a beautiful name. 😀

Edited February 26, 2022 by Prairie Rose

[Prairie Rose]

10 Amelia Bedelia-isms

[Annber03]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

As were the Amelia Bedelia books—I take things literally, but not to the same extent she did lol. Gosh, what else did I remember reading? There were so many: Frog and Toad, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, The Bernstein Bears…

All of these were a big part of my childhood, too :D. When I worked at a library, and later, at a bookstore, it was such a thrill when I'd see kids buying those books. Just so cool to see that stuff from my childhood still resonated with kids all these years later. 

I also remember loving the Bunnicula books, and Wayside Stories, and the Magic School Bus series, too. 

[Shelbie]

I loved Betsy, Tacy and Tibbs and All of a Kind Family.

[Prairie Rose]

I still have the paperback copy of Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup and Rice that my grandmother gave me for my 6th birthday! Carole King set it to music and included it in Sendak's Really Rosie special.

Does anyone else remember Jack Prelutsky? He wrote many books of silly poems for kids. I saw him in person back in the late 1980s when he was the special guest at my school district's Young Authors Conference. He sat in the middle of the gym of my future high school, singing silly songs and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. We kids sat in a circle around his chair. I still have the copy of It's Valentine's Day! that he personally autographed for me that day.

Of course, I remember the Berenstain Bears and their books on morals. The book about cleaning their room was a popular one in our house. 😂

[Annber03]

8 minutes ago, Prairie Rose said:

Of course, I remember the Berenstain Bears and their books on morals. The book about cleaning their room was a popular one in our house. 😂

Same :D. We even had a few VHS tapes of the cartoon series and that was one of the stories on there. 

I also remember the one about Brother and Sister getting in a fight, and the one about the broken lamp. 

[Prairie Rose]

4 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Same :D. We even had a few VHS tapes of the cartoon series and that was one of the stories on there. 

I also remember the one about Brother and Sister getting in a fight, and the one about the broken lamp. 

The Amelia Bedelia and Berenstain Bears series were both continued by a descendant of the original author(s) after the authors had passed on. Peggy Parrish's nephew Herman took over the AB franchise. Michael Berenstain, son of Stan and Jan Berenstain, co-wrote the Berenstain Bears books with his mother upon the death of his father. After the passing of his mother, Michael took over sole authorship of the books.

[BlackberryJam]

Did anyone read Wylly Folk St. John? I loved her books.

[Prairie Rose]

1 hour ago, BlackberryJam said:

Did anyone read Wylly Folk St. John? I loved her books.

I don't think I ever did. I googled her and the books (mysteries) look interesting. 

I always loved the Little Golden Books. Remember this classic?

[Annber03]

Ooh, yes! I had that book :D!

[Prairie Rose]

Of course, how could we forget Judy Blume's Fudge books? I always thought that the Hatcher brothers and Beverly Cleary's Quimby sisters would have gotten along famously. Ramona and Fudge would have wreaked all kinds of havoc while Beezus and Peter would have started a support group for beleaguered eldest siblings!!

[Annber03]

Oh, I loved the Fudge books. They were hilarious. 

[Prairie Rose]

1 minute ago, Annber03 said:

Oh, I loved the Fudge books. They were hilarious. 

"Eat it or wear it!!" 😉😂

[smittykins]

I remember being SO mad on Peter’s behalf when his mom blamed him for Fudge jumping off the monkey bars, even though she’d left Sheila in charge(and his mom later apologized).

ETA:  and I always wondered how their parents went from giving their first son the common name of Peter Warren, to Farley Drexel for their second, and later Tamara Roxanne for their daughter. Yeah, probably Rule of Funny.

Edited February 27, 2022 by smittykins

[Snow Apple]

9 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Did anyone read Wylly Folk St. John? I loved her books.

I found a copy of The Secret of the Seven Crows at a library sale a few years ago and was so excited. I read that over and over as a child. I also loved The Ghost Next Door.

[Prairie Rose]

1 hour ago, smittykins said:

ETA:  and I always wondered how their parents went from giving their first son the common name of Peter Warren, to Farley Drexel for their second, and later Tamara Roxanne for their daughter. Yeah, probably Rule of Funny.

Peter also wondered how he had gotten so lucky as to be nickname-free while his siblings were dubbed Fudge and Tootsie in Superfudge. 😂

[dubbel zout]

I loved Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes but couldn't get into the others in the series. I also deeply impressed everyone around me when I identified the book before Meg Ryan did in You've Got Mail, heh.

[Spartan Girl]

Ooh, thought of some more I loved! The American Girls series, Magic Attic Club, Boxcar Children, Hank the Cowdog, and the Eric Carle books like The Very Hungary Caterpillar. 

And yes, I did have an American Girl doll, plus the outfits and subscribed to the magazine.

[SusanM]

Did anyone else read series books like Cherry Ames, the Dana Girls, Kay Tracey etc?  I got boxes of books from my Mom and various aunts so devoured all these older series that were mostly long out of print by the time I got them.  I think Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were the onyl ones still being published at that point. 

Also loved the Famous 5 and the Adventure books by Enid  Blyton.  Now those were ones I re-read a few years ago and could really see why they came in for so much criticism.  Talk about racist and elitist!  But honestly that went right over my head as a kid!

 

[Prairie Rose]

2 hours ago, SusannahM said:

Did anyone else read series books like Cherry Ames, the Dana Girls, Kay Tracey etc?  

My mom, as a student nurse (who is now a retired RN), bought several Cherry Ames titles and still has a couple. I read and enjoyed them. 😀

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:59 PM, Shelbie said:

I loved Betsy, Tacy and Tibbs and All of a Kind Family.

For some reason I was never aware of Betsy-Tacy (and indeed until today assumed that Betsy-Tacy was the name of one child), but I loved All-of-a-Kind Family and constantly remember/bring up events from those stories -- remember Henny getting a tea stain on Ella's white dress and Mama saving the day and dying the whole thing with tea to make it as good as new and better? The Library Lady kindly coming up with a payment plan so they can pay the fine for a lost book? Charlotte and Gertie buying candy and eating it with complicated ceremony? Mama hiding buttons to gamify the chore of dusting? The traumatic incident where I think it was Sarah refused to finish her soup at one meal and was served it at each subsequent meal until she ate a spoonful and was then allowed to eat normally again? It was also novel for me because I did not know any Jewish children in my neighbourhood, so I remember being especially taken with the celebrations for Sukkot. I was a little disappointed when I picked up All-of-a-Kind Family as an adult and found the language a little too simple to enjoy as much.

Thinking of little girl friendships, I always really loved The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes with the framing device of Amy and Clarissa.

I also remember really being taken with From Anna by Jean Little, about a girl whose family moves to Canada from Germany before WWII.

8 hours ago, SusannahM said:

Also loved the Famous 5 and the Adventure books by Enid  Blyton.  Now those were ones I re-read a few years ago and could really see why they came in for so much criticism.  Talk about racist and elitist!  But honestly that went right over my head as a kid!

I read an enormous amount of Enid Blyton as a child, including the St Clare's and Malory Towers boarding school series, and the Five Find-Outers and Dog.

My father gave me his collection of the William series by Richmal Crompton, which I rarely see mentioned anywhere. William typically gets into farcically ridiculous situations creating havoc for his family. William was possibly where I first learned of Shakespeare's Hamlet -- it was certainly the first I had ever heard of the theory that Francis Bacon had written Shakespeare.

[BlackberryJam]

15 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

I found a copy of The Secret of the Seven Crows at a library sale a few years ago and was so excited. I read that over and over as a child. I also loved The Ghost Next Door.

My first of hers was The Ghost Next Door, and I read it so many times. Those books were like no other books I’d read before. I didn’t feel like I was being talked down to at all when I read them. They were age appropriate without being condescending or silly. 

Her books also weren’t formulaic like Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden. Wylly was my favorite for a while.

I also loved those Silhouette First Love teen romance novels.

[Constant Viewer]

I still go back and read some of the books I loved as a kid! A lot of what I read has already been mentioned. It was not until later I realized the Ramona books were written so long ago, yet still held up me when I read them as a child. I loved the Shoes Books, Fudge series, and the All-of-a-Kind Family.

I also read a lot of the Golden Books, Babar, Madeleine, Beatrix Potter, the Little House Books, Frances Hodgson Burnett. Also Caddie Woodlawn.

I loved the Indian in the Cupboard series and the American Girl series. Another set of books I liked, were the Orpheline books by Natalie Savage Carlson. The Orphan Train books by Joan Lowery Nixon were good too! I read a lot of her other books as well. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor had a series about a girl whose neighbor was a witch that were really good.

Then I gravitated to the Narnia Chronicles and the Wrinkle in Time books. I did not discover the Betsy-Tacy books until I was an adult, but think I would have liked them as a child.

I also read a lot of Lucy Maud Montgomery

Would the Sunfire books count, or is that more YA?

Edited February 28, 2022 by Constant Viewer

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, Constant Viewer said:

I loved the Indian in the Cupboard series

Oh, god, there's a blast from the past... 

[Prairie Rose]

@Constant Viewer, I think Sunfire is more YA. There is a YA thread where those books are mentioned.

The Little Engine That Could, which I forgot to mention earlier, has the don't give up mentality that transcends age, class, etc. There are the classics of Robert McCloskey like Make Way For Ducklings and Blueberries For Sal (he used his wife and oldest daughter as models for the latter). Who could forget Caps For Sale?

[dubbel zout]

10 hours ago, Constant Viewer said:

Caddie Woodlawn

Oh, I LOVED Caddie Woodlawn. And Blueberries for Sal—Robert McCloskey was so, so good.

[Snow Apple]

I love the first book in the All Of A Kind Family series. I didn't know there were sequels until I was older and so they didn't hold the same feelings as the first one and can take or leave them. Reading a book when you're a child is just so magical. 

Another series that I loved was Carolyn Haywood's B is for Betsy series. I think there were spinoffs too.

[Prairie Rose]

I have a tender spot in my heart for The Three Little Pigs. My dad used to read it to us when we were little. I can still hear his voice intoning, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!" 🐷🐖

[BlackberryJam]

My soft spot is for The Land of Counterpane from a Child's Garden of Verses.

[SusanM]

Another kid's series that I loved was the Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright.  All her books are wonderful but those were the first ones I read and I still want to be part of that family and live at the Four Story Mistake!

[Annber03]

The mention of the Three Little Pigs book reminds me of one my parents used to read to me all the time when I was little: Four Puppies

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Puppies-Little-Golden-Book/dp/0307020495

[dubbel zout]

The Little Golden Books were originally published in my hometown. When I interviewed for my very first job in NYC after college, it was with someone who had worked at Western Publishing (RIP), and we knew some of the same people. I'm pretty sure that connection got me the job.

[Prairie Rose]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

The Little Golden Books were originally published in my hometown. When I interviewed for my very first job in NYC after college, it was with someone who had worked at Western Publishing (RIP), and we knew some of the same people. I'm pretty sure that connection got me the job.

That is so awesome!!! What did your job there entail?

[dubbel zout]

It was in children's publishing. Unfortunately, the company doesn't exist anymore. They were a startup and I guess the backers were getting nervous.

[Prairie Rose]

10 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

It was in children's publishing. Unfortunately, the company doesn't exist anymore. They were a startup and I guess the backers were getting nervous.

Oh, that's too bad. Still, I'm sure it was a fun gig while it lasted.

P.S. I love your profile pic...now more than ever.

[Badger]

On 2/27/2022 at 10:27 AM, dubbel zout said:

I loved Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes but couldn't get into the others in the series. I also deeply impressed everyone around me when I identified the book before Meg Ryan did in You've Got Mail, heh.

I read most of the "Shoe" books and loved them.  I think I learned to "translate" British English to American from reading them and watching "Peppa Pig."

Did anyone else read the Betsy Tacy (and later Tib) books?

[Prairie Rose]

I adored this book at Christmastime.

[Snow Apple]

Did anyone else read The Maggie B by Irene Hass? The book is aimed at younger kids but I remember loving the story and illustrations. 

I actually forgot the name of the book for decades and only recall vague dreamlike images of it. Then the internet happened. A few key words and there it was.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Snow Apple

[SusanM]

11 hours ago, Badger said:

Did anyone else read the Betsy Tacy (and later Tib) books?

I had one when I was a kid "Betsy and Tacey Go Over the Big Hill" but for some reason never realized it was part of a series.  I came across mentions of these books as an adult and dived in.  Wonderful!  I love the way the books get more complicated as the girls age and you move from them being aimed at children to being aimed more towards the YA market.

[Prairie Rose]

I can't believe no one's mentioned Goodnight Moon yet!

[Goshengir1]

The Little House books were my absolute favorite as a kid, I remember picking up Little House in the Big Woods in the first grade and thinking, I can read this! I was so excited.  It introduced me to reading and so much else that developed into lifelong passions: history, women's literature, fashion, food. I have re-read the series several times as an adult and the stories hold up well, I just love the writing. I know there is a topic specifically for those books.

Another series of books I inhaled as a kid in the early 80's don't hold up as well for adult reading: the Childhood of Famous Americans series.  Does anyone else remember those? They were written mostly in the 40's and 50's but my library had the whole set and I gobbled them up. I was mostly only interested in the stories of famous women, I remember Betsy Ross, Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Louisa May Alcott.  They are still published and I have tried to revisit them as an adult, but the writing is too simplistic and dated.

[dubbel zout]

I loved the Little House books, too, especially the first one—it was set in my home state, Wisconsin. Farmer Boy was also a favorite because of all the food! I was jealous Almanzo regularly ate pie for breakfast.

[Prairie Rose]

My grandmother gave me the LHOP boxset for Christmas when I was 10. She's been gone for over 25 years now, but I still see the books and the show as a tie to her. 💖

[Spartan Girl]

The Roald Dahl books were a must for every child. On that note, Eva Ibbotaon wrote some delightful kid lit fantasy books that anyone of all ages can enjoy: Island of the Aunts, The Secret of Platform 13, and Journey to the River Sea were my favorites.

[Snow Apple]

The first chapter book I read was The Little Princess and it still holds a special place in my heart. I read The Secret Garden later in the 5th grade. I also remember borrowing The Little Leftover Witch from the school library. I need to read it again to see if it holds up.