Favorite grade school books?

[numbisanoldhat]

I was having this discussion elsewhere and thought perhaps members of this community would have some interesting selections...I'm going to assume that at least a few of you grew up as "bookworms" given your current membership in Academics Anon.

What is your favorite book when you were in grade school? I stumbled upon an old copy of A Wrinkle in

Comments

[numbisanoldhat]

ahaha i had forgotten about judy blue ones. Bridge to Terabithia is a definite must-read - I never read it as a child, but I've always wanted to. Recently I saw the beginning of the movie on television and it reminded me that I needed to read it...

[thickets]

I recently reread a lot of L'Engle myself. I remember really not getting a Wind in the Door, I think I was a bit young and all of the talk about mitochondria made it difficult for me to get through. But I read/listened to the audiobook last winter and wow ... it really is a wonderful book. "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" is still probably my favorite L'Engle though.

Lately I've been wanting to reread some Roald Dahl, especially Matilda.

A series that was incredibly important to me as a kid was the Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.

And, finally, Peter Pan. :)

[numbisanoldhat]

Only yesterday did I realize that Wrinkle was part of a series - I had only read the one as a child. I'd like to finish the series though!

[kelaina]

As a spiritual person, I found L'Engle to be utterly beautiful as an adult. Her idea that everything is connected, while certainly not original, is very refreshing, mostly because we forget it.

Just so you know: It's Wrinkle, then Wind, then Planet then Many Waters. I think there's one more there too...oh yes. An Acceptable Time.

[bafooz]

Oh, I loved A Swiftly Tilting Planet - probably my favorite L'Engle, as well.

[suitablyemoname]

In terms of "trashy kid lit", I enjoyed Who Is Bugs Potter? (Gordon Korman), Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain (Robert Burch), Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst (Lois Lowry) and That Scatterbrain Bookie (Bernice Thurman Hunter).

As to Important Books For Children, I liked Gathering Blue a lot more than I did The Giver (both by Lois Lowry), but I also enjoyed Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh), From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E. L. Konigsburg) Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder) and--oddly enough--Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden).

I ran across Geisha because I was going through primary school at the same time my local library system acquired a set of ebooks. They were huge and clunky and nothing like the Kindles, and they came pre-programmed with roughly a dozen novels from the current bestsellers. Geisha happened to be on the one I checked out. (I was 11 at the time, IIRC.)

[numbisanoldhat]

The first time I read Memoirs of a Geisha was my junior year of high school for a summer reading project, and I devoured it. It appears to have grown legs and removed itself from my bookshelf, now that I'm looking for it. Hrm.

Oh and I LOVED From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and still have my copy from elementary school!

[suitablyemoname]

I know, right? For awhile I had this plan that I'd steal away in the middle of the night and live forever in the Ontario Science Centre. :(

Oh! And I forgot to mention Harry Potter! (Yes, I realize that saying that will make half the people who read this feel really really really old. That's the fun!)

[innana88]

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!

I'd completely forgotten about that book! Oh, that was definitely one of mine!

I also devoured the entire Nancy Drew series. No one of those stood out as a favorite, however.

[nightingale0]

I loved "A Wrinkle in Time" but my favourites were "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and the Narinia series. I read a lot of science fiction, and disliked the most of the girl-books that people gave me - ones that I did like I have unfortunately forgotten the titles, but one featured a cat, and the other was about a figure-skater. I hated Judy Blume!

[suitablyemoname]

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danzinger?

(Girl with body issues refuses to participate in gym class and tries to save her beloved English teacher from being fired.)

[jaralith]

I loved that book! Someone threw it away at a summer camp I taught at, so I kept it.

[mtb0001]

The Gammage Cup and the "Trick" books by Scott Corbett