Childhood Reading

[mackenzie]

Disclaimer: My guess is that my own list is limited to those of us born sometime during the 1980s and schooled on the west coast, but I'm going to just throw it out there as if it were actually universal.

What are the canonical books that you read in elementary and middle school? You know, the sort of books "everyone" read.

Some of mine include

Comments

[scholarjeff]

Of the ones that you listed, I know we read "Charlotte's Web", "The Giver", and "To Build A Fire", but I remember that we didn't read any of those other ones. Which is a little strange as I was also born in the 1980s and schooled on the west coast, and I would've expected there to be more overlap.

Not very many of them come to mind at the moment - I remember that I was nearly constantly reading, so off the top of my head I'm not quite sure what I've read as part of the stuff that everyone reads in school, and what I read independently. If someone asks about a specific title I can generally remember, though.

Looking at the list you linked, titles that leap out at me: "Bridge to Terabithia", "Tuck Everlasting", "Jonathan Livingston Seagull".

Just now I also remembered one from fifth grade, "Save Queen of Sheba".

[krustad]

We had 'Shoebag', 'Shiloh', and 'Dicey's Song' along with some of the previously mentioned.

[arisrabkin]

To Kill a Mockingbird. Johnny Tremain.

[terpsichoros]

Elementary school reading, assigned in class (as opposed to read on my own):

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

I know there were more, but I can't remember them. I can't remember any non-textbooks I was assigned in middle school, but I do remember a lot of my independent reading: the Encyclopedia Brown stories which I hadn't read in elementary school, and many of the Heinlein juveniles.

[minimo]

Charlotte's Web was the first book that made me cry! But besides that, I don't remember books that everyone read. I was a weird little loner with one best friend, and I didn't like many kids.
I loved the Wonderful Voyage to the Mushroom Planet. It's kind of odd I never went on to become a huge sci-fi person.
I read a lot of Nancy Drew, but I'm pretty sure that was younger.