Childhood nostalgia poll

[rachelmanija]

Please reminisce, fondly or not, about any of these, or other books read in childhood, especially if they seem to have, deservedly or undeservedly, vanished from the shelves. I'd love to hear about non-US, non-British books, too.

[Poll #1720139]

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I read just enough Danny Dunn and Tom Swift to realize that science as an end in itself bored the crap out of me--where were the bad guys? Where were the spies and the good stuff? Where were the girls? (Homemaking or girls needing rescue did not count.)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

But Irene!

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

I read Cherry Ames when I was an adult, actually.

Didn't read Blyton, but did read Edward Eager and E. Nesbit

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

I also read Edward Eager and E. Nesbit! Let's be friends.

[cmattg.livejournal.com]

You left out Alvin Fernald and the McGurk Mysteries.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I never read them. What were they like?

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

My favorite series as a child was the Red Bicycle series, which started out as exciting urban fantasy Christian propaganda with magical bicycles and varyingly dubious morals (video games are bad for you! popularity contests in school are bad for you! be nice to your siblings, even the annoying ones! adults probably don't understand the mystical battle between good and evil going on in your town!), which got weirder and weirder as the series went on. And then darker and darker, as the author decided to stop pulling from modern life and cue up the book of Revelation. It went sort of...The Last Battle, really.

I also remember being passionately invested in whether the Black Stallion or his son, Satan, could actually win in a race between the two of them, and disappointed that the answer was carefully left ambiguous.

And now I desperately want to track down the Henry Reed stories again. (Not so much the Mad Scientists Club series, which was fun but kinda forgettable.) Were there more than two books in the series? My library only had the two.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there were four or five, I think.

The Red Bicycle books sound interesting. Does everyone die and go to Heaven at the end?

[sanguinity]

Other series: Willard Price, [Noun] Adventure.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, those look vaguely familiar. But I think I never actually saw any, only read the tempting-sounding descriptions in the backs of other books. (Volcano Adventure! Gorilla Adventure!) Perhaps I am lucky to have missed Cannibal Adventure.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I checked "Sweet Valley High" although I only read one of those because I read a ton of "Sweet Valley Twins." Fascinating exploration of a completely alien culture.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I forgot that "High" and "Twins" were separate series. They sort of blend together into a mass of blondeness in my mind.

[angharadd.livejournal.com]

I LOLed hard at dead dogs and dead teenagers categories XD My childhood fell on the first years after Ukraine became independent, so my childhood reading was a mixture of Soviet books about pioneers who fought the nazis and died by scores, and US-ian books some church group translated, where little girls acted as paragons of virtue and also died by scores:) There were also books by Gerald Durrell, Jane Goodall and some other stories about wildlife preservation (where animals died by scores).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I loved Gerald Durrell. I probably would have loved the Nazi fighting, too. Did any girls get to fight?

[pseudo_tsuga.livejournal.com]

I've read almost none of these, possibly because my childhood wasn't that long ago.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And what did you read?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

The works of Enid Blyton tend to form rather a blur in memory, but definitely the Famous Five and the Secret Seven and various others. Possibly one or two Malory Towers.

[nextian.livejournal.com]

Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen, Wayside Stories, Madeleine L'Engle, Diane Duane...

[zdenka]

Oh, that's right! I'd forgotten until you listed them, but I read all of those except Wayside Stories.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

You forgot the Baby-Sitters Club.

Elizabeth Levy's The Gymnasts series is surprisingly non-terrible, in fact quite good.

The all-time greatest single book title (not book, title) of my childhood remains I Spent My Summer Vacation Kidnapped Into Space. The book is not bad.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I never read Baby-Sitters Club. ;)

I recall a book called something like The Secret War Between the Horrible Teachers and the Glorious Kids, and that it was just as weird as it sounded, but googling the no-doubt garbled title fails to turn it up. I think the author's name was something like Stanley G. Weingartner, only not actually that.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Boxcar Children, Narnia, and E. Nesbit were probably the other major ones for me.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

For some reason, I never think of the Narnia book as a "series", because in my head series had amorphous, unknown numbers of books, and occasionally, like magic, a new one would appear on the library shelves. Whereas the Narnia books were done by the time I got to them, with a quite concrete and knowable number, all packaged in one box on my brother's shelf.

[lanerobins.livejournal.com]

My "others" was Kay Tracey mysteries and the Dana Girls. They were hard to find, though.

[giandujakiss.livejournal.com]

Wasn't sure what to check - for a bunch of series, I only read one or two books (Black Stallion, Sweet Valley High, Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys).

But I did read Encyclopedia Brown. And I'm not sure if this is a little past your age range, but I was an adolescent girl and like all of my ilk, I was obsessed with the Flowers in the Attic series and anything VC Andrews for a long time.

Other than that, I don't remember reading many series books, actually - mostly one shots or I'd just read one or two books in the series. The Judy Blume books of course, which were mostly standalones. And Lion Witch & the Wardrobe - but I think I got bored with the others in the series and stopped. The Cat ate My Gymsuit and the sequel.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

OMG FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. I read terrifying amounts of V.C. Andrews before I started to twig that, Wait a sec, these things are...kind of formulaic.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I read the shit out of the Boxcar Children books. Those were so good! I think that is the start of my thing for people reacting sensibly to extreme situations. Also Encyclopedia Brown (10-year-old who's read the entire encyclopedia solves crimes by virtue of the knowledge gained thereby. obviously pre-Wikipedia, smart phones, the Internet).

But you know what other books I actually really liked that I would probably still recommend to other people? The McGurk Mysteries! (http://www.thrillingdetective.com/mcgurk.html) They also feature a bunch of kids solving utterly normal, not actual crime, mysteries. The characters are well drawn, they're funny, and actually every so often deal with real issues in non-faily ways.

I have never read Enid Blyton.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

I loved the McGurk Mysteries! I wonder how I'd like them now. Did you ever read the Ghost Squad books? I loved those too, and I picked one up used a while ago. Haven't read it yet to step back into my teenage self.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

How did you people leave out Roald Dahl?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

He didn't have any series, though, did he? He was too weird for series.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

The Happy Hollisters, which is about as old-fashioned as Bobbsey Twins and, if anything, less plausible. The Hollisters had, like, five kids, plus a dog and eventually, if I remember correctly, a donkey. They solved crimes and traveled a lot.

We knew they were goofy as hell and dated when we read them (they were read-aloud books when I was a little kid, like 4-7ish), but enjoyed them anyway.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there was a kid detective series that I adored but whose name/author/etc I can no longer remember at all. I ought to ask whatwasthatbook, come to think of it. It featured a group of... four or five "detectives," with the viewpoint character being one who kept logs and records for the group. I wish I could remember more concrete details, but all I have to go by is scattered incidents in the books.

[hakuen]

Boxcar Children! both old & new, and also both the old and new Linda Craig series (horseback Californian Nancy Drew with Spanish ancestry), although the old ones are best in both cases. And the Saddle Club series from the late 80s-ish, and whenever I could dig any up, the Timber Trail Riders series from the 60s... I was into horse books.

[eruthros]

I read all of my dad's old kids books and the books my mom remembered from her childhood and could find at a thrift store - so, like, the original Tom Swifts, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, etc - and the only one I remember that's not on your list is the Happy Hollisters. The Happy Hollisters were a family of pretty young crime-solving kids (and puppy and kittens). IIRC they were less likely to encounter pirates and drug-smugglers than the Bobbsey Twins; the ones I remember were more family drama mysteries.

[ursula]

I didn't read any of these! I did read a lot of Noel Streatfeild.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

+1 for Noel Streatfeild. She stands up very well, too.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

"My Friend Flicka" and its sequel-ish things. Everything by Marguerite Henry.

How can you possibly forget the Oz books? We had all 41!!!!

Two or three Elsie Dinsmores. Loathed her.

Edit: How can I forget the All-of-a-Kind family? Fantastic food values. "Quarter-penny chocolate babies."

Edward Eager! Edward Eager hurray! And E. Nesbit.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved All-of-a-Kind Family!

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

My favorite of the teen investigator series sets was "The Three Investigators". I'd love to write a follow-up book where all three have grown up. Jupiter is of course still living in the junk yard, now a computer whiz but not rich because he spends all his time solving crimes. Pete became a lawyer, and the other one whose name escapes me became an archaeologist. Pete has an ex-wife, the other one a long-time partner. And of course all three have much angst about growing old.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Three Investigators were my favorite books, period, for most of my childhood. I discovered them in first grade and fell instantly in love (I think the first one I read was Mystery of the Green Ghost). I lived (and still do!) in the same general area as the books were set, so that was very cool for me, too.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

I read and reread the Adventure series by Enid Blyton. I wanted to be Phillip with his special animal powers. I don't think there was another childhood series I was so enamored with. Although I did love the Oz series too, and had to defend my reading tastes to friends because they were fantasy.

(My sister was recently reading these books--the upgraded ones--to her daughter who apparently kept rolling her eyes at the girls who do so much less than the boys.)

Trixie Beldon was easy for me to related to, though I don't entirely know why. Perhaps I'd have to reread them to understand. Cherry Ames wasn't a reread series, though I certainly remember her red cheeks. I remember few details beyond that. However there was one scene that I never forgot where someone was wondering out loud (I have no idea of the circumstances) whether God would judge the weak and strong (morally, I believe) with the same yardstick. And I hadn't, for whatever reason, come across this idea/question before. So I never forgot that as it struck me quite hard.

The Black Stallion, I ripped through those. I remembering checking out bunches of those books from the library. That said, I remember very, very little of the books.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

The eye-rolling refers to the Adventure books, not the Oz books.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I never even heard of Blyton until I was an adult on the interwebs. I don't think her books are/were really that common in the US. Did you read them here or in India? I did read quite a few other British children's books (someone above mentioned E. Nesbit), but don't remember ever seeing Blyton on the shelves and I just checked the Santa Monica library website now and all they've got are three from this series of hers.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

OMG, please read and report back!

Warning: Books may contain horrific racism. Or not - depends if non-white characters make an appearance. Avoid Circus of Adventure at all costs - not technically racist but incredibly xenophobic.

I read them in India. They were quite popular there when I was there.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I only read one or two Bobbsey Twins books and they didn't grab me, but I checked them.

Little House on the Prairie books, ALL OF THEM. Not the truncated series offered today. Having them as background knowledge -- even though there were parts that didn't mke sense to me at the time -- gave me CLICK! moments when studying history (not just events history, but social history and costume history, stuff like that) later. So THAT'S what Laura was talking about, with (pick a detail).

A lot of children-and-the-Holocaust books, why did you have to remind me? (Did you know that When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit has sequels?)

Edward Eager, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, John Bellairs.

Nina Bawden. My school library had a whole SHELF of hers. They were often very depressing.

Rumer Godden's doll books. I loved them to PIECES. I loved them so much I sought them out to give to my child. The Doll'sHouse, the one about Tottie and the wicked Marchpane, can make me cry now, and Impunity Jane made me very careful about using TINY stitches when sewing for dolls, because someone tried to sew for her but the large stitches HURT. And the Japanese doll books were fascinating.

The "A Little Maid of (colonial state)" series by Alice Turner Curtis -- again, there was a whole shelf of these in the town library (perhaps not surprising as I lived in Lexington MA) but I don't remember details at all. I see that some free downloads are available. I may have to re-explore.

The Noel Streatley "shoes" books -- "Ballet Shoes," "Theater Shoes" -- I know there were a lot of them, I know I read them, I don't remember much.

Anne of Green Gables, of course.

Carol Ryrie Brink wrote more than just Caddie Woodlawn. There was one called Louly, about a girl and her friends in 1908 America. I remember a whole bunch of related books about the same town. That may have been a different author.

All the Lois Lenski books, like Strawberry Girl.

There was a whole series about this girl Betsy and her friends. They were all around six to eight. There was a boy Eddie, and this other girl who'd had her front teeth knocked out and had the replacements held in with tiny gold hooks that hooked to her other teeth. Google tells me the author is Carolyn Haywood. The children were always getting to do things like ride on floats wearing costumes for a town Easter parade. I figured this was normal and that my town was sadly deficient for not having such a thing and that if only I weren't Jewish I'd get to dress up like Little Bo Peep and have ruffles sewn to my snow pants because it was too cold to go without them but the costume needed pantalettes.

I tended to trust book reality more than my observed reality. I also felt very cheated that we didn't get the amounts of snow that Laura got, and that his was a sign of degenerate modern times, and didn't grasp the distinction between New England weather and Great Plains weather. I was somewhat reassured by the Blizzard of '78.

The Anastasia books by Lois Lowry! Made more charming by happening in modern times in locations I knew.

I read ALL THE TIME.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, yes! Anne of Green Gables! I think I read everything by LM Montgomery. I also loved the Anastasia books, The Dark Is Rising, and Lloyd Alexander. And Little House.

And while I'm remembering things, Tolkien. I read The Hobbit in fourth grade and Lord of the Rings not long after. (I know they're not typically thought of as children's books, but they were all actually stocked in the children's section of my local library as well as the adult section.)