A fun little mini-meme. I am upping the choices to five as opposed to three. Why? Because I want to!
Name five favorite childrens series.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia
, by CS Lewis
2. The Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time)
, by Madeleine L’Engle
3. The “Emily” series
, by LM Montgomery (there are only 3 “Emily” books – but – blasphemer that I am – I think they’re better books than the “Anne” books)
4. The All-of-a-Kind Family
series, by Sidney Talor
5. The Enid Blyton Adventure Series
. Man, I loved thos books! Mountain of Adventure, Beach of Adventure, Volcano of Adventure, whatever … 4 English kids, brothers and sisters, I believe – who kept getting mixed up in literally international conspiracies in various natural settings. LOVED. THESE. BOOKS.
Damn. Ran out of space for Trixie Belden. Oh dammit – and also Beezus and Ramona!!! The Ramona books really must be included. Drat.
Name five favorite non-series childrens books.
1. Harriet the Spy
, by Louise Fitzhugh – well, there was The Long Secret
and Sport
– but somehow it doesn’t feel like a SERIES, since Harriet isn’t really the STAR of the next two books like she is in the first one. She becomes a supporting character. So – I’m gonna keep this one here, as ambivalent as I feel about it.
2. Charlotte’s Web
, by EB White – hands down. One of my favorite books ever written.
3. The Diamond in the Window
, by Jane Langton – oh man. If you want a good book – or if you have a kid who’s 10, 11 years old … this book!!! Two kids, a brother and a sister, discover a secret room in their own house – it has a window with a big huge diamond stuck in it … and … well … many many adventures ensue, as they try to discover the history of the secret room. Magic book.
4. Ballet Shoes
by Noel Streatfield. There are a gazillion other “shoes” books – Circus Shoes
, Tennis Shoes
, Skating Shoes
… but I am not considering it a series, because the same people don’t show up in each book. Sigh. Sorry. Making up rules as I go. A MAGICAL book about 3 little adopted girls who end up going to a school for Dramatic Arts in London. Transportive for a little aspiring 8 year old actress like myself.
5. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
, by EL Konigsburg. Magic.
Gone-Away Lake (Gone-Away Lake Books)
– one of my favorite books as a child. There was one book following it – Return to Gone-Away
. MAGIC. Anyone else read them??
Name five favorite childrens book characters.
1. Harriet. First and foremost. She’s my hero.
2. Charlotte the “s” – can’t even really think about her without getting all choked up
3. Alice, from Alice in Wonderland
4. The Weasley twins from Harry Potter – Argh – there are so many other characters I love – but those two have a special place in my heart.
5. Willy Wonka
Go read Barbara’s thoughts on this. Yeah, Ole Golly!!!
Dear Sheila
I have been reading your blog for a while now and thoroughly enjoying it. Your writing is excellent! I had to write because I could not believe anyone else knows about the All of a Kind Family series. My children grew up with these books, as did I. At one point I told my mother I wanted to become Jewish, so enamored I was with the stories and culture. Thank you so much for your beautiful stories…Martha Reyneveld
Martha – Thank you!!!
Yes – they are just gorgeous books. I actually should track them down for my collection. They even followed the oldest girl into her first romance – uhm, was her name Ella?? It takes place during WWI.
If I ever have kids, I will most definitely pass on those books to them. I grew up seriously Catholic, as much into the Catholic rituals as that Jewish family in the book was into their rituals – and I just loved learning about the different religion.
My favorite child was Henny – the crazy tomboy always getting into scrapes.
Just looked it up – Yup, her name was Ella!!
Hmmm. Phantom Tollbooth should probably be on here somewhere as well. :)
I loved Henny also and Sarah… Martha
I also loved Many Waters, I remember staying up nearly all night to read it and sobbing. But actually I consider it a series of 5 because I really loved An Acceptable Time, which is about Meg’s daughter Polly. It really capped it off nicely, I thought.
Oh, and I also really loved the Emily series. Anne always seemed a bit too spunky for me to identify with. Emily was much closer to home and so very romantic.
I always enjoyed the Encyclopedia Brown series. And the semi-obscure Great Brain books; I think those were a major factor in turning me into a History geek.
And let’s not forget the child-of-the-70s favorite How to Eat Fried Worms.
I liked Encyclopedia Brown, and The Happy Hollisters books (we used to get them by mail).
Another good one is Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome. It’s part of a loosely-connected series, but I’ve only read this one so far.
Oh my, Sheila linked to me. I think that just made my day!!
Phantom Tollbooth! Ack, I missed that one. I didn’t technically discover it until college, though…
Sheila – I did actually at one p9oint become obsessed with all the Streatfield “Shoes” – there are many, although Ballet sShoes is the most classic.
Also, I did love the bobbsey Twins and the Happy Hollisters there for awhile. I can still picture where they wer ein the Kingston free Library! Also, the Moffits. The Moffits were pretty cool. And the Carolyn Haywood “Betsy” series, or anything by her for that matter.
Oh shit – I just remembered about Ginny – do you remember ginny? Now she was cool. I think she lived in some windswept seaside town? Had lots of mysteries and adventrues?
Jean – ginny??? no – wait – who is ginny? I’m not remembering her …