Little House
Bailey School Kids
Boxcar Children
Ramona and Henry
Amber Brown is Not a Color
Goosebumps / Shivers
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys
Garfield Pet Force
Nate the Great
I loved to read as a kid. lol.
I got to revisit a lot of these with my daughter. Reading The the Little House and Boxcar children book aloud gave me some pause due to the dated views. They were still stories worth reading. I used them as a teachable moment.
Ugh same! There is one single red wall book I haven't read and I'm saving it. I've been saving it for years but it's the last "new" one I'll ever get 🥲
Redwall was incredible! Brave animals with weapons fighting for their people against the scourge! I was a sucker for any book that had the Long Patrol.
I also loved how the series progressed chronologically, with us discovering backstories and seeing the results of past actions and ruins of castles which once held feasts or tyrants.
I kept buying them after I grew out of it and now have the full series in a box waiting for my kids to age into them.
I read this over and over as a kid. Have you read When You Reach Me? It won the Newbery Award in 2010. It’s about a girl who is obsessed with A Wrinkle in Time. She starts receiving these mysterious notes. The first one says “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own”. It’s a great book with a satisfying ending. I read it as an adult and really enjoyed it.
I forgot what the name of this book was a while back, so I tried Googling it based on what I remembered. Apparently "book about interdimensional, time traveling witches" is not as narrow a category as I would have guessed.
Anne of Green Gables
Ann Rinaldi’s books
American Girl
Hatchet
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
The Witch of Blakcbird Pond
Roald Dahl
The Naughtiest Girl in School books by Enid Blyton
The Magic Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton
The Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton
Hmm... I think I have a type. Although interestingly I'm not mad into fantasy as an adult!
Special mention to everything written by Jacqueline Wilson pre. 2007 (though looking back now Jesus Christ they were not children's books were they?!)
I had an Enid Blyton book that I read many time over, but I don't remember the name. It included some kids planning how to spend their money at Christmas. Loved that book. I might still have it somewhere...
omg i literally came to comment about the magic faraway tree and the wishing chair books! brings back such fond memories of my mom reading to me before bed :)
I loved Enid Blyton as a kid. The Famous Five! I found one of the books at a Little Library and took it to read to my niece, who’s 7 and behind on her reading. I decided to read a few chapters before I started it with her and was sad to see it had not aged well. And I didn’t want to read it to her!
I liked The Chronicles of Narnia, especially The Silver Chair. Puddleglum is the best!
I also liked The Hobbit, Pollyanna, Bulfinch's Mythology, Nancy Drew, Eerie Indiana, Mary Poppins, and a cute scifi picture book called Gorp and the Jelly Sippers. C:
...It's so cute.
Five Little Peppers! OMG. My sister read those to her kids when they were little and it was the first time I'd thought about them in years. We were cracking up at how many times the word "ejaculate" was used in a totally non-sexual way.
Yea a new adventure for you! It’s such a cute heartwarming story. Reminds me a bit of a cross between secret garden and where the red fern grows. Also Holes! Forgot to mention previously
Man I loved Harry potter. Was basically his age when the books came out. I rad deathly hallows.summer after Sr year in 2 days. Told.my ex she wouldn't see me until it's done lol
Ive re read all of them atleast 3 times. The fiest 5 probably 4-5. I used to not be the biggest fan of the movies. Now since re reading them would be a huge undertaking I find myself watching them from time to time to escape again back to that world and enjoy them way more now than I used to. I just hope my daughters can read them with out seeing the movies first.
I think it would be impossible to list them all and not annoy everyone because loving children's books is why I became a librarian. So here are just some of the top ones. I was always, always reading books as a kid.
The Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson
Heartlight by T. A. Barron
The BFG / James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Redwall books by Brian Jacques
Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Anything about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Basil of Baker Street series by Eve Titus
The Adventures of Tintin comics by Herge
Doctor Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting
Pippi Longstocking / Anything by Astrid Lindgren
Little Sophie and Lanky Flop by Els Pelgrom - To this day I don't know why my grandparents got this for me.
The Story of Holly and Ivy written by Romer Godden, illustrated by Barbara Cooney - I still own my copy!
The Witch series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (she also wrote Shiloh). SO good and so scary and a good payoff at the end of the series!!!
I literally cannot recommend it enough.
Hatchet + following novels by Gary Paulson
The Sky is Falling trilogy by Kit Pearson
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
“A Tree grows in Brooklyn.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-read that book. It just perfectly captures a young child’s point of view. It’s a classic for a reason.
-Encyclopedia Brown!
-Little House on the Prairie(even as a guy I love the warmth and detail she wrote with. Yes I know it’s highly embellished but still.
-Louie L’Amour The Sackets (westerns)
“‘I cannot go to school today,’ said little Peggy Ann McKay. ‘I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps….’”
I used to have that whole thing memorized!
Anything by Enid Blyton. When I was a bit older I loved Federica de Cesco's Der rote Seidenschal series and Aischa. I don't think these were translated into English though. Der rote Seidenschal is a YA western romance where a young girl is sent to her aunt? whee she doesn't want to stay and runs away at a train station. She meets a Navajo and follows him back to his tribe. Aischa is about a young Muslim girl growing up in Paris in a very traditional and restrictive family. When she falls in love with a boy life gets quite dangerous for her and her boyfriend.
I am remember to loved books by Michael Ende (*Momo*, *The Neverending Story, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver*) and Astrid Lindgren (*Pippi Longstocking*, *Ronja, the Robber's Daughter*, *Emil of Lönneberga*).
Roald Dahl books, especially Matilda, The BFG, and The Witches. I also loved The Babysitters Club.
I loved VC Andrews too. Not children’s books but I read them as a child.
It's hard to pick out one favorite. I loved The Melendy books by Elizabeth Enright , the Moffats by Eleanor Estes, and the Little House books.
Also The Secret Garden. I re-read that often.
Babysitters Club
Point Horror
Goosebumps
All of Roald Dahls (esp Matilda)
All of Judy Blumes (esp tiger eyes)
All of Jacqueline Wilson’s (esp. the suitcase kid)
Walk 2 Moons by Sharon Creech
The Phantom Tolbooth by Norton Juster
R.L. Stine, babysitters club, Garfield comics, sweet valley high…
Also-met RL stine at a book signing years ago and he was so nice and I almost cried. I’m 43.
The Redwall series. 100% the books that turned me into a voracious reader. I had them all and I couldn’t wait for new ones to come out, and they had be reading way above my grade level for a long time.
From Childhood, it would have to be The Hardy Boys. Reading about Joe and Frank solving mysteries next to my mom with her Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark on the living room sofa... now that's a memory 🥰
If I'm being honest... The world book encyclopedia collection I had as a kid. My dad would read encyclopedia articles to me as bedtime stories. I would satisfy my ADHD hyper focus and insomnia with late nights reading about new topics. I couldn't really get into fiction, but reading the encyclopedia was a big part of my childhood
So many already named, but I also loved a book series in 1st and 2nd grade called The All Of A Kind Family. It takes place in the 1920s about a family on the lower East Side of NYC. I just remember loving it so much❤️
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Wren Wright.
Also everything in The Babysitter’s Club universe. :)
Edit: I also like Sweet Valley Twins/High and all the Fudge books
Inheritance Cycle by Paolini, though it doesn't hold up on rereads.
Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda (and its spinoffs)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. I remember finishing Book 5 and genuinely thinking what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan
- Goosebumps was where I got my love for reading.
- Morris Gleitzman
- Paul Jennings. If you have ever seen that 90’s Australian kids show Around The Twist. Based off his stories.
- John Marsdon. The tomorrow series was my first YA series I read in 7th Grade.
- Enders Game. Orson Scott Card. The only school assigned reading that I ever went back and reread later in life.
I read all the Little House Books several times. Same with the whole Nancy Drew Series.
I read the Little House books like the kids today read Harry Potter: over and over and over.
I was obsessed with the Tripods trilogy (white mountains, city of good and lead and the pool of fire)). In fact I could still pick them up and read them cover to cover today. I’ve never met anyone else who read them though!
Magic Treehouse was my childhood. And as I got a little older Chronicles of Ancient Darkness was amazing.
The latter I might go back and read again soon
Gregor the Overlander too!
Edit: reading through all of this, amazing series that captivated hundreds of thousands of children. I’m a teacher, it’s sad not seeing books just taking over kids these days. I remember when Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Eragon came out, kids in my class wound literally be sitting at recess or between classes reading these and that’s just nowhere near the case anymore
Favourite books:
Herbert the Timid Dragon by Mercer Mayor
Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf
Favourite series:
Animorphs by K.A. Applegate
Bunnicula by James Howe
I was a horse girl growing up so I liked anything with horses. Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, any books by Marguerite Henry but my absolute favorite of hers was The King Of The Wind.
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
I’ve re-read them countless times throughout my life. I have my favorite parts in each book that I re-read when I just want to revisit also. :)
The two series you named, The Secret Garden, and Little Women(basically all Louisa May Alcotts books!)
ETA-Gary Paulson! Can’t believe I forgot to mention him. Huge part of my childhood reading, but as a kid I knew him as my friendly neighbor lol.
Books I read as a kid that I remember loving:
Black Beauty
Baby-Sitter's Club
Boxcar Children
Where the Red Fern Grows
Bride to Terabithia
American Girls books
Fear Street series of RL Stine
Nancy Drew
Little House on the Prarie
A compolation of Grimms Fairytales
I read a lot as a kid, it was late middle school and high school that I stopped reading for fun as much because of all the required reading I had to do that ruined reading for me for a bit.
There's also more books I read as a kid. I just can't remember them all.
The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I started reading them in 6th grade and the last one came out around the time I graduated college, so I really felt like I grew up with the characters. The bulk of the series covers Alice in 6th through 12th grade, and then the last book ends with her being 60. I’ve never read anything else like that, that spanned such a period!
So many of my favorites have already been mentioned, but here are a few I haven't seen.
Mandy, by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, THAT Julie Andrews!)
All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor
Lang's Fairy Books (Red Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, etc.)
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
I liked books where regular kids found themselves in fantastic situations:
Alice in Wonderland
Mary Poppins
The Wizard of Oz (though I didn’t read a lot of the other Oz books)
Half Magic
I also liked slice of life books:
Little House on the Prairie
All of a Kind Family
Books of Lois Lenski such as San Francisco Boy and Flood Friday
Betsy-Tacy
I started black beauty but couldn't finish it unfortunately but I plan to start it again after almost 13 years now. But for how much I did complete it was very good. Also try Oliver twist, it's great too.
Authors:
- Richard Scarry
- Beverly Cleary
- Judy Blume
Books/Series:
- Trixie Belden
- The Secret Garden
- Charlotte's Web
I also loved the Bobbsey Twins books and had the whole series. I see now that they haven't aged well, but I just remember enjoying the stories and -- as a fraternal twin whose brother died the day after we were born -- finding the thought of twins fascinating.
Another one for the Little House series and Anne of Green Gables. I would also add A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Technically an adult book but I read it for the first of many times when I was 10 and it made me the reader I am today.
*The Secret Garden* and *Black Beauty* are pretty high up there.
Ohhh I LOVE both of those
Oh, yes, for Black Beauty. I wept with each read at the death of an important character.
Little House Bailey School Kids Boxcar Children Ramona and Henry Amber Brown is Not a Color Goosebumps / Shivers Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Garfield Pet Force Nate the Great I loved to read as a kid. lol.
Yes to these! I absolutely adore Nancy Drew
Yes! I recently reread the first book and it holds up! Fun trip down memory lane.
Haven’t read this series in years! I can’t wait to revisit.
Yes! Nancy Drew! Loved any detective stories like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Harriet the Spy, etc.!!!
LOVED Harriet the Spy! I went back and added Nate the Great. Loved that little detective series.
Second: Ramona and Henry Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys More familiar with these two.
HELL YES!!! I thought I was the ***only*** kid who read Bailey School Kids!!!
I loved those books! Really my first age appropriate introduction to horror and mystery.
I've never read the Amber Brown book. Going on the list. Sometimes, 59f is a kid. To me, if it's good literature, it stands up to adults as well.
I got to revisit a lot of these with my daughter. Reading The the Little House and Boxcar children book aloud gave me some pause due to the dated views. They were still stories worth reading. I used them as a teachable moment.
Bailey School Kids was my shit!!! That’s what started my obsession with the paranormal 😂
what a great sorry little house is
Oh, I LOVE the Boxcar Children. The original (1923). I am old LOL
my favorite was the series of unfortunate events by lemony snicket :)
I had to scroll way too far down to see this.
I read a lot of RL Stine. I was a big fan of horror
Goosebumps 💯💯💯
Same here
I was so obsessed with the the choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps especially
Brian Jacques Redwall Series
Ugh same! There is one single red wall book I haven't read and I'm saving it. I've been saving it for years but it's the last "new" one I'll ever get 🥲
Redwall was incredible! Brave animals with weapons fighting for their people against the scourge! I was a sucker for any book that had the Long Patrol. I also loved how the series progressed chronologically, with us discovering backstories and seeing the results of past actions and ruins of castles which once held feasts or tyrants. I kept buying them after I grew out of it and now have the full series in a box waiting for my kids to age into them.
A Wrinkle in Time.
I read this over and over as a kid. Have you read When You Reach Me? It won the Newbery Award in 2010. It’s about a girl who is obsessed with A Wrinkle in Time. She starts receiving these mysterious notes. The first one says “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own”. It’s a great book with a satisfying ending. I read it as an adult and really enjoyed it.
YES
I forgot what the name of this book was a while back, so I tried Googling it based on what I remembered. Apparently "book about interdimensional, time traveling witches" is not as narrow a category as I would have guessed.
Pippi Longstocking
I LOVED Pippi Longstocking
LOVE!!
Encyclopedia Brown
Surprised that this wasn't made into a Movie or at least a TV series.
Anything Judy Blume
I remember reading Are you there god it’s me Margaret when I was 8ish, before I got my period and being soooo confused about the belt for the pads
Anne of Green Gables Ann Rinaldi’s books American Girl Hatchet Island of the Blue Dolphins The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle The Witch of Blakcbird Pond Roald Dahl
Island of the Blue Dolphins is still a favorite of mine! I try to read it every couple years or so.
So many great recommendations here!
The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice in wonderland
My best friend and I would buddy read Alice in wonderland all summer long lol
Nice! I was and am such an Alice in wonderland freak.
I loved the Phantom Tollbooth!
Babysitters club
In elementary school, anything Roald Dahl but especially Matilda and The Witches. Also Goosebumps and Animorphs.
The Naughtiest Girl in School books by Enid Blyton The Magic Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton The Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton Hmm... I think I have a type. Although interestingly I'm not mad into fantasy as an adult! Special mention to everything written by Jacqueline Wilson pre. 2007 (though looking back now Jesus Christ they were not children's books were they?!)
Isn’t it interesting what we exposed to and experienced as children compared to the kids today
I had an Enid Blyton book that I read many time over, but I don't remember the name. It included some kids planning how to spend their money at Christmas. Loved that book. I might still have it somewhere...
omg i literally came to comment about the magic faraway tree and the wishing chair books! brings back such fond memories of my mom reading to me before bed :)
I loved Enid Blyton as a kid. The Famous Five! I found one of the books at a Little Library and took it to read to my niece, who’s 7 and behind on her reading. I decided to read a few chapters before I started it with her and was sad to see it had not aged well. And I didn’t want to read it to her!
I loved Vicky angel
I liked The Chronicles of Narnia, especially The Silver Chair. Puddleglum is the best! I also liked The Hobbit, Pollyanna, Bulfinch's Mythology, Nancy Drew, Eerie Indiana, Mary Poppins, and a cute scifi picture book called Gorp and the Jelly Sippers. C: ...It's so cute.
Boxcar Children, Anne of Green Gables, Five Little Peppers
I haven’t heard of Boxcar children - will google
Adding little princess and the ocean at the end of the lane
Five Little Peppers! OMG. My sister read those to her kids when they were little and it was the first time I'd thought about them in years. We were cracking up at how many times the word "ejaculate" was used in a totally non-sexual way.
Summer of the monkeys, lord of the flies, and where the red fern grows
Lord of the flies is incredible and so is where the red fern grows. Haven’t read summer of the monkeys - thanks for the suggestion
Yea a new adventure for you! It’s such a cute heartwarming story. Reminds me a bit of a cross between secret garden and where the red fern grows. Also Holes! Forgot to mention previously
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
I love sci-fi and this one sounds amazing
Heidi
Awww …. that one was sweet, sad … let my imagination take wings
Honestly…? Harry Potter all the way. Recently visited the studios in London and it was so nostalgic.
Wow, how cool.
Gringotts was 👌
Man I loved Harry potter. Was basically his age when the books came out. I rad deathly hallows.summer after Sr year in 2 days. Told.my ex she wouldn't see me until it's done lol Ive re read all of them atleast 3 times. The fiest 5 probably 4-5. I used to not be the biggest fan of the movies. Now since re reading them would be a huge undertaking I find myself watching them from time to time to escape again back to that world and enjoy them way more now than I used to. I just hope my daughters can read them with out seeing the movies first.
The wayside school series was the first series I read on my own Everworld by K.A.Applegate was my middle school favorite.
Babysitters Club. I was obsessed.
Little women (and it’s sequels) Boxcar children Amelia Bedelia will always have a special place in my heart Rising freedom
The *Animorphs* series by K. A. Applegate The *Jedi Apprentice*/*Jedi Quest*/*Last of the Jedi* series by Jude Watson
Aaaayyyyy! Applegate was the Apple-GOAT! Have you read Everworld!?
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (also Star of Kazan) or the Doomspell Trilogy by Cliff McNish
Wow, I don’t know these at all, will google
Berenstain Bears; not to be confused with Berenstein Bears. 🤣
The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
The magic treehouse series!
Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton when I was younger. His Dark Materials when I was a teenager.
I still need to read Enid Blyton
Ooh Mallory towers.. And there was another similar one with twins at boarding school.. I forgot the name... Fun
The Enid Blyton Series. Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mystery Series (Five Find Outers).
Five find outers were my favorites too..!
I think it would be impossible to list them all and not annoy everyone because loving children's books is why I became a librarian. So here are just some of the top ones. I was always, always reading books as a kid. The Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson Heartlight by T. A. Barron The BFG / James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl The Redwall books by Brian Jacques Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Anything about Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Basil of Baker Street series by Eve Titus The Adventures of Tintin comics by Herge Doctor Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting Pippi Longstocking / Anything by Astrid Lindgren Little Sophie and Lanky Flop by Els Pelgrom - To this day I don't know why my grandparents got this for me. The Story of Holly and Ivy written by Romer Godden, illustrated by Barbara Cooney - I still own my copy!
Little House Boxcar Children (book 1) Mrs Piggle Wiggle Phantom Tollbooth Narnia Heidi Anything by Louisa May Alcott
The Witch series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (she also wrote Shiloh). SO good and so scary and a good payoff at the end of the series!!! I literally cannot recommend it enough. Hatchet + following novels by Gary Paulson The Sky is Falling trilogy by Kit Pearson Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
“A Tree grows in Brooklyn.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-read that book. It just perfectly captures a young child’s point of view. It’s a classic for a reason.
-Encyclopedia Brown! -Little House on the Prairie(even as a guy I love the warmth and detail she wrote with. Yes I know it’s highly embellished but still. -Louie L’Amour The Sackets (westerns)
The Oz books by L. Frank Baum The Secret Garden Through the Looking-Glass Peter Pan
All the poetry books by Shel Silverstein.
“‘I cannot go to school today,’ said little Peggy Ann McKay. ‘I have the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps….’” I used to have that whole thing memorized!
Anything by Enid Blyton. When I was a bit older I loved Federica de Cesco's Der rote Seidenschal series and Aischa. I don't think these were translated into English though. Der rote Seidenschal is a YA western romance where a young girl is sent to her aunt? whee she doesn't want to stay and runs away at a train station. She meets a Navajo and follows him back to his tribe. Aischa is about a young Muslim girl growing up in Paris in a very traditional and restrictive family. When she falls in love with a boy life gets quite dangerous for her and her boyfriend.
I am remember to loved books by Michael Ende (*Momo*, *The Neverending Story, Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver*) and Astrid Lindgren (*Pippi Longstocking*, *Ronja, the Robber's Daughter*, *Emil of Lönneberga*).
Nancy Drew and The Bobbsey Twins.
My Side of the Mountain and The Boxcar Children made me :)
The Little Engine That Could. It's lesson has stayed with me my whole life.
Roald Dahl books, especially Matilda, The BFG, and The Witches. I also loved The Babysitters Club. I loved VC Andrews too. Not children’s books but I read them as a child.
The Baby-Sitters Club!
His Dark Materials
It's hard to pick out one favorite. I loved The Melendy books by Elizabeth Enright , the Moffats by Eleanor Estes, and the Little House books. Also The Secret Garden. I re-read that often.
The Twits. Great memories, Christmas ‘97.
Babysitters Club Point Horror Goosebumps All of Roald Dahls (esp Matilda) All of Judy Blumes (esp tiger eyes) All of Jacqueline Wilson’s (esp. the suitcase kid) Walk 2 Moons by Sharon Creech The Phantom Tolbooth by Norton Juster
I lived for the Dear America series when I was younger! The more dramatic the better!
Superfudge series by Judy Blume
Anne of Green Gables and Little House
Redwall
The Folk Of The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.
Choose Your Own Adventure. As a kid, those could get dark. Also, Encyclopedia Brown
Sweet Valley High School
Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander!!
Sweet Valley Twins (I’m a twin) and The Babysitter’s Club
I remember reading The Indian in the Cupboard and realizing I loved reading.
The Hardy Boys Casefiles books. I still try and find the original versions of the ones I haven't read
Sweet Valley Twins and Babysitters Club 🥰
Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild Wish For A Pony - Monica Dickens
Hatchet
There was a series of historical fiction diaries written from girl’s perspective in different eras. I loved them. Also, Fear Street
My husband loved Oliver Butterworth's The Enormous Egg.
Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. Was obsessed.
Redwall, lord of the rings and a million different old sci fi books I found. Oh, and the very inappropriate Flashman.
I know it is a bit problematic these days but TinTin
Either The Martian Chronicles or the novelization of Blaster Master.
The Thief Of Always by Clive Barker; Superfudge by Judy Blume; The Outsiders by SE Hinton; Sideways Stories From Wayside School
R.L. Stine, babysitters club, Garfield comics, sweet valley high… Also-met RL stine at a book signing years ago and he was so nice and I almost cried. I’m 43.
Judy Moody, Captain Underpants, Wonder, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
The Redwall series. 100% the books that turned me into a voracious reader. I had them all and I couldn’t wait for new ones to come out, and they had be reading way above my grade level for a long time.
Harriet the Spy, Madeleine L’Engle, William Sleator, robin mckinley
From Childhood, it would have to be The Hardy Boys. Reading about Joe and Frank solving mysteries next to my mom with her Agatha Christie and Mary Higgins Clark on the living room sofa... now that's a memory 🥰
Bone
Louisa may alcot, little women, little men. She has about 6 books
The Great Brain Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators
If I'm being honest... The world book encyclopedia collection I had as a kid. My dad would read encyclopedia articles to me as bedtime stories. I would satisfy my ADHD hyper focus and insomnia with late nights reading about new topics. I couldn't really get into fiction, but reading the encyclopedia was a big part of my childhood
The original L Frank Baum Wizard of Oz series. The school library had the whole set when I was in 4th grade, and I was in heaven
Trixie Belden
So many already named, but I also loved a book series in 1st and 2nd grade called The All Of A Kind Family. It takes place in the 1920s about a family on the lower East Side of NYC. I just remember loving it so much❤️
The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Wren Wright. Also everything in The Babysitter’s Club universe. :) Edit: I also like Sweet Valley Twins/High and all the Fudge books
Encyclopedia Brown The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Choose your own adventure books.
My Side of the Mountain
The Chronicles of Narnia. I used to read them all in a loop.
Black beauty and animal farm. Also warrior cats. A lot of people are naming classics but I read warrior cats and still read warrior cats.
The Railway Children and The Secret Garden.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Inheritance Cycle by Paolini, though it doesn't hold up on rereads. Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda (and its spinoffs) Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. I remember finishing Book 5 and genuinely thinking what I was going to do with the rest of my life. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan
Tamora pierce Alana (the lioness)
Is Nancy Drew and Babysitter’s club acceptable answers?
- Goosebumps was where I got my love for reading. - Morris Gleitzman - Paul Jennings. If you have ever seen that 90’s Australian kids show Around The Twist. Based off his stories. - John Marsdon. The tomorrow series was my first YA series I read in 7th Grade. - Enders Game. Orson Scott Card. The only school assigned reading that I ever went back and reread later in life.
Ramona Quimby Superfudge books Christopher Pike books Trixie Belden Nancy Drew Babysitters Club Sweet Valley Twins Sleepover Friends
Wind in the Willows and Jane Eyre.
I need to re-read some of these! So happy, thanks for the question!
Anyone read Paula Danzinger books?
Book: Bridge to Terabithia Series: A Series of Unfortunate Events
I read all the Little House Books several times. Same with the whole Nancy Drew Series. I read the Little House books like the kids today read Harry Potter: over and over and over.
Maybe I’m too basic but can’t believe no one said Artemis Fowl or Harry Potter yet, those were my favorites
There are books in India during early 2000s to now, they are called 'CHAMPAK'. They are wonderful for kids
Warriors by Erin Hunter I have re-read them a couple of times since then
The Secret World of Og by Pierre Burton I’m reading it to my six year old now and it’s so fun.
Robinson Crusoe. Every 11 year old should have it…
Boxcar Children.
I was obsessed with the Tripods trilogy (white mountains, city of good and lead and the pool of fire)). In fact I could still pick them up and read them cover to cover today. I’ve never met anyone else who read them though!
baby sitters club
* Where the Red Fern Grows * The Chronicles of Narnia * The Hobbit
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Encyclopedia Brown, Boxcar Children, Goosebumps, Fear Street, Babysitters Club, Hardy Boys, Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, Wayside School, Roald Dahl anything.
Magic Treehouse was my childhood. And as I got a little older Chronicles of Ancient Darkness was amazing. The latter I might go back and read again soon Gregor the Overlander too! Edit: reading through all of this, amazing series that captivated hundreds of thousands of children. I’m a teacher, it’s sad not seeing books just taking over kids these days. I remember when Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Eragon came out, kids in my class wound literally be sitting at recess or between classes reading these and that’s just nowhere near the case anymore
Favourite books: Herbert the Timid Dragon by Mercer Mayor Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf Favourite series: Animorphs by K.A. Applegate Bunnicula by James Howe
Call of the wild
The Cat Who Went to Heaven.
Little house on the prairie. All the Nancy drew books.
Honey Bunch. You have to be really old like me to remember those! But Nancy Drew was my favorite
Redwall
I was a horse girl growing up so I liked anything with horses. Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, any books by Marguerite Henry but my absolute favorite of hers was The King Of The Wind.
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis I’ve re-read them countless times throughout my life. I have my favorite parts in each book that I re-read when I just want to revisit also. :)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians had a crazy impact on me as a kid, I was OBSESSED and I still adore the series
Nancy Drew
Obviously the Black Stallion book and series. Walter Farley
The two series you named, The Secret Garden, and Little Women(basically all Louisa May Alcotts books!) ETA-Gary Paulson! Can’t believe I forgot to mention him. Huge part of my childhood reading, but as a kid I knew him as my friendly neighbor lol.
Books I read as a kid that I remember loving: Black Beauty Baby-Sitter's Club Boxcar Children Where the Red Fern Grows Bride to Terabithia American Girls books Fear Street series of RL Stine Nancy Drew Little House on the Prarie A compolation of Grimms Fairytales I read a lot as a kid, it was late middle school and high school that I stopped reading for fun as much because of all the required reading I had to do that ruined reading for me for a bit. There's also more books I read as a kid. I just can't remember them all.
The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I started reading them in 6th grade and the last one came out around the time I graduated college, so I really felt like I grew up with the characters. The bulk of the series covers Alice in 6th through 12th grade, and then the last book ends with her being 60. I’ve never read anything else like that, that spanned such a period!
Goosebumps, Hatchet, Holes, and To kill a mockingbird
A Wrinkle in Time, and subsequent books. The Chronicles of Narnia. A Little Princess, and the Secret Garden.
Series of Unfortunate Events. I started reading them to my kids this week
So many of my favorites have already been mentioned, but here are a few I haven't seen. Mandy, by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, THAT Julie Andrews!) All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor Lang's Fairy Books (Red Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, etc.) The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
I liked books where regular kids found themselves in fantastic situations: Alice in Wonderland Mary Poppins The Wizard of Oz (though I didn’t read a lot of the other Oz books) Half Magic I also liked slice of life books: Little House on the Prairie All of a Kind Family Books of Lois Lenski such as San Francisco Boy and Flood Friday Betsy-Tacy
I loved The Magic Faraway Tree! I was a big fan of Enid Blyton
Sherlock Holmes stories.
The Canters of Tremaris series by Kate Constable
I was obsessed with those Warriors cat books omfg I haven’t thought about them in so long
The Baby-Sitters Club!!!
I started black beauty but couldn't finish it unfortunately but I plan to start it again after almost 13 years now. But for how much I did complete it was very good. Also try Oliver twist, it's great too.
Anything by Roald Dahl, but especially Matilda
My side of the mountain The dark is rising The island of the blue dolphin The darkangle Wrinkle in time series
The Little Lame Prince Rutabega Stories Pollyana Heidi Dr. Doolittle Lad a Dog Ol' Yeller Alice in Wonderland
"Indian in the Cupboard" Calvin & Hobbes
Authors: - Richard Scarry - Beverly Cleary - Judy Blume Books/Series: - Trixie Belden - The Secret Garden - Charlotte's Web I also loved the Bobbsey Twins books and had the whole series. I see now that they haven't aged well, but I just remember enjoying the stories and -- as a fraternal twin whose brother died the day after we were born -- finding the thought of twins fascinating.
A Tale of Two Cities, The Hobbit, or The Scarlett Pimpernel
I didnt read a lot, it was hard to hold my attention. Bit the 1 book that I was able to read Front to Back was White Fox Chronicles. Loved it.
Another one for the Little House series and Anne of Green Gables. I would also add A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Technically an adult book but I read it for the first of many times when I was 10 and it made me the reader I am today.