books that define your childhood

This article from the London TimesOnline lists "90 most awesome old-school children's books" in response to an earlier blog in which the author listed books that defined her childhood. While there are a couple of unfamiliar (to me) titles on the list of 90, the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are included as one selection, and On the Banks of Plum Creek is listed as a separate entry as well.

I first read many of the titles as an adult, including those by Elizabeth Enright and Lucy Maud Montgomery, the What Katy Did series, and Girl of the Limberlost. Others, such as the Bobbsey Twins books, the Hardy Boys books, Charlotte's Web, Louisa May Alcott's books, and Black Beauty, I read as a child.

I don't know if these books defined my childhood or not, but the following have been with me since my pre-teen years, and are still read and re-read by me today.

(1) The "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

(2) The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.

(3) Miss Jellytot's Visit by Mabel Leigh Hunt.

(4) 121 Pudding Street by Jean Fritz.

(5) The Edith and Mr. Bear books by Dare Wright.

(6) The Bobbsey Twins series by Laura Lee Hope, the non-PC ones belonging to my mother and aunt.

(7) Ellen Jane by Frances Margaret Fox.

(8) The Surprise Doll by Morrell Gipson.

(9) Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey.

(10) The Borrowers series by Mary Norton.

While the ten entries above are books I've owned since I was a child, I don't remember buying books on my own until I was in high school. I remember repeatedly checking the following books out of the library, though, and I've since bought copies: Ginger Pye and Pinky Pye and other books by Eleanor Estes, The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden, Grimm's and Anderson's Fairy Tales, Caddie Woodlawn and Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink, and The Story of Lohengrin: The Knight of the Swan by Doris Orgel.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:04 AM