Monday
Sep272010
Time to play!
Monday, September 27, 2010 at 7:35AM For fun.
Because I'm silly and like games.
Because I often ask my husband ridiculous hypothetical questions that he hates to answer. (Would you rather live in a cave, never seeing the light of day until you were 150 years old, or would you rather live in a beautiful palace in the Alps and die when you're 75?)
Because it's Monday and we have one million skeins of yarn to ship today.
Because I'm still wearing my fuzzy pistachio green bathrobe and I have to be to work in 20 minutes.
For fun, OK? For fun.
What were your favorite children's books when you were growing up?
Maybe your faves will show up as a colorway name, you never know!
P.S. The answer to the poll in the post below this one is C.
See, you are smart.
I knew I liked you.
Reader Comments (85)
I can remember liking Charlotte's Web and the series with Toad of Toad Hal and Mr Popper's Penguins (I seem to have a lot of animal books in my selection)l. I also liked Blueberries for Sal and was forever looking behind me for bears ! I read Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Andersen serveral times. I liked the books in the Golden Books series as well like Frisky Little Puppy but I'd have to go to my Mum's to see the children's books she still has around to remember them all.
My favorite was "The Black Stallion" by Walter Farley. It was the first book I stayed up until midnight reading (pretty hardcore for 3rd grade!)
Hands down, the Anne of Green Gables series. Perfection bound in a cover. :)
Oooohhh!! My favorite topic!!! Let's see...I loved the Berenstein Bears books when I was really little. Then I got heavily into any series I could get my hands on once I graduated to chapter books. LOVE Beverly Cleary's Ramona series, and the Little House books. But I think my favorites were the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. When I got a little older, I began into the Robin Mckinley books--The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Beauty, Deerskin, The Door in the Hedge. Wouldn't all of those make GORGEOUS colorways? :)
One of my favorites was "Hide and Seek Fog" (Tresselt, 1965). It is a magical book about the fun of fog rolling in and how colors and shapes (and people!) change in the fog. It's set on a beach in the summer and I think beautifully depicts the serendipity of play in that landscape. Here's the amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Hide-Seek-Fog-Mulberry-Books/dp/0688078133. It was a Caldecott honor book (an award given to an illustrator for a particular book), and was noted by the NY Times for it's illustrations.
What a great idea to use children's books to inspire colorways!
Amelia Bedilia, Encyclopedia Brown, Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables and the True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.
I loved the Bobsey Twins - anybody remember them?
Another book I liked--and which would make a great yarn color--is Hide and Seek Fog by Alvin Tresselt.
From the early years - The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (anything by Seuss really) and The Mitten (the old folktale). Then Nancy Drew , Trixie Belden and the Little House series, Narnia, The Trumpet of the Swan (EB White). I also loved reading the Greek Myths. Now that I have my own daughters, I discovered Roald Dahl and also a cool book called "A Drowned Maiden's Hair."
I loved everything, lol. Beverly Cleary's Ramona & Beezus books, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm, all the L.M. Montgomery books I could get my hands on, Marguerite Henry's books, Pollyanna, Louisa May Alcott's books... As I said, everything, lol.
My son's favorite when he was a baby was "Curious George." My daughter loved "Madeline" and often wanted her friends to dress in coats and hats. My other son loved, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." I fell in love with "Goodnight Moon" and I embraced "Where the Wild Things Are" on bad days."Love You Forever" remains our family favorite. As a school teacher I have enjoyed reading, "Alexander and the Horrib, Terrible, No Good Day" to many a class of students that seemed unruly. But by far, the single children's book, which is definitely not for children but written for the, and has had a lasting impact on every student I have read it to is: Faithful Elephants. If you love pets and value life, that is the book to read. I warn you, you need kleenex to read it. Bunny
My favorite books at a child are some of my earliest being-read-to memories, actually. And the books were all gifts, too. The first was The Little White Teddy Bear (I think the full title was The Story of a Little White Teddy Bear Who Didn't Want to Go to Bed) by Dorothy Sherrill, which our neighbor gave to me and my parents read to me probably a million times. The other two came to me from my cousin, a gift when she came to spend a week with us one summer. They were Miss Suzy by Miriam Young, and Old Black Witch by Wende and Harry Devlin. I loved those books and having my mom read them to me. I still have all three of them, and I've read them all to my own kids and now to my grandson. They still make me smile to think about them.
Here goes:
Nancy Drew mysteries, The Bobbsey Twins books, Ballet Shoes, Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, Big Red/Outlaw Red/Irish Red, The Black Stallion, Misty of Chincoteague (really, any and every book about horses or dogs that I could find)
While I vividly remember reading and loving A Wrinkle in Time, Where the Red Fern Grows, Island of the Blue Dolphins, my blue fabric-covered hardback Nancy Drew series... I must confess that my truest love was Shel Silverstein. I loved poems so much and his made me dream and escape into a very child-like world... Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree.
I still love the "Dick & Jane" books I learned to read by. It was always exciting when a new character or pet was introduced. Learning to read was really fun. (Think pinks & blues combined, or all primary colors)
In sixth grade our classroom received a gift of "Nancy Drew Mysteries" & "Hardy Boys Mysteries" books. When I finished all the Nancy Drew mysteries, I then read all the Hardy Boys mysteries.
Forty-four years later I still love to curl up in my big corner chair and read a good mystery, especially on a rainy day. The rest of the the world and all it's problems melt away for a few hours.
'bschlot' on ravelry.
Hands down were the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books.
Also, Cherry Ames much preferred over Nancy Drew
Blueberries for Sal.
anything with horses or dogs
And tons and tons of play scripts. There was a magazine of kids play scripts that you could check out of the library.
I think this is missing from the list, Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I've read it to many students and now to my own child. It is one of my favorites.
When I was very little, the first book I "read" (aka memorized) was called "Red Tag", about a salmon that's been tagged (so biologists could find him later) and his adventures traveling upstream. He has quite the adventure, swimming past a bear, a hunter, and going up a waterfall.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was hands down my favorite book growing up.
My favorites books growing up were the Wizard of Oz series by L Frank Baum. Started out with my mother reading them to me and then moved to me reading them. Read them many, many times.