This week, I’m writing about my top-ten favorite books from when I was just a young little bookworm. Since I’m just on the cusp of starting my next semester in my kid lit MFA program at VCFA, it seems like a great way to feature some of the books that shaped who I became… an aspiring children’s book author! Like you, I have a million childhood favorites, so narrowing it down was difficult. The primary criteria I used were to include books I have specific memories reading and/or books I read and read and read again. Some of these I’ve reread for school, but not all of them. Let’s dive in and do a little excavation of my best children’s books. (And don’t forget to take my quiz with trivia from children’s literature! See how much you remember.)
My Top Ten Childhood Favorites
Picture Books and Poetry
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
My grandparents’ farm is located in the Catskill Mountains in New York. One of my favorite memories growing up was being turned loose in the blueberry patches with my cousins. On summer nights, my grandmother would make blueberry pie with the blueberries we’d picked and dropped in empty Folgers Coffee cans. I love the way Robert McCloskey captures a child’s solo quest for blueberries. It reminded me of my own longing to go out and explore the wild myself. We’d also vacationed in Maine, where McCloskey’s picture book takes place. Plus, I looked a lot like Sal when I was a child. This is definitely one of my favorites.
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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
I loved Maurice Sendak’s tale of feeling free to be an untamed kid. I think kids often feel like they have to stifle and repress their urges to be bad, not clean up their room, and just plain rebel against adults. That’s not always healthy. I wrote a critical essay this semester about how subversive children’s poetry can do just that: encourage kids to be naughty, or at least just give into their id for a little while. Sendak’s classic picture book epitomizes this message to kids. Together with the dreamlike artwork, I totally identified with Max and his story about the divide between childhood and adulthood and the expectations for both.
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The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Did I fall in love with cats before I read Dr. Seuss’s classic The Cat in the Hat or after I devoured the book? It’s hard to know for sure. I do know one thing: I loved Dr. Seuss’s zany vision, his surrealist stories and whimsical wordplay, and they’ve been a big impact on my own writing for children. This is another one of those books that, like Where the Wild Things Are, explores the idea of “being bad” in a safe place… on the page.
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Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
There were so many picture books I loved that I had to finally cull the herd and just pick a few. That means favorites like The Mitten, The Snowy Day, Stellaluna, and Madeline all got left out. So why did Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon make the cut? First, this is one of the only picture books that I have a specific and concrete memory of reading for the first time. I remember my mother checking it out of the Ridley Township Public Library for us and reading it with her. I remember the soft, serene illustrations by John Schoenherr that capture the magic and majesty of nature at night. And I remember the almost pagan-like reverie of the moon. In terms of mood and atmosphere, this story can’t be beat.
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Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Another book I can distinctly remember reading is Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. We did not actually own the book, so I walked up the block and a half it took to get to our town’s public library and checked it out time and time again. Silverstein’s collection introduced me to poetry as well as the library. By borrowing the book over and over, I had to explore new parts of the library, since it was housed with the general poetry collection, not broken out into poetry for children. I came to love the library and the power I held in my hand with a library card. And as for the poems? Well, I loved Silverstein’s playful verse, which was bold, witty, funny, and cheeky. The essay I wrote this semester about the subversiveness of children’s verse definitely referenced Silverstein, who I count as a huge influence on my own writing.
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Chapter Books and Middle Grade Novels
The Ramona Books by Beverly Cleary
There were so many books I could have included here, but I tried to make my choices of childhood favorites based on sheer number of rereads. And I don’t think there were any middle grade novels, or chapter books as I’m sure they could be considered, than Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby books. This hilarious series featured plucky, mischievous, and opinionated young Ramona on a variety of adventures. I think part of the reason why I found comfort in these novels is Ramona always seemed like an outsider. She was often misunderstood in by her peers and the adults around her. I consumed her melodramas over and over again. I’m sure I must have been responsible for water-logging the library’s paperbacks, with their cracked spines worn with love.
Add The Ramona Collection, Volume 1 on Goodreads and purchase it on Amazon.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
I was a hard-core Roald Dahl fan when I was a kid and read just about every book by him that our library had. Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG… how can you pick a favorite from those? But I think most of all, I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This novel is quintessentially dark, as are many of Dahl’s novels, but the story hinges on a Dickensian work of fate that made me love stories about destiny and fortune. When little Charlie Bucket finds that golden ticket, it’s like a call to him that takes him and his family out of misery and into a new, more prosperous life.
As a kid dealing with depression and undiagnosed Asperger’s, I yearned for a golden ticket. Reading was my golden ticket. It took me out of my circumstances and transported me somewhere else. Years later, in that magical first residency at VCFA, I felt like I finally got the real golden ticket: I was admitted to a stellar MFA program that validated my writing dreams and became the culmination of a life of book love. My love of reading during childhood saved my life, and that passion for kid lit saved my life when I got the golden ticket (acceptance letter) to study writing for children so I could truly give back.
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Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
I’ve written on this blog before about my love of Louise Fitzhugh’s novel. My collection of the best quotes about writing from Harriet the Spy compiles some of the best writer-y passages from the book. I talk a lot in that post about what the book means to me, but I’ll say it here, too. Reading Harriet the Spy was the first time I ever realized you could be a writer. Harriet was the first character I encountered who was a thoughtful, aspiring writer. Until then, I never realized you could be a writer. And Harriet the Spy doesn’t give Harriet an easy way of it. Throughout the story, her ideas about being a writer are tested, ultimately by herself when she considers the ethics of what she was doing and who she could hurt with her brutally honest, snarky observations.
Harriet was also a misfit, like I was, existing on the fringe of her classmates. She was first and foremost an observer of friendships and society rather than a participant of friendships and society. An outsider. And I felt the same way when I was her age. It’s no shock that this book was so meaningful for me.
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Yep, I was a pretty morbid kid obsessed with R.L. Stine’s gross-out horror but more so Alvin Schwartz’s creepy Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. These macabre tales included folklore and urban legends told with a subtle style. And who could forget the eerie, disturbing illustrations by Stephen Gammell? These really take the collection of stories from merely scary to absolutely chilling. I recently picked up a copy of these books and was surprised to see how short most of the tales were. I had memories of sagas and epics. It goes to show you how effective a writer Schwartz was, together with Gammell’s drawings, to make a big impression without wasting words.
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Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Hands up if you were a Little House on the Prairie fan! I definitely was. I made cornhusk dolls and longed to live with Laura and her family. My older sister had loved the books, too, and it was her box set that I inherited when she grew up. I read these stories over and over again. These historical tales by Laura Ingalls Wilder immersed you in a time that was by no mean simpler. I adored the story of living among the wilds of Wisconsin and the dynamics in young Laura’s family, and the atmosphere of living in such an isolated place. And it all starts with Little House in the Big Woods. These were some of
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