What book had the largest impact on you as a child?
For July 2nd: What book had the largest impact on you as a child?
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For July 2nd: What book had the largest impact on you as a child?
Actually two at the same time–“Wind in the Willows” and “Caddie Woodlawn.” I had spent a hard two weeks entertaining my cousin while he was visiting. As a reward, I got to go to downtown Kansas City with my sister and pick out two books. We always had books in the house but these were the first ones that were MINE and I love them fiercely.
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
I also agree with Enid Blyton and The Magic Faraway Tree Series and also I loved the Wishing Chair books by her too. ???
To Kill A mockingbird. It made me believe with passion and courage, one person really can make a difference.
I’m reading it now for the first time. It’s amazing how this story appeals to such a wide range of ages. This is definitely one to remember.
Anne Frank, Hellen Keller and Black like me
I’ve never read Black like Me, but we lived where the author was from a few years ago. Very interesting to hear perspectives!! Some quite disturbing.
I said Wrinkle In Time, but these also—formative.
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, The Narnia Chronicles by C.S Lewis and Anne Frank
Brothers Lionheart (Lindgren) & the never ending story (M. Ende)
It Can’t Always Be Caviar by Johannes Maria Simmel. It was originally published as a multichapter in a women’s magazine with recipes, protagonist being a pacifist secret agent who loves to cook, and then it was collected into a book. It started my passion for cooking 😀
Another one was The Dead Came Back, a witness statement of a concentration camp survivor.
Anne Frank and Anne of Green Gables, The Arabian Nights, Little Women and Aesop’s Fables and a whole bunch of Mr Men books. Faves were Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Topsy Turvy. 🙂 ooh I also loved Trixie Belden and the ladybird series.
Trixie Belsen I loved her and very few people have heard of her
I loved Mr Men books!
@Trudy I wished I had kept my set…
@Joy haha…yeah. I read them over and over again as a kid.
@Maheswari I wish I had mine too. Every week I would get $2.00 for doing chores and I’d spend a $1.56 on a new one, lol. I’m 45 so obviously that was a long time ago
Trudy Gibbs those were a long time ago and great times as well 🙂 I’m 40 so not too far behind.
I still have a Mr Men book my kids love it. It’s at my parents house I’ll have to look for it again ?
Little Women and the Little House on the prairie books … and I also loved The Magic Faraway Tree, too !
Alice in Wonderland
This is like my favourite book ever, just got my 1st copy at 47 years old ?
The Outsiders S. E. Hinton
Da vinci code. I was 19 and to say I was shocked is an understatement. Its only recently (in my thirties) when I repeated the bk and understood it.
Johnathan Livingstone Seagull
Bridge to Terabithia.
A little princess by Frances Hodgsin Burnett
The Velveteen Rabbit
Harry Potter!
Bridge to Terabithia and Harry Potter
Blubber and Deenie by Judy Blume, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr.
Charlotte’s Web, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables (I still have my childhood copies). Also, the Red Fern Grows (the first book that ever made me cry and I believe I was in the 5th grade).
The Diary of Anne Frank
Me too, Kerrie. ?
A Wrinkle in Time, The “Color” Fairy Books
Under the hawthorn tree and Goodnight Mr.Tom
Little Women.
The naughtiest girl in school
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Not Without Peril by Marguerite Allis.
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
chickensoup for the teenage soul : tough stuff . the first one .
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. My 4th grade reading teacher read it aloud to us and I remember being captivated by it.
Fantine- Les misérables (Victor Hugo)
The babysitters club, Harry potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and later on, Ellen Hopkins books
The Grapes of Wrath. I read it when I was 10 and I still remember sobbing as my mom snuggled me.
Charlotte’s Web! Harriet the Spy. Deenie and Tiger Eyes, et al Judy Blume. Bridge to Terabithia. Princess Bride. Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. The Outsiders, and into adolescence Boys and Girls Together (Gold
Ing), East Of Eden (Steinbeck), Siddhartha (Hesse), and for a long while anything by Milan Kundera. Oh and haha the Handmaid’s Tale. There are likely hundreds more. I was a total geek.
The Narnia books. When I went to daycare, our teacher would read this series when we were falling asleep for nap. 43 years later, I still remember.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Kindness can come from the most unlikely of people.
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron. It helped to start a lifelong love of science fiction.
The Red Badge of Courage.
The Little Engine that Could
Harry Potter series
Great expectations
Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit
Judy Blume books
Boxcar Children, Little House in the Prairie, Judy Blume,Nancy Drew
Loved Box Car Children and really wanted to live in a boxcar too.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Flying in Place by Susan Palwick.
Little Women. Earlier in my childhood it was Enid Bllyton’s work, hard to pinpoint one as she wrote series–The Secret 7, The Famous Five
Amazing book by H.G.Wells and it’s adapted into The Time machine movie from 2002. which i love even more
Nancy Drew books!
Anne of Green Gables
Tarzan! Long story.
The Devils Arithmetic
The Land of Far Beyond by Enid Blyton. If you haven’t read it, it’s like a children’s version of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Have you ever seen Little Pilgrim’s Progress? It is charactered with children-i lovedit as achild and so did my own children. Now readingit to my grandchildren.
I haven’t but I’ll certainly look out for it, thank you!
A Little Princess
Anne of Green Gables
The Nancy Drew series
The lion the witch and the wardrobe. I just thought it was magical.
Depends what you still count as a child. I read Desert Flower (autobiography of Somalian model Waris Dirie) when I was like, 12, and I think it really cemented some ideas about right and wrong and social justice that still stick with me today.
So many, but the first one I remember was The Littlest Angel. Main character was someone I really identified with and tried to emulate, at about the age of 6.
Hurlburt’s Bible Stories
Platero
To Kill A Mockingbird.
the Magic Faraway Tree – it taught me that so manythings are possible and that change is a wonderful thing and not to be feared
and Swallows and Amazons cos my dad used to read it to me and my brothers and i have never felt so safe and loved
Anne of Green Gables. I identifies with her fire and lack of filter
The Family Nobody Wanted
Younger age- Judy Blume. Older age- Lord of the Flies
Where the Red Fern Grows and Desert Solitaire
Harriet the Spy
Diary of a young girl by Anne Frank
Narnia
“The Secret Garden”
To Kill A Mockingbird.
Jaws. Read it just before going to the beach for vacation.
Matilda
Different Dragons
Bridge to Terabithia
A Wrinkle In Time… turned me into thinking science/physics could be cool for girls too.
Swiss family Robinson
Can’t decide: To Kill a Mockingbird/Anne Frank’s Diary
Tipping the Velvet. It made me realise queer people could have happy endings.
I don’t even remember its name, but it was a book I found at my grandfather’s house when I was 7 or 8 maybe, in the early 1960s. It was about the Holocaust, in particular documentating the atrocities uncovered near the end of the war. With pages and pages of photographs of the victims. Many dead, others barely alive. It was a hard lesson…
Betsy-Tacy books and “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”
Betsy-Tacy ❤❤❤❤❤❤
@Terri …I hardly EVER find anyone who has heard of these books…thanks for your reply.?
Love!!!
“Anne of Green Gables”
Summer of the Monkeys. Not necessarily because of the content, but because I read it with my dad and it was one of his favorite books as a child. I actually remember him crying during a chapter or two and it just made me love reading because I realized how much books can move and transport you.
Nancy Drew and Choose Your Own Adventure books are the most memorable
Old Yeller.
What stage of childhood?
And Nancy Drew. All of them.
“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster.
So many! I’ll hit the highlights: Early childhood, Are You My Mother… age 7 or 8,The Mysterious Bender Bones because my dad and I read it together at my bedtime…age 11 or 12, all the Judy Blume books lol…high school, East of Eden
Are You My Mother! ❤️❤️ Yes!
Where the Red Fern Grows and Harry Potter.
Laura Ingalls Wilder Books & The Secret Garden
Wrinkle in time…
The Diary of Anne Frank, The Giver and Where the red fern grows. First books to get me interested in reading were the Goosebump series, so need to give them credit as well.
Six months to live
The Diary of Ann Frank…read it when I was 8. Really wrecked my world view, I had no idea people could be so evil and hateful
Nancy Drew. Hands down.
Ben Hur
The Giving Tree. The Narnia Books.
Are You My Mother by Dr. Suess. The first book I read all by myself at age 5
This seems kind of silly but a series of books by Emily Loring and also Sue Barton. They were kind of like role models that I did not have in real life.
never silly 🙂
Tiger Eyes, Judy Bloom
Enid Blyton books. They did a lot to make me an avid reader.
Judy Blume’s books. The Magic Treehouse Series. Geronimo Stilton series.
Good night Mr Tom
Charlotte’s web.
The Story of a Real Man by Boris Polevoy
Where the Red Fern Grows
Little Women. First book to make me cry.
anne of Green Gables
Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
The Phantom Tollbooth
I need to reread this as an adult!
National Velvet
Anne of Green Gables. I went by Ann and was adopted. I started spelling my name Anne, making my mother nuts.
I love love love that series. I’m still hurt over Walter. ?
The Secret Garden, and then ALL of Judy Blume’s books.
The Secret Garden….age 9
Count of Monte Cristo
The Ugly Duckling.
Little Women.
Age 8, found Tarzan of The Apes at a rummage sale and found out books are always much better than the movies.
Matilda and a book called Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan about a girl in the 19th century who loves horses and disguises herself as a boy and then a man to be able to experience adventure.
A Wrinkle In Time by L’Engle
Little Women.
Because of Winn Dixie
Magic for Marigold by L. M. Montgomery
The wizard of Oz
The happy prince and other tales
I remember reading a book when I was really young, I’d borrowed it from school then. It was a strange story, a weird mix of fiction and horror. I forgot its title honestly but it terrified me back then and impacted my life so much.
Can’t say for my own childhood, but for my children:The Monster at the End of the Book, or What were you scared of? (in my house, the pale green pants with nobody inside them) and Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Even today they say “I think I’ll go to Australia.”
probably The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Island of the Blue Dolphin
probably The Secret Garden then when I moved into more adult books in late elementary school Exodus by Leon Uris…
All the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the Trixie Belden series
Absolutely loved Trixie Belden. Had all the books. (There were only 15 when I was buying them.) I had only met one person in my entire life (and I’m 64) that had even heard of Trixie Belden until I joined this club.
Bobwhites of the Glen!! <3
@Robin I re read them so much I think I had them mostly memorized! I’m 55 and I’ve only met one other person who read them.
Loved them as well
Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales.
Don’t laugh of me but It was the fairy tales
No laughter here! Fairytales taught us how to dream! ?
I have the same opinion, besides you can learn many things reading and preserving the nacional legends. When i was a child i listened in the radio naguath cart, el cadejo or the priest without head
I was all about the fairy tales! Probably where I got my grim imagination.
Searching for David’s heart!
For me personally, it was probably The Bridge to Terabithia.
Heidi, Cherry Ames, and Nancy Drew
I tried to check out Gone With the Wind as a girl. Not sure of the age. They would not let me and I was so intrigued that I returned the next day and slipped it under my shirt. I successfully stole it, read it twice and returned it. The book was no worse for the reading and I was greatly impacted. One of my first acts of rebellion.
Ferdinand the Bull.
Make Way for Ducklings (showing my age, I know) and one most have never heard of: The Man Who Lost His Head
A Wrinkle in Time – hearing Meg struggle with the same insecurities and be told to be gentler and less angry and such was so true to me, and then to see her do such great things despite of these flaws she saw in herself made a huge, huge impact on me and made me realize I really needed to be kinder to myself at a young age.
Agree—A Wrinkle in Time.
Probably either Starship Troopers by Heinlein which was my introduction to both science fiction, a life long love) and political theory (leading to a political science major in college) or Hawaii by Michener which lead me to understand that history is more than dates and battles and that people are much the same no matter what race they are from. It also led me to ask for a trip to Hawaii when an aunt offered to take me anywhere in the world when I was 13.
It was James Mitchner who turned me on to historical fiction and from there history. But I began with Chesapeake.
Dr Dolittle book(s)
I am going to say Heidi as well. I ate cheese on bread and drank milk out of a bowl in imitation. It taught me the joy of simple life and when she hid rolls, to appreciate small things.
The story not so much but the food scenes had the same impact!
The Diary of Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Island of the Blue Dolphin.
That book stayed with me as a child, couldn’t imagine what she went through.
I was thinking ‘child’ meant below 10?
I was a child until I was 13, in England that’s when we’re classed as adults
4th grade The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe
I loved that book. My neighborhood playmate had a walk in closet and we used to pretend that we were going into another world every time we walked in the door.
Little Women. I wanted to be Beth, impossibly good, die young, and mourned extravagantly.
Little Woman, I so yearned to be Jo.. I read Little Men, too
Nancy Drew, and anything by Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. I also loved horror books as a kid and read Amityville Horror around the age of 12. I still think about that damn pig.
We read the same! It was the flies that got me creeped out!
Probably The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think that is when I really started reading a lot.
Diary of Anne Frank
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downtairs by Tomi dePaola. My great grandma lived with my grandma until she passed. I remember reading it awhile after she died (I was maybe 6 or 7). This was the first book I read that made me cry.
The Diary of Anne Frank, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Giver, Go Ask Alice
Hop on Pop
Nancy Drew. Loved them. ❤️
Never-ending Story! I read it loads of times when I was little… It always took me away, and made me dream of finding a different world like that. I loved it! ??
The sins of Rachel Ellis. It was the first chapter book I read and it was scary lol. I still love that book to this day.
Anne of Green Gables
Chronicles of Narnia changed me. It took me to another world.
All the Roald Dahl
3 children’s classics – Little Women, Anne Of Green Gables, Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm.
Dick and Jane
Nancy Drew
christopher pike novels kickstarted my interest in murder, mystery and horror, and where the red fern grows ruined me.
Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman, Sarah Bishop by Scott O’Dell, and The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.
“You Are Special”. It was a book about adoption. My parents sat me down on the couch when I was 5 and read me the book explaining to me that I was adopted. It was a beautiful story that I read over and over. And I did feel special!
Little Bear — first book I learned to read with
Little Women
“What the Nigh Knows” it was the first big book I’ve ever accomplished
The faraway tree and George’s marvellous medicine
Swiss Family Robinson
Little Women
Trumpet ? of the swan EB white
Nancy Drew Mysteries were my favorite when I was a Tween. I loved VC Andrews when I got in my teen years.
The Wind in the Willows. Mom read it to us at bedtime, and I couldn’t wait to hear what happened next. I was hooked!!
My favorite childhood book was definitely Indian in the Cupboard lol. Don’t know why but I absolutely loved this book.
Oh my gosh I loved the book and the movie too!
That was a great book. Though I only read it as an adult.
The Outsiders
Little Women, Little Men , Eight Cousins all by Alcott; Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter. Prairie Girl by Lois Lensky. Little House on Prairie.
Girl of the Limberlost! ❤️❤️❤️
The Giver
The Hobbit
Babysitters Club series
Horton Hears a Who. A person’s a person no matter how small.
Heidi, Secret Garden
The Harry Potter series probably, although the little house series was pretty huge for me as well.
The Hobbit
Same! ❤️❤️❤️
@Marian Whooo!!!
Night by Elie Weizel, Diary of Anne Frank, The Outsiders, and The Chronicles of Narnia
Forgot about the Outsiders!! Loved that book!
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein.
Boxcar children
I loved that book as a child. I believe I could still read it and enjoy it.
@Anita my 10 year old is currently reading it to me?
The Wizard of Oz
I guess I am thinking of a much earlier age. Mom read Bible stories to us when we were tots.
Actually same here, Bible stories for me were what made the most impact. Especially the story of Abraham and Sarah. On the line of fiction books I’d say Anne of Green Gables, or Little Women. <3
Bible for me…..because Dad valued it higher than any other but loved wind in the willows which was read to us at school.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
The secret life of bees
Holes
❤️
Shel Silverstein
The Old Man and the Sea
Les Miserables.
The Weirdstone of Brisingaman by Alan Garner, it has connections to Alderley Edge, just down the road from us!
Do you remember Children of the Stones, published about the same time and there was a TV series too? Very spooky stuff, all the adults in some weird cult to do with a stone circle, and the children had to save everyone.
Black Beauty
Perry Mason series
Ray Bradbury’s short stories
Old Black Witch by Wende Delvin
Harry Potter!
Pollyanna. It made me always look for the good in life. Also the Tripods series. It taught me to question what I was told by adults and not always just accept things the way they are.
This was one of my favorite books that I had to read for school.
I loved this book as a kid
It’s the book that made me love reading.
I’ve been meaning to read this one
The hundred dresses.
Anne of Green Gables
following
Or the black stallion series!
Has to be The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, the first one Over Sea, Under Stone made me think of a village in Cornwall where we always went in the summer on holiday. I found out later it was actually about that village, but with a fictional name….I knew the landmarks were familiar!
The Lorax by Dr Seuss
No! But he speaks for the trees!
Scarlett letter
Emily of new moon, Nancy and Plum, all the Narnia books
The Child Called It, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, Native Son
Daniel Chu and Elliot Skinner’s A Glorious Age in Africa. I’m dyslexic. That’s the book I used to teach myself to read.
The Trumpet of The Swan by E.B. White
SUCH a good book!
A Lantern in Her Hand, by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Auntie Mame.
Secret Garden
The neverending story. I’d read all kinds of books before but this one really got me going
Wait…it’s a book? ???
Marian H. E. Dews It was a book long before it ever became a film ? Like they usually are
My Side of the Mountain!
I just read this for the first time last month. I’m 43 and I loved every page. Better late than never!
Nancy Drew mysteries and Hard Boys mysteries
Hard Boys?! LOL
Hmmm…. Guess they were very excited about solving those mysteries!! ?
Same!!
Mixed up files of basil e frankweiler.
I wanted to sleep in a museum as as kid…..
Got to as an adult, with the cubscouts
I loved this book! I still have my copy from when I was a little girl! I must’ve read it a hundred times!
Charlotte web
Caddie Woodlawn
Caddie! One of my favorites from my home state.
@Linda thanks. Caddie. Darn retyper. I spent years reenacting scenes
Charlottes web
Malory Towers by Enid Blyton and Animal Ark by Lucy Daniels.
White Fang
The Wizard of Oz
Old Yeller. ?
I’ve been meaning to read this. I’ve only ever seen the movie.
Caddie Woodlawn was so good!
An under-appreciated Classic!
Last of the Mohicans
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Black Beauty
Clara Barton
The Girl with the Silver Eyes
The secret diary of Laura Palmer. I think I was too young to read this book I was about 16. It is actually one of the only books that I remember from my teenage years.
A Little @Princess
Heidi
How could I forget? The Black Stallion series!
Nancy Drew Series..she was smarter that the Hardy Boys! 🙂
“Madeline”
Monkey’s Paw
Gone with rhe wind
The Giver
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech. One of the few books I’d read over and over and still own to this day
The Velveteen Rabbit. It still makes me cry.
Looooove this book to this day!
When I was around 11/12 I stayed up until 2am reading “cave of the moving Shadows” by Thomas millstead. Started my love of history and anthropology… especially pre history. I’d love to get a history degree in ancient and prehistoric era…
Dr. Dolittle
Gone With The Wind. I was about 11 when I read it.
A Wrinkle in Time
I only just read this one for the first time last year! Everyone kept telling me I would love it. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it!
@Marian Besides being a wonderful adventure story, it holds a special memory for me. I still remember sitting on my porch with my best friend and fellow reader. We read the book together, waiting for the other to finish before turning the page. It is a memory that still connects us, over 50 years and 1500 miles apart!
That is a wonderful memory! My fondest memories of reading are when I was young, and my mother and I would take turns reading a book (out loud) together. It’s just that much more special to share a book with someone!
Bambi. When his mother died, I cried and cried.
As a teenager I loved the Sweet Valley High series. These books motivated me to read when I hated reading!
I never actually read any as a kid, but when I see them in thrift stores now, I always pick them up!
They should be re release them.
Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton, I adored thid series of books.
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
I fell in love with The Trumpet of the Swan by the same author ?
Oh! Yes!! I have read them both, and Stewart Little, to my boys. They are such treasured stories. 🙂
Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret
For me too!
Laura Ingles Wilder books
My Brother Sam (idk the author)
The Little Prince
Are you there god it’s me Margaret by Judy Blume
Seven Alone
@Chinelo.
The Secret Garden
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Read it in 6th grade English class. Got me hooked on reading.
Love that book.
The Three Musketeers; Dubrovsky
The Boxcar Children and Laura Ingalls Wilder Books. Oh gosh and Judy Blume books were really a big part of me getting into reading.
Anne of Green Gables…then Little Women…
Anne of Green Gables was a big part of my childhood. I don’t think I ever read LW as a kid, but I loved the movie adaptions.
Little Women
Freckles, One o’clock Fox, Mrs Piggle Wiggle, Robin Hood, Sinbad, the Sailor.
This is fun!
Can’t really say tbh, but I can say that the ones that stuck with me the most throughout my life were “The View from the Cherry Tree”, “The House on Hackmans Hill”, and more goosebumps books than I can count!
“The House of Sixty Fathers” , “Little House in the Big Woods”, “Heidi”
A Wrinkle in Time, Me and Caleb, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Nancy Drew.
Amityville Horror
That’s a good one! My grandma and grandpa gave me a hardback fairy tale book when I was very young. I can’t quite remember the name of it, but I must have read that one at least a thousand times! My favorite one was “12 Dancing Princesses.”
The Little House on the Prairie books
For me it was The Little House on the Prairie series and all of Judy Blume’s books.
A wrinkle in time & Harriet the Spy (couldn’t pick just one!)
I have a #2 important book from my childhood: Stories for Free Children.
“Aesop’s Fables”
This was the only book at my Uncle and Aunt’s house, and it made visits to them bearable. It just occurred to me that I never thought of bringing one of mine along 🙂
The Yearling
Star Girl, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
James and the Giant Peach & A Wrinkle in Time
Oh yes!!! James and The Giant Peach!!
The Wind in the Willows, Stuart Little, The Box Car Children, Of Mice and Men
Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
My fourth grade teacher read it to us after lunch recess each day. As she did other wonderful books following that gem. She talked to us about the wonderful vocabulary and her excitement spilled over onto me. It grew with what my mother had began at home. I was hooked with those fantastic rabbits talking and frolicking. The anticipation, the wonder. That book still lives in me.
That’s so lovely, it’s how everyone should feel about books. I still don’t have a “physical” friend to talk to, my sons were never keen on reading, preferring the mechanical stuff lol. The wonder of books amazes me every day 🙂
The Boxcar Children
Anne of Green Gables
Witch of Blackbird Pond
I loved that book!! Re-read it recently! Hadn’t seen it/read it since I was a kid!!