The Books That Made Me
Hi friends,
Since my kitchen is out of order, I’ve been flooding you all with book posts!! Today is a very special post that I hope you will enjoy.
Recently, I visited the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Along with exhibits featuring September 11 exhibit, President Bush’s political career and personal life, a small “library” was included. Prior to becoming First Lady, Mrs. Bush was a librarian and a teacher. Shelves containing her favorite children’s books were displayed and several of my childhood favorites were featured. Nostalgia instanted flooded my mind.
My family highly encourages reading. Grand B (my mom’s mom) especially wanted my brother and I to enjoy reading. She would keep a small box of children’s books in the trunk of her car and would often sit in the back seat with us and read. Bless Grand B, she probably read some of these books more than a hundred times! Taking the time to read to us young-ins was a very important investment and we have many fond memories of Grand B reading to us.
They say children are made readers in the laps of their parents; I would say we (my brother and I) were also made readers in the backseat of a Buick 🙂
I asked Grand B to recall some of the books we read together. Some are oldies or books my mother owned but they are still very special to me. Here are the books Grand B came up with!
Probably my all-time favorite. Oscar the Grouch penned this book. If you want to learn how to be a grouch, he outlines it perfectly. Here are some tips I’ve kept with me all these years: put rocks under your mattress, sleep with your head on the floor, and eating fish-flavored ice cream.
Mary Poppins, A Big Golden Book
I’m not sure if this is the correct book cover but I’m arguably one of the biggest Mary Poppins fans out there!
This book has 367 childhood favorites! This was a fun read 🙂
This book was one of my brother’s favorites!
The Three Bears Visit Goldilocks
Another favorite of mine!
A very intelligent boy builds an ingenious flying hockey stick with cords, a fan, and am umbrella! He picks up a few stragglers on his journey around the world!
The Adventures of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Another favorite movie of mine!
The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat
A gift from close friends of my grandparents
The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature
Pretty much any epic and classical story will be found in this book!
This one was so fun!!!
I could probably be entertained for hours with this book.
The Golden Treasury of Children’s Literature
More classics tales!
Here are also some of my personal favorite books for children!
Officer Buckle and Gloria
Goodnight Moon
Love You Forever
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Bubba, the Cowboy Prince (A Texan version of Cinderella)
No Jumping On the Bed!
Harvey Potter’s Balloon Farm
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Madeleine
Mrs. Nelson Is Missing
26 Fairmont Avenue
In elementary school, I enjoyed the following series:
Berenstain Bears
Boxcar Children
Little Bear
Amelia Bedelia
Frog and Toad
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
B is For Betsy
American Girl series (pretty much all of them)
Sideways Stories from Wayside School (and other sequels)
Betsy-Tacy
The Babysitter’s Club, Babysitter’s Club: Little Sister
Sweet Valley Twins
Nancy Drew series
Roald Dahl Books (Matilda, the BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Magic Treehouse
Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder books
Beezus and Ramona (or anything with Ramona Quimby)
After elementary school, I obviously read more for school. But these were the books I chose to read 🙂
I’m sure I will think of more later but here’s a good long list for you!
What are your favorite childhood reads?
I don’t think I’ve ever read any of the ones from your early childhood. I watched the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at my grandparents house a few times though so it’s kind of close? My favorite book growing up was probably The Big Red Barn. It was something we always read and I can’t wait until I have children one day so I can read it to them.
Also I loved The American Girl Series growing up! I read all of the books about Molly since she was the doll I had.
thanks! Yea I figured not many folks would be familiar with the older books 😛
I had Samantha but I too read all of the books. It made learning history fun!
Such beautiful books! Sorry to hear your kitchen is out of order – eek – hope you haven’t had any major disasters and it is up and running again! Got to say I loved that you included Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks – I would love to read them again x