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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Not really MM-related: favorite kids books?
Last weekend my mom had me go through old boxes of books from my childhood. It was kind of fun, and I'm probably going to ebay some of my little golden books (I have a few from the 50's in perfect condition)! My parents paid a nickel for those at garage sales back in the 80's, and some of the ones I have are going for over $10 each on ebay. I have nearly 100 of them... crazy!
Anyway, it made me wonder what MM's favorite kid books were - which ones would you keep to hand down?
I think my all-time favorites were probably the Shel Silverstein books. I still love those, and I keep them on my adult bookshelf as classics.
I was also super into Nancy Drew. I actually have all 56 of the original books in hardback from the same publisher. It's a pretty neat set, and it displays really well on a bookcase. I read each one of them multiple times as a kid, so they weren't just for show!
What were your favorites?
Re: Not really MM-related: favorite kids books?
What a fun find!
As a young child, I liked "Where the Wild Things Are" and...I can't remember the name...but it was a book about a rabbit and had a round cut out that went through the entire book and the rabbit's fluffy tail was in the cut out. I also liked the "Hungry Caterpillar". My DH's favorite is "Goodnight Moon". Whenever a friend has a baby turning 1 or 2, he always wants that book as one of the presents.
Oh! I also liked the Velveteen Rabbit. Even though its kind of a sad story. As a little one, whenever my mom would read me that story, I would promise my favorite stuffed animals that I would love them forever. Weelll...I've at least kept them forever and two of them are still displayed in my house . Does that count, lol?
When I was older, I loved Nancy Drew. In fact, as an adult, I still almost only read mystery books for my fiction choices. I also liked Shel Silverstein.
However, I don't have any of my childhood books. I don't have children nor do I ever want them, whereas my sister has two little ones. I know my mom gave my sister whatever childhood books she wanted. I don't know what she did with the rest.
I was a bit of a nerd early on and also loved reading field guides, travel guides, pet care guides (even for pets I'd never have) etc.
My favorite early childhood books are newer and were mostly discovered at my daycare job. I love Sandra Boynton for board books and Mo Willems for slightly older kids. Plus, "Is your Mama a Llama?"
I loved reading as a kid (still do), and luckily my parents indulged my habit. Some days we could barely afford to eat, but you better believe we made it to the library every week and if I really wanted to own a book my parents somehow made it happen!
These are mostly for the 6+ age group I think, but some of my faves that I remember are:
The Redwall series (this one is what really got me interested in fantasy novels--I was maybe 6 years old, and I only remember that because I had to get special permission to check the book out from the school library because it was marked for a higher grade level...just made me more determined to read it!)
Shel Silverstein books (Where the Sidewalk Ends is my fave)
American Doll books (I loved Addie and Samantha!)
The Velveteen Rabbit
Wayside School Series
Nancy Drew
The Hobbit
Dealing With Dragons Series
Dragonsong
Harry Potter--these have a special place in my heart. I was about 7 or 8 when the first book came out and I couldn't put it down. It's safe to say that I am part of the HP generation, lol.
Now I'm sitting here reminiscing and wanting to re-read all of these!
@TravelJunkie1234, my mom has a special place in her heart for the Harry Potter series. When she was first dating her husband (my stepfather), my sister and I were adults, but his children were around 9 and 12.
They all went on a camping trip and she brought a couple Harry Potter books, because she had heard good things about them. They were fairly new at the time. She read to everyone in the car and also during the trip. Everyone loved the stories and the boys would beg her to keep reading. I know to this day that she really credits those books with helping her bond with her (now) stepsons.
@AprilZ81, OMG, Sweet Valley High. I (cringingly) remember it well. I devoured those in middle school. Same with Judy Blume. I'd rank Judy Blume up into "classics" status for that age group...Sweet Valley High, not so much, lol. Nothing wrong with them, just pretty much on the "fluff" side.
As a teenager/preteen, I initially liked the "Flowers in the Attic" series. It was different and edgy. But, for the other books I read by that author, her story lines are extremely repetitious. Like she wrote the same book over and over and just changed the names, locations, and a few details. Lame.
I love the Hobbit. Also Dr. Seuss .
As a kid, I read my mom's old Nancy Drew series!!!
I LOVE:
Where the Red Fern Grows
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Hatchet (actually, the first novel I ever read as a child and was hooked on reading since then).
I have fond memories of the Berenstain Bears series.
The one current kid book I'll keep, which is 5 years old and has already been taped up a lot, is a book of 100 Nursery Rhymes illustrated by Mary Englebreit. The rhymes are obviously super common, but our kids LOVE her pictures. Cute and colorful. We have them all memorized.
We also have a children's edition of Aesop's Fables, which was given to me as a child. We'll keep that too.
Lastly, we have a Big Picture story Bible, that DH bought before DS1 was born. It's a keeper and already showing lots of wear.
Oh. but I have to 2nd
Little House on the Prairie series
and add Box Car Children!
I ended up reading Encylopedia Brown mysteries when I was in the 4th to 6th grades.
As I got older, I read a lot of the Louise L'mour's westerns. I just got rid of most of his books at a rummage sale. I did keep his Sackett series though since it is a great "series" inside his books.
Around this time I started to read Terry Brooks and Tolkien. I am thinking about getting a Kindle for my birthday/ Father's day gift so that I can get hundreds of books without having to take up my whole house with bookcases.
Oh my, we have a LOT of books.. we are big readers here. Some of our favorites are: Goodnight Moon/Goodnight Gorilla, Very Hungry Caterpillar, Sandra Boynton books, Snowy Day, Little Bluck Truck Leads the Way, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Dr. Seuss, nursery rhymes (great for learning language), On the Night You Were Born, Llama llama series, Curious George, Where the Wild Things Are, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Corduroy, Paddington, Berenstein Bears, Stone Soup, Ferdinand the Bull, The Giving Tree, The Day the Crayons Quit, Click Clack Moo, Amelia Bedelia... I'm sure I'm forgetting tons.
In terms of books that I personally loved as a kid, I was a huge fan of The Saddle Club and Babysitters Club series, Charlotte's Web, The Giver, and I love love loved anything Roald Dahl. Matilda and The BFG especially. Now I want to re-read those!
I second Roald Dahl, Berenstein Bears, and Dr. Seuss. I also liked the Phantom Tollbooth (forget the author) and Madeline L'engle books.
My class read Walk Two Moons in 5th grade which I also really enjoyed and Bridge to Terabithia and Where the Red Fern Grows. The latter really had a big impact on me for some reason.
I was never into Nancy Drew or the Babysitter's Club books, strangely. I'm not sure I ever read any of them!
Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl, Eric Carle, and Leo Leoni
Also the Grimm Fairytales. My mom was against them but my dad let me start reading them in the 2nd grade.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. I was also in 2nd grade when my dad got so sick of the movie he took it away until I had read both books.
Shakespeare. Obviously didn't understand much of it but I read a lot of it in elementary school.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
I also adored Bridge to Terabithia, the Swallows and Amazons series, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and pretty much any other Mark Twain, The Baby-Sitters Club books (and I wish I had kept mine), the Little House books (I just recently re-read those actually), Judy Blume and Gordon Korman's works, Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter of course, Shel Silverstein, Christopher Pike, and I just re-read The Giver quartet. I used to devour books as a kid, I'm sure there are plenty that I'm forgetting about.
For a couple of years now I've been grabbing everything I see from the thrift stores for my two boys, so I understand the desire to build up a collection, hehe. My husband always liked the Hardy Boys so I've been grabbing those as well. I've never actually read the Lemony Snicket books but they're ubiquitous in hardcover at the thrift store so I snatch those as well - I also furnish a couple of Airbnb rentals and include books, so even if I end up with duplicates, I don't mind. We have a bunch of Dr. Seuss which I appreciate but can only take in small doses. I also used to read Archie comics like a fiend, and I swear I could actually feel them expanding my vocabulary. I have a couple hundred now.
My favorite Golden Book is "The Monster at the End of This Book" starring Grover.
I read a ton as a kid. All of the Nancy Drew, BSC, Sweet Valley Twins and SVH.
On a slightly differnt topic, something else I read at the library was a magazine called "Penny Power." It was MM for kids. I think it was later renamed "Zillions." Did anyone else read this?