What was your favourite book as a kid? (1 Viewer)

[pete]

altough i did read that one, more accurately i liked

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and a well thumbed copy of Holdings: Bás Beatha /

 

[washingcattle]

this was one of me faves

and this

although when i say 'faves' they were just books that we happened to have and i read all of them several times

they were actually good though

Roll of Thunder and Lord Of The Flies were my favourites when i was about 12. We read them in school but for some reason I had already read them. I think some neighbour gave them to me knowing that it'd save a few bob on school books. I read Animal Farm around then too but didn't completely understand the political aspects, still got most of it and loved it.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I had or still have a spurious book interpreting Nostradamus as having predicted AIDS, the Gulf War, and nuclear war by 1999. I read that book through and through and it looked real and true, it wasn't a kids' book.

As for kids books I would have to say something from the Roald Dahl stable, I loved all of his I read but think maybe Matilda or Fantastic Mr. Fox were my favourites.

Bonus fact, a first cousin of my granny's was an airman who fought alongside Dahl in WWII and Dahl used his name in one of his stories. Alas the poor chap died in 1941. :-(

 

[hugh]

Dahl's autobio where he recounts his time in WW2 is great (A Boy's Life I think it's called?). Read it with the young wan last year.

 

[rettucs]

I'd say I was 11 when I first read that. I'm sure I didn't understand most of it but I still loved it. And the one that followed soon after.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Hardy Boys
Goosebumps
Christopher Pike
Stephen King

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Dahl's autobio where he recounts his time in WW2 is great (A Boy's Life I think it's called?). Read it with the young wan last year.

"Boy" was his autobiography up to school age, "Going Solo" was the one about WW2. Both are brilliant.

Recommendations not mentioned thus far:
Of Mice and Men
Catch-22
Dorian Grey
Harry Potter (I'm guessing she might have heard of these already...)
Jurassic Park
Casino Royale
Wuthering Heights
1984
Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Catch-22

Catch – 22 for a kid? Are you mental? I found that extremely tough going as an adult. Reckon I’d have gotten approximately 4 lines in as a kid.

 

[hydromancer]

Also The Picture of Dorian Gray ? For a twelve year old maybe they could get into it I think it might be very dense or richly written.

 

[Lili Marlene]

If they were a fan of the His Dark Materials series i'd recommend the Chaos Walking series, totally brilliant

Chaos Walking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

other modern stuff:

Skellig or Clay by David Almond (or anything by him really)
The Midnight Zoo or Surrender by Sonya Hartnett (or anything by her)
Any of the Meg Rosoff books are worth reading as well. Some are better than others but they're all decent.
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughran
Any of the S.E. Hinton or Robert Cormier stuff as well, they're essentially the founders of YA fiction as we know it.


If we're talking actual classics :

Peter Pan, the Wind in the Willows, Tom's midnight Garden all stand up well. All of the Frances Hodgson Burnett stuff is still fairly good, although the Secret Garden seems to be the best (from what I've read). E. Nesbit holds up strong as well, she's the type of person you'd find all sorts of obscure books by in sales and the like and they're almost always very good.

Through some fluke Treasure Island is still brilliant, MoonFleet is another good but very strange one.

On the other hand the Water Babies is inaccessible nonsense and The Wizard of Oz is dull rubbish (imho), although i've only read the first one. I find the Arthur Ransome stuff (Swallows and Amazons) kind of terrible, lesser Enid Blyton, overly childish nonsense.

Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass are kind of weird ones, some people love their strangeness, others find them dull as dishwater or just bizarre Victorian nightmares.

I think Kipling's children's stuff is great but as someone was saying, the Jungle Books are surprisingly hard going.

 

[nooleen]

i loved cat's eye when i was about that age, read it a few times over. it's not a children's/teenagers book but it's about childhood and teenagerhood so maybe that's why i liked it at the time

Cat's Eye (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Lili Marlene]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

never heard of this. Good stuff?

 

[nooleen]

the alice taylor books too. they're about country childhood/life in rural cork so pretty appropriate - twee but great stuff
they had a load of her books in chapters last time i was in (last christmas)

i'd recommend these ones in particular

 

[David Kronenbourg]

never heard of this. Good stuff?

yeah it's brilliant. it's weird, scary and funny. the fairies in it are amazing

 

[jonah]

If they were a fan of the His Dark Materials series i'd recommend the Chaos Walking series, totally brilliant

Chaos Walking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.

I'll never not be upset about these books to be honest.

Also, when I was about 11 or 12, I was obsessed with Philip Ridley. Totally cool if she's into slightly weird, offbeat, witchy stuff, but not limited to that.

also my personal favourite

I mean look how awesome the main character was???

I also second David Almond. Clay is wonderful, but to be honest it kind of freaked me out, its very intense, do depending on how she fares with that sort of thing...


I was also really into the Tomorrow When the War Began series, around then. They made an awful movie out of the books, but for en pointe dystopian YA...

Also for serious, Jacqueline Wilson and Judy Blume? I know I'm being crazy cliche with that one, but particularly their kind of transitionary teen books.... required reading

I read Kes / A Kestral for a Knave around then too..

I'll probably think of loads more and spam.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I read Kes / A Kestral for a Knave around then too..

speaking of books which can upset you for life....



also, neither of us have mentioned John Green.

 

[jonah]

Oh, also I mentioned this in another thread previously, but I cannot recommend this book enough..

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell too. Very long but easy to fly through because it's so enjoyable

 

[jonah]

speaking of books which can upset you for life....

also, neither of us have mentioned John Green.

I was totally scanning your list to see if you did, but you didn't. Its a weird one, I bet she'd totally love John Green, actually, is it slightly older than 12? Not reading comprehension style or anything just love/death etc. But then I guess most good kids books are.

Just don't get her to read Looking for Alaska, that one has not stood the test of re-reading for me.