Top Ten Childhood Favorites

Hey everyone! It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts but I have so many anticipated releases for the rest of the year that this one came pretty easy to me. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Girl. Each week there is a different topic. This week’s topic is Childhood Favorites.

I love this week’s topic. I devoured books when I was a child, even more than I do now. I loved going to the library to pick out new books. And over the years I’ve gradually been collecting the books I loved to read when I was growing up. Here is a stack of ten of my favorite books that I read when I was growing up.

• Dove and Sword by Nancy Garden – This was one of my absolute favorites, in case you couldn’t tell from how worn the spine is haha. I think this was one of my first purchases from the Scholastic Book Fair. I actually found a hardcover copy at Half Price Books a few years ago so I have that as my back up if/when this copy falls apart. This book is about Joan of Arc from the perspective of a childhood friend who went along on Joan’s journey. I think I read it at least 4 times.
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – This entire series holds a special place in my heart as well as the movies. I feel such a kinship with Anne Shirley and love her story so much.
• Matilda by Roald Dahl – This one is kind of representative of several of Roald Dahl’s books, but this one is definitely my favorite one that he wrote.
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This series also holds a special place in my heart. I’ve also been able to visit at least one of the places where Laura Ingalls lived.

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt – I’ve always loved this story and really need to find a copy that doesn’t have the movie cover on it. I liked the movie for what it was but I just generally don’t like movie cover editions of books.
• Save Queen of Sheba by Louise Moeri – This was a book I first read with my 4th grade class and loved. I still remember parts of it pretty vividly although I haven’t read it in a long time.
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry – Everyone loves The Giver, and while I enjoyed it too, it’s not my favorite she’s written. This book is. I’ve lost count of how many times I read this book and count it as one of the reasons why I love WWII history so much.
• Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech – I loved a lot of her books – Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird – but this one was probably my favorite. And totally funny story but since we were so young, my friends and I pronounced “Chaos” as “Ch-ouse” haha. We still get a kick out of it when we talk about that book.

• A Journey to the New World  by Kathryn Lasky – This one is representing the entire Dear America series. I freaking loved these books so much and couldn’t get enough of them. I still am working on collecting as many as I can get my hands on.
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – One of my all time favorite classics. I always identified most with Jo with a splash of the other three sisters.

Also, shout out to some other books I loved while I was growing up – Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Sideways Stories From Wayside School, and the Boxcar Children.

What were some of your favorite childhood reads?

Oops… So Much For A Book Buying Ban

I put myself on a temporary book buying ban a couple of weeks ago.  And today I broke that ban.  Oops!  E and I were up in Apple Valley today doing a bit of shopping for him to get some nice clothes for interviews and work.  We ended up eating lunch right across the street from Half Price Books so I begged him to go!  I was only going to look in the clearance section but I decided to stop by the YA section and see if there was anything good.  I was very pleasantly surprised to see the biggest selection of Dear America books I have ever seen at this HPB.  I couldn’t resist.  As I stood there struggling to remember which ones I already have I remembered that I had added mine into Goodreads.  I had to look up each one individually but I was able to come away with 5 books that I didn’t have!

• Land of the Buffalo Bones
• My Face to the Wind
• All the Stars in the Sky
• Survival in the Storm
• Valley of the Moon

They had some of The Royal Diaries as well but I figured that I should probably not even look.

So here is my full collection now:

This was one of my favorite book series when I was growing up!  I’ve been gradually adding to my collection over the years and get really excited when I find one that I haven’t even read yet!  Hopefully one day when we move into a bigger home I’ll have room for more bookshelves because these (and many others) currently live in boxes in our storage room.

Do you have a favorite book series you grew up reading that you collect now?

Top Ten Books I’d Love To Revisit From My Childhood

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  Each week there is a new topic and this week’s topic is: Top 10 Books From My Childhood (Or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit.

There are so many books from my childhood that I would love to revisit.  Some of the more obvious ones include Harry Potter and Anne of Green Gables.  As I was making the list for this week, I found myself thinking of just one more so many times… my list was getting a little long.  I am only going to do ten today despite the fact that I have more than ten on my list.

1.  Dear America series – I LOVED this series so much!  I still have all of mine and I’ve been working on collecting them all.  The photo shows three of my favorites!

2.  Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This was definitely a staple in my childhood.  Loved this books so much.

3.  Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine – These books were awesome!  So spooky and the covers were so cool, too!

4.  Dove and Sword by Nancy Garden – I loved reading historical books so this version of Joan of Arc has always been one of my favorite books.  I’ve read it so many times!

5.  The Face on the Milk Carton series by Caroline B. Cooney – I read a lot by this author but this was my favorite series by her.

6.  Number the Stars by Lois Lowry – This will always be one of my favorites.  Sparked my interest in tales of WWII and the Holocaust.

7.  Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry – My love of horses was born from reading these books.  I wanted to travel there so badly to see the wild horses, too!

8.  Save Queen of Sheba by Louise Moeri – This book was one of the books we read aloud in my 4th grade class.  Love the wild west and this fits in perfectly with that.

9.   Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt – It’s been so long since I’ve read this one.  I always wondered what I would do if I were in Winnie Foster’s place.

10.  Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird and Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech – I couldn’t choose just one of her books because I love all three of these.

What are some of your favorite books from your childhood?

Find any of these books at The Book Depository!

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 21

Day 21: Your favorite childhood book

In the home stretch now!  I’m surprised that I’ve only forgotten to post once!  I’ll be glad that this challenge is over in a few days.  It’s been a little annoying having to remember to get one here everyday and post something.

Once again I am going to have to do a top 10!  I can’t just choose one of my favorite childhood books.