sasha_feather | Kids' Books

boxofdelights asked: Is there a book you loved, as a kid, that you would still recommend to kids like you were?

Lots of them! I loved reading had access to lots of books. I'm focusing here on books I read in elementary school.

Some books are classic for a reason. Written in 1900, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a childhood favorite of mine. I also read the sequels. I enjoyed the fanciful characters and illustrations and the wildly imaginative world. There were quite a few girl characters besides Dorothy. Ozma, for instance, starts out life as a boy but a spell is broken (or something) and she is revealed as princess Ozma.

Marguerite Henry has many rather sentimental books about horses; I especially loved Born to Trot, which again had wonderful illustrations. King of the Wind, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, and San Domingo: the Medicine Hat Stallion were also favorites.

I read many of Roald Dahl's books, which are fun and clever, and sometimes have a bit of a dark side. Matilda was a favorite of mine, and there are many many more to choose from.

I was just discussing with Jesse how I loved reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, about a boy who survives alone in Alaska after the small plane he's in crashes into a lake. It's the details of living in the wilderness the were great to read about. I read some other Gary Paulsen books but they didn't stick in my mind the way this one did.

I have not gone back and re-read most of these; but I have very fond memories of them; some of them I read repeatedly. I use to enjoy taking all my books off the shelf and re-arranging them.