Ten Childhood Favorites

Today, the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish have asked us to list ten favorite childhood books that I’d like to revisit.

I am not big on re-reading but I just know that if I read the books listed below all over again, I’d love them just the same if not more.

So here’s my list:

1. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. I so loved these books as a child – the whimsy of the tea party and all that growing tall and short, and even better the massive chess game in Through the Looking Glass, I loved them both. So awesome!
2. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I was a bit ok, a lot of a tomboy as a child and my reading tastes show that I think. I loved this pirate saga. I thought it was the bomb.
3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I was introduced to this book by my English teacher, and I loved the excerpt that she read out to us so much (it was chapter 2, the painting of the fence scene), that over the summer holidays, I read this book completely all the way through, and then reread it again, I loved it that much. I guess I just related so much to the character of Tom Sawyer in the book. And even now when I think summer holidays, I think of myself reading this book on a hot day. Such a happy memory.


My top three childhood favorites

4. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I read this book as an adult just last year, I think. But I think I would have loved this book as a child. I think I just love fantastical books with maps in general.
5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I read this book during my late teens. I don’t know whether this book can be considered a children’s book, but I remember that I had no problems with the vocabulary or anything. I could have easily read it as a 10-year old I think and loved it just the same.
6. The Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling. I would have so loved to have read this as a child, and to be introduced to her wonderful writing at a younger age. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy these books as an adult, but I think as a child, it would have been an even more magical experience.


Fantastic Childhood Fantasy Books

7. Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne. I loved all the Pooh books as a child. Love them as an adult as well.
8. The BFG and Matilda by Roald Dahl. My childhood favorites. I recently reread The BFG with Snubnose and enjoyed the book so much.
9. Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B.White. I revisited Charlotte’s Web over the summer holidays with Snubnose last year, and I am looking forward to introducing her to The Trumpet of the Swan these holidays. This is an even better book, in my opinion.
10. All the books by Enid Blyton. In particular, the school series of books, St. Clare’s and Mallory Towers were my favorite series. But, I also loved the Magic Faraway Tree series, the Five Find Outers, the Brer Rabbit books. Oh! I remember her books with so much joy.

What are your favorite childhood books? What memories do they evoke in you?