REGRESSION

It’s probably no secret that I love children’s books. I love the illustrations and the stories. I love the fantasy, the world-building, the freedom, the problem-solving. I love the evocation of earlier times. I love the imagination that flowers and blossoms and swells out of them.

I can’t remember learning to read. I think I’ve always known how. I’ve been speed-reading since I was a child as well, and since reading was my primary and favorite source of entertainment, I’ve read A LOT. I keep good books, and I hunt down books I read as a child so I can add them to my library now. I have a tall bookshelf stuffed full of children’s and young adult books that, even though it’s placed at the entrance to the playroom, is actually full of MY books.

When we moved to Sweden, the movers made us inventory EVERYTHING in our household. I had to count all my books and was both chagrined and proud to find out I had over 1500. We’ve been here 8 years now, and that number has been steadily climbing, mostly thanks to the wonderful efforts of my mom who has kept me in a steady supply of English books in a country where books have been both astronomically expensive and highly taxed for years.

Yesterday was International Children’s Book Day, celebrated on the anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth. My kids and I are reading The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, which if you haven’t managed to read it along with his other beloved classics Charlotte’s Web, and Stuart Little, I can highly recommend. Introducing my children to books I love and re-read as an adult is one of the best things about having children in the first place.

I guess this is sort of a meme since ozswede did it first. 🙂 These lists are vastly truncated, as otherwise they would each be about a mile long.

Favorite books I read as a child that I have read over and over again into adulthood

• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
• Mrs. Frisby & the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner Chandler
• The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
• The Melendy Children books by Elizabeth Enright
• Heidi by Joanna Spyri
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune
• Irish Red by Jim Kjelgaard
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The Three Toymakers by Ursula Moray Williams
• The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
• The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• Charlie & The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
• 101 Dalmations and The Starlight Barking by Dodie Smith
• The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• everything ever written by Louisa May Alcott
• A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
• Half-Magic by Edward Eager
• The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare George
• The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel) by Ellen Raskin
• The Forgotten Door, and Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key

Children’s books I read as an adult and enjoyed

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Porter Stratton
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
• Dinotopia by James Gurney
• All-of-A-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
• Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling
• Lionboy by Zizou Cordier
• Time Stops for No Mouse by Michael Hoeye
• Tuesday by David Wiesner
• everything ever written by Diana Wynne Jones
• Pish Posh Said Hieronymus Bosch by Nancy Willard
• Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
• The Last Treasure, and Going Through the Gate by Janet S. Anderson

Books I have enjoyed reading with or to my kids

• Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat by Morrell Gipson
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom
• The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer
• No Fighting, No Biting by Else Minarik
• What Do You Say, Dear? and What Do You Do, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin
• A Kiss For Little Bear by Else Minarik
• Bread and Jam For Francis by Russell Hoban
• James & the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• Mrs Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent
• When I Was Very Young by A.A. Milne
• The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins
• all of the Pettson & Findus books by Sven Nordqvist
• Feathers For Lunch by Lois Ehlert
• Mouse Paint! and Mouse Count! by Ellen Stoll Walsh
• Barnyard Dance, and Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton
• The Star-Bellied Sneetches by Dr. Seuss

Bright and Beautiful Birthday Wishes to travelertrish!

*Listen to it here! 😀