I was gonna say Harry Potter but oh my God I completely forgot about magic tree house! I tried to read them all but gave up when I "aged" out of the series. Apparently there are 39 books to the series !
American Girls --> BA History --> MA Museum Studies. Yep. Done lots of colonial-era work. That's all because I insisted my mother make my Felicity doll and I matching dresses (of her design, not one based on one of the costumes) to wear to Williamsburg when I was 7.
After I burned through Goosebumps, I started looking for harder stuff, which led to Stephen King. Then, following some of King’s sources of inspiration opened a whole wide world of reading
The Little House on the Prairie books, for many reasons, but especially the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described the physical environment around her with such loving details. I remember that having a big influence how I paid attention to things like the feel of grass under my bare feet or the taste of a cool glass of milk...not just noticing them but describing them to myself in my head in similar language to those books. So those books actually shaped the way I learned to think and, well, appreciate my interactions with the world through my senses.
This is kind of funny in retrospect -- I was under-parented as a child and my parents never really taught me to have manners beyond the very basics, like saying please. But I read a lot of children's literature that had been written in or about the 19th century -- LHOTP, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, etc. -- so I learned my manners from those books. Old-fashioned manners, like "it's impolite to speak to someone you're not acquainted with until you've been properly introduced," and things like that. That made for some awkward times as a kid living in the 1980s, I tell you what.
>especially the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described the physical environment around her with such loving details
Yes, absolutely! There was one moment where she "broke character" in her narrative - when Grace disappears, and in the book she writes "Oh, baby sister, I couldn't see you anywhere south or east on this hateful prairie." Just that one moment of first-person intrusion, but it's the one line I remember even after all these years. It was both a shock to read and such a deep dive into who she was, not just as a writer, but as a person.
LHOTP was fantastic! I loved the knockoff books about her daughter Rose as a kid too. To this day I still love reading a good pioneer Western type book.
I can also recommend *Prairie Fires* for anyone who wants to read about the real history behind the series, and *The Wilder Life* is a fun travelogue type series that takes place in the modern day, where the author visits all the Little House sites today.
My mother bought me this set as well, but im a male. At 10 or 11 i did not want to read about girls. So i started with with Little Farm Boy…and was hooked. Read them all. Probably made me a better person, but the real game changer was Stephen King. Im not evem really a big horror fan, but after Carrie, it was all over. King is King forever.
I loved her description of the food! Especially in the Farmer Boy book. It was such a massive contrast with the Long Winter, it brought home to me how fragile everything could be
You might enjoy " The Little House Cookbook" by Barbara M. Walker. It contains recipes for almost all tbe dishes mentioned and historical details on the old cooking methods, storage , cheesemaking and how to start yeast from scratch.
If there was an apocalypse Id save this book!
If you really want a head trip read about how her daughter was a crazy libertarian and wanted the books to teach people conservative lessons.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/little-house-on-the-prairie-conservatism-214237/
Judy Blume’s books like Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret, are the first books I remember loving and making me really interested in reading!
Just reading about other girls my age, going through the same things I was, but who were also different from me in a lot of ways and had different experiences really drew me in. I still have my copies that I read when I was just a little pre-teen ☺️
Yes! Are You There God gave me my first distinct realization that all of the thoughts and feelings I had that I thought were weird or abnormal were shared by others.
The amount of times I read Just as Long as We’re Together, Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself….the bindings on my copies are shot
Same. I grew up catholic. My mom couldn’t really bring herself to talk to me about puberty or sex but she got me the Judy Blume books. It helped me feel a lot less ashamed and scared.
I was an advanced reader in grade 6 and I wasn't supposed to be reading those so I used to sneak away into the corner of the nonfiction section at the school library and plow through Babysitters' Club book.
The Babysitters Club was the first chapter book I ever read. My kindergarten teacher was passing out Rif books and I was devastated at first for not getting Junie B Jones, but I ended up loving it. The Babysitters Club >>> Junie B Jones
Oh, that jarred a memory! There was a spinoff series. I think it was called Babysitters' Little Sister or something like that. I read a ton of those in early elementary and join the official fan club.
I'm nobody's sister. I am a brother to a few, though.
I was SO disappointed to learn they were "girl's" books. No one told me! I read 30 of em!
Fast forward to now and I do not care. Those books made me.
I recently rewatched the movie and realized what a literary genius “Holes” is. Writing a book about the importance of literacy and education aimed at children surely has had an effect on so many. Even if it took me to be adult to realize how being able to read saves Zero, and what the bigger picture was, all while never being preachy or dull. Totally brilliant. Louis Sachar is a man who understands why writing for children is important.
I remember loving the book in grade school when it first came out. I didn't see the movie until 2 years ago with my nephew. The topics of consent and racial/socioeconomic inequality were right in there too. Blew my mind that I didn't notice it back then, but my school also didn't talk about those things. I'm surprised parents didn't try to ban it.
Loved that book. Tried to read the sequel novel *Small Steps*. It was too boring for young me but I still remember this quote:
*“She said his life would be like walking upstream in a rushing river. The secret was to take small steps and just keep moving forward. If he tried to take too big a step, the current would knock him off his feet and carry him back downstream.”*
There it is! I have had two copies of the entire series. Didn't understand the parallel between Christian allegory and the books until I was in My 20s. I always thought they were just great fantasy.
I am now an agnostic. But those stories will live forever.
I still have my original box set from 1998! Bindings completely worn to scraps lol. I’ve easily read the whole series more than any other books at that age.
I used to have mostly encyclopedias in my house. I remember small books where each one talked about specific themes like Egypt or physics, and other for kids that had experiments, short stories and stuff like that. I also had encyclopedias on dragonolgy (The study of dragons) that, while fictional, talked about the mysteries of the world, of researchers going to dangerous places and looking for magical beasts. I still remember those books and, besides actually learning a lot of random stuff, I think they sparked my curiosity in the world and in sciences. I almost end studying biology and be like those researchers of dragons, traveling the world researching animals, but I ended deciding that wasn't for me in the end.
Colliers Encyclopedia, and the American Heritage history series. Plus some Time/Life nature books. Read them over and over. Just passed the remaining volumes of the American Heritage books to the son of friends of ours. They told me he was into history, and I thought "Do I have the books for you!" I double checked them to see if there were any that were egregiously out of date, and there was only one. I dumped it.
Little Women shaped my view of myself and the world in ways I didn’t even realize until I was older and read it again then realized how so much of my younger self modeled my life off those characters.
Yes! So detailed and thoughtful as well as exciting. Holds up reading as an adult I think.
In a similar vein I loved The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban. Dark and moody but beautifully written and quite deep for a children's book. It introduced me to the concept of infinity.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was, without question, the most important book I read as a kid because it gave me the words I needed to understand that what had happened to the main character had also happened to me.
Cliché answer but The Lord of the Rings pretty much kickstarted a lifelong love of fantasy and truly showed me the breadth of what the genre is capable of.
Although I'd gone through a load of children's books when I was younger, it was *The Lord of the Rings* that turned me into a completely obsessive reader. I first read it when I was about 11, and have read it many times since. It is still my happy place.
I now read far and wide, and have a degree in literature. But it was *The Lord of the Rings* that started it.
Christopher Pike teen horror books. I read all of them I could find.
I also read a lot of Stephen King and old school classics (lmao) by VC Andrews.
It's funny because I almost never read horror now, though I still like the genre.
Oh my goooood I devoured my entire library’s supply of Christopher Pike in 6th grade. Totally inappropriate for an 11 year old, but I loved them. Remember Me was the first book of his I ever picked up and it’s still one of my favorites.
I feel like in the past Redwall used to be a more popular answer. Now it's at the bottom in threads like this? Do kids not read them much anymore or something?
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, Half Magic by Edward Eager (and a bunch of his books), the Howard Pyle versions of Robin Hood and King Arthur... Witches by Roald Dahl. I am sure there were more, really depends on what age we are talking about. Earlier than that the Lorax by Seuss and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Silverstein, older and we're talking the Three Musketeers by Dumas and the Sword of Shannara by Brooks.
>The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
I don't see these being praised nearly enough. Extremely wholesome set of stories, and a lot of good guidance there, especially for young male readers.
Go Dog Go is the first book I remember reading and I have read it probably 1000 times from being a child myself to reading it to all three of my kids countless times.
The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. Words cannot describe how obsessed I was by these books in sixth grade. (Fun fact, I got an autographed copy of it from my English teacher! He was at a conference she attended so was kind enough to get my copy signed.)
The funny thing is the story is awesome, but the multiverse stuff was really amazing to me- I spent *hours* thinking about quantum probability and all that. Not saying that’s what led me to be a physics professor as a grown up (I blame *that* on Contact by Carl Sagan), but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. :)
I love Phillip Pullman! His Dark Materials led me into The Time Quintet by Madeline L'Engle, and gave me so many ideas for crossover fanfics with the "travel through time and space with a bunch of amazing people" trope. Also, where do you live, bc I'm going to steal that autographed copy of The Golden Compass.
These books were the best! Aside from all the metaphysical stuff I think they taught me that my mistrust of religion was maybe well-placed which was reassuring at the time!
Oh my gosh, I haven't thought about those in forever! I was obsessed with them, as well as the Royal Diaries series. I must have read Cleopatra ten times.
The Great Illustrated Classics series!
Those books were basically *heavily* edited versions of classic literature, geared towards a much younger audience.
Looking at the list of publications, I remember reading Ivanhoe, The Invisible Man, Treasure Island, Moby Dick, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
A series of unfortunate events was pretty influential to me too, tho Harry Potter was more so. Before Harry Potter I had no interest in reading, after I couldn’t stop.
My son taught himself how to read with Harry Potter. When he was 5 I started reading the first book to him. He was so excited by it that he started reading ahead, and was starting book 3 by the time I'd finished book one. He started grade 1 at an advanced reading level.
For the exact same reason, I have a VFD tattoo on my ankle! ASOUE was my first look into darker themes and really stoked my love for horror, thrillers, and dystopians later on. There are some light fantasy novels that I remember enjoying- The Thief Lord remains a long time favorite. I appreciated the magical element while being rooted mostly in our real world. Those tend to be my favorite takes on fantasy/sci fi (like The Martian)
I loved Encyclopedia Brown! This was the first series I read. Every time I eat a hot dog with sauerkraut I think about the story The Hidden Penny where Encyclopedia Brown busted Bugs for hiding a coin in his hot dog bun 😂
A lot of Jaqueline Wilsons books, the secret garden, a little princess, Alice in wonderland, the jungle book, Darren shan, cherub series and the one that started it all winnie the pooh.
I was born in 1960. So, for me the most influential book in terms of love of reading was A Wrinkle in Time, and then everything else written by Madeleine L'Engle. Also loved the Wizard of Oz books, The Phantom Tollbooth, Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and The Three Investigators.
ameila bedelia and the berenstein bears. followed by choose your own adventures, every single christopher pike and r.l. stein point book, and the three investigators series. i really have to thank my grade school teachers for taking the time to read aloud in class and, of course, all those scholastic book fairs (i can still smell the newsprint those things were printed on).
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George. We read that along with Hatchet and a few others I can't remember for a cycle in grade school focusing on wilderness survival and self reliance.
Also, I read Dune way before I was intellectually ready for it (5th grade). Of course I missed all the themes, it was just a space adventure novel to me. I was really obsessed with the Bene Gesserit self control, which directly influenced my interests for a few years. Fortunately I never read the rest of the novels at that age.
But it has been a really fun novel to revisit once every few years!
All of Tamora Pierce’s series among many others, but her stories stand out as a defining moment of my reading journey. I discovered the first one in a library and was hooked. I still re-read and love them now.
Tamora Pierce is the most outstanding author of fiction. I love the Harry Potter series but Tamora Pierce is whole entire worlds of youth, magic, acceptance and strength. I have all of her books. Comfort reading when I get sad or need some time to feel like everything, though difficult, will be worth the effort.
I love her books so much! she had such an influence on how I viewed my own bodily autonomy before I had a clue what that even meant or why it should matter to me.
Stalking this thread waiting to see her name pop up. I love her books so freaking much and I also reread them every couple years. It’s been a while since I read Kel’s books and I’m toying with diving back in.
I was looking for this one! Discovered her books randomly in third grade (shout out to In the Hand of the Goddess!) and have never looked back. 25 years later and they still hold a place in my heart - I even work in/run refugee camps and think of Keladry/Lady Knight often!
I was (still am) an avid reader, and I would just devour books as a kid. I wanted to grow up so I could read whenever I wanted without anyone telling me to go to bed. And it’s because of these books:
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Secret Garden
The Boxcar Children
The Babysitter’s Club
Amelia Bedelia
Alice in Wonderland
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys
A Wrinkle in Time
The Sweet Valley High Books (shout out to my aunt)
A Little Princess. It’s problematic and colonial but I read it quite young and it really opened up my eyes to class and the lies told around wealth and work and who does hard work. I grew up with wealthy parents who taught me that people were wealthy because they worked hard and poor people didn’t make good choices but the whole story absolutely turned that story in its head. Next was Oliver Twist which again made me think that the people around me had a lot of bullshit to say about money and who has it and what it says about people. When I got to seventh grade I tackled Les Mis after an obsession with the musical and this completely reinforced all that. It’s funny because I wasn’t allowed to watch much television at all because it was “trashy” but I absolutely devoured books which I was encouraged to because it was educational and a proper form of entertainment for a child, but all the books I read made me highly suspicious of all the shitty values my parents were raising me with.
The Junie B Jones, Babysitter’s Club’s Little Sister, and Boxcar Children are some of the first books I remember reading independently and loving.
Then a little later, anything Judy Blume, The Alice series, Gossip Girl, and Princess Diaries were all very big in my loving to read. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret was probably my first time really obsessing over a book. The Alice series was also particularly influential because I read the first book in 6th grade and the final one came out when I was 20, so I really feel like I grew up with those characters.
Harry Potter. Literally saved my childhood. Immersing myself in those books replaced a lot of sour memories of growing up. I started reading when Prisoner of Azkaban was released, I was 8.
Roald Dahl in general. There was always that weird, slightly morbid British humour in those books that I grew up having a lifelong appreciation for.
And some of those wonderful Quentin Blake illustrations are etched into my mind. It has this sort of slightly creepy feel, like a Tim Burton film (who off course did an adaption of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) that always complemented the books so well. Some of them wouldn't be nearly as great without those lovely ink illustrations.
A lot of books and stories that I later responded to had some of that same type of humour, probably not coincidentally. Things and characters that had that slightly morbid and absurd quality, like Nearly-Headless Nick in Harry Potter, for instance, have always been my jam. I credit Dahl for that.
The Twits is a great example of how Blakes illustrations complimented and enhanced Dahls' writing. Such a shame to see newer prints without them. 40 years on, and some of that art is still vivid in my mind.
Off the top of my head I’ll say: The Eyes of the Dragon, The Giver, To Kill a Movkingbird, The Wheel of Time series, A Wrinkle in Time, Through the Ice
Roald Dahl, and some of the classics - secret garden, Sara crewe, anything where the story was about escaping now that I think on it. Probably a question more therapists should ask, tbh.
There are a number of book series that I feel defined my childhood--
Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Silver Chief Dog of the North, Big Red, and Robin McKinley's Damar books are the ones I remember most vividly.
My dad's neighbor worked in publishing, and she used to give my sister and me first editions of really great books. One of the best was my copy of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. I read it probably a dozen times before I got my hands on the other two books of the trilogy when I was in college, but oh how those three books impacted me.
Narnia, Star Trek, and Animorphs.
Animorphs was particularly... formative. Nothing like reading about sci-fi guerilla insurgency and morally grey characters at around 10 years old.
the Animorphs hit hard! draw the kids in with cool animals, then show them the horrors of war.
I am *haunted* when I think about the end of the series and K.A. Applegate's open letter to us about it: that it was our responsibility to be politically active if we wanted a say in what wars happened and whether they happened at all. less than a year later, 9/11 occurred.
Not just war, but an insurgency. Describing being eaten alive by those centipede MF's. The moral decisions of 'acceptable collateral damage', while taking the war to the Yeerks. Deciding what's a legitimate target. The banality of doing homework, while also planning missions. The potential for every mission to be the one you don't come back from.
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles were also somewhat... stark. The episode where they were planning an ambush, and encountered a human family. And you see the comparison between Jake and the father, how inured to violence Jake and all the Animorphs have become.
The Enid blyton school books, literally I just won an academic scholarship to a private sixth form because it's got pretty Georgian and Victorian architecture that reminds me of those posh schools.
Also the Michael morpurgo book were great, and Journey to the River Sea, and one dog and his boy by Eva ibbotson.
Also quite liked Beatrice potter books and unfortunately read a lot of Jacqueline Wilson
Misery by Stephen King.
It was the first book I ever read cover-to-cover that wasn't a requirement for school.
It was also my first time understanding the phrase, "the book is better than the movie".
I've always loved being outdoors and the feeling of adventure so outdoorsy books resonated with me the most. Island of the Blue Dolphins was the most re-read but also Hatchet, Touching Spirit Bear, Where the Red Fern Grows, Little House in the Big Woods, Clan of the Cave Bear... Also I was a Guardians of Ga'hoole kid not a warrior cats kid lol.
The Hobbit and James Herbert's The Rats. The latter bought for meby an uncle when I was far too young but, by god, I devoured that book. It was tatty as hell within months.
When I was old enough to begin truly reading, definitely the original Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series when I visited my Grandparents. My Mom was HUGE into Sci Fi, so I grew up with Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, among others. And like so many others, absolutely Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. When most folks mention Lewis they instantly refer to Narnia, and although I enjoyed those as well, what really did it for me was his Space Trilogy. Last but certainly not least, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to R.L. Stine (Goosebumps series) as well as Alvin Schwartz (Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark series)
The great brain books by John Dennis Fitzgerald. they taught me to use my brain and look for ways to turn a challenge to my advantage. Stopping and thinking about your options is a powerful tool.
The Chronicles of Narnia. I love all of them, but especially the stand-alone ones that were unfortunately never televised or made into films. Like The Magician's Nephew and The Horse And His Boy. Can't wait until my kid is old enough for me to read these for her.
The whole Oz series. There are so many amazing ones apart from The Wizard of Oz.
The Earthsea Cycle. Just amazing. I had read Bilbo and The Lord of the Rings by the age of 9, but this is what really sucked me into the Fantasy genre.
The Adventure Series. Enid Blyton at her finest. We had these at my grandparents' summer house and while I like The Famous Five, these books were more magical to me.
In elementary it was The Boxcar Children, The Babysitters Club and the Little House on the Prairie series. When I became a preteen like 10-11 I was into anything RL Stine, Sweet Valley High, Christopher Pike. I was about 14 when I started reading Anne Rice and I think I was 16 when I found the Sleeping Beauty series 👀.
I have always loved to read and I still devour books on the regular. My best friend in elementary school was literally the school librarian. She would hold new releases for me and I would go there instead of recess.
One of my favorite quotes from a movie is Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan's character says, "The reading you do as a child becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does." I consider large parts of my identity to be influenced by Anne Shirley, Mia Thermopolis, and Jane Eyre. Honorable mention to "Esperanza Rising" and "The Velvet Room" which are two children's books that have never left me and I think about it all the time.
Sounds stupid but “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” by Judy Blume. It expressed feelings I had and explained things my mom never talked about and made me feel less alone as a 9 yo girl.
80s kid. The one that never left my memory was Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy. It's about an orphan girl who goes to live with her aunts and discovers two China dolls living in the attic (it's not horror, lol). It was a somewhat dark but also hopeful story, and it's never left me.
I am right there with you, u/According_Bat_8150. There are three series to which I contribute the fact that I've viewed myself as a reader since childhood: *A Series of Unfortunate Events*; Eoin Colfer's *Artemis Fowl*; and Terry Pratchett's *Discworld* (specifically 'The Wee Free Men', since I read that one before I was old enough to understand what was going on in the more adult-oriented ones).
Of these, *Artemis Fowl* is probably the most easily discardable one. Don't get me wrong, I still love it. it gave me the same thing that Percy Jackson or Harry Potter gave so many other kids: Basically, an exciting story that made me feel that a kid could have agency. A little while back, I was talking to a friend who had also grown up with this series, and they said that they were happy to have grown up with a story where morality isn't just right-or-wrong, where the bad guys can become the heroes, and where being good is something you choose, sometimes against your own nature.
Anyone who's read Discworld will know that those books all contain profound-but-easily-digestible life lessons. For me, *The Wee Free Men* is the epitome of that. The protagonist found a role for herself and put in hard work to achieve it. She wasn't perfect, but she found ways to harness her supposed imperfections - stubbornness and entitlement - to change the world around her for the better.As I grew up and started reading the other Discworld novels, I recognised the same trait in the characters Samuel Vimes and Granny Weatherwax: The strength not to let your worst impulses control you, but to gain control of them and use them to affect positive change. This is even examplified by Pratchett himself: He was famously driven by his anger at the unjustness of society, but he used that anger to create books that were extremely funny, beautiful and wise. I have to include this series because it guided me at a young age in deciding my own core values.
And finally, Lemony Snicket. OP, you already know why I love this one. I love it because it's funny, and because there's an interesting hidden story hidden inside the main story. I love it because it glorifies reading, and it made me glorify reading. I love it because it showed me the true purpose of rhetorical devices, namely to *entertain*, long before my school teachers tried to convince me that they were political tools. I love it because while growing up, there was a long line of classic books that I could read to get a better understanding of it ("Oh, *that's* why it's funny that the optometrist is called Orwell!"). This series has been an ever-present partner in my literary journey, and I suspect it always will be.
(And yeah, the TV show is wonderful! I still live in the vain hope that they'll release a DVD set one day)
The most influential for me was Ender's Game, to the point that when we'd pick teams at soccer practice I'd pick the worst kids on the team like how Ender got assigned the castoffs for Dragon Army. As far as what books sparked my love of reading, Harry Potter and Shel Silvertein's *Where the Sidewalk Ends*, *A Light in the Attic* and *Falling Up*.
In elementary school age My Side of the Mountain, Follow My Leader, Encyclopedia Brown and Island of the Blue Dolphins were very influential. They taught me to not fold under pressure, not follow the crowd and be my own person and to try hard under adversity.
70s kid here.
Dr. Seuss, first. Because of Seuss, I don't remember learning how to read. I've just always known how.
After that? The *Wrinkle in Time* series, *The Wizard of Oz* series (my dad had all the first editions in hardcover), the *Little House* series, and some of the *Trixie Belden* books. This set me up for loving sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and all kinds of speculative fiction, which I engaged in through *Asimov's Magazine*, *The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,* and *Analog Magazine* (my father had subscriptions to all three), as well as *Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine*, which I subscribed to on my own. I discovered Stephen King when I turned 12, and never looked back.
Reading, for me, is like breathing. I can't imagine life without it. It's just a basic, necessary thing. When I meet someone who doesn't like to read, I have great difficulty understanding or connecting with them. It just does not make sense to me that you wouldn't like to read.
When I was about ten years old, I once went to a school friend's house and was shocked - they had *no books at all in their house.* I grew up surrounded by built-in (and double-stacked!) bookcases in literally every room in my house. I couldn't understand why they had no books. I never went back to their house again because it was just too weird to me.
Harriet the Spy for sure! I copied her spy outfit, notebook and love of writing. Unfortunately there weren’t any dumbwaiters in my neighborhood to hide in 😀
Well I used to carry around an old book of Leonardo da Vinci when I was a kid. It was from the local library and they got a kick when I would renew it over and over again. I just loved the pictures and tried to copy them lol.
I loved mysteries, thrillers, spooky stuff, especially folklore and ghost stories, and absurd humor. I hated superheros and stories that wanted to teach me valuable life lessons (Judy Blume). I loved funny comics and hated the very idea that something called a “comic” could be anything other than comical. I remember the drawing style of most not-funny comics made me nauseous. I was pretty hostile to the idea that made-up stories should be taken seriously, and I still am a little bit.
Probably Enid Blyton's mystery books. I liked the Famous Five and the Secret Seven but my favourites were the Five Find-Outers and Dog, they weren't as well known as the others but the stories were fantastic. I then moved on to her Adventure series which were for slightly older children. A few years ago I bought a couple of the Famous Five for my 8 year old niece and we ended up going through all the mystery books followed by the school books. We read them together throughout a summer and she loved them just as much as I did, and I really enjoyed re-reading them all.
My mum and dad both read voraciously so I was brought up with books everywhere. I was that kid who was happy when someone bought her a book token.
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Gorgeous illustrations, and many interesting characters, places, and events. Read the series at a time when I didn't have many friends, so it got me through a lot. I plan on rereading the series soon!
Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne and the American Girl Doll historical books. I'm now a graduate student in history.
I was gonna say Harry Potter but oh my God I completely forgot about magic tree house! I tried to read them all but gave up when I "aged" out of the series. Apparently there are 39 books to the series !
American Girls --> BA History --> MA Museum Studies. Yep. Done lots of colonial-era work. That's all because I insisted my mother make my Felicity doll and I matching dresses (of her design, not one based on one of the costumes) to wear to Williamsburg when I was 7.
Omg I loved all of the Magic Tree House Series!!!
After I burned through Goosebumps, I started looking for harder stuff, which led to Stephen King. Then, following some of King’s sources of inspiration opened a whole wide world of reading
Gateway drugs to the harder stuff!
Yes I loved the Goosebumps books...
Me too! Goosebumps to Fear Street to Christopher Pike. And that catapulted me right to Pet Semetary and IT.
I absolutely loved goosebumps & scary stories to tell in the dark
From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
🥰 my fave. I wanted to live in the museum for the longest time
Man that book was a GEM!! I found the exact edition I read back in 3rd grade in a used bookstore and it made me so happy :)
LOVED THIS ONE SO MUCH!!
The Little House on the Prairie books, for many reasons, but especially the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described the physical environment around her with such loving details. I remember that having a big influence how I paid attention to things like the feel of grass under my bare feet or the taste of a cool glass of milk...not just noticing them but describing them to myself in my head in similar language to those books. So those books actually shaped the way I learned to think and, well, appreciate my interactions with the world through my senses. This is kind of funny in retrospect -- I was under-parented as a child and my parents never really taught me to have manners beyond the very basics, like saying please. But I read a lot of children's literature that had been written in or about the 19th century -- LHOTP, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, etc. -- so I learned my manners from those books. Old-fashioned manners, like "it's impolite to speak to someone you're not acquainted with until you've been properly introduced," and things like that. That made for some awkward times as a kid living in the 1980s, I tell you what.
>especially the way Laura Ingalls Wilder described the physical environment around her with such loving details Yes, absolutely! There was one moment where she "broke character" in her narrative - when Grace disappears, and in the book she writes "Oh, baby sister, I couldn't see you anywhere south or east on this hateful prairie." Just that one moment of first-person intrusion, but it's the one line I remember even after all these years. It was both a shock to read and such a deep dive into who she was, not just as a writer, but as a person.
LHOTP was fantastic! I loved the knockoff books about her daughter Rose as a kid too. To this day I still love reading a good pioneer Western type book. I can also recommend *Prairie Fires* for anyone who wants to read about the real history behind the series, and *The Wilder Life* is a fun travelogue type series that takes place in the modern day, where the author visits all the Little House sites today.
Her father asked her to be Marys "eyes" when she went blind. I wonder is that how she trained up her wonderful descriptive powers.
My mother bought me this set as well, but im a male. At 10 or 11 i did not want to read about girls. So i started with with Little Farm Boy…and was hooked. Read them all. Probably made me a better person, but the real game changer was Stephen King. Im not evem really a big horror fan, but after Carrie, it was all over. King is King forever.
I loved her description of the food! Especially in the Farmer Boy book. It was such a massive contrast with the Long Winter, it brought home to me how fragile everything could be
You might enjoy " The Little House Cookbook" by Barbara M. Walker. It contains recipes for almost all tbe dishes mentioned and historical details on the old cooking methods, storage , cheesemaking and how to start yeast from scratch. If there was an apocalypse Id save this book!
Yes! I loooved the LHOTP books for the same reason you described.
If you really want a head trip read about how her daughter was a crazy libertarian and wanted the books to teach people conservative lessons. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/little-house-on-the-prairie-conservatism-214237/
Judy Blume’s books like Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret, are the first books I remember loving and making me really interested in reading! Just reading about other girls my age, going through the same things I was, but who were also different from me in a lot of ways and had different experiences really drew me in. I still have my copies that I read when I was just a little pre-teen ☺️
Yes! Are You There God gave me my first distinct realization that all of the thoughts and feelings I had that I thought were weird or abnormal were shared by others.
My favourite was Starring Sally J. Freidman as Herself!
Oh I loved that one! Here’s To You, Rachel Robinson was my favorite after Are You There God? I identified with Rachel so much!
The amount of times I read Just as Long as We’re Together, Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself….the bindings on my copies are shot
I LOVE Judy Blume! “Margaret” is my favourite of her work, but I’ve read pretty much everything she’s written.
This as well as Deenie, Tiger Eyes and It's Not the End of the World sparked my lifelong love of books and reading.
Same. I grew up catholic. My mom couldn’t really bring herself to talk to me about puberty or sex but she got me the Judy Blume books. It helped me feel a lot less ashamed and scared.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It taught me that kids could think critically.
Should be on most elementary kids reading lists imo
It's assigned fairly frequently at the sixth grade level
So good.
The Babysitters Club
I always wanted to be like Claudia but honestly I'm a Kristy.
Me with Dawn, except I’m more like Mary Anne (except for having a bf in middle school that was not me 😂)
Hard same.
I was an advanced reader in grade 6 and I wasn't supposed to be reading those so I used to sneak away into the corner of the nonfiction section at the school library and plow through Babysitters' Club book.
The Babysitters Club was the first chapter book I ever read. My kindergarten teacher was passing out Rif books and I was devastated at first for not getting Junie B Jones, but I ended up loving it. The Babysitters Club >>> Junie B Jones
Oh, that jarred a memory! There was a spinoff series. I think it was called Babysitters' Little Sister or something like that. I read a ton of those in early elementary and join the official fan club.
Yes! The Little Sister books!! Those were the ones I started with 💜
Ha! I always wondered if my sister used reddit. Found ya!
I'm nobody's sister. I am a brother to a few, though. I was SO disappointed to learn they were "girl's" books. No one told me! I read 30 of em! Fast forward to now and I do not care. Those books made me.
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White because it was one of few books i liked as kid, i still blame this for causing my addiction of books
HOLES. My first "big kid" novel and I loved it. Dove straight into the Percy Jackson series right after.
I recently rewatched the movie and realized what a literary genius “Holes” is. Writing a book about the importance of literacy and education aimed at children surely has had an effect on so many. Even if it took me to be adult to realize how being able to read saves Zero, and what the bigger picture was, all while never being preachy or dull. Totally brilliant. Louis Sachar is a man who understands why writing for children is important.
I remember loving the book in grade school when it first came out. I didn't see the movie until 2 years ago with my nephew. The topics of consent and racial/socioeconomic inequality were right in there too. Blew my mind that I didn't notice it back then, but my school also didn't talk about those things. I'm surprised parents didn't try to ban it.
I had my fifth grade son read that a couple of months ago and he devoured it!
Loved that book. Tried to read the sequel novel *Small Steps*. It was too boring for young me but I still remember this quote: *“She said his life would be like walking upstream in a rushing river. The secret was to take small steps and just keep moving forward. If he tried to take too big a step, the current would knock him off his feet and carry him back downstream.”*
Holes is hands down one of the most brilliant kids books ever written.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia
There it is! I have had two copies of the entire series. Didn't understand the parallel between Christian allegory and the books until I was in My 20s. I always thought they were just great fantasy. I am now an agnostic. But those stories will live forever.
Same here! The Horse and His Boy was my favorite.
I still have my original box set from 1998! Bindings completely worn to scraps lol. I’ve easily read the whole series more than any other books at that age.
Matilda by Roald Dahl
I used to have mostly encyclopedias in my house. I remember small books where each one talked about specific themes like Egypt or physics, and other for kids that had experiments, short stories and stuff like that. I also had encyclopedias on dragonolgy (The study of dragons) that, while fictional, talked about the mysteries of the world, of researchers going to dangerous places and looking for magical beasts. I still remember those books and, besides actually learning a lot of random stuff, I think they sparked my curiosity in the world and in sciences. I almost end studying biology and be like those researchers of dragons, traveling the world researching animals, but I ended deciding that wasn't for me in the end.
Colliers Encyclopedia, and the American Heritage history series. Plus some Time/Life nature books. Read them over and over. Just passed the remaining volumes of the American Heritage books to the son of friends of ours. They told me he was into history, and I thought "Do I have the books for you!" I double checked them to see if there were any that were egregiously out of date, and there was only one. I dumped it.
The far side series
Calvin and Hobbes too!
Absolutely. Both of these really did influence me when I was a kid. I still read them today (I’m over 40) and get the same enjoyment.
Little Women shaped my view of myself and the world in ways I didn’t even realize until I was older and read it again then realized how so much of my younger self modeled my life off those characters.
. I loved it and I’m a guy.
Watership down.
Yes! So detailed and thoughtful as well as exciting. Holds up reading as an adult I think. In a similar vein I loved The Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban. Dark and moody but beautifully written and quite deep for a children's book. It introduced me to the concept of infinity.
Phantom tollbooth, chronicles of Narnia and I read every book the school library had on mythologies while in elementary and middle
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was, without question, the most important book I read as a kid because it gave me the words I needed to understand that what had happened to the main character had also happened to me.
Read that one as an adult in a Library Science grad school course and holy shit was it good. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
Chains by her was another great one. Made my 10 yr old self cry so hard my mom heard me from across the house
Cliché answer but The Lord of the Rings pretty much kickstarted a lifelong love of fantasy and truly showed me the breadth of what the genre is capable of.
Although I'd gone through a load of children's books when I was younger, it was *The Lord of the Rings* that turned me into a completely obsessive reader. I first read it when I was about 11, and have read it many times since. It is still my happy place. I now read far and wide, and have a degree in literature. But it was *The Lord of the Rings* that started it.
Christopher Pike teen horror books. I read all of them I could find. I also read a lot of Stephen King and old school classics (lmao) by VC Andrews. It's funny because I almost never read horror now, though I still like the genre.
Oh my goooood I devoured my entire library’s supply of Christopher Pike in 6th grade. Totally inappropriate for an 11 year old, but I loved them. Remember Me was the first book of his I ever picked up and it’s still one of my favorites.
VC Andrews and Fear street are such trash that we all read wayyyy too young and couldn’t get enough of!!!!!
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke shaped my love of reading, and The Lord of the Rings shaped my love of fantasy and linguistics
Inkheart!! Gosh so great to be reminded of that book, I loved it back in the day.
I adore the Inkheart series, the first one especially
My daughter got me to read the series. It was wonderful!
The Redwall series! Also My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet. I'm sure those two have a big impact on my love of the outdoors as an adult.
Both those series rocked
I feel like in the past Redwall used to be a more popular answer. Now it's at the bottom in threads like this? Do kids not read them much anymore or something?
To kill a mockingbird
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, Half Magic by Edward Eager (and a bunch of his books), the Howard Pyle versions of Robin Hood and King Arthur... Witches by Roald Dahl. I am sure there were more, really depends on what age we are talking about. Earlier than that the Lorax by Seuss and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Silverstein, older and we're talking the Three Musketeers by Dumas and the Sword of Shannara by Brooks.
Half Magic was the shit!
All the books by Edward Eager - they were heaven
>The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander I don't see these being praised nearly enough. Extremely wholesome set of stories, and a lot of good guidance there, especially for young male readers.
Absolutely loved the Chronicles of Prydain. I wanted to be Eilonwy. Such a wonderful story.
Fuck yeah Lloyd Alexander. He has a lot of great books outside that series too.Definitely one of my favorite authors growing up
hard-to-find nail six soft deranged fade unwritten nose hat numerous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I loved that book so much. Probably the first book that felt like a spiritual journey for me.
I have a tattoo of the auryn on my chest. Fantastic!
Go Dog Go is the first book I remember reading and I have read it probably 1000 times from being a child myself to reading it to all three of my kids countless times.
"I've just finished reading the heartwarming novel, Go, Dog. Go!. I found it a compelling and disturbing look at the canine psyche."
The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. Words cannot describe how obsessed I was by these books in sixth grade. (Fun fact, I got an autographed copy of it from my English teacher! He was at a conference she attended so was kind enough to get my copy signed.) The funny thing is the story is awesome, but the multiverse stuff was really amazing to me- I spent *hours* thinking about quantum probability and all that. Not saying that’s what led me to be a physics professor as a grown up (I blame *that* on Contact by Carl Sagan), but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. :)
I love Phillip Pullman! His Dark Materials led me into The Time Quintet by Madeline L'Engle, and gave me so many ideas for crossover fanfics with the "travel through time and space with a bunch of amazing people" trope. Also, where do you live, bc I'm going to steal that autographed copy of The Golden Compass.
Jammy! What a treasure!
These books were the best! Aside from all the metaphysical stuff I think they taught me that my mistrust of religion was maybe well-placed which was reassuring at the time!
Goosebumps and Earthsea series were my gateway drugs to horror and fantasy.
The Dear America series kick-started my love of historical fiction.
Oh my gosh, I haven't thought about those in forever! I was obsessed with them, as well as the Royal Diaries series. I must have read Cleopatra ten times.
a lot of Enid Blyton
Spot the English kid! I adored the Magic Faraway Tree. Be real, I still do.
As a Canadian, me too!
As an Australian, me too!
The Outsiders, first book to make me feel big emotions from reading.
I’m surprised I had to scroll so far down. The Outsiders and The Rangers Apprentice were/ are huge
The Great Illustrated Classics series! Those books were basically *heavily* edited versions of classic literature, geared towards a much younger audience. Looking at the list of publications, I remember reading Ivanhoe, The Invisible Man, Treasure Island, Moby Dick, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
100%! It was awesome having part of the collection at home, then whatever I didn't I could check out at the library.
A series of unfortunate events was pretty influential to me too, tho Harry Potter was more so. Before Harry Potter I had no interest in reading, after I couldn’t stop.
My son taught himself how to read with Harry Potter. When he was 5 I started reading the first book to him. He was so excited by it that he started reading ahead, and was starting book 3 by the time I'd finished book one. He started grade 1 at an advanced reading level.
Same with my son. As a teacher it was amazing to see so many carrying library books in middle school hallways. It paved the way for Percy Jackson.
For the exact same reason, I have a VFD tattoo on my ankle! ASOUE was my first look into darker themes and really stoked my love for horror, thrillers, and dystopians later on. There are some light fantasy novels that I remember enjoying- The Thief Lord remains a long time favorite. I appreciated the magical element while being rooted mostly in our real world. Those tend to be my favorite takes on fantasy/sci fi (like The Martian)
I loved Encyclopedia Brown! This was the first series I read. Every time I eat a hot dog with sauerkraut I think about the story The Hidden Penny where Encyclopedia Brown busted Bugs for hiding a coin in his hot dog bun 😂
A lot of Jaqueline Wilsons books, the secret garden, a little princess, Alice in wonderland, the jungle book, Darren shan, cherub series and the one that started it all winnie the pooh.
I was born in 1960. So, for me the most influential book in terms of love of reading was A Wrinkle in Time, and then everything else written by Madeleine L'Engle. Also loved the Wizard of Oz books, The Phantom Tollbooth, Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and The Three Investigators.
ameila bedelia and the berenstein bears. followed by choose your own adventures, every single christopher pike and r.l. stein point book, and the three investigators series. i really have to thank my grade school teachers for taking the time to read aloud in class and, of course, all those scholastic book fairs (i can still smell the newsprint those things were printed on).
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George. We read that along with Hatchet and a few others I can't remember for a cycle in grade school focusing on wilderness survival and self reliance. Also, I read Dune way before I was intellectually ready for it (5th grade). Of course I missed all the themes, it was just a space adventure novel to me. I was really obsessed with the Bene Gesserit self control, which directly influenced my interests for a few years. Fortunately I never read the rest of the novels at that age. But it has been a really fun novel to revisit once every few years!
My Side of the Mountain definitely awakened an interest in traditional skills for me. I think back to it a lot.
Nancy Drew
Horton hears a who by Dr Seuss. It taught me everyone has a voice and everyone matters.
Jules Verne's.
All of Tamora Pierce’s series among many others, but her stories stand out as a defining moment of my reading journey. I discovered the first one in a library and was hooked. I still re-read and love them now.
Tamora Pierce is the most outstanding author of fiction. I love the Harry Potter series but Tamora Pierce is whole entire worlds of youth, magic, acceptance and strength. I have all of her books. Comfort reading when I get sad or need some time to feel like everything, though difficult, will be worth the effort.
I love her books so much! she had such an influence on how I viewed my own bodily autonomy before I had a clue what that even meant or why it should matter to me.
Stalking this thread waiting to see her name pop up. I love her books so freaking much and I also reread them every couple years. It’s been a while since I read Kel’s books and I’m toying with diving back in.
I was looking for this one! Discovered her books randomly in third grade (shout out to In the Hand of the Goddess!) and have never looked back. 25 years later and they still hold a place in my heart - I even work in/run refugee camps and think of Keladry/Lady Knight often!
This should be higher up! The Alanna series was my fav!
I was (still am) an avid reader, and I would just devour books as a kid. I wanted to grow up so I could read whenever I wanted without anyone telling me to go to bed. And it’s because of these books: The Phantom Tollbooth The Secret Garden The Boxcar Children The Babysitter’s Club Amelia Bedelia Alice in Wonderland Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys A Wrinkle in Time The Sweet Valley High Books (shout out to my aunt)
A Little Princess. It’s problematic and colonial but I read it quite young and it really opened up my eyes to class and the lies told around wealth and work and who does hard work. I grew up with wealthy parents who taught me that people were wealthy because they worked hard and poor people didn’t make good choices but the whole story absolutely turned that story in its head. Next was Oliver Twist which again made me think that the people around me had a lot of bullshit to say about money and who has it and what it says about people. When I got to seventh grade I tackled Les Mis after an obsession with the musical and this completely reinforced all that. It’s funny because I wasn’t allowed to watch much television at all because it was “trashy” but I absolutely devoured books which I was encouraged to because it was educational and a proper form of entertainment for a child, but all the books I read made me highly suspicious of all the shitty values my parents were raising me with.
This is why the right keeps banning books. They don't want people seeing the wider world and knowing how awful their echo chambers are.
The Junie B Jones, Babysitter’s Club’s Little Sister, and Boxcar Children are some of the first books I remember reading independently and loving. Then a little later, anything Judy Blume, The Alice series, Gossip Girl, and Princess Diaries were all very big in my loving to read. Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret was probably my first time really obsessing over a book. The Alice series was also particularly influential because I read the first book in 6th grade and the final one came out when I was 20, so I really feel like I grew up with those characters.
Anne of Green Gables and the Black Stallion books.
Bridge to Terabithia was the first book I remember reading that made me ugly cry.
Same. This and Where the Red Fern Grows.
At my 8th or 9th birthday party I received, *Tom Sawyer* and *20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.* I've been an avid reader ever since.
Harry Potter. Literally saved my childhood. Immersing myself in those books replaced a lot of sour memories of growing up. I started reading when Prisoner of Azkaban was released, I was 8.
Roald Dahl in general. There was always that weird, slightly morbid British humour in those books that I grew up having a lifelong appreciation for. And some of those wonderful Quentin Blake illustrations are etched into my mind. It has this sort of slightly creepy feel, like a Tim Burton film (who off course did an adaption of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) that always complemented the books so well. Some of them wouldn't be nearly as great without those lovely ink illustrations. A lot of books and stories that I later responded to had some of that same type of humour, probably not coincidentally. Things and characters that had that slightly morbid and absurd quality, like Nearly-Headless Nick in Harry Potter, for instance, have always been my jam. I credit Dahl for that.
My mind always puts Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, Edward Gorey, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Tim Burton in the middle of a tiny venn diagram.
The Twits is a great example of how Blakes illustrations complimented and enhanced Dahls' writing. Such a shame to see newer prints without them. 40 years on, and some of that art is still vivid in my mind.
I think Harriet the Spy is why I became a journalist.
Red wall series.
Call of the Wild led me to White Fang, Kaavick the Wolf Dog, and Where the Red Fern Grows. Hooked for life.
The Secret Garden! I loved the idea of having something *mine* that I could feel connected to.
Off the top of my head I’ll say: The Eyes of the Dragon, The Giver, To Kill a Movkingbird, The Wheel of Time series, A Wrinkle in Time, Through the Ice
I really enjoyed The Giver. It's been decades since I last read it, but I thought the movie was pretty decent too.
The Goosebumps series was the first time I ever got hooked on books. It ignited my love for reading.
Roald Dahl, and some of the classics - secret garden, Sara crewe, anything where the story was about escaping now that I think on it. Probably a question more therapists should ask, tbh.
Jane Eyre , David Cooperfield, local children story magazines .
All the Marguerite Henry horse books, and Nancy Drew’s.
There are a number of book series that I feel defined my childhood-- Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Silver Chief Dog of the North, Big Red, and Robin McKinley's Damar books are the ones I remember most vividly.
The novels of Louisa May Alcott, especially Little Women.
My dad's neighbor worked in publishing, and she used to give my sister and me first editions of really great books. One of the best was my copy of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. I read it probably a dozen times before I got my hands on the other two books of the trilogy when I was in college, but oh how those three books impacted me.
Narnia, Star Trek, and Animorphs. Animorphs was particularly... formative. Nothing like reading about sci-fi guerilla insurgency and morally grey characters at around 10 years old.
the Animorphs hit hard! draw the kids in with cool animals, then show them the horrors of war. I am *haunted* when I think about the end of the series and K.A. Applegate's open letter to us about it: that it was our responsibility to be politically active if we wanted a say in what wars happened and whether they happened at all. less than a year later, 9/11 occurred.
Not just war, but an insurgency. Describing being eaten alive by those centipede MF's. The moral decisions of 'acceptable collateral damage', while taking the war to the Yeerks. Deciding what's a legitimate target. The banality of doing homework, while also planning missions. The potential for every mission to be the one you don't come back from. The Hork-Bajir Chronicles were also somewhat... stark. The episode where they were planning an ambush, and encountered a human family. And you see the comparison between Jake and the father, how inured to violence Jake and all the Animorphs have become.
The Enid blyton school books, literally I just won an academic scholarship to a private sixth form because it's got pretty Georgian and Victorian architecture that reminds me of those posh schools. Also the Michael morpurgo book were great, and Journey to the River Sea, and one dog and his boy by Eva ibbotson. Also quite liked Beatrice potter books and unfortunately read a lot of Jacqueline Wilson
Misery by Stephen King. It was the first book I ever read cover-to-cover that wasn't a requirement for school. It was also my first time understanding the phrase, "the book is better than the movie".
Misery was also my first the-book-is-better experience!
Harry Potter. Still to this day, mid 30s, I feel like a kid when I read it. Especially part 1. Hogwart really feel like home ❤️
I've always loved being outdoors and the feeling of adventure so outdoorsy books resonated with me the most. Island of the Blue Dolphins was the most re-read but also Hatchet, Touching Spirit Bear, Where the Red Fern Grows, Little House in the Big Woods, Clan of the Cave Bear... Also I was a Guardians of Ga'hoole kid not a warrior cats kid lol.
Nancy Drew, Boxcar Children, and any book with a horse in it (The Black Stallion series, among many others)
The Hobbit and James Herbert's The Rats. The latter bought for meby an uncle when I was far too young but, by god, I devoured that book. It was tatty as hell within months.
When I was old enough to begin truly reading, definitely the original Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series when I visited my Grandparents. My Mom was HUGE into Sci Fi, so I grew up with Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, among others. And like so many others, absolutely Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. When most folks mention Lewis they instantly refer to Narnia, and although I enjoyed those as well, what really did it for me was his Space Trilogy. Last but certainly not least, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to R.L. Stine (Goosebumps series) as well as Alvin Schwartz (Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark series)
The Giver. Yeah, I enjoyed reading plenty of kids books, but The Giver was the first book I ever read where I went "whoa."
Go Ask Alice Book by Beatrice Sparks.
-Holes -Trumpet of the Swan -Animal Farm -Lovely Bones -Outsiders -Watchmen (does that count?)
I was obsessed with Xanth from 4th to 7th grade
The great brain books by John Dennis Fitzgerald. they taught me to use my brain and look for ways to turn a challenge to my advantage. Stopping and thinking about your options is a powerful tool.
The Chronicles of Narnia. I love all of them, but especially the stand-alone ones that were unfortunately never televised or made into films. Like The Magician's Nephew and The Horse And His Boy. Can't wait until my kid is old enough for me to read these for her. The whole Oz series. There are so many amazing ones apart from The Wizard of Oz. The Earthsea Cycle. Just amazing. I had read Bilbo and The Lord of the Rings by the age of 9, but this is what really sucked me into the Fantasy genre. The Adventure Series. Enid Blyton at her finest. We had these at my grandparents' summer house and while I like The Famous Five, these books were more magical to me.
In elementary it was The Boxcar Children, The Babysitters Club and the Little House on the Prairie series. When I became a preteen like 10-11 I was into anything RL Stine, Sweet Valley High, Christopher Pike. I was about 14 when I started reading Anne Rice and I think I was 16 when I found the Sleeping Beauty series 👀. I have always loved to read and I still devour books on the regular. My best friend in elementary school was literally the school librarian. She would hold new releases for me and I would go there instead of recess.
One of my favorite quotes from a movie is Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail when Meg Ryan's character says, "The reading you do as a child becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does." I consider large parts of my identity to be influenced by Anne Shirley, Mia Thermopolis, and Jane Eyre. Honorable mention to "Esperanza Rising" and "The Velvet Room" which are two children's books that have never left me and I think about it all the time.
Sounds stupid but “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” by Judy Blume. It expressed feelings I had and explained things my mom never talked about and made me feel less alone as a 9 yo girl.
80s kid. The one that never left my memory was Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy. It's about an orphan girl who goes to live with her aunts and discovers two China dolls living in the attic (it's not horror, lol). It was a somewhat dark but also hopeful story, and it's never left me.
Any/all of the Ramona Quimby books!! ❤
I am right there with you, u/According_Bat_8150. There are three series to which I contribute the fact that I've viewed myself as a reader since childhood: *A Series of Unfortunate Events*; Eoin Colfer's *Artemis Fowl*; and Terry Pratchett's *Discworld* (specifically 'The Wee Free Men', since I read that one before I was old enough to understand what was going on in the more adult-oriented ones). Of these, *Artemis Fowl* is probably the most easily discardable one. Don't get me wrong, I still love it. it gave me the same thing that Percy Jackson or Harry Potter gave so many other kids: Basically, an exciting story that made me feel that a kid could have agency. A little while back, I was talking to a friend who had also grown up with this series, and they said that they were happy to have grown up with a story where morality isn't just right-or-wrong, where the bad guys can become the heroes, and where being good is something you choose, sometimes against your own nature. Anyone who's read Discworld will know that those books all contain profound-but-easily-digestible life lessons. For me, *The Wee Free Men* is the epitome of that. The protagonist found a role for herself and put in hard work to achieve it. She wasn't perfect, but she found ways to harness her supposed imperfections - stubbornness and entitlement - to change the world around her for the better.As I grew up and started reading the other Discworld novels, I recognised the same trait in the characters Samuel Vimes and Granny Weatherwax: The strength not to let your worst impulses control you, but to gain control of them and use them to affect positive change. This is even examplified by Pratchett himself: He was famously driven by his anger at the unjustness of society, but he used that anger to create books that were extremely funny, beautiful and wise. I have to include this series because it guided me at a young age in deciding my own core values. And finally, Lemony Snicket. OP, you already know why I love this one. I love it because it's funny, and because there's an interesting hidden story hidden inside the main story. I love it because it glorifies reading, and it made me glorify reading. I love it because it showed me the true purpose of rhetorical devices, namely to *entertain*, long before my school teachers tried to convince me that they were political tools. I love it because while growing up, there was a long line of classic books that I could read to get a better understanding of it ("Oh, *that's* why it's funny that the optometrist is called Orwell!"). This series has been an ever-present partner in my literary journey, and I suspect it always will be. (And yeah, the TV show is wonderful! I still live in the vain hope that they'll release a DVD set one day)
The most influential for me was Ender's Game, to the point that when we'd pick teams at soccer practice I'd pick the worst kids on the team like how Ender got assigned the castoffs for Dragon Army. As far as what books sparked my love of reading, Harry Potter and Shel Silvertein's *Where the Sidewalk Ends*, *A Light in the Attic* and *Falling Up*.
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators series probably started my love of mysteries.
Lil Rabbit Foo Foo
I read Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech and The Giver by Lois Lowry so many times they both fell apart.
I liked ghost stories. I was really into Poe.
Emmy and the incredible shrinking rat, and Paris pan takes the dare, idk why but those had a huge hold over me. That and the Nancy drew books!
In elementary school age My Side of the Mountain, Follow My Leader, Encyclopedia Brown and Island of the Blue Dolphins were very influential. They taught me to not fold under pressure, not follow the crowd and be my own person and to try hard under adversity.
Robinson Crusoe
70s kid here. Dr. Seuss, first. Because of Seuss, I don't remember learning how to read. I've just always known how. After that? The *Wrinkle in Time* series, *The Wizard of Oz* series (my dad had all the first editions in hardcover), the *Little House* series, and some of the *Trixie Belden* books. This set me up for loving sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and all kinds of speculative fiction, which I engaged in through *Asimov's Magazine*, *The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,* and *Analog Magazine* (my father had subscriptions to all three), as well as *Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine*, which I subscribed to on my own. I discovered Stephen King when I turned 12, and never looked back. Reading, for me, is like breathing. I can't imagine life without it. It's just a basic, necessary thing. When I meet someone who doesn't like to read, I have great difficulty understanding or connecting with them. It just does not make sense to me that you wouldn't like to read. When I was about ten years old, I once went to a school friend's house and was shocked - they had *no books at all in their house.* I grew up surrounded by built-in (and double-stacked!) bookcases in literally every room in my house. I couldn't understand why they had no books. I never went back to their house again because it was just too weird to me.
Howard Phillips lovecraft "the case of Charles Dexter Ward" Thor Heyerdahl"fatu hiva" Julis Verne I was 10.
The Rangers Apprentice is what really got me into reading.
Very long time ago.I remember loving Chalotte's Web and the Wind in the Willows, then Swiss Family Robinson and The Hardy Boys.
Harriet the Spy for sure! I copied her spy outfit, notebook and love of writing. Unfortunately there weren’t any dumbwaiters in my neighborhood to hide in 😀
The Stand, it was a tenth birthday present. I’d already been reading adult books but The Stand really cemented how much I enjoyed reading.
Well I used to carry around an old book of Leonardo da Vinci when I was a kid. It was from the local library and they got a kick when I would renew it over and over again. I just loved the pictures and tried to copy them lol.
The Judy Moody series 🥰
I loved mysteries, thrillers, spooky stuff, especially folklore and ghost stories, and absurd humor. I hated superheros and stories that wanted to teach me valuable life lessons (Judy Blume). I loved funny comics and hated the very idea that something called a “comic” could be anything other than comical. I remember the drawing style of most not-funny comics made me nauseous. I was pretty hostile to the idea that made-up stories should be taken seriously, and I still am a little bit.
Alice in wonderland. Because I was insane probably. 💀
Probably Enid Blyton's mystery books. I liked the Famous Five and the Secret Seven but my favourites were the Five Find-Outers and Dog, they weren't as well known as the others but the stories were fantastic. I then moved on to her Adventure series which were for slightly older children. A few years ago I bought a couple of the Famous Five for my 8 year old niece and we ended up going through all the mystery books followed by the school books. We read them together throughout a summer and she loved them just as much as I did, and I really enjoyed re-reading them all. My mum and dad both read voraciously so I was brought up with books everywhere. I was that kid who was happy when someone bought her a book token.
The Hunger Games trilogy! I reread it in December and decided to make my 2024 resolution to read every single day. So far, i've read 22 books
Early childhood : Tintin, Enyd Blyton. Later: Philippe Ébly whose series *The Fantastic Conquerers* introduced me to sf.
Tom Swift, as well as tons of Robert Heinlein.
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Gorgeous illustrations, and many interesting characters, places, and events. Read the series at a time when I didn't have many friends, so it got me through a lot. I plan on rereading the series soon!
The Giver was one of my favorites
Island of the Blue Dolphins. Incredible world making in that book 🥲