Bookworming: 10 Favorite Childhood Novels

A couple of months ago, I put together a list of my 10 Favorite Childhood Series! It was fun to reminisce about some of my favorite books as a kid, and really reinforced that I have always been and will always be a bookworm :)

 

But not all of my favorite books growing up were part of a series, so I wanted to put together a separate list of my top 10 favorite childhood novels. In no particular order, they are...

1, Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse

I read Letters from Rifka on the recommendation of one of the librarians at the Kamehameha Elementary School Resource Center (I lovingly called her Blanche, because she reminded me of the Golden Girls character, but I'm so sad that I can't remember her real name!). Anyhow, it's a great story about a young Jewish girl and her family who are trying to escape to America during the Holocaust. And I had absolutely no idea what the Holocaust was when I was reading it (gimme a break, I was probably seven). I couldn't imagine (still can't, really) a girl as young as me (at the time) having to go through all the things she did. Rifka was definitely one of my heroes :)

2, Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Have you ever seen The Village? You know, that silly movie by that silly director guy (aka M. Night Shyamalan)... Well, it was a little bit of a (total) rip off of one of my favorite books as a kid, Running Out of Time! It follows a teenage girl in the 1800s (only it's not really the 1800s, she lives in a fake village that was constructed for scientific study... Sound familiar?) and her race to find a cure for a deadly disease that strikes her community.

3, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Not only did I love Harriet the Spy, who spied on just about everyone and wrote about them in her journal, I wanted to be her! I'm talking pen hanging around the neck (Ghostwriter-style) and a little pink notebook, walking around my grandma and papa's neighborhood in Kona spying on the neighbors (yeah, the indulged me a little more than my parents would!). I had so much fun pretending, though it only lasted a few days because I never came across anything interesting! (I know, I know, there is a Harriet series, but I only ever read the one book, so it's on my novels list!)

4, The Giver by Lois Lowry

I thought Jonas lived in such a perfect place in The Giver, and then I hurt with him when I found out the truth behind it. I think I read it late enough in my elementary school years that I could make more informed connections, so it was really one of the more powerful and rewarding reading experiences as a child. In fact, I think I'll read it again soon :)

5, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Shiloh is just one of the cutest, saddest, most comforting and upsetting books! It's about a boy who finds an abused dog in his town, and has to decide what to do with him. (Again, I know there's a series of Shiloh books, but I didn't even know about the other ones until I started writing this, so I only read the classic!)

6, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I wanted nothing more than a secret garden of my own after reading the book and watching the film! I fell in love with with Mary's story, and with everyone that lived and worked in the manor. I think The Secret Garden was one of the first times I'd read a book and seen the movie... And learned, very quickly, that books were usually (always) better than the movies!


7, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

I've ridden horses only a handful of times in my life, but I'm telling you I felt like I'd grown up on a ranch after reading Black Beauty. I absolutely wanted a horse of my own after following Black Beauty all over England, and I absolutely wanted to treat him like a prince!


8, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

I totally looked up to Karana in Island of the Blue Dolphins! Her eighteen years stranded on the island (losing her family, then finally her brother, and then having to try and make a life for herself) were part Blue Lagoon, part Castaway, part Pocahontas, and all girl power :) And, best of all, it's based on a true story!

9, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

I must have had a thing for orphans, because Maniac Magee was one of the many books I read centered around characters who'd lost their parents (See The Secret Garden and The Boxcar Children). Maniac had to deal with unhealthy family relationships, racism, and being homeless, a lot for a young boy. I was so happy when he and Amanda found each other :) MM was also made into a movie for Nickalodeon (and Maniac Magee was played by the same kid who played Elliott, Jack's son, on Will & Grace)! I've never seen it, though.

10, Drive-By by Lynne Ewing

Do you remember book fairs (where your parents would send you to school with money, or you'd earn credits in school, and head to the cafeteria to shop at the makeshift bookstore) and book orders (those little pamphlets your teacher would send you home with so you could order books from Scholastic)? I picked up Drive-By via one of those things, and was glad I did. I read it quite a few times as a kid, and it was my first introduction to gang violence and drugs, and just how much people could get hurt by all of it, even if they weren't directly involved with all the bad stuff in the first place.

I wanna know, did you love any of these books as a kid? What were your favorites?

Xoxo,
Tiera

Imagery via We Heart It and Amazon