Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Childhood Reads

Hosted each week by That Artsy Reader Girl, it's a meme for listing the top ten for everything bookish.

This week it is all about Childhood Favorites! I swear I made a post like this before but I guess I never published it so here I go again! These are some of the books I read when I was in elementary and middle school and still remember.


Elementary School

1. Goosebumps
Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps, #1)
I read the Goosebumps books like crazy. We had a stockpile of them at home and I kept at least two or three in my desk at all times. I remember Welcome to the Dead House the most because it freaked me out the most (which meant that I liked it the best). I read these books completely out of order, so it's strange to realize that my favorite book was the first Goosebumps book published.

2. Bunnicula
Bunnicula
My teacher read us Bunnicula to help inspire Halloween stories. She ended up continuing the series but I got so impatient that I read the rest of the books myself. I actually reread the first book last year and I can say 100% that it still is a fantastic book.

3. Magic Tree House
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House, #1)
Okay, so this was definitely a popular series when I was in elementary school. If there was ever a hyped book series in my elementary school, it was this one.

4. Puppy Pages
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This one was one of my favorite books as a kid and I didn't realize until I grew up that no one had ever heard of this book. I was obsessed with dogs (more on that later), so when I saw this at a Scholastic Book Fair I had to have it! Even though this was mostly an activity book, it had a little bit of a story and I reread and reread this thing. Remember those Halloween stories I had to write? Well, I wrote a Halloween story featuring the characters in this book. I unknowingly wrote fanfiction for a book no one has even heard of. In middle school, I took the same story and started making comics based around the characters until they in no way resembled those in this book.


Middle School
5. Warriors
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I have a lot of love for this series. I friend of mine in middle school got me into this series and I was wary at first because as it is clear, I am a dog person, not a cat person, but this series is such a great series. Even though I was a reader before, this series got me fully obsessed with reading. It wasn't until this series that I understood the anticipation of waiting for the next book.

6. Wendy Mass
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This was a little later in middle school, but I saw this book at my library and I loved the colorful cover so I picked it up. It's such a great book and after reading this one I picked up any book I could find by Wendy Mass. She has some other great books, but this one will always be my favorite.

7. Sammy Keyes
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief (Sammy Keyes, #1)
I picked this series up after a classmate recommended them to me and I read them one after the other until I had to wait for the next book. I'm ashamed that even though I did keep reading the series as books came out, I eventually stopped so I haven't read them all.

8. Ann M. Martin
A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray (Scholastic Gold)
I feel weird putting Ann M. Martin on this list only because she's well-known as the author of The Baby-Sitter's Club, but I was never interested in that series. I pretty much read the other books I could find from her. It started, no surprise, when I find this book. After this one, I read A Corner of the Universe, Belle Teal, and Here Today. 

9. Frances O'Roark Dowell

I didn't read as much of Dowell as I did some of the other authors here. Mainly I remember buying Where I'd Like to Be in elementary school for Battle of the Books, only to find out that another girl already decided to read that book (the other girl's mom was the leader so she got all the best books and I usually got the crummy ones, if I got anything. Yes, I'm still bitter). So, it sat on my bookshelf for a couple years until I decided to give it a chance. After finally picking that book up,  I also read Dovey Coe and Shooting the Moon.

10. The Ghost of Fossil Glen (series)

I really liked reading ghost books. In fact, when it comes to paranormal, I still prefer my paranormal books to have ghosts in them as opposed to any other paranormal creature. This book was one I remember picking up from the school library based on the title and I ended up reading the rest of the series.




BONUS ROUND: Books With Dogs on the Cover
So, I mentioned that I was am obsessed with dogs. So, seeing a dog on the cover of the book really made me what to read the book. Here are some books I remember reading based on the dog on the cover. Some of these books ended up disappointing me (sometimes because the dog was actually a big part of the book).



NOTE: I was going to list Bill Wallace on the list because I did read every book I could find by Bill Wallace, but... I'm still upset about the ending of A Dog Called Kitty! All these years later, I still think about it. So, I cannot list him among the favorites. If you want to know why I am upset, highlight for spoiler. So, the dog gets in a dog fight, but he survives. Yay, right? Wrong! Later the dog and the MC are taking a walk by a construction site and a frexing construction pipes fall on the dog and crushes him! He survived the dog fight, why couldn't you end the story there???![end of spoiler]


What books do you remember from your childhood?

3 comments :

  1. I was obsessed with Goosebumps and Sammy Keyes too. So many memories!

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  2. I loved Bunnicula, too. I'd forgotten it was a series, though.

    My TTT.

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  3. Protecting Marie hurt my heart a lot. And then I unwittingly read it AGAIN a few years later, because I'd forgotten it and this one had a different cover, and suffered all over again!

    I also read The Last Dog On Earth -- pretty unique story, I liked it. I haven't read that particular Stephanie S. Tolan but I do like her much older (non-dog-inclusive) book Pride of the Peacock, which I suppose is quite obscure.

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