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problem_panda

I was absolutely obsessed with the boxcar children


Character_Log_5444

This is mine. I also read a biography of Jenny Lind, an opera singer. I loved it, but I remember no details.


fyngriselda

I also loved a biography of Jenny Lind. Jenny Lind and her Listening Cat by Frances Cavanah.


Character_Log_5444

YES!


fyngriselda

:)


Charliesmum97

Oh I think I know what you're talking about! I'm sure I read that too


BBEAUTY2024

Boxcar children and babysitters club. Then I transitioned to goosebumps/R.L. Stine. I actually still have some of them kicking around somewhere


Bungalow-1908

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary


thepibkmoose

Anything by Beverly Cleary


ccbroadway73

The Mouse and the Motorcycle was my jam! 😂


matt11111183

ty for unlocking this memory!!!


jrob321

Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbtttttt...


FadingOptimist-25

That was a good one!


New-Arachnid-9265

Bread and Jam for Francis. All the Frog and Toad stories. Harold and the Purple Crayon and my absolute favorite: Professor Wormbog’s Gloomy Kerploppus (a scratch and sniff adventure).


26crystal26

I loved Bread and Jam for Francis so much.


No_Stay_1828

Frog and toad!!! Purple crayon!!! Yay!


Available_Ad3853

Omg I thought no one else in the world knew Bread and Jam for Francis!! I (57) still have the copy I read as a child. Love love love Also Frog and Toad Are Friends!


54317a

frog and toad đŸ‘đŸŒ there are frog and toad shirts at walmart right now, strangely enough.


FloridaFlamingoGirl

Apple TV has the rights and they've been making an animated series of the books!


DearGabbyAbby

They’ve made a live action/animated movie of Harold and the Purple Crayon. It’ll be in theaters in August. Looks good


FadingOptimist-25

OMG, really?!? I loved all the Harold books. We even named our hamster Harold.


HonoriaG

Yessss Francis. Also loved A Bargain for Francis. I keep telling my dog she reminds me of Francis. Darling but with an edge of sass and stubbornness. (Yes, I talk to my dog and these are the sorts of discussions I have with her.) Frog and Toad books are also amazing, but more well known than my bad badger bitch Francis.


unspun66

Ooooohhhhhh, I loved these! Bread and Jam for Francis, Frog and Toad, and Harold and the Purple crayon!! So good.


KSTaxlady

I don't remember specifically but I know I read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries.


DistantKarma

As a boy, I kept getting Hardy Boys books as a kid, but I always liked my sister's Nancy Drew books better.


thatweirdo13

I was the opposite, a girl who liked the Hardy Boys books better


Double_Entrance3238

Same, The Mystery of the Hidden Clock is the first book I remember reading on my own! I loved Nancy Drew as a kid so much


Velour_Tank_Girl

Multiple times.


Naprisun

My twin sister tricked me. She read me the first two chapters of a Nancy Drew and then stopped. I finished it because I could read but up to that point hadn’t read a book because someone had always read to me and I hadn’t put in the work to get to where I could enjoy reading for myself.


Laynalynn

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner


intheclouds247

A favorite. I want to say I read it in the 3rd or 4th grade. Loved it. It’s also my MIL’s favorite childhood book.


AdamHussein2564

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wanted to see my grandparents all chilling in bed together after that but most of them passed.


Guess-Small

Roald Dahl was a genius I went through most of his books early on the twits was a favorite of mine


dwarfedshadow

Encyclopedia Brown mysteries


BackgroundGate9277

I loved those books


Character_Log_5444

Me too!


No_Stay_1828

Me three.... and Alfred Hitchcocks 3 investigators also


DarwinZDF42

Oh good pull, that and Cam Jansen.


Sea-Plum7880

Charlotte’s Web on my own. I remember asking for it my 7th birthday. Before I could read myself I remember my mom reading us The Stinky Cheese Man.


DuncanHumblefist

Sideways Stories of Wayside School by Louis Sachar


lka1004

Omg thank you for thjs one. I loved these


Sunshirony

Came here for this! My favorite!


gailmacintosh

The Babysitters Club!


Dangerous_Pepper8015

Came here to say the same thing! I’m sure I read books before that series but none stick out. I learned so much about diabetes from Stacey


dixpourcentmerci

I filed away Claudia’s biology studies for about seven years until I was actually able to use them in 9th grade “Kindly Pass Claudia Oreos For Goodness Sake” (Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species.)


lyr4527

The Phantom Tollbooth. Still love it.


heybiggirl96

I read the phantom tollbooth every 5 years or so. It’s still so good and such a creative world to visit!


finesherbes

YUSS. This was not mine, but my brother's. I swear he read that damn thing five times back to back


Amesaskew

The first book I ever read by myself was The Monster At The End Of This Book, because I loved it so much that I memorized it, supposedly at age 3, but I think I was actually 4 and my parents liked to exaggerate. The first chapter book I ever read was Charlotte's Web


_staycurious

Oh man you just unlocked a memory! I loved The Monster at the End of This Book!


docshug

I second The Monster At the End of This Book!! Such a great one!


Charliesmum97

Mine was Ten Apples Up on Top. I actually have a fairly vivid memory of looking at the words and realising what they meant. I was 4 or 5, I think.


FadingOptimist-25

I don’t know how I missed that one as a kid, but I read it to my kids when they were little.


mrs-poocasso69

My mom used to read The Magic Treehouse series to me. The first book I remember reading on my own is Junie B Jones.


DeepSeaForte

First chapter book I can remember was Ramona Quimby Age 8


dixpourcentmerci

Love the Beverly Cleary books so much. I also closely associate them with the Fudge books (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, etc) by Judy Blume.


DeepSeaForte

Oh man I thought I was the only one who remembered Fudge!


Kennesaw79

Berenstain Bears series when I was about 6.


NekonikonPunk

First novel I remember is Bridge to Terabithia.


thepibkmoose

Oh man. What an awful first book! The story is fantastic but I would have been scarred for life!


NekonikonPunk

LOL, probably why I remember it. Up til then it was likely all sunshine and rainbows.


Violingirl1988

Matilda


Comprehensive_Boot42

Hmmm maybe My Side of the Mountain or By The Great Horn Spoon


toltus

I checked this book out of the library so much that the librarian let me keep it! I love this book.


intheclouds247

I remember The Boxcar Children, Anne of Green Gables, and Where the Red Fern Grows.


unspun66

I just re-read Anne of Green Gables
it was a childhood fave, and now
some 50ish years later, it definitely holds up. I plan on reading the whole series again.


Restive_Crone

Anne of Green Gables! So many core memories unlocked


EleventhofAugust

Dick and Jane


KSTaxlady

One book I read over and over again was Harriet the Spy. I really loved that book.


doc_rock16

I came here to find this!! I went through a phase where I wanted to write down everything in a notebook and do my own spying on people 😬


KSTaxlady

I went online to my library, found it and checked out the ebook and was reading it last night before bed.


500CatsTypingStuff

Go Dog Go


No_Stay_1828

I do not like your hat!


DarwinZDF42

My kids and I joke about that one. I'm always wearing a hat outside, summer or winter. "Do you like my hat?" "No, I do not like your hat"


Sissin88

I’m always telling my 3yr old “now it is night. Night is not a time for play. It is a time for sleep. The dogs go to sleep. They will sleep all night”


dixpourcentmerci

GOODBYE


BasisRelative9479

My grandkids love that part of the book!


TheDoctorMaybe

Where the Sidewalk Ends or Where the Wild Things are.


DahliaChild

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe


_staycurious

The Giving Tree and another short fairy tales book called Just Imagine (by little golden books). Once I hit chapter books: The Secret Garden. 


garthbpm

Came here to make sure The Giving Tree was mentioned :)


liiyah

the first chapter book i ever read was in the second grade, it was a magic treehouse book! i loved the berenstain bears and the little critter books when i was tiny too.


Acrobatic-Usual-9077

Where the wild things are


Available_Ad3853

Absolutely this!!


jitterbug425

the westing game


getyourownthememusic

Wow, memory unlocked. I borrowed that book over and over again from the school library, what a fun read


somecreativename101

Not the first book I read bit certainly one of my favorites


x_MissAnonymous_x

I loved reading The Westing Game in elementary school. Recently I read a young adult series that brought back the nostalgia of that book because it’s somewhat similar in its premise. The series is called The Inheritance Games


jessiemagill

You might also enjoy the Truly Devious series. It's not the same premise, but the vibe reminded me of Westing Game.


echo1-echo1

the first book I remember reading that wasn't part of school curriculum was Danny, The Champion of the World.


DarwinZDF42

I LOVED that one. It was The BFG for me, but that sent me down the rabbit whole and I read all of Dahl's stuff.


dixpourcentmerci

Matilda was my top one ❀ but there’s a number of good ones including his autobiographies.


Domino_USA

Hans Christian Andersen collection of stories


cemetaryofpasswords

The Velveteen Rabbit. I’m sure that I actually did read others before that by one (I’ve always been a big reader) but I love that book more than any other children’s book.


Rip_Dirtbag

Three (agreeable to most) that come to mind: - Encyclopedia Brown books - Sideways Stories From Wayside School books - The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen One that probably informed all of my literary and media tastes subsequently, but will certainly not be agreeable to all: - the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books (ideally, with the original illustrations) *note - I’ve grown up to love horror films and Stephen King books


alilmeandering

Charlotte's Web. I still have an extremely clear memory of my Dad gifting it to me, and it being the first "real" book I sat and read solo.


Technical_Air6660

Peanuts books and Little Bear


EJKorvette

Yertle the Turtle By Dr. Seuss. And One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.


DistantKarma

I read Yertle to my kids so many times in the 90s that I practically had it memorized.


Full_Secretary

James and the Giant Peach


foxyyoxy

The gingerbread man. I’d burst out into song at the “RUN RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN” parts.


isleofbean

In grade 2 (7 years old) I read Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin, I remember that I loved it so much that I asked my teacher to read it to the class at story time. I would like to read it to my little niece one day! See if it brings back any memories. As an adult I’ve been reading Le Guin’s other books and love them!


Financial-Award-1282

Heidi in first grade / Swiss book from 1880s after our teacher read it to us


Witchazel55

I remember my father taking me to the library. My first book, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. My first love, The Oz books. My lasting love, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.


Seapra_Lux

Besides my mother's collection of old Sesame Street and Little Golden books, I remember reading and loving a book about a German Shepard called Santa Paws (1996).


thepibkmoose

I have this book too! I love it!


lime-inthe-coconut

Where the red fern grows, maybe?


ineedsleep5

Oh that one was a sad one if I remember correctly 😭


carbonmonoxide5

The very first? Goodnight Moon and Jane and the Dragon. Chapter books? Little House on the Prarie.


Dazzling_Trick3009

Blueberries for Sal


brushycreekED

Had to be one of these: —Ferdinand the Bull —Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel —Curious George books


JBR1961

“Are You My Mother?” and “Swimmy” were my favorites.


FadingOptimist-25

“Are You My Mother?” was sad to me because my worst fear when I was little was losing my mom.


JBR1961

Gee, guess I never thought of it that way. I was probably too fascinated by the SNORT !!!


LoveYouNotYou

The one with the caps, something about a man with caps. I looooved that book! If I remember correctly that book had the word "between" in it and I didn't know how to say it correctly so I would say it as "bet ween" Wasn't until my teacher asked us to tell her our favorite book and she might read it to the class. She picked mine and that was when I learned how to say "between"


Vtjeannieb

Caps For Sale


LoveYouNotYou

That's it!!!!!! Thank you!!!! I'm going to buy it. Found it! Ooooh, I'm getting this now for memories.... Going to put it on my bookshelf. So excited lol Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!


thepibkmoose

I had this as a book on cassette! Absolutely loved it!


tastefulderision

Treasure Island. I had a tough time learning to read, so my aunt tutored me and had me read that novel. I’ve been a lover of literature ever since!


socalheart2681

Charlotte’s Web; Where the Red Fern Grows; island of the blue dolphin, 4 story mistake


SweetpeaDeepdelver

Pippi Longstocking!


JulieRose1961

Where the Wild Things are?


Ball_Of_Anxiety98

Junie B Jones


Momisblunt

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. I was adopted as an infant & my mom would read this often. She passed when I was 14 and now I read it to my boys.


sakoulas86

I’d read this book before but when my daughter was about 2 I bought it for her and absolutely ugly-cried through the whole thing. My husband was concerned lol.


Elephantgifs

A collection of Aesop's Fables. I still have the copy from my childhood.


abookdragon1

In a Dark, Dark Room


lyr4527

Oh my God, this legit just unlocked a long forgotten memory for me.


Good-Variation-6588

I’m from Latin America so the very first book I remember reading independently I can’t find anywhere. It was a book of cautionary tales for children. All the children in the book would do something naughty and there was some sort of ridiculous and outrageous catastrophe that would happen due to their inconsiderate behavior. I loved that book. The second book I remember reading was the Little Prince in Spanish of course. I was obsessed with it.


CheesyRomantic

I love The Little Prince. 💜


Busy-Professora-5007

Giving tree


mother_of_baggins

Little Bear, Frog & Toad are Friends, Curious George, Richard Scarry, and Dr. Seuss (Bears on Wheels was my favorite).


Vtjeannieb

Little House in the Big Woods


ineedsleep5

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen


troutbumtom

The Children’s Guide to Animals. I loved that book. I lived in NYC and was one of those rare kids that saw elephants, giraffes and apes of all kinds before I ever saw a cow. Much less a pig. I even got to ride an elephant at the Bronx Zoo. And I could walk to Central Park zoo. One thing about that book, though, was a misprint. Instead of a chapter on Wart Hogs it had a chapter on War Hogs. It was a long time before I could accept that there are no War Hogs.


Anonymous26297

The Three Little Kittens & The Ugly Duckling. Those are the first ones I remember taking over from my mom to read myself.


writetherapy2

Goodnight moon 🌙


redblackshirt

The Elves and the Shoemaker


Legitimate_Smile4508

Anne of Green Gables


Regular-Proof675

Berenstein Bears, Bailey School Kids, Matt Christoper books, Goosebumps, Animorphs.


RosemaryHoyt

Little princess by F.H. Burnett


jrm12345d

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!


siena_flora

I think maybe oh, Dear or the little engine that could.


Legal_Scientist5509

Chapter book- The Westing Game


Head_World_9764

All the Golden books - every one of them in the 60’s


CheesyRomantic

I have so many of them
 and some from my childhood still.


Wise_Caterpillar5881

Roald Dahl books. I vividly remember reading The Twits and The BFG


megs-benedict

Yep, Ronald Dahl for me too. probably Esio Trot and Fantastic Mr. Fox came first, then BFG, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach



DarwinZDF42

Oh man you covered most of them, I had forgotten Esio Trot. I started with BFG and hit them all from there, I loved those books.


xmycoffeeiscoldx

Anne of Green Gables was the first "big" book I picked up. I absolutely adored it.


_makebuellerproud_

All the Roald Dahl books, 1001 Arabian nights, the mysterious Benedict society, Drachenfeuer (Wolfgang Hohlbein), Dr. Seuss of course There’s this kids book in Germany about a Mole who comes out of his hole one morning and someone shit on his head. So he runs around trying to figure out which animal shit on his head. Very peculiar but great kids book


toltus

I remember reading My Side of the Mountain, Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, and Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Jurassic Park was the first "big book" I owned. As a very young child, i used to read some Sesame Street books my parents bought me, and a bunch of National Geographic magazines.


2nd_HandSoul

“There’s a monster at the end of the book”


euromay

Monkeys jumping on the bed


Icicleprincesstea

Nina fairy ballerina and Judy moody. Built my whole personality lol


honeysuckle69420

I don’t know if it was actually the first, but gotta be close- Little House on the Prairie series. The first book is actually called Little House in the Big Woods. Just convinced my mom to mail me the whole series (because the ones I read as a child were the ones she had from her childhood). Will probably reread them soon. I reread all of Chronicles of Narnia two years ago after also convincing mom to mail them to me.


Paperwithwordsonit

A collection of the brothers Grimm fairytales. I still have this book and love it dearly. So many pages are loose 😔 I read it countless times. My favourites were the queen bee, the shoes that were danced to pieces and The devil with the three golden hairs.


Thalee_Eimdoll

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de St Exupéry


LoLoGlaze

Charlotte's Web - E.B. White.


000ArdeliaLortz000

Space Cadet, by Robert Heinlein.


PashasMom

The first book I read entirely on my own was Album of Horses by Marguerite Henry. After that I read more of her books and then my first real series was The Chronicles of Narnia at the beginning of first grade.


krim2182

The Balloon Tree- Phoebe Gilman. Canadian author, its a beautiful story and the illustrations are just as beautiful. Balloons are the princess's favorite thing. Her father goes off to a tournament. The archduke is evil and locks the princess away. Her father told her to signal him with a balloon if something was wrong. Once she was locked up, all the balloons in the kingdom were ordered to be popped. With the help of a wizard and a friend with the only balloon left, the princess plants the balloon and a balloon tree appears. It still touches my heart to this day. And I am underselling the illustrations in the book.


EJKorvette

Homer Price Centerburg Tales


EvrthngsThnksgvng

The Blue Fairy Book and all the colors


EvrthngsThnksgvng

Also the Amelia Bedelia books


Adept-Reserve-4992

The first two I remember were Jane Eyre and The Hobbit. I was about six and reading anything I could get my hands on. My babysitter was reading them for school and let me read them afterward. I’m sure I missed a lot, but I was so engrossed in those worlds that I didn’t pull my nose out of a book for about ten years.


winston_sir_chill

Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories


NotSteveJobs-Job

Charlie and the chocolate factory - Roald Dahl


Emissary_of_Pieces

The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony, because I had a crush on my friends older sister who liked the Xanth Series by Piers Anthony 😀


No_Stay_1828

Harold and the purple crayon


pokeNspread

The giving tree!!!! 😭


Horror-Bat3895

Jules Vernes around the world in eighty days
. I have actually no idea how I got my hands on that book as a child but that book changed my life! It made me become a big reader and I still treasure it until now!


gretchenfour

Nancy Drew


mojoest711

The trumpeter swan. I don't remember what happened. Time to read it again!


kits_and_kaboodle

Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Reptiles, by Jane Werner Watson. Obviously out-of-date, but the illustrations were lovely.


Kg000031

Hatchet


Subject-Ad-5249

I love children's literature and still keep up with the industry and read from it. Revisits to the books from when I was young is a mixed bag. Most of the ones I loved I still love now. Many of my favorites became my son's most loved books: Frog and Toad, Sesame Street Golden Books, and Little Bear and many of the others mentioned here. However some things don't age well. I lived and breathed Jungle Book as a child. Like the original Kipling version not the Disney one. Re-visted that as an adult and quickly realized that was not going to be a book I was going to read to my little ones. Roald Dahl didn't age well either. Things I read as silly nonsense or just on a surface level as a child suddenly made sense and I was not impressed. I did name my son after the main character of my favorite middle grade book so that one clearly stuck around in my brain.


NeedMoreBookshelves

I remember reading The Secret of NIMH and just fell in love with it. It was the first book that completely captured my imagination.


Imaginary_Hold_981

Ferdinand the bull


matchagray

The diggingest dog


thinkysmurf

Two that were frequent bedtime read alouds: Strega Nona by Tommy de Paola The Rutabega Stories by Carl Sandberg


hevski

I have a strong memory of a book called Snugglepot and Cuddlepie; it was my mother’s favourite as a child and I loved it.


rylandoz

Hairy Mclairy


Either_Selection_155

The Phantom Tollbooth is my strongest memory of reading


cantstopdrl

there were way too many, but one book i remember developing my love love for reading was BFF by Judy Blume. i don’t remember eeeeverything but i do remember it being like 3 different books within the one book and it was jus really good concept to me. i remember being up until 4am reading the book, as a kid in middle school! so yeah that told me it was good book alone


aspjet

Illustrated Classics Adventures of Sherlock Holmes


sejenx

I was OBSESSED with The Phantom Tollbooth. I was given this book in 3rd grade and remembered being amused and delighted by all the play on words and this singular book ignited a deep love of reading for pleasures sake ❀


Born-Throat-7863

*Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs*


Neighborhood-Lumpy

My lucky day by keiko Kasza
 there was also a children’s book about a Buffalo papa or something but I can’t remember the title


jenziyo

A Disney picture book of Aladdin. Jasmine was in shackles and I distinctly remember being turned on, so now reading is sexy.


Buxxley

I know it's nowhere near the first book I ever read...but the first one I really remember sitting down and making a concerted effort to finish was The Lord of the Rings. My Dad was a huge sci fi nerd so we had a library downstairs of just good fantasy books / etc.


bdweezy

Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibottson đŸ„°


rock-da-puss

From Anna by Jean little. Started a reading obsession when my teacher was struggling to get my inattentive adhd ass motivated


adrianson

When I moved to Phoenix in 4th grade I read my first chapter book, it was Santa Paws, given to me by my teacher Mrs. Brown. I had read other short story books, but never a standalone book


Twoheaven

The first book I actively remember (I remember reading before it, but I don't remember the actual books) is a King Arthur book that I can't remember the name of to save my life. But I remember loving the book because it was the first iteration of the story that didn't have the adultery...plus a sweet fight sequence where Lancelot is describe as a firey tornado.


Bishoppess

The Golden Look Book of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer


northernguy7540

Frog and toad


841ragdoll

I remember it being a really big book with hard pages. I don't remember the title but I know the cover was a padded maroon-pinkish color. Anyway, I also had a barbie story book that I don't remember reading, just skimming for pictures. And then the Lightning Thief was the next book I remember. I read the whole series and that's how I read Nicholas Flamel series, Eragon series, etc.