.Celebrated in more than 100 countries, World Book Day is, a worldwide event devoted to our universal love of authors, books, illustrators, and reading. The date of World book day seems to vary each year. It tends to happen on the first Thursday of March. This year its March 1st 2018. Children in schools get to go into school dressed as a character from their favorite book. I used to love being able to dress up and go to school. You’d spend the week or so before hand having deep discussions about who you wanted to dress up as, and you could bet that we would change our minds at least 3-4 times because we couldn’t decide.
This got me thinking about all the books that I used to read as a child, and suddenly a wave of nostalgia hit me and I found myself wanting to try and get a copy of some of these books to read to Molly as she grows up. When I was a child I used to read The Hungry Caterpillar, The bear under the stairs, The jolly postman, Funnybones, Meg and Mog, the Beatrix Potter books. At school we used to have to read the books about Biff and Chip with their dog Floppy and the magic key that used to take them to different places! They are the books we read to learn how to read. As I got older I read The Magic Faraway Tree, all the Roald Dahl books, I had a phase of being obsessed with books by Jaqueline Wilson…Double Act, The Lottie Project. Then came The Harry Potter books – I read those a million times, especially the first one. I had to buy a second copy because mine was falling apart I read it so much!
After reviewing my own book choices I thought it would be interesting to go and find out what other books were popular with my friends.
My question was “what was your favorite book when you were a child, and why?!
I got quite a good response…
Enid Blytons Malory Towers. I loved the story’s about life in a boarding school. There are six books in the collection. I bought them for Sophie and reread them all. I wanted to go to that school!! – Denize
Alice in wonderland, because my dad used to read it to me – Louise
Enid Blyton “The Enchanted Tree” and of course, Stig of the Dump! loved the characters in the tree ( MoonFace springs to mind) and Stig was a friend everyone wished they had ! – Alison
Wind in the Willows and all the Winnie the Pooh stories. Funnily enough, my nearly 12 year old son took WitW with him to school today as his class reading book! – Melanie
1. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder. My Mum and I used to read it (and the whole series) at bedtime. She instilled a love of history in me and I always wanted to be like Laura! I was fascinated reading/hearing about their travels across America and how they were the first settlers in many towns. So different from my life. We visited America when I was 9 and I was in absolute awe seeing the Mississippi and driving across prairie land where Laura had been.
2. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton. Magical!! All the different lands they travelled to, that were just for the children to explore. Moon Face and the slippery slip were my favourites!
3. What Katy Did, Susan E Coolidge. I was probably 8 or 9 and – like with Laura above – I wanted to be like Katy. She was so adventurous and brave in my head! I also loved her relationship with most of her siblings; I’ve always been close to mine so it struck a chord.
4. Any and every book about boarding school! Mallory Towers, Trebizon, the Naughtiest Girl in School, St Clare’s… there was something so fun about it all. Mum went to boarding school and was quick to point out that it wasn’t all tuck boxes and lacrosse, but I just adored reading them all and imagining how fun it would be there.
Sorry….that’s loads more than 1. I have SO many, I’ve always been a bookworm. – Kirsty
My dad used to make up stories and I barely remember books from when I was a kid. The first book ever to caught me into reading was HP and the philosopher stone and from there I love children books.
I think I was very into reading “Momo” when I was very young. – Rebeca
James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – great books for using the imagination and going on the journey with the characters. Read them both over and over and over. – Cathy
Just 1 favorite!?!?!? Haha! I loved the Oz stories and the chronicles of Narnia(my mom used to read those out loud to us). I also read the babysitters club and the phantom tollbooth. And about 1000 others! I loved (and still do) books with really good characters and books that took place “somewhere else”. A book about a girl from Pittsburgh wouldn’t have been nearly as captivating to me growing up. – Rebekah
The chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan, Georges Marvellous medicine, the very hungry caterpillar & one about a necklace made of tear drops but I can’t remember it’s name. It was in our school library in middle school. – Clare
At 9 weeks old, Molly already has a huge collection of books. This is because at my baby shower, I asked if people could give a book with a message inside instead of a card. I felt cards would just get chucked out, yet the books would be read over and over for years to come and they would have a real sentimental value.
I love reading to her and look forward to growing her collection and introducing her to some of the books I loved as a kid.
What were your favorite books as a kid? Or if you have kids, what are their favorite books at the moment?
