I saw a post like this on Mirriam Neal’s blog the other day, and it got me thinking fondly about the books I read and enjoyed most in early childhood. When I think about it, it’s surprisingly easy to see just how much the books that made the most impression on me in childhood shaped my tastes, interests, and even my future writing. So without further ado, here’s some of the books that stand out in my memory as being most influential during childhood. (I decided to start after the age of picture-books, as that would make this list far too long—material for another post, right?)
The original Winnie-the-Pooh books
When I was a toddler, my mom used to sit in a lawn chair next to my inflatable kiddie pool on the lawn of our apartment building and read A.A. Milne’s original Pooh books aloud to me while I played in the water: Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, and some of the poems from the other two. (I suppose you could trace my taste for dry British humor back this far.) The adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, the Expotition, the search for Small, Piglet’s encounter with the Heffalump, Owl’s lost doorknocker, and so on, are all among the dearest of literary memories. Mom used to get laughing just as hard as I did—to this day, lines from the poem that Pooh composed while trapped under the basket-chair can set us both off again.
Marguerite Henry’s horse books
I read pretty much everything Marguerite Henry ever wrote multiple times—from Album of Horses and Misty of Chincoteague through Justin Morgan Had a Horse and King of the Wind, and on to the more dramatic and grown-up Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West and San Domingo: The Medicine Hat Stallion (and everything that came in between). The main reason I loved them was that I was horse-crazy, but looking back, I realize that these books were also just captivating stories and darn good historical fiction (many of them based on true stories to boot).
Stories of the Pilgrims and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days
How many of you homeschoolers remember these Christian Liberty readers? We were a little more textbook-oriented in our early days of homeschooling, but these ones never felt like textbooks to me. They were honest-to-goodness, exciting stories. Traveling with the Pilgrims from persecution in England to the rocky shores of the New World, and stories like that of the little girl who kept bravely stitching away at her sampler while British grenadiers searched the house around her, are some of my clearest memories from early schooldays.
The American Girl books
Remember the good old days of American Girl when there were just four dolls (and later seven), and the history angle was the main focus? I had just one of the dolls myself—Kirsten—but all seven sets of books. I was basically immersed in all periods of American history from a girl’s-eye view. Kirsten, Samantha, and maybe Felicity were probably my favorites, though I enjoyed all of them.
The Little House on the Prairie series
I can’t even remember when I read these books for the first time, or how many times I read them, but they were always there. The dance at Grandma’s in the Big Woods, the abandoned Indian camp on the prairie, the footbridge over Plum Creek, the buffalo wallow full of violets, the tar-paper shanty on the South Dakota prairie and the wheat in the coffee grinder during the Long Winter—they were all part of my childhood.
E.B. White
Besides historical fiction, I think my tastes always ran to farms and farm animals, and talking animals in particular. Charlotte’s Web fit the bill in all these particulars (I still quip, “It’s my idio-idio-idiosyncrasy” on occasion). And I still chuckle over memories from Stuart Little when I have occasion to look inside a piano, or see a pine-needle sachet (true story: I wanted one of those for years ever since reading the schoolroom scene).
The Tales of Beatrix Potter
Was there ever a time when we didn’t know the story of Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor’s garden? My father still loudly insists these stories are “weird” and that Beatrix Potter was touched in the head (I don’t think he ever got over Squirrel Nutkin’s tail), but I always loved the quaintness and coziness of all the animals’ cottages and holes under ground, and the matter-of-fact way they apparently lived in English villages alongside humans, but with houses and clothes to suit their own size.
Fern Hollow
More talking animals who wore clothes and lived in fully furnished homes, but I think Fern Hollow and its surroundings were even more homey and charming than Beatrix Potter’s villages. I can still see a lot of the illustrations in my mind’s eye: the hot-air balloon going through the church roof (or was it the Vicarage?), the banister-sliding contest at the Manor, the brass band thieves floating downstream on the bass drum. I had two hardcover volumes of these stories, with the map of Fern Hollow on the endpapers, and I really, really wish I’d managed to hang onto them. I’d love to find another copy some day.
The girls’ classics
I knew these books backwards and forwards. All the characters of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and its sequels were old friends; I lived in Victorian London and on the Yorkshire moors through Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, and the Swiss Alps through Johanna Spyri’s Heidi—and to a slightly lesser degree, in New England villages through Alcott’s Eight Cousins and Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Heidi (original, unabridged, and in a good old-fashioned translation—we had the red Yearling Dell paperback) was probably one of my favorite read-alouds ever. It’s another one I can’t even remember when I first became acquainted with it—my mom and I used to play “Peter and Heidi” picking weeds to feed the goats before I was five years old.
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So in retrospect, it’s not really hard to see how I turned out a writer of historical fiction with a kind of old-fashioned style.
What books shaped your childhood?
image: ‘The Fairytale’ by Walter Firle
DKoren says
How cool! I haven’t read most of these, but Beatrix Potter and Marguerite Henry were definite staples of my youth. I read Henry’s books over and over and over. Cricket in Times Square was another big one for me. I had several Disney anthology books, big colorful hard cover ones that I devoured regularly. And the Church Cat books. Loved those. My favorite book from elementary school days came from the school library and was about a Roman boy and Demetrius, his Greek slave. and I remember parts of it and the pictures vividly, but I don’t know the author or title and have never been able to find the book since.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
Cricket in Times Square came along a little later for me—that was a fun one too! I had some Disney Winnie-the-Pooh storybooks when I was a toddler—does Winnie-the-Pooh Sleepytime Stories ring a bell? It had some short stories where the door fell off Owl’s house, and Rabbit’s relations ate him out of house and home…not on the same level as the originals, but cute.
DKoren says
Alas, no bells, but I didn’t read Winnie-the-Pooh when I was young. My mom didn’t like Winnie, so those stories just weren’t part of my life. I’m still not sure I’ve ever fully read any Winnie-the-Pooh stories to this day.
Arielle Melody Bailey says
I remember every single one of these! I grew up on them as well, especially the girls’ classics and Marguerite Henry. I had only brief contacts with the Christian Liberty readers, but read a fair amount of other historical fiction for younger readers.
Walter Farley was another author I grew up on. I would spend hours with his Black Stallion and Alec was one of the first introverted literary heroes I ever met.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
I had The Black Stallion too, but only the first book. At first I didn’t know there were any more, and then later I guess I didn’t want to “spoil” the first one by reading them! I sometimes shy away from sequels if I really liked the first book, especially if time has passed since reading it. 🙂
Annie says
What an enjoyable and thought provoking post!
I grew up on all of the above except Fern Hollow. Oh, for the old days of the American Girl company! I loved the original name: “The Pleasant Company,” I always thought that was such a fine name!
Marguerite Henry was one of my favorites. Her stories (and the darling little sketches!) were books that I never tired of reading.
As far as others, I grew up reading Walter Farley’s “Black Stallion” and “The Year of The Black Pony.” Particularly “Black Stallion” was a favorite.
The Ralph Moody series (a read-aloud staple), “Pollyanna” by Elenor Porter, “Miracles on Maple Hill” by Virginia Sorenson, and the “Daring Adventures” series by Peter Reese Doyle were among other influential books.
But where does one stop? I read so much as a child, and we read aloud almost every day, so my list could go on and on. 🙂 Far too long for a blog comment!
Annie says
*Walt Morey’s was the author, not Walter Farley, and the book was titled “Runaway Stallion,” not Black Stallion! I read so many horse books and occasionally get the titles confused. Pardon the mistake!
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
I know—we still get the American Girl catalogue in the mail, but it makes me a little sad looking at it when I compare it to what it used to be! I remember when there used to be a little introductory article or editorial in the beginning of the catalogue sometimes by the original owner, Pleasant Rowland.
We read aloud the Ralph Moody series too and loved it (and now my younger sisters are re-reading the books by themselves), but that came a little later. We had Pollyanna, too, in the same red paperback edition as the others. And I’ve heard the title Miracles on Maple Hill, but I’ve never read it.
Hamlette says
I remember when there were only THREE American Girls! I’m so very much enjoying revisiting those books with my kids now, and reading some of the newer ones! I’ve been using the Kit books to supplement my history curriculum for teaching my first-grader about the Depression, and she and my Pre-K are enthralled.
Marguerite Henry is my idol. I own almost all of her books.
My mom read us the Little House books aloud over and over and over on long car trips. They really shaped my love of slice-of-life historical books.
I’m more into the original Winnie-the-Pooh and Beatrix Potter now as an adult than I was as a kid, isn’t that odd?
Walter Farley’s first Black Stallion book was my favorite book for decades. I also read so many of Jim Kjielgaard’s dog books. And the All-of-a-Kind Family series. And the basically everything Beverly Cleary ever wrote. Ramona was such a kindred spirit for me.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
It’s only when I look back now that I realize how much books like the Little House and American Girl series probably shaped my love for all things historical. Things like the “A Peek Into the Past” afterwords, with all the vintage photos and clippings and illustrations—of course at that age I was more interested in the story itself, but I soaked all that up too.
I found out in recent years that Marguerite Henry wrote a book called Dear Readers and Riders to answer all the questions she received in fan letters—how I’d love to find a copy of that!
Hamlette says
I had no idea that Dear Readers and Riders existed, but wow, now I want a copy too! Looks like Amazon has used copies, so putting that on my wish list.
It’s funny — all through elementary and middle and high school, I hated history. I would readily tell you I hated learning history. Then I got to college and discovered that I loved history! Ended up getting a minor in it. Started teaching my own kids, tried out the same history curriculum I used as a kid, and discovered just exactly why I hated history as a kid. Because that curriculum took the most amazing, interesting events and turned them into dry morality lectures. I chucked that book but quick and have been devising my own for my kids ever since, and guess what? They love history 🙂 I use books like Little House and the American Girls, the “…If you lived during the_____” series, and then lots of things from the library.
Annnnnnnnd I just went off on a tangent there. Can you tell I’m passionate about history and learning? Lol.
Hanna-col says
There are so many good ones and so many favorites on your list! I devoured all of Marguerite Henry’s books— I have read them all unless there is one whose existence I am unaware of. And reread or re-listened to audiobooks of them almost every time I was sick.
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is another one I read almost on repeat. And, honestly, I could not tell you how many times I have read Heidi— too many to count.
A series in the whole talking farm animal vein that I really love is the Freddy the Pig series by Walter R. Brooks. They’re so funny!
I feel like I need to revisited some of these now.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
The one of Marguerite Henry’s that took me years to get my hands on was White Stallion of Lipizza. And apparently there is one more that I never heard of: Gaudenzia, Pride of the Palio. Did you ever read that one?
Hanna-col says
Yes, actually! I did read Gaudenzia, . The one I had no idea existed until my family stumbled across it at a book sale was San Domingo, the Medicine Hat Stallion. I was very glad to have one I hadn’t yet read available to me again.