Favorite Childhood Books (2 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Not a childhood favorite because I read for the first time in college (wish I read it earlier) but I love Watership Down, I read it several times since

 

[IceHot]

I remember reading a collection of short stories in space one of which was The Colour Out of Space (Lovecraft). But I believe there was also a Robot story from Isaac Asimov.

Asimov quickly became my favorite author.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Today I learned the author’s father was Norman Rockwell
==============

Thomas Rockwell, who guarded the legacy of his father, illustrator Norman Rockwell, and made a name of his own as the author of “How to Eat Fried Worms,” a best-selling children’s novel that has delighted generations of young readers, died Sept. 27 at a hospice center in Danbury, Conn. He was 91.


He had Parkinson’s disease, said his daughter, Abigail Rockwell.


Mr. Rockwell was the second of three sons born to Norman Rockwell, whose nostalgic depictions of Americana, published for decades on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, made him one of the most popular artists of all time….

Young Tom Rockwell was the strapping, striving lad flexing his little-boy biceps before a mirror in “The Muscleman” (1937), according to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.


He was the grinning mischief-maker sneaking a peek at his sister’s journal in “Secrets (Boy Reading Sister’s Diary)” (1942).

He is represented with a wide smile in the holiday reunion scene of “Christmas Homecoming” (1948) and served as the model for the saucer-eyed young man sporting a mortarboard and bearing a diploma in “The Graduate” (1959).


Abigail Rockwell said that for her father, it was a “tremendous blessing” but also a “heavy burden” to be the son of Norman Rockwell. “Everywhere you go, people introduce you as Norman Rockwell’s son,” Thomas Rockwell once remarked. “And you want to be Tom Rockwell.”……

“How to Eat Fried Worms” was rejected by 23 publishers before it was first published in 1973 with illustrations by Emily McCully. With its irresistible “ick” factor and encouraging message about taking challenges head-on, the book became a favorite among elementary and middle-grade children, one that librarians often pulled off the shelf to spark in reluctant readers the joys of literature.

“The book’s appeal depends on a generous dose of revulsion,” writer Kristopher Tapley observed in the New York Times in 2006. “It makes kids laugh while turning their stomachs just enough to deliver its universal themes.”

“How to Eat Fried Worms” has never gone out of print and was adapted for TV in an animated version in 1985 and for the movie screen as a live-action film in 2006.


Mr. Rockwell wrote two sequels, “How to Fight a Girl” (1987, with illustrations by Gioia Fiammenghi) and “How to Get Fabulously Rich” (1990, illustrated by Anne Canevari Green), both of which follow Billy and his friends in their adventures…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/10/04/thomas-norman-rockwell-fried-worms/

 

[Optimus Prime]

Still my all-time favorite book (the modern versions, not so much).

I know I’ve read this (and many other Blume books) don’t remember them at all

For some reason they didn’t resonate with me as much as Beverly Cleary books did

 

[Sailorsaint]

I know I’ve read this (and many other Blume books) don’t remember them at all

For some reason the didn’t resonate with me as much a Beverly Cleary books did

The mouse and the motorcycle was the very first “real” book I read. Maybe the fantasy aspect is what eventually led me to become a sci fi fan.

 

[Dago]

Man some memories being brought up in here.
Just adding some that I didn't see were the Tom Swift series, Xanth books, Dragonlance, and my introduction to enjoying horror was Into The Out Of which dealt with African mythology and the Massai. IMO would make a truly excellent movie

 

[Sailorsaint]

Man some memories being brought up in here.
Just adding some that I didn't see were the Tom Swift series, Xanth books, Dragonlance, and my introduction to enjoying horror was Into The Out Of which dealt with African mythology and the Massai. IMO would make a truly excellent movie

I read every Piers Anthony book I could get my hands on as a teenager and as a young adult.

 

[ShrimpnoseJr]

The Goosebumps series (up to ~80)
The Cay
The Glow-in-the-Dark Book of Animal Skeletons

 

[Optimus Prime]

Staples of pediatrician and dental waiting rooms for generations

Did anyone actually own these books?

 

[livefromDC]

Staples of pediatrician and dental waiting rooms for generations

Did anyone actually own these books?

Me! I got this one with an actual cassette tape that would play the story with sound effects! There was a howling wind sound to tell you when to turn the page if you were reading along.

Found it!

 

[saintmdterps]

At a very early age I was reading about the war against the Barbary Pirates. They were history books that read like something Patrick O'Brien would write. I was fascinated by Thomas Truxtun, Edward Preble (they accepted our terms, which were proposed at the mouth of our cannon) and William Bainbridge.

Really made me popular at school

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Waymer]

Staples of pediatrician and dental waiting rooms for generations

Did anyone actually own these books?

Spooky Old Tree was easily my favorite book, and I still have it. My name was written in it by my mom. I've since written the names of my boys in there and we read it often.

 

[zeetes]

 

[Consigliere]

Probably banned in Florida now.