Okay, I have some questions and YOU are gonna help me.

[conuly]

Please.

1. I'm setting a new goal for myself. I will force Jenn to make this bookcase with me and then, every month, I will set aside some money to purchase one kid's chapter book. Maaaaaaybe two. (Or ten, let's be realistic here!)

Now, as it happens, most of what I read are kid and YA lit, ha! But I still want some advice. I'm sure I've temporarily put aside the names of many of my childhood favorites. So I'm going to start a list of books and series I remember from my childhood. I'm asking only that you add to it, any books you feel are appropriate for kids. If you want to critique books that are on the list, that's good too - but try to keep personal preference out of it, just things like "I found this book had some stereotypical images of this group of people" or "It was kinda violent", not "WOW SO BORING!" No YA unless it fits, please. Use your best judgment.

2. I often like the concept of Klutz books, but I feel stifled because I cannot look inside them in the store to see if I want to buy them after all. Same deal with kits and that sort of thing. Anybody with any Klutz book or kit that normally comes shrinkwrapped, something for kids, if you could just help me out by either describing the contents or by taking a picture or two of the contents, that'd be really helpful. I'll write up what I can of the Klutz books I got for the nieces in the morning.

I'll put series names in italics. If a book series doesn't have a name, I'll use that for the first title instead.

The All-of-a-Kind Family
The Great Brain
Homer Price
The Baby-Sitters Club
Sweet Valley Whatevers
SOME of the Discworld books
Matilda
The BFG
Danny, Champion of the World
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Great Glass Elevator
The Witches
The Search for Delicious
Pippi Longstocking
The Children of Noisy Village (got a copy at the ETG today, win!)
Ronia, Robber's Daughter
Judy Moody
Amber Brown
Junie B. Jones
Encyclopedia Brown
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys
Harry Potter
Ordinary Boy
The Exiles
The Shoes Books (and I know they're not really a series, whatever)
Frindle
The Wayside School books
Holes
There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom
Someday, Angeline
The Bruno and Boots books
I Want to Go Home!
Fudge
Oracle Doll (now known, bleck, as "The Doll That Could Tell the Future")
The Girl with the Silver Eyes
The Giver
The City of Ember
Coraline
Outside by Andre Norton (you know, it's typical that my first chapter book was post-apocalyptic fiction)
The Girl Who Owned a City
Number the Stars
The Devil's Arithmetic (maybe this is YA and I read it too young)
Teetoncey
The Twinkie Squad
Goosebumps
Animorphs
Young Wizards
The Tortall (so it's more older) and the Circle books
The Pit Dragon Quartet - another YA one?
Goblin Wood
The Wizard Test
Away is a Strange Place to Be
ORVIS
Paddington Bear
The Pooh books
Gone-Away Lake
Half Magic
Magic by the Lake
Bedknob and Broomstick
Mary Poppins
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
The Little House books (yes, I *know* about that, I'm just listing right now)
Whales on Stilts
The Johnny Maxwell series
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Ella Enchanted and Fairest
Just Ella
The Ramona books
Muggy Maggie
Emily's Runaway Imagination
Wait Til Helen Comes
Time for Andrew
The books by John Bellairs
The Boxcar Children
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little
The Borrowers
The Pippolinis
Shoebag
The Ghost Wore Gray
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
My Father's Dragon
Desperaux
Behind the Attic Wall
Lucy Babbidge's House
The Series of Unfortunate Events
Detectives in Togas
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Libby on Wednesdays
Percy Jackson
Stepping on the Cracks
And Condors Danced
Letters from Leslie
Goodnight, Mr. Tom
Back Home
Primrose Day

There are others that are slipping my mind. I just want to list books. Even if they have major problems with them, I want them on the list so I can remember that later. Some people over at TBW have given suggestions, which I've gratefully added, but only those books which I'm personally familiar with. If you can add more titles (anything which triggers a memory, I'll add, and if I get enough I'm not familiar with I'll add another entry for those), or if you can spread this around so I get more help, I'd be thrilled.

Oh, and I've asked before and I'll ask again: Where can one get a rotating bookcase such as libraries have, cheap? I've counted - the ones our library uses can hold 400 books! I'm figuring a library/bookstore/school supply store, but which would have the cheapest ones? Or can I pick them up, like, used? Does that happen?

Comments

Off the top of my head

[cesy]

Famous Five (has obvious problems)
Chalet School (some obvious problems, probably for slightly older kids)
Lorna Hill if they like ballet
Tom's Midnight Garden
Maybe other Judy Blume, but not Forever whatever you do
Redwall (obvious problems, but still good adventure stories. When you've read a few, all the rest are the same, but still enjoyable if you liked the first few.)
Swallows and Amazons

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I see that you did list the Ramona series. Yes, highly recommended both for life lessons and sheer humor factor.

I don't know why, but I also keep getting mind-reminders that the Berenstain Bear books were pretty instrumental in some of my "fun, easy, and educational" reading.

I also ADORE Stephen Cosgrove (http://www.stephencosgrove.com/about.htm)'s "Serendipity" books. Fantasy and good life lessons...and LOVELY artwork by Robin James. They're hard to find in bookstores but generally pretty easy to obtain from Amazon.com.

[conuly]

We were reading a Serendipity book the day I threw up in kindergarten.

Sent me down to the office, and I knew the drill - you throw up and you go home.

Instead, my parents and the secretary spent several minutes patiently trying to convince me that it would take longer for my dad to fetch me than for me to go home on the bus. I felt so abandoned!

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

I'd add "Knight's Castle" (about the children of the Half Magic kids).

I LOVED the Teetoncy books - I'd forgotten about those.

How about Misty of Chincoteague? (And the two other horse books of hers that I actually liked better, King of the Wind and Gaudenzia?)

Was Bunnicula on there? I can't see it but this screen is tiny and I keep losing my train of thought when I go to check.

Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest books?

[conuly]

Yes, I edited it *just* prior to your comment and put Bunnicula and the Enchanted Forest chronicles on :)

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Magic Treehouse series, Osborne
The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis
Shadrach, DeJong (and others, he's delightful)
Ginger Pye, Estes
Pinky Pye, Estes
Charlotte's Web, White
Encyclopedia Brown series, Sobol
Childhood of Famous Americans series, various authors
The Saturdays, Enright
All of a Kind Family series, Taylor
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Konigsburg
The Dark is Rising sequence, Cooper

Must stop now! Could probably go on for hours.

[conuly]

You and me both. Add whenever you get the urge, 'k?

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

It's not a chapter book, but my 2nd-4th grade kids adore, as in pore over endlessly, a good children's poetry book/anthology. We especially love The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic.

[conuly]

Oh yes, poetry. But I'm putting one limit, and one only on this list, and gosh-darn it I'll stick to that limit: ONLY CHAPTERS GAH!

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

http://melissawiley.com/blog/2007/06/28/a-booklist-list/ is a meta booklist.

[conuly]

I'll browse it in a bit, thanks so much :)

this might be a little long...

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Go here for ideas: http://www.loganberrybooks.com

You have a couple of Dr. Snyder's books: we'd add The Egypt Game and her first book, Season of Ponies (although it has a somewhat frustrating ending) for middle kids, and definitely for older kids/YA, the Green-sky series (and possibly the video game that came from it): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_the_Root

For younger kids:

* Karle Wilson Baker, The Garden of the Plynck.
* J.M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy.
* L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz and all the followup books.
* Virginia Lee Burton, Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel.
* Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
* Daniel Curley, Ann's Spring.
* Michael Estrin, Fun for a Rainy Day.
* Marjorie Flack, The Story About Ping.
* Wanda Gag, Millions of Cats.
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wonder-Book and Tanglewood Tales.
* Crockett Johnson, the Harold & the Purple Crayon books.
* Eleanor Frances Lattimore, Little Pear and many others.
* Yoko Ono, Grapefruit (to inspire imaginative art projects).
* Beatrix Potter's books.
* Esphyr Slobodkina, Caps For Sale.
* Hildegarde Swift, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.
* J.R.R. Tolkien, Roverandom, Letters from Father Christmas and the poems in The Tolkien Reader.

For middle kids:

* Betty Brock, No Flying in the House.
* Walter R. Brooks' Freddie the Pig series.
* Thomas Bulfinch, Mythology (also published as The Age of Fable -- see if you can get a complete edition that has the Mabinogion in it).
* Mary Canty, The Green Gate.
* Walter de la Mare, The Three Mulla-Mulgars.
* Arnold Dobrin, Josephine's 'magination.
* Elizabeth Enright, Tatsinda, Zeee, Thimble Summer and the Melendy books.
* Eleanor Estes' books about the Moffats, and The Witch Family.
* Eleanor Farjeon -- all her books are beautiful.
* Rose Fyleman's poetry books.
* Paul Gallico, The Day Jean-Pierre Went Round the World and all the other Jean-Pierre books.
* Clifford B. Hicks, Alvin's Secret Code and all the other Alvin books.
* Gene Inyart, Tent Under the Spider Tree.
* Alexander Key, The Forgotten Door and Escape to Witch Mountain.
* E.L. Konigsburg -- all of them, really, but especially Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
* Charles Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare.
* Andrew Lang's different colored Fairy Books.
* Eleanor Frances Lattimore, Felicia.
* Robert Paul Smith, How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone By Yourself.
* Margaret Sidney's books about the Peppers. A little preachy but not too bad.
* Marguerite Vance, Windows for Rosemary.

For older kids/ young adults:

* David Almond, Heaven Eyes and Skellig.
* Pamela Dean, the Secret Country series.
* Lois Duncan, A Gift of Magic.
* Edmund Hildick, The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch.
* Ursula K. LeGuin, the original Earthsea trilogy.
* Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird.
* Norma Fox Mazer, Saturday, the Twelfth of October.
* Doris Orgel, A Certain Magic and The Devil in Vienna.
* Opal Whiteley, The Story of Opal.
* Oscar Wilde's fairy tales.

Go to Oyate (http://www.oyate.org/catalog/index.html) for children's books by and about Native American people.

Re: this might be a little long...

[conuly]

Thank you so much :)

Although, to be clear, I only want chapter books right now, no picture books. If I had to list my picture books - dear god, we'd be here all night!

Re: this might be a little long...

[conuly]

And how I forgot The Egypt Game, of all things, I do NOT know!

Snyder (doctor? Really?) was one of the authors of my childhood, all those wonderful three-name authors.

Re: this might be a little long...

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Like Enid laMonte Meadowcroft? ;)

And yeah, D'ol Zilpha is Dr. now! She got an honorary doctorate from Whittier College a few years ago.

Re: this might be a little long...

[conuly]

Medowcroft? Do tell, I never heard about her!

No, I mean the three of Mary Downing Hahn, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (and I could say that name all day. I mean, Zilpha? If I ever have kids, one of them has to have it as a middle name!), and Willo Davis Roberts.

[crymytears.livejournal.com]

I don't think I saw them, if I'm repeating you can beat me. And I think most of the books I remember are thisclose to YA books, depending on maturity of the reader.

Abarat, Clive Barker, boarders on YA, I gave it to my sister (who's 10) and my stepdad said no.
Little House series
Face on the Milk Carton - again, boarders. I read it <5th grade, but probably shouldn't have
Don't Hurt Laurie - again, could be a hard read for some kids, it's about child abuse
View from the Cherry Tree
Hatchet and the other Gary Paulsen books
Redwall (DH is reading this to 7 month old DD right now, I'm entertained)

baby's awake. might be back with more later.

[conuly]

Thank you so much :)

Yeah, Face on the Milk Carton, that series starts when Janey/Jenny is in her Junior year, doesn't it? YA for sure.

You already hit most of the ones I remember....

[marveen.livejournal.com]

for Books-I-Read-Before-I-Was-Ten:

The Black Stallion series, Walter Farley
Pagan the Black and sequels, Dorothy Potter Benedict
Tolkien (the Silmarillion was too hard, but the Hobbit & the trilogy were fun)
Anne McCaffrey
Some Hitchcock collections (good for nightmares also)
Dracula (quite tame by modern standards)

Re: You already hit most of the ones I remember....

[conuly]

I never was into horse books. Nor yet Tolkien - I *still* can't read him!

[marveen.livejournal.com]

And oh yes, one of my favorites:

Old Hasdrubal and the Pirates

[morganne13.livejournal.com]

Because they're hard to get in bookstores I didn't read very many of them as a child, but my mother LOVES them and has been collecting them since...I always know what to get her for her birthday or Christmas....

[morganne13.livejournal.com]

Gah...that was supposed to go under the Serendipity books comment...

[morganne13.livejournal.com]

Books:
by Enid Blyton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton#Most_successful_works)

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy- series starting with Nightpool

Trixie Belden books (like Nancy Drew except younger and more realistic- has annoying brothers, chores, and trouble with schoolwork)

Bobbsey Twins books

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Pippi Longstockings is where Annika came from. Or her name anyway...you know what I mean!

And I think you got all the ones I could think of.

WAIT. Tomorrow When The War Began, and sequels.

[conuly]

YA, definitely. There's sex, and terrorism, and war.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Meh, trifle things. :-p

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Also: The Cure.

Which I'm pretty damned sure I stole from you at one point or another.

But you have my World of Pooh book at your house, and that was my favorite gift EVAR, so its a fair trade. >: |

lol

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Oh wow-- so many amazing memories-- seems like you and I had a lot of the same favorite authors! Have you read anything by William Sleator? He's one of my favorites that I don't recall seeing on your list.

I have not had any time to get around to working on my own list yet. I have, however, been going through my LJ book entries and tagging any that contain kids or YA books with "Juvenile Literature." I have no idea whether you want to wade through all that, but if you're looking for ideas, you might check it out, since my book listings generally include a review/synopsis.

[conuly]

OMG I LOVE SLEATOR.

A lot of his is more what I'd term YA for the purposes of this list, but I guess Beasties and Marco's Millions and Boxes count.

Have you read his autobiography? It's available for free online.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

No-- where??

Ok, "Beasties" scared the bejeesus out of me even as a teen. But I read "Into the Dream" when I was fairly young and loved it.

[conuly]

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sleator/oddballs/oddballs-web/

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

You know, I did read this-- the actual book-- a long time ago. *laughs* I used to be so /obsessed/ with his books. This one struck me as almost stranger than his novels, though. I just couldn't imagine a family like that!

[conuly]

It's very free-range.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

*laughs* It isn't so much the creative chaos that I find stranger-- we had that too. But large families are a mystery to me, emotionally. For most of my childhood, my world consisted of myself, my mother, and several cats, with rare visits to my one set of grandparents and one uncle and aunt and their two daughters who were much older than me. My (half) brother was born when I was 8.5, and I had enough trouble adjusting to that!