Hans Christian Andersen,that is. Andersen, (1805-1875) was a Danish author best known for his fairy tales. Some of his most famous titles are The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes. Today is also International Children's Book Day. It's no coincidence it coincides with HCA's birthday. This event is sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People. Their goal is to bring books and children together.
I simply cannot imagine a childhood without books. My favorite wasn't actually A book, but rather a set of sixteen books called The Children's Hour. I can't remember what all the volumes contained, but one was stories for young children, another was stories for older kids with characters like Beezus and Ramona and Henry Huggins (Gallons of Guppies anyone?).
One volume was all poetry from the simples A.A. Milne rhyme up to the words of Longfellow and Poe. I spent many an afternoon with my nose in those books. I was also partial to Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and books about a family called The Happy Hollisters. I remember one Christmas when my uncle gave my sister and me a book by an author with a funny name -- Dr. Seuss. That book was How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and many years later I bought a copy for my own children.
They also had books like Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Pat the Bunny along with many, many others. Now I'm buying books for my granddaughter (she LOVES books, which makes her Grammy very happy) and I've bought -- you guessed it -- Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Pat the Bunny. Last Christmas I discovered the Sandra Boynton books. I especially like Barnyard Dance.
How can you not love a book with text like this?
STOMP YOUR FEET! CLAP YOUR HANDS! EVERYBODY READY FOR A BARNYARD DANCE!
Bow to the horse. Bow to the cow. Twirl with the pig if you know how.
Bounce with the Bunny. Strut with the duck. Spin with the chickens now CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!
With a BAA and a MOO and a COCKADOODLEDOO everybody promenade two by two! *
What books do you remember from your childhood? And which books did you buy your children? Do you have any good recommendations? I'm always looking for new titles for the grandbaby.
A big P.S. -- Remember to enter the Spoil Me Silly contest on our website. It's filled with stuff to pamper yourself along with a dozen books. Contest entries will be accepted through noon Central time on April 30, 2008.
*copyright Sandra Boynton 1993
22 comments:
My favorite childhood memories are trips to the school library. Back in those days, I read lots of books over and over. I read all the Lois Lenski books our library had. My favorite was Flood Friday. And anything about horses. I owned all the Little House books and every Trixie Belden.
If only I could get my students to love to read! One series they are enjoying now is Franny K. Stein, which is actually pretty hilarious.
I was a huge Nancy Drew fan. Loved those books. My kids really enjoyed all those Magic Treehouse books.
The first book I remember reading was Encyclopedia Brown -- ya know, the geeky kid detective. Girl and I LOVE Stellaluna and Is Your Mama a Llama?. Shhhh. Don't tell anyone but we read Stellaluna not too long ago and she's a teenager now -- Girl, not Stellaluna. ;)
I went through so many books, but I'd have to say my favorites were by James Howe. He wrote Bunnicula, Howliday Inn, The Celery Stalks at Midnight and Nighty Nightmare. How could a kid not love a story about a vampire rabbit? They were my first taste of suspense (and maybe even paranormal) books, only with a dog and cat instead of a hero and heroine.
My aunt also took to buying me books that won illustration awards. I still have them today because the pictures are just so pretty. I also have my copy of the Stinky Cheese Man, which I think is one of the best books EVER.
Oh wow, this takes me back. I loved Ramona, Socks, and Encyclopedia Brown. Read Nancy Drew as well.
But my favorite, favorite books ever were the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley. I think I was about 8 when I started to read them. I was a horse crazy girl, naturally. I devoured the section of the library with the horse stories.
But the Black Stallion is what sticks out. They are full of adventure, horses, and mysterious happenings. There are 20 books in the series.
Oh, this reminded me, I also loved the Marguerite Henry books: Misty of Chincoteague, King of the Wind, and Justin Morgan Had a Horse. She wrote many more, but they weren't all horse books.
(Hubby made me change my avatar: he ganged up with guys and work and told me this was a better pic. So no, I'm not schizophrenic lately. Just trying to please the man -- wait, wouldn't Clinton Kelly tell me NOT to do that...?) :)
Guys AT work. *sigh* I canz be gooder writer!
Your other avatar was a little scary. It looked a terminator machine staring down your target, especially when it was squished down to the avatar size. This one is nice too. Are these headshots for your GH entry?
Bunnicula? Howliday Inn? I always knew you were a little quirky. *g* One of my boys read the Goosebumps books. And now that my memory is jogged, I remember reading books by Hans Holzer about paranormal activity, The Search for Bridey Murphy and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
And when we were in Atlanta for RWA, I got Meg Cabot to autograph my copy of The Princess Diaries to my granddaughter who was only about 6-8 weeks old at the time. I'll give it to her when she's old enough to enjoy it.
PM
I loved Misty too, Lynn. The description of those horses on that Island...amazing. They made a movie out of it didn't they? I vaguely remember seeing it.
I didn't really catch on to reading until about third grade but once I did I never went anywhere without a book in my hand. I loved the Babysitters Club, the American Girl series and of course Sweet Valley High. But my favorites were the set of shoe books - Circus Shoes, Ballet Shoes, Family Shoes, etc. Circus Shoes was my favorite.
Sweet Pea and I were discussing books just last night actually. I want to try and find her a copy of Circus Shoes. I just bought her her first American Girl and Babysitter's Club books a few weeks ago.
Instigator
ROFL, SP! Thanks for telling me earlier. *GG*
These pics were for the I Heart Presents blog. My stylist can't fit me in until Monday (my highlights need fixed bad!), so we won't attempt the GH shots until Monday or Tuesday. I have until the 9th to get them in.
Once I discovered the photo editing software on the Mac, I decided I didn't need a professional photo. I'll save that one for when I sell. :)
Instigator: Yes, there was a movie! And I loved the description of the horses on the island too. I always wanted to visit Chincoteague Island when we lived in MD, but never managed to get that far. One day, I will.
I was a R.L. Stine fan. I love his books wrote for teenagers, I was told old by the time goosebumps came out. I pick his book up at first because my name was also R.L. Stine before I got married. I just thought that was the coolest thing when I was eleven. I always read my children Doctor Seuss's Sleep Book for bed time. It is my all time favorite Dr. Seuss story.
Drama Queen and I have really enjoyed reading the Junie B. Jones books. They are funny! She recently got into the Magic Treehouse books and has started reading those.
Angel
Oh, and I can't leave out Little Man, to whom we are reading all the Veggie Tales books. We have new ones now, but we also have ones from when DQ was little. The hubby and I can recite those without even looking at the page. :)
Angel
Oh yeah... you know you've read a book a LOT when you can recite it from memory.
As for Lynn's avatar... my mama always told me if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. ::grin:: It was a bit intense. And yes, Clinton told us all not to dress to please men. He was so cute, wasn't he?
I pretty much read everything I could get my hands on when I was growing up. My mom would take my little brother and I to Wal-Mart every week. I would get a new book and he would get a new Star Wars toy.I always loved the Ramona books, all the Little House books, and Nancy Drew books. I loved Bunnicula and I remember reading Encyclopedia Brown and the MacDonald Hall series. Green Eggs and Ham was the first book I ever read all myself, but A Bargin for Francis and Harry the Dirty Dog were my favorite books I read when I first started reading.
I didn't read that much as a child but I have since made up for it as a young adult to my age of 46. I read with my son through the years whatever books he would bring home from the school library and the books I would purchase from Scholastic. Reading has changed my life when I picked up a romance book the summer before I started high school. Now I don't go a day without reading.
ARGH! If I had spinach in my teeth, would you guys let me roll along oblivious? *ggg*
Okay, I am not a Playfriend, but I'm instituting a Spinach Rule. If someone has the equivalent of spinach in the teeth, one MUST speak up!
(I'll keep the other pic for my break-out SF book. If only I had Linda Hamilton's arms....) ;)
It wasn't a bad picture, it just made you look intense, like PM said. I didn't mention it because I thought it was your GH pic and you'd already sent it in. Didn't want you panicking when nothing could be done.
And yes, we always tell when something's in your teeth, playfriend or not.
Spinach in the teeth goes without saying. We will also tell you when those pants make your butt look big. :-)
Ac is devoring books faster than I can produce them. She likes Junie B, but I'm trying to introduce her to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (my childhood fave).
I loved Dr. Seus' If I Ran The Zoo, Hop On Pop and Green Eggs And Ham. My grandparents knew how much I loved the series and gave my kids a whole set of Dr. Seus books when #1 was born. I couldn't get into much else when I was younger except for a set of historical books, one on Daniel Boone and another on Valley Forge. They were great!
I always envied a girl on the school bus who never rode without a book in her hands. She had the most beautiful fingernails, filed to perfection and painted pretty colors. I could never get my fingernails to look so pretty and didn't have the patience, either. But I loved to stare at her pretty fingers as she held the book to read. Made me want to paint my fingernails and read a bunch of books!
#1 loved Dinosaur books. Believe me by the time #3 came along, we could recite them word for word and pronounce all the Dinosaur's names. #1 also loved Pecos Bill and The Boy With The Little Toy Drum. (All the Golden Books, which I'm trying to collect for my grandsons.)
#2 didn't like to read much until she was older. She liked us to read to her. #4 has been an avid reader since she learned how. She's read all the Goosebumps (the older kids did too), anything RL Stine, Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, and the Twilight series. #4 loves paranormal stuff. She even tried to read Stephen King but, alas, it was too frightening for her. *sigh*
You can't go wrong with Dr. Seus and Golden Books, that's for sure.
Lynn, the new picture looks great. As for the old one, well... I actually thought it was cool, in a kick butt heroine way. :-)
Forgot to mention I read comic books as a kid and loved Grimm's Fairy Tales.
Authors I loved during childhood:
Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Beverly Cleary, Maude Hart Lovelance. Devoured them all.
Now that I will be a grandma in the fall, will be hoping to pass along these authors to the new baby.
Pat L.
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