Children's Literature

I'm still in a bit of a book mood, so I thought I would make another literary aimed post, but this time, geared towards children's books!  Last year I also shared a post about all of the young adult books I loved, and the comments were absolutely amazing- it was really fun to take a trip down memory lane while reading through everyone's personal favorites. Like many of you, most of my earliest memories involve books; either my father reading us "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve, or my Mom taking us to the library multiple times a week, allowing us to check out stacks and stacks of books at a time.  My sister and I devoured books, and they were my favorite thing growing up besides dancing and sports.  Over the years my love for reading has only grown, and my sister and I still trade recommendations and excitement over great titles.  From as early as I can remember, the library was a huge part of our lives and we were incredibly involved in our small town's children's lit. scene...i.e, the summer book club, weekly readings, and any sort of contest they had.  And I mentioned this in the other post, but remember "Book It"?  Personal pan pizzas for reading books...so into it!

Because reading was such a huge part of my life, when I happen to stumble upon an old book that I once loved, I am flooded with memories upon memories.  I am taken right back to the corner in our small public library; I can see every detail, the smell of the old books, the sometimes yellowed pages, the hushed quietness that pervaded every nook and cranny of that magical place.  I would sit on the short stools used for shelving books, leaning up against the stacks, and read and read.  My Mom would let us stay for as long as we wanted, and she put no limit on the amount of books we could take home, as long as we stayed under the library's twelve book rule.  So, with so many fond memories, I thought it would be fun to share some of the children's books I hold close to my heart, and invite you all to share some of your favorites from childhood.  Share in the comments, and if you'd like, feel free to post your own list on your blog, and link back here.   Here are five of my favorites, although if I was to make a comprehensive list it would be much longer.  For reference, I was born in 1982, and in a small town, so a lot of the books I loved were a lot older, and often were first published anywhere between 1940-1970.