{"id":9245,"date":"2019-07-02T01:34:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T06:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245"},"modified":"2019-07-02T04:36:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T09:36:25","slug":"top-ten-favorite-books-as-a-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245","title":{"rendered":"top <del>ten<\/del> eleven favorite books as a kid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s Top Ten Tuesday topic at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thatartsyreadergirl.com\/2019\/07\/my-top-ten-favorite-picture-books-from-my-childhood\/\">That Artsy Reader Girl<\/a> asks for ten of our favorite childhood books, which I took to mean books I read up through elementary school:<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/spriteshoots\/48177802756\/in\/dateposted\/\" title=\"Childhood Favorites\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"Childhood Favorites\"><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><em>Horton Hears a Who<\/em> by Dr. Seuss<\/strong> (While I love the message of this book and credit it for being a cornerstone of my beliefs in empathy and using your voice and collective action, I also acknowledge that Seuss has a problematic relationship with race in some of his books.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Be Nice to Spiders<\/em> by Margaret Bloy Graham<\/strong> (My approach to insects indoors dates to this book. I can vaguely recall a time where I&#8217;d screech for my parents to come kill any spider I came across as a little kid, so I&#8217;m guessing that may be where this book&#8217;s arrival in my life came from. Since reading it, though, I tolerate many types of insects living in the corners of my apartment &#8212; there&#8217;s a spider in the bathroom as we speak &#8212; although I admit it&#8217;s an unequal system that&#8217;s biased against mosquitoes, wool moths, ants, flies, and cockroaches, in part because of their ability to wreak havoc and in part because of their tendency to show up in spring-break in Florida quantities if allowed to stay.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Richard Scarry&#8217;s Please and Thank You Book<\/em><\/strong> (Honestly, I have no idea why. I have never given this book as a baby shower gift, although it is still in print.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em> by C.S. Lewis<\/strong> (I have mentioned before that when my town was building a new, modern library, they sent a librarian around to my school to encourage us to get a library card when they opened. She came a couple of times, reading us a chapter of this book at a time. It worked. I got a library card &#8212; and copies of the first three books in the series for Christmas.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Amelia Bedelia<\/em> by Peggy Parrish<\/strong> (Yet another book I was introduced to in school, this time by our second-grade teachers who would pull both classes into one room &#8212; this literally meant sharing desk chairs &#8212; and read one of the books in this series aloud to us periodically. If you don&#8217;t know it, it features a very literal-minded housekeeper and her upper-crust employers who are prone to ask her to draw the drapes or dress the chicken while they&#8217;re out only to return to artwork or their dinner still raw but suited up. This is a silly children&#8217;s series for people who love the power of words.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>The Secret Garden<\/em> by Frances Hodgson Burnett<\/strong> (My maternal grandmother took this out of the library to preview whether it was suitable for me and I found it and started reading it. She quickly returned it to the library, so she could buy me a copy for my birthday, and took out <em>A Little Princess<\/em> instead in an attempt to derail my interest, but I was hooked and grabbed my library&#8217;s copy to finish it. Not to worry, I&#8217;ve read this copy many times since then.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Little Women<\/em> by Louisa May Alcott<\/strong> (Also, <em>Eight Cousins<\/em>. I read both dozens of times. None of the other four books in the Alcott collection I have (one of my favorite gifts ever from my paternal grandparents) come anywhere close. Maybe it&#8217;s time for a reread.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Anne of Green Gables<\/em> by L.M. Montgomery<\/strong> (This is the book that made me a book buyer. I received this copy as a gift for Christmas. (We got book plates that same year and I clearly recognized how nice a book this was, because I convinced my brother to trade me one of his color bookplates for one of my black-and-sepia ones just to use in it.) But I bought the rest of the series, and some of her other titles one at a time at Walden Books in the mall.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> by Madeleine L&#8217;Engle<\/strong> (I loved Meg and Calvin and Charles Wallace and Mrs Who, Mrs Which, and Mrs Whatsit. And then I loved Vicky and Poly and Canon Tallis.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock<\/em> by Carolyn Keene<\/strong> (This is the first of the Nancy Drew books and while it&#8217;s probably not my favorite (I preferred the George and Bess books, rather than the Helen ones), it&#8217;s the one that made me a mystery reader. I think my mother gave me the first five books for Christmas one year (the 1960s edits, rather than the 1930s originals) and then I took off from there. I read them quickly and then tore through every copy I could get my hands on from our library. I even read some of contemporary The Nancy Drew Files series that came out when I was in middle school.)<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><strong><em>Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion<\/em> by Julie Campbell<\/strong> (I&#8217;m guessing this was another gift from my folks, because I owned a bunch of them, and I don&#8217;t know that I would have bought any of them myself without having read the first one, and this wasn&#8217;t a series my library carried. While I liked Nancy Drew, I related to Trixie, who had siblings, chores, and a more realistic life.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Oops. I ended up with 11, but with a lifetime of book love, that seems a reasonable number<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl asks for ten of our favorite childhood books, which I took to mean books I read up through elementary school: Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss (While I love the message of this book and credit it for being a cornerstone of my beliefs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today&#8217;s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl asks for ten of our favorite childhood books, which I took to mean books I read up through elementary school: Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss (While I love the message of this book and credit it for being a cornerstone of my beliefs [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"soe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"soe\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"headline\":\"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245\"},\"wordCount\":918,\"commentCount\":6,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/65535\\\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245\",\"name\":\"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/65535\\\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/65535\\\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/65535\\\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?p=9245#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"sprite writes\",\"description\":\"broodings from the burrow\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d\",\"name\":\"soe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"soe\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.spritewrites.net\\\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes","og_description":"Today&#8217;s Top Ten Tuesday topic at That Artsy Reader Girl asks for ten of our favorite childhood books, which I took to mean books I read up through elementary school: Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss (While I love the message of this book and credit it for being a cornerstone of my beliefs [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245","og_site_name":"sprite writes","article_published_time":"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"soe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"soe","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245"},"author":{"name":"soe","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d"},"headline":"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid","datePublished":"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245"},"wordCount":918,"commentCount":6,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg","articleSection":["books"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245","url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245","name":"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid - sprite writes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-02T06:34:10+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-02T09:36:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48177802756_888d1d0f23.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=9245#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"top ten eleven favorite books as a kid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/","name":"sprite writes","description":"broodings from the burrow","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/#\/schema\/person\/2aa28906a6cfcf6a027e45ac700a834d","name":"soe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/49c494d6a64fd2b375e219c4ee1ae734e9edce9f8490a38074dcf6ba8a3dc716?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"soe"},"url":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9248,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9245\/revisions\/9248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}