Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.
Top Ten Books I Want My Future Children To Read
Well let me just start off by saying that I have just come fresh of the heels of finishing Stranger Things (I binge watched Season 1 & 2 in the last week) so if there is one thing I’m feeling right now it’s an incredible case of nostalgia. It was next to impossible for me to narrow down this list so I’ve listed some other favorites as well. And sorry about the font intense post, I’ve been super lazy on the blog (wow, who would have ever noticed…) so I left this until the last-minute and didn’t have the time to collect all the book covers and make it pretty 🙁
I was definitely that child that always had their nose in a book. From as early as I can remember and apparently even before that based on my childhood pictures, I’ve always been in love with books. When I went back home in September I was going through some of my old bins that my parents have meticulously sorted and kept everything for us and the sheer amount of books I had as a child was astronomical. Between my sister and I(my brother was never a reader) we have hundreds and hundreds of books. It’s amazing how much my parents fostered the love of reading. If there is one thing that I remember, it’s that I was NEVER denied a book. Every time we went to a second-hand shop I would sit for what seems like hours going through copies of Nancy Drews and BSC books and my mom would buy every one. In the summers my father would take me to the small library 20 mins drive away and wait outside while I spent (realistically it must have been an hour or two) picking out massive piles of books. One great thing was the librarians (I come from a very small community… it’s not even a town; out in the country) never put a limit on how many books I could take out. I remember taking 50 out at a time. They probably just felt bad for my Dad to keep driving back and forth all summer. The moral of this ridiculously long lead up is that whenever I think of childhood books, these are the memories I have. I always felt so happy with a pile of books, no matter where they came from, and these books remind me of those wonderful memories. I hope that I will pass on the love of reading to my future children and that they can look back on fond memories of childhood books one day as well.
1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott • I must have read this one 50 times over the course of my childhood (and countless times as an adult). I adored this story. It made me cry every time but no matter how much it made me sad it also made me so happy. Every few months this would get added back to my library checkout pile and I’m sure my parents must have wondered why I kept on bringing this one back. I couldn’t even pinpoint what exactly it was that drew me to it but I loved it.
2. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling • I don’t even need to explain this, but obviously, this is one of my all-time favorite books as a child and as an adult. I read it when I was in my early teens but this will definitely be an addition to my future children’s bookshelves.
3. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder • I was OBSESSED with Laura Ingalls when I was a child. I loved the entire series and all of the branch-off series. I was certain there couldn’t be a better way to live than the way Laura Ingalls did.
4. Corduroy by Don Freeman • The love of this book came from my grandmother. She has read Corduroy to us grandchildren at least a hundred times I’m sure. Whenever I see this book I instantly think of my grandmother and I cannot think of a children’s bookshelf I will ever build that wouldn’t have this book on it.
5. The Baby Sitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin • I HOPE that my children will love this series. I was ADDICTED to these books. I spent every last dime of my money I had on completing the series (and I mean all of them, Little Sister, Super Specials, Mysteries… the lists go on). I was so obsessed that I joined the BSC Fan Club that was advertised in the back of the books. Best day of my young life when that package came in the mail. In my mind, you couldn’t possibly get any cooler than those girls were. I wanted to be EXACTLY like them. All of them 🙂
6. Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene • Does anyone else remember that distinctive smell that the old original cover Nancy Drew books had? My god, I love that smell. I sniffed a few of those books when I was home in September and it was like taking a frigging time machine. I loved these books, every last one of them. The old font, the way they were bound and obviously the stories. Ah, the nostalgia.
7. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery • If you grew up in the Maritimes you were likely immersed in the world of Avonlea. I remember every Sunday my sister and I would be BOUNCING to watch Road to Avonlea. I LOVED that show. I loved Anne of Green Gables. I loved the entire story and series as a whole.
8. Fear Street by R.L. Stine • I cannot wait to share these books with my future children and I hope that they adore them. I know there scary but I LIVED for this as a child haha. Honestly, my parents didn’t pay too much attention to the books I read (well hey, I wasn’t reading erotica or anything) but I think if they had of picked up one of these they would have been surprised because I was easily scared as a child.
9. The Little Critter books by Mercer Meyer • What child’s bookshelf would be complete without these? It’s funny because I legitimately did not know until this very minute that these were called Little Critter! I’ve always referred to them as Mercer Meyer books haha. I hope to own the entire set one day for my children.
10. The Berenstain Bear books • Another set that I wouldn’t be able to NOT have on a childs bookshelf. My sister and I were heavily into these for a while, and also the TV show. Loved them.
Honorable Mentions: Purple, Green & Yellow by Robert Munsch (and quite frankly all of Robert Munsch’s books really), Where the Wild Things Are, The Arthur series, The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids, The Boxcar Children, Sweet Valley series, Animorphs, JAMBERRY (gosh does anyone remember this book?!?! I was obsessed with it haha), Charlotte’s Web (although this a tear-jerker!), Amelia Bedelia, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
What books did you pick? Where any of these your childhood favorites and you want to pass on as well?
Omigosh, all of these are favourites on my list too! Although my parents encouraged a love of reading, my mom was big on me reading books that SHE picked out for me, so I read Little Women, The Secret Garden and lots of the older classics at her request. BSC and Sweet Valley were my personal choices, but Nancy Drew was the one that we both agreed on. I read all of her old hardcovers (the ones with the yellow spines) and then all the paperbacks that the library had.
Although I loved the first Anne book, I don’t think I read past the third book. Anne got too grown up and boring for my young self, but I’m planning to read the entire series next year from start to finish because I just know that I’m missing out! And I got my middle name from Anne so I just know I’ll love the series!