Aw yes bebes it’s time for a trip down memory lane to when I was a literal bebe.
Okay, maybe not that far back, but I’m still excited to talk about my top ten childhood favorites because listen: some of my faves from when I was a kid are SUPER. CUTE. And we can always do with a sprinkling of cute in between the spooky, if you know what I mean.
….alright, fine, some of them are also a little spooky.
Here’s the thing: I have always loved to read. I grew up with a mom who loved to read, so she instilled it in me immediately. She would always read to me, and then I started reading on my own. So I’ve had a heck of a long time to accumulate favorite books.
That being said, that means this list is going to span several phases of my childhood. Of course I wasn’t necessarily reading all these books around the same time period, but the following list includes ten of my favorites from different eras of my childhood, spanning from tiny toddler to tween!
In no particular order, as always.
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
You guys know the drill: In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. And the smallest one…
Was Madeline.
Dude, I loved Madeline. I would read the Madeline stories over and over again and never get tired of them. Madeline was feisty and independent and kind of a pain in the ass for the people who loved her, but still managed to be caring and sweet. I loved seeing her get in and out of trouble, and even as a child, just adored her take no shit attitude. My favorite Madeline story was the one where she meets the little boy next door and he shows her his menagerie of animals that he just has to show off to people and brag about how he has expensive, exotic pets. Madeline is absolutely disgusted by his attitude towards his animals and just totally roasts this kid. I mean she lets him have it and does not hold back.
Little Madeline, standing up for animal rights before it was trendy.
Also, major props to Miss Clavel. That woman put up with so much and for God’s sake she raised twelve little girls. Twelve of them. And she always just knew—and bolted straight upright—when “something wasn’t right”.
Honestly, Miss Clavel was probably one of my earliest understandings of what intuition is and how to follow your gut. This woman was a master of following her gut.
Once There Were Giants by Martin Waddell
Once There Were Giants is a really cute picture book that basically just follows a little girl as she grows up and goes through the different stages of life, and for some reason, this really stood out to me as a child. When she starts out, she’s just a baby saying that once there were giants in her home, and she explains how the adults—her parents, aunts, uncles—were the giants and they just seemed so much bigger than her.
As she grows up, the “giants” seem less like giants, and eventually, she has her own little ones and realizes that there are still giants in her home—but now she’s one of them.
This is so accurate to how life really is. When we’re little, adults seem so big and so inaccessible, but before we know it, we’re grown up and we realize the grown ups never had everything figured out after all. Life goes by so fast. Blink, and suddenly you’re a giant, too. This book is a really cute portrayal of that, and one I went back to again and again as a kid.
Tales of George and Matilda Mouse by Heather S. Buchanan
Okay, so George and Matilda are two mice who meet and fall in love and get married and build their home in an abandoned doll house in a garden and dear Lord could this possibly be any cuter???
The answer is no. There is nothing that could possibly be cuter than this. Ever.
I don’t know what it was, but for some reason as a child, I really went in for anything that involved miniatures or shrunken down things or just things being really small. The Borrowers, The Indian in the Cupboard, etc. Something about tiny little creatures using ordinary human items in unique ways—because, you know, they’re tiny—really appealed to me as a child. And there is a lot of that in George and Matilda. I mean they take up residence in a dollhouse, which is just the cutest. I clearly remember reading about them cleaning out all the webs and spiders, except the spiders were practically as big as they were, which is horrifying.
For their wedding, all the mice and little creatures band together to make everything they need, and if I remember correctly, they use a little scrap of lace curtains to make Matilda’s veil. The whole thing is really precious.
The book I had was a heavy volume titled The Tales of George and Matilda Mouse which contained all the stories in one, and one of my favorites was George and Matilda and the Floating School. In this particular story, George and Matilda decide they need to start a school to educate all the little mouse babies in the community (the majority of which I believe belonged to them—Matilda had a heck of a litter), but the problem is every location they choose for the school ends up being a danger to the mouse babies because it’s exposed to predators. They eventually decide to make a “floating school” and put a little toy boat/ark out on the water so they can float around while learning and be safe from the cats and scary bugs and snakes.
Again I say—could this be more adorable?
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh is a classic. These stories of Christopher Robin and the occupants of the Hundred Acre Woods have been a classic practically since they came out back in the 1920s. There’s a reason this belly shirt wearing teddy bear and his pals have endured for nearly a century. They’re so cute and they’re constantly bring us heartwarming reminders and lessons through their little adventures in the woods.
And with a cast of characters ranging from the hyperactive Tigger to the wise old Owl to the consistently downtrodden but still loved by his friends Eeyore, there’s someone for everyone here. Winnie the Pooh’s stories have been reincarnated in dozens of forms, transformed into TV shows and movies, and inspired countless stuffed animals. I myself definitely remember snuggling my classic Winnie the Pooh and Piglet plushies while I read my giant volume of stories by A.A. Milne.
Pooh (who for some reason goes by Pooh for short even though it seems like he should go by Winnie, but that’s neither here nor there) is a fan favorite and I was definitely one of those fans. If I ever have my own little ones, I’ll definitely introduce them to Pooh and his buddies. They’re wholesome and funny and so, so, so cute.
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Velveteen Rabbit was another excellent marketing opportunity for children’s books companies to sell a story book with an accompanying stuffed animal, and I definitely fell for it because after reading the book I absolutely had to have my own velveteen rabbit, even though I had no clue at that time what velveteen even was.
The Velveteen Rabbit—sometimes subtitled “Or How Toys Become Real”—is actually super freaking sad and the amount of sadness in this book actually makes me wonder why I liked it so much as a child. It’s a really cute but extremely sad story about a toy rabbit. The rabbit is a gift to a little boy at Christmas, and at first, the little boy doesn’t even like the rabbit and kind of just tosses him in the corner and ignores him because he likes his other newer, more high-tech toys better.
One night when another toy goes missing, the boy’s grandma gives him the rabbit to sleep with and he actually grows to love the rabbit and takes him everywhere with him and he becomes his absolute favorite. The rabbit gets really shabby because the little boy takes him everywhere with him, but he doesn’t care about being shabby because he knows he is loved.
I mean, same, right?
There’s this really sad scene where he encounters some actual, live rabbits in the forest and they tell him he’s not real and he protests that he knows he is real because his little boy loves him and told him he is real, so he knows it’s true, and oh my God does that scene ever just wrench at my heart.
So it seems like it’s all going to be happy and nice because now the little boy loves the rabbit and takes him with him everywhere he goes, except then the little boy gets scarlet freaking fever. Velveteen rabbit stays with him the whole time he’s sick until—get this—the boy’s doctor says that the little boy needs to go to the seaside and all his toys and bedding need to be burned.
What the actual hell even is this? Why did I like this as a kid? Was I just sobbing through the whole thing? I mean, probably.
So they bundle the toys into a sack and toss them outside to be burned and the Velveteen Rabbit basically just sits there in the sack thinking about his life and how much he loves his little boy as he waits to be burned to death. He’s so sad about it, he cries one real tear and the tear makes a flower grow up and in a Hail Mary, eleventh hour move, a fairy comes out of the flower and saves him. She tells him that because his little boy loved him so much, it turned him real, and she saves him by transforming him into a real rabbit who can hop off into the forest.
At some point, the little boy sees the “real rabbit” version of his toy and observes that it reminds him of his Velveteen Rabbit and it’s a sweet moment and all, but still, this book is just emotionally draining. And yet for some reason, this was one of my absolute favorites as a kid.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
Let’s take a break from all that emotion with something lighthearted and cute, right? If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a really cute enduring favorite even today about a mouse who just doesn’t know when enough is enough. The picture book cautions readers against giving in to a mouse’s begging, because if you give a mouse a cookie, then he will want a glass of milk, and then he will be sleepy and want a pillow and blanket, and it goes on and on. Of course, this is another case of “tiny creatures using normal things in a unique way because they’re so tiny”, so that’s probably why it appealed to me so much. Also, I love mice. And cookies.
The American Girl Books
When I got a bit older, I got really into historical fiction in the form of the American Girl books. I’m a firm believer that they just don’t make children’s books like they used to, and everyone should read these. I learned about so many different historical periods from the adventures and experiences of the girls in these books, ranging from Colonial times to the pioneers on the prairies to slavery and the Civil War to World War II and how it affected those on the home front.
Although I read all the books, my absolute favorites were Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly. I definitely had the dolls to accompany these books and they were my most prized possessions. Kirsten was an immigrant from Sweden making her way on the harsh frontier of Minnesota with her family. Samantha was a Victorian girl growing up with her rich Grandmary who had some rude awakenings when she saw how the other half lived. And Molly was the spunky, adorable, and a little bit nerdy girl growing up during World War II.
There were a lot of valuable life lessons in these books and they were also so educational in terms of history. It seems like a lot of children’s books serve simply to entertain, but these served to help us learn, as well, and they also got me super interested in history—an interest that has endured into my adult life.
I miss the American Girl books. I have a lot of good memories growing up reading these with my American Girl doll perched beside me. Yes, I was a total nerd, and I loved it.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
This one has seen a massive resurgence in popularity lately thanks to the fact that Guillermo del Toro has transformed it into a movie slated for release this summer.
But before del Toro brought it to new heights of fame, this one was a childhood classic. I remember it was always checked out at the library, because let’s face it—kids love scary stories.
I recently repurchased this one for my own collection because this was one of my early introductions to the spoopy in literature and definitely shaped my tastes as I grew up and sought things out on my own. Of course I’ll check out the movie when it comes out, but there will never be any replacement for this classic book of short stories and its sequels.
Goosebumps by R.L. Stine
And speaking of spoopy.
Goosebumps is another one that has seen a rebirth in popularity thanks to a movie adaptation starring Jack Black (which I think even got a sequel). But every kid my age absolutely loved Goosebumps, and it was another series kids clamored over on library day. Getting a new Goosebumps book from the Scholastic Book Fair was the high point of elementary school happiness, and some of the stories were seriously weird.
These were definitely a whole series of favorites when I was a kid and I fully plan to repurchase some for my book collection as an adult! And don’t even get me started on how fun the Choose Your Own Adventure versions of the Goosebumps books were.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
And finally, we’re going to round out the list of childhood favorites with the series that has remained a favorite for many of us long into adulthood.
Now, be warned, I’m about to go on a total hipster/sounding like an old person tirade here. I’m from the generation that grew up with Harry Potter, which is not to say that I grew up loving Harry Potter, because that can be said for most generations now. But when I was a kid, we grew up literally with it, which is to say we read one book and then had to wait for the next one to come out. Which was torture. I, and a lot of other people my age, started reading Harry Potter when we were about the age Harry was in the first book, so we literally all kind of grew up together, and this had a major impact on me as a child.
I still remember getting my first Harry Potter book, and here’s where the hipster in me comes in. I started reading Harry Potter before it was cool, and before it was a huge thing, and then all of a sudden it hit big. I remember my mom picking up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in a bookstore long before the Harry Potter craze and saying, “look, this is about magic, you might like it”. And when I looked at the blurb—which didn’t do it justice at all—I wasn’t even sure. But my mom encouraged me to try it out and see how I liked it, and as it turned out I. Fell. In. Love. Immediately, I was totally obsessed with the Wizarding World. And then suddenly, everyone else was, too.
Aaaand about two decades later, not much has changed. With a series of books and spin offs, movie adaptations, spin off movies, companion books, endless streams of merchandise, and even an entire freaking theme park, it’s a very Harry world that we live in now.
Who would have known the boy wizard would have gotten this big?
What about everyone else? What were your childhood favorites? Did we share faves? Are you a Harry Potter fan well into adulthood? Let me know in the comments! As always, I’d love to hear from you. <3
Don’t forget: This Top Ten Tuesday topic comes to you courtesy of That Artsy Reader Girl whose entire blog you can check out here. And feel free to join in on future TTT topics! I love reading people’s lists.