A Brief Trip Down Memory Lane

When I was around 10, there were three books that I especially loved.  Although I never owned them for myself (owning books was such an extravagance back then), I checked them out again and again from my library, and read each multiple times:

1 - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

2 - From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

3 - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I adored these books!  (Just seeing those familiar book jackets again gives me a warm, happy feeling deep in my soul.) 

I've been thinking about my childhood favorites again, now that the new Wrinkle in Time movie is due for release in a couple of weeks (click here for the trailer).  The movie looks pretty cool -- and I know the effects will be more than anything I could have imagined when I was reading the book as a 10-year-old.  But, still.  I'm not quite sure I want to see it.

What do you think?  
And what were your favorite childhood books?

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To read more Three on Thursday posts, head on over to Carole's!

 

Comments

[AsKatKnits]

These are indeed excellent choices and I am with you about being in the undecided category about seeing a Wrinkle in Time for those same reasons. I am afraid it will burst a childhood bubble and that will be a sad thing.

My go to, read over and over and over were the Little House books. Oh, and Charlotte's Web!

[Bonny]

I was hoping maybe you would see the movie and I could decide based on your thoughts! :-) My childhood favorites were much the same as yours, along with the Little House series and Charlotte's Web, except I don't think I ever read Phantom Tollbooth. I may have to remedy that!

[Maggie]

Childhood books can give such warm feelings! My favorite ones are all Dutch, so it's probably no use to list them. Oh, and The Parent Trap by Erich Kästner. Loved that one too (way before they made a movie of it).

[Bridget]

I never read kid's books as a kid. By the time I arrived, my parents had gotten rid of the kiddo books, except for Little Golden Books that were still in good shape. As a result, I didn't read a lot of "classic" children's literature until I was an adult.

But three books I read as a kid that I LOVED were Little Women (which is kinda sorta a kid's book?), To Kill a Mockingbird, and Tale of Two Cities.

Go figure.

[maggie]

first two were among my favorites, along with anything written by Judy Blume..... I never read the Phantom Toll Booth, but just asked for it for my birthday! :)

[Vicki]

Reading "Little House in The Big Woods" led straight into the devouring of the entire series and then a lifelong quest for stories, tales, diaries, journals, etc., about pioneer life -- particularly as seen, told, experienced by women and children. Also biographies -- there was a series in our school library and I think I read every one, and then the digests about Presidents and First Ladies. Not so much about other historic figures or leaders of other countries, though in high school I was fascinated by "women in Russia," and, of course, there was nothing much to read about that experience; all I learned (remember) is that doctors were more likely to be women than men in the USSR, at a time when it was the opposite here.

[Sue]

Childhood book twins. You've got good taste!

[sharon]

a wrinkle in time was my FAVORITE book, I read a lot of Nancy Drew and then devoured the YA section of my small library, the prequels to Harlequin Romance and so on.... I need to listen to a wrinkle in time, I want to see the movie but need to re-read the story via audible....

[Debbie]

When I was in 4th grade I read Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle for a book report and I read The Secret Garden, I love both of those books so much that I checked them out of the library to read over again. I never read anything else by L'Engle until I read her Crosswick Journals as an adult...I finally read A Wrinkle in Time last year and really enjoyed it. I remember enjoying books like Nancy Drew, Treasure Island, Little Women, and any kind of dog book I could find.

[Jeannie Gray]

Great books! I'd go see the movie, then be mad at if for not being "right." It makes me crazy when the movie doesn't match up to a favorited book.

[Patty]

Lassie Come Home is my favorite book from my youth. I read it again when Dan was in 4th grade and cried just as hard! Little Women and all things Nancy Drew were terrific too. Now I've got to read A Wrinkle in Time!

[Jo]

My favorite was the entire series of Laura Engels (sp?) WIlder. Oh, and The Diary of Anne Frank. The library was definitely one of my favorite places.

[gale (she shoots sheep shots)]

OMG- just add Harriet The Spy to these and you have my absolute favorite books. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to look at the covers, too. I am hesitating over seeing Wrinkle in Time becasue I loved it so much, I am a little afraid to see someone else's visuals put into it.

[margene]

I remember Nancy Drew, Stewart Little, Charlotte's Web, and Little Women. Debbie reminded me of Secret Garden, but I don't remember the age I read most of them. I read, read, read as a child and loved haunting the school library for new books. I remember some historical novels and romances (in school libraries!) that were for a little older audience. ;) I've not read any of the books on your list (maybe I'm too old).

[Vera]

Oh how I loved A Wrinkle in Time. Not sure I want to see the movie. Comments above reminded me of books I have loved (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Secret Garden, the Nancy Drew series). Add to that the Burgess animal stories (Thornton Burgess was the author, and we still have a lot of them - Reddy Fox, Sammy Jay, Old Mother West Wind), The Wind in the Willows and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I think I need to read The Phantom Tollbooth.

[Leslie]

I haven't read your list.
All are now on mine.
I read many books mentioned in the comments.
Summertime - I walked to the library bringing home as many as I could carry then sat on the front porch reading my days away.

[Jane]

I enjoyed the Little House books, All- of-a-Kind-Family, and Little Women. My sister and I loved Little Women because our Gram read it aloud to us. I have that copy - it is falling apart but oh the memories.

I read Madeline L'Engle later in a college course and enjoyed her writing. I saw the trailer for the movie and wondered if it had a few too many special effects for me.

[Carole]

I loved The Phantom Tollbooth, too! And all of the Carolyn Haywood books and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

[Kim]

I had a worn copy of L’Engle’s book in my library picked up at a secondhand store several years back. I just reread A Wrinkle in Time last week in a fit of nostalgia brought on by the movie trailer! I had gotten the paperback purchased originally as a child through the Scholastic book flyer we got every month in elementary (grade) school. It was certainly a quick read this time, and I think it might be best left in my imagination rather than on the big screen. Probably a good movie for young girls with the brave female lead, she still kicks butt after all these years!

[Honore´]

As a former children's librarian, I've definitely read Wrinkle and Mixed Up Files; the third title puzzles me...I'm thinking I'll see the Wrinkle movie...

[kmkat]

A Wrinkle in Time was my all-time favorite book of my youth, too. I re-read it about ten years ago and found it oddly dated -- too much focused on thinly-disguised Communism rather than non-partisan evil, imho. But I could be wrong; the anti-democratic absolutism currently flowing from a certain political party could easily be the evil in the book. I am looking forward to seeing the movie for good or ill; and I picked the book for my book group to read later this year. Time will tell!

[Mary]

I loved Harriet the Spy and all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books ... and I'm putting The Phantom Tollbooth on hold - can't believe I've never read it!