Since we didn't have a lot of money to spare, my book collection as a child consisted of library books, hand-me downs from my parents and books that I'd carefully select from the limit my mother would give me on books sold through school. I would read the descriptions, look at the book covers and agonize over my selection. For the life of me, I can't remember which company sold these books. All I remember is flipping through a pamphlet of book descriptions and circling my choices. The best day of all was when the order arrived at school.
I find comfort in visiting former favorites. My sister told me not long ago that we're probably the only people alive who still think about books we read as children. I hope not.
Sometimes, I'll drive myself half crazy trying to find a book I read oh so long ago. I can remember the barest details of the plots and have to go from there. It's my own little mystery game. Usually, my mother supplies the title and solves the mystery. She did become a librarian after she retired.
I sent my mother a text recently about a book I remembered involving a childhood in a castle, staircases that led to nowhere and a myriad of rooms. She quickly supplied the title. Really, she's available for all of your book hunting needs. She's a marvel.
Here are a few of the ones I remember:
The Everything Book by Eleanor Graham Vance
This is a treasury of things for children to make. I pored over this book as a child, looking at illustrations of paper plate puppets, stilts and decorated Easter eggs. I don't think I made a single thing, but I had big dreams of somehow turning eggs into intricately painted Easter scenes.
Horse & Pony Stories edited by Jane Carruth
In fairness, this is on the list simply because my sister bought it for me when we were kids. She got very upset when she blurted out early that my birthday gift was a book. Then she consoled herself by telling me: "But you don't know it's about horses." This book has a permanent place on my nightstand and in my heart.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
This has it all: A poor cousin living in a garret, an opulent manor house, an evil governess, an orphanage, secret passageways, train travel and wolves. Naturally, all is well in the end. I read this over and over and over again.
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
For me, the best thing about "The Borrowers" were the illustrations. I loved the illustrations showing what the tiny people who lived in the walls were able to "borrow" and fashion into furniture. And I loved that there were tiny people who lived in the walls. Plus, how can you go wrong with characters named Pod, Homily and Arrietty Clock?
The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West (multiple books)
This collection is a generational addiction. My grandmother bought these books for my mother and read them herself "to make sure they were OK to read." Ha! She just wanted to read them. I'm going to admit that rereading "The Happy Hollisters" as an adult has been something of a letdown. They're really not that well written, but I loved them as a kid. The Hollisters were a family of five children who traveled everywhere and solved mysteries. For me, these books were a glimpse at other parts of the U.S. in the days before the Internet could take you aboard a clipper ship or into the Grand Canyon.
The Snow Ghosts by Beryl Netherclift
I'd spoil it if I said more than that it involves the English countryside and a magical snowglobe. This is a time slip book. After reading it, I thought everyone in England had a walled kitchen garden and ate chess pie. I was so disappointed when I learned that chess pie is just custard.
A Question of Time by Dina Anastasio
Syd is a young girl who moves to a new town and makes a new friend who happens to look just like a doll she finds in a shop. Then she realizes the new friend lived in the town more than 50 years ago and doesn't seem to have aged. It's spooky fun.
A Childhood in Scotland by Christian Miller
I found this on the shelves of the Bossier Parish Library and checked it out again and again. This is an autobiography that immerses you in a Scottish castle and the neglected childhood of Christian Miller. It's a gilded - if slightly tarnished - life.
So what were your favorites?
I have vague memories of a Nancy Drew-like book about youthful detectives who solved mysteries with the help of their science lab over the garage. Excuse me while I text my mother.
