Top Ten Children’s Books | My Childhood Favorites!

Hello readers! This week, I’m linking up with Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) to talk about some of the books I loved as a little kid. The prompt is  TTT throwback, and I think I should get double points since this is a past TTT topic, AND it’s a throwback in a different sense because we’re talking about my childhood faves. Bam.

“Childhood favorites” is a pretty loose description, so I’ll be including books ranging from picture books to upper middle grade, all in approximate order from youngest to oldest.

Please note that there are quite a lot of books that I adored as a child, and in order to both cut down this list to a readable size for you all and also avoid repetition, I’m not going to list books in this post that I already talked about in my post My All-Time Favorite Books. Be sure to check out that post for more great books!

Note: All covers link to the book’s Goodreads page.

Picture Books

Hug was definitely my family’s favorite book. Between my siblings and cousins and I, we had at the very least three stuffed monkeys that were named Bobo after the monkey in Hug. This book is adorable, and if I had to pick a favorite board book, this would be it.

---

I was sooo obsessed with the Fancy Nancy books. I guess I related to Nancy, as I liked fancy things too? Idk, but I read this book like a million times.

---

This story is about a mouse who gets a baby sister and (if I remember correctly) is sort of really mean to her, but it all gets worked out by the end. Perhaps it resonated with me as the oldest with a younger sister?

I also related quite a bit to Henkes’s Owen, a story about a mouse who is very attached to his blankie. Unlike Owen, however, I did not cut up my blankie into hankerchiefs—I still have mine, though it’s barely intact.

---

Honorable mentions: The Colors of Us by Karen Katz; literally anything by Mo Willems

Chapter Books

I’m sure I would find these a little ridiculous if I were to read them again—Lindsay’s review does a pretty good job of summarizing the weird things about this book. I guess that’s probably how it is for most childhood favorites. This is the book that got me into reading though. I absolutely loved reading about the mysteries that these kids solved, and I read the Boxcar Children books all the time.

---

I was also super into the American Girl books as a little kid, and I remember in particular reading Addy’s stories as audiobooks during rest time in kindergarten.

---

This series was so fun! I can still remember poring over all the illustrations and the maps of Ivy’s bedroom, and laughing out loud at all of Ivy and Bean’s escapades. I wanted to be a character in this story so badly!

---

Honorable mentions: The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne; Geronimo Stilton by Geronimo Stilton

Middle Grade

WARRIORS WAS MY LIFE. In second grade, this series (and Harry Potter too, now that I think about it) was my favorite thing on the entire planet. I accidentally read them in the wrong order at first, but I got it all sorted out and I read like a million of these and loved them!!

---

I didn’t actually read George until I was a teenager, but I just had to include it because it’s one of my favorite middle grade novels. This is such a sweet story about a transgender girl who comes up with a plan to show the world who she really is. All kids should read this, regardless of their gender.

---

Starting when I was in second grade and up until maybe fifth or sixth grade, I was part of a parent-child book club with a bunch of other kids from my grade at school. This club was a super fun experience (If you’re a parent, I highly recommend starting one!), and I was exposed to a ton of really great books, including Out of My Mind. It’s about a young girl who has cerebral palsy, and I remember thinking it was an incredible book back in second grade.

---

One Crazy Summer is the first in a series and follows three sisters as they visit their mother in California in the (I think?) 1960’s. From what I can recall, I really enjoyed this series, and I learned a lot from it about civil rights and the Black Panthers.

---

Honorable mentions: 39 Clues by various authors. And while I already talked about Harry Potter and Percy Jackson in my all-time faves post, I have to give them a shoutout here because THESE SERIES WERE MY LIFE.

Okay that’s it for now! Were you a reader as a little kid? Tell me about your childhood faves in the comments! I can’t wait to flail with you if we have any in common!!

♥ Annie