Top 10: Childhood Books

The first book I ever truly loved was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I must have read it hundreds of times, and according to my parents, giggled the whole way through. It was the first of many books, though many of them are simply too long for a hundred sittings. I didn't begin reading adult novels until I was in 8th grade or so, but I read a whole lot more before I had adult responsibilities. A lot of those little books still bring back great memories, and it was difficult to narrow my favorites to fit a contrived list. But--hold on to your seat--I managed.

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Richard Scarry

The only book on the list that's really more about the pictures. Near everytime I went to the school library up through second grade, I grabbed this one and grabbed myself a chair. A few kids would gather round and we would all see who could find the yellow chick on each page the fastest (a feat much more rewarding, than say, finding Waldo). If I recall, on one page there is a hovercraft, which to my young mind was the coolest thing ever.

Richard Scarry sold more children's books than any man in history. Yes, even more than Dr. Seuss. Here's a thorough and engaging (if a bit partial) mini-biography of the man.

The Angel Park All-Stars

Dean Hughes

This is simply the best series of baseball books ever written by a Mormon. Seriously! There were fourteen in this series (about seven hours worth of reading) that followed a youth baseball team in a small league in the fictional Angel Park, California. While they're not deep enough to appeal to adults (or perhaps young adults, even), it would be hard not to get a young baseball fan hooked like I was. The best characters were Jenny Roper, one of the team's better hitters starting to go boy crazy, and the spunky Japanese kid they nicknamed "Line Drive" because the kids couldn't pronounce his real name! My favorite part? Each book had two to four games of the regular season, and after each game, Hughes actually lists a boxscore. Even better, at the end of each book he lists the team leaders in batting average and other statistics. Why don't more authors do this?

The Kid Who Only Hit Homers

Matt Christopher

I read every single Matt Christopher book through about 1992, as he created dozens of mature, humorous, and exciting books about youth sports. To be honest, there were probably better books than this one, but this one was easily the most memorable. Christopher somehow makes a season with no variety (we pretty much know the result of every pitch to this kid, natch) compelling; in fact, the poor bastard begins eliciting pity from the reader near the end of his dream season. The sequel, "Return Of The Homerun Kid" pretty much sucked.

The Secret Little Leaguer

Don Creighton

Be careful else you might notice a baseball theme going on here. I think one of my grandparents gave me this when I was about ten years old. I still have it, and it's in much better condition than the copy shown. Basically, this kid who's denied the privilege from playing sports by his parents secretly joins the local youth league as a means to feel a sense of belonging, and possibly gain the respect of the town bully. One of the few books I have read twice within the same month, though I'm not sure what that really infers.

Sideways Stories From Wayside School

Louis Sachar

The school was originally intended to be built with thirty classrooms, all on one story. Instead, the builders screwed up and built the school thirty stories tall! Keeping with the theme, every adult that works for Wayside School is equally clueless. The kids seem to be the only ones who think that their school is weird, and similar bizarre stories are scattered throughout multiple chapters. Hell, in the first chapter, they kids discover that their teacher is actually a witch, and they kill her! From the kid who believes he'll be more attractive the tighter he pulls his tie, to the insightfully bemused janitor who guards all the kickballs, and to the 19th floor that doesn't (or does it?) exist, it is hard not to read the book with a constant grin. In fact, I read it again in my adult years, and enjoyed it almost as much as I had in grade school.

The sequel, Wayside School Is Falling Down, may be even better. And while writing this, I discovered there's a third book in the series Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger. I must get this!

Encyclopedia Brown

Two-Minute Mysteries

Donald J. Sobol

Encyclopedia Brown is a ten-year old boy detective who solves the town's simple mysteries. The stories are spread out over a ten to twenty pages. Dr. Haledjian solves two-minute mysteries, all a page or two long. While there's nothing to distinguish any story from another, the catch is that when the sleuth has their "A-Ha!" moment at the end, the reader is asked if they have also discovered the truth behind the mystery and/or crime. The answer is printed upside-down at the bottom of the page (or, sometimes, in the back of the book), and the reader is usually prompted to comb through bits of dialogue and other small details to try and uncover the case. Since each story is short, they can quickly become addicting.

The White Mountains

John Christopher

The Tripods Trilogy, and later the prequel When The Tripods Came, tell a fascinating tale about a post-apocalyptic Earth where the alien tripods (obviously inspired by War Of The Worlds) have enslaved the human race by "capping" them, rendering rebellious thought impossible (and sometimes leading to severe mental illness), and making servitude to them desirable. However, the capping can only commence when humans turn fourteen due to the immature human brain, which leads a group of rebels to recruit young adolescents to fight the resistance. Taking place in France and the Alps region, we see the resistance's efforts through the eyes of one thirteen-year old boy. With great mixtures of adventure, tension, and insights into human character, it's hard not to read all four books in rapid succession. This series and Animal Farm may be the only books I was required to read in school where the lecture and assignments didn't ruin my enjoyment of an otherwise solid novel (e.g. The Secret Garden and A Wrinkle In Time).

Gary Carter's Iron Mask

GRAND SLAM

Robert Montgomery

Ahh, back to baseball once more. I ordered this book through "The Weekly Reader" without realizing it was the second book in a series. Needless to say, reading the first in the series was not a requirement. Since then I have read all six stories of Robbie Belmont, high-school catcher, though this one remains my favorite. The series sees Robbie from his high-school days all the way to Major Leagues, many of his exploits obviously mirroring many stories from Hall-Of-Famer Gary Carter's life as a catcher. As an adult, the plot is a little too predictable at times, but the characters remain engaging and you can't help but root for Belmont and his teammates. This book got read at least four times, possibly more, during my childhood. In fact, I still remember the first line and last line of Grand Slam, despite not having read it for several years.

Hatchet

Gary Paulsen

Brian Robeson is on a small plane to visit his father in Canada when the pilot has a convenient heart attack and plunges Brian into the wilderness with almost nothing except his trusty hatchet. For fifty-four days, Brian learns how to survive in the harsh environment and become a better man for it. For a children's book, the writing is very mature, not to mention entirely factual (the ideas, not the story itself). After reading this one twice, I was convinced that the hatchet was the most important thing a human being could ever own. A Newberry runner-up, Hatchet is one of several excellent books by Minnesota/Alaska native Paulsen, who is racing in the Iditarod as I write this at the age of sixty-seven. This book was so popular is spawned four sequels. I read the fourth in the series, The River, where Brian is asked by the United States military to recreate the circumstances from the first novel in order to teach his brilliant survival skills to the armed forces(!). Not only was this laughable, I was not impressed with the story itself, and probably won't read the rest of series.

Where The Red Fern Grows

Wilson Rawls

Considering I've never really liked dogs or hunting, I was amazed at how Rawls drew me into this emotionally charged novel about a boy who risks life, limb, and reputation to not only buy his own hunting dogs, but to train them and compete with them by hunting coons. It has been adapted to film twice and holds wild appeal across both genders and all ages. My current copy belonged to my grandmother, who considered it one of her favorite books. Never cheap or manipulative, Where The Red Fern Grows is a story I've read three times, and the only one that opens the tear ducts every time. If you haven't yet read this one, put it near the top of your list. If you don't like it...well...then you're a cold bastard. That's all there is to it.

Honorable Mentions
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Mouse & The Motorcycle, Beverly Clearly
Cam Jansen Mysteries, David A. Adler
The Five Chinese Brothers, Claire Huchet Bishop
Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli