Top 5 Tuesday: Books from Childhood

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly series created by Bionic Book Worm and is now hosted by Meeghan Reads. This week’s topic: Top 5 Books from Your Childhood.

I am fortunate in that I found my love for books very early in life. In fact, I fell in love with them as soon as I learned how to read. I’ve also always been the type to reread favorites over and over again, never getting bored or falling out of love. There are SO MANY books I could list on here but I picked the following because they are the ones I reread the most as a child which means they wormed their way solidly into a special place in my heart. This was such a fun topic to write about and I have fallen into full nostalgia on a Monday morning as I’m writing this. Let’s jump in.

1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

I’ve always loved animals. So much so that I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was growing up. However, after a summer job at an animal hospital when I turned 16, I found out that it was not the career path for me. But my love for animals still remains. Any book that had an animal as a focus was a book I was sure to read. (Does anyone remember the Animal Ark series? They were my life for a while!) My grade school teacher had suggested this book for me and I instantly fell in love. Going on Opal’s and Winn-Dixie’s adventures together was so much fun for me and I loved getting to know all of her new neighbors in her new town. I remember being fascinated about the story she was told regarding the candy that had the taste of sadness and how badly I wished I could taste some too. I’ve never seen the film–I was afraid it would ruin my love for the book–but maybe one day soon I’ll pull my worn copy of this book down from my shelves and read it again with fresh eyes as an adult.

2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I loved Anne so much as a child (I still do!). I even dressed as her for Book Character day in grade school. My mother read the Illustrated Classics version to me as a child and I was fascinated by how much I could relate to her. I loved the binds she would get herself in and the lessons she had to learn. Gilbert Blythe is still one of my favorite male characters to ever exist and I fell in love with the pair’s romance as well. When I finally made my own money as a teen, the very first item I purchased was the box set of the Anne series. I’ve read all 8 books a few times but the first will always be special to me.

3. A Series of Unfortunate Events Series by Lemony Snicket

This was one of the most popular series in my school. I always couldn’t wait until my class’ turn for Library each week to be able to see if the next book I needed to read had been returned or not. It’s such a quirky series with so much mystery that it’s not surprising it captured so many small suburbian hearts at the time. The mystery of who Lemony Snicket was was a hot topic in my school too for some reason. Later, they shared a promotional video with us in Library one day where a man named Daniel Handler spoke about Lemony Snicket. He never gave away his true identity in the video but many of us were able to piece it together. It was so much fun as a child.

4. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’ Dell

This book absolutely fascinated me. I loved reading about how Karana survived alone on her island after a terrible mishap. I loved reading about how she gathered food, how she built her house, how she made her own clothing. I felt her fear when foreigners appeared on her land to hunt. I felt her sadness when the unlikely friend she made from that group had to leave. It’s such an interesting book and based on a true story. If you’ve never read it, you should give it a try.

5. The Winter of Red Snow by Kristiana Gregory

I loved the Dear America series (the Royal Diaries too!) so much as a child and have read a good chunk of them. Kristiana Gregory remains my favorite author from both series so it’s not surprising that my (very difficult) top pick was one of hers. This is probably where I grew my love for epistolary style novels and being able to read the diary of a girl who lived through a pertinent part of history was thrilling for me. As most children, I would become interested in a certain time in history and there was always a Dear America book to match. The American Revolutionary War still remains one of my favorite parts of history (Turn: Washington’s Spies is one of my favorite TV shows) so this book has retained my high opinion of it. I was so excited to learn later that there is a sequel to it and although I didn’t love it as much as the first one, it made my nostalgic childhood heart so happy.

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Thanks for reading! What made it onto your list for your favorite childhood books?

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