Hey bookworm friends, I hope you had a good weekend! Today’s post is inspired by two of my blog friends. Charlotte from Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads recently posted a literacy list of the books she read as a kid, and Stephen from Reading Freely has been posting 90’s Blast From The Past reviews. All those nostalgic posts got me thinking about my favourite books/series when I was a kid so here are 10 Books From My Childhood.
I was born in Colombia, moved to Canada as a young child, and always went to school in French. Therefore, most of my beloved early childhood books were in French and Spanish, at least until I learned English. I have some gaps in my classic children’s books experiences, in some cases I had the translated editions and in other cases, I had entirely different books. I am incredibly grateful for the variety of books I had access to from a young age.
The Ernie & Bert Book
Language: English
Author: Norman Stiles, Illustrated by Joe Mathieu
This book is my first memory of a book. I didn’t even speak English yet but I followed the pictures and my parents would translate it for me. The story is a scenario where Ernie keeps putting items in unexpected places and Bert gets progressively angrier. Tiny me thought it was hilarious every time.
Ivar Da Coll
Language: Spanish
The list has only just begun and I’m already cheating because Ivar Da Coll is an author but his books were so formative for me that he deserves a full spot on the list. Da Coll is a well-known Colombian children’s author so we had a bunch of his books.
His popular Chigüiro series is wordless; the illustrations of a cute baby capybara depict his adventures. It was also turned into a TV show for kids. My favourite of his stories was Medias Dulces (literally translates to sweet socks). This short chapter book adapts the story of the Befana, a witch-like woman from Italian Folklore who delivers gifts to children.
Les Monsieur Madame
Language: French
Author: Roger Hargreaves
These are Classic. Iconic. Need I say more?
Madame Petite was one of my favs because she could fit in a pocket and how cute is that?!
Tom-Tom et Nana
Language: French
Author: Jacqueline Cohen
This cartoon series is about a family who owns and lives in a restaurant and it has a large-ish cast of friends and regular customers. The kids are always creating all sorts of disasters while their parents are trying to work. There’s like 30+ books in the series but I did not have them all. I think in parts it didn’t age well but they are chaotic and I used to love these when I was about 8.
L’énorme Crocodile
Language: French
Author: Roald Dahl
This was my favourite Dahl book and it’s about an evil crocodile who just loves to eat children. The other animals in the jungle come together to stop him from snacking on all the kids and I always loved the scene where the crocodile gets his comeuppance; it was so satisfying lol 🤣
Winnie-The-Pooh
Language: English
Author: A.A. Milne, Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
Ever since I can remember, I have always love Winnie-The-Pooh. Pooh and Tigger were some of my first stuffed animals and I loved The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh TV show. The illustrations by Shepard are to die for and I even studied the book in my undergrad for a children’s lit course 🍯
Frog and Toad
Language: English
Author: Arnold Lobel
I used to read these with my brother and in terms of wholesomeness they are #1 on this entire list (even potentially rivalling Pooh)! Maybe this is where my love of anthropomorphic animals comes from…🤔
Howl’s Moving Castle
Language: English
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Okay, now we’ve moved on to Middle-grade books instead of chapter books or picture books! I remember where I was when I read this; I was camping with my family! I don’t remember anything else about camping other than being completely enchanted by this book!
The Edge Chronicles
Language: English
Author: Paul Stewart, Illustrated by Chris Riddell
The Edge Chronicles is one of my all-time favourite series except that I love it so much that I’m scared to finish it so I have not read the last few books. I have been telling myself I’ll finish them for a while. It’s made up of 13 books but each trilogy within it is set in a different era and follows a MC from a different generation of the same family. You can read it in chronological order or publication order but I prefer chronological. The world-building is so rich and ever since I discovered this series I’ve been obsessed with Riddell’s illustrations!
Pendragon
Language: English
Author: D. J. MacHale
I was 12 when The Merchant of Death came out (the 1st book). I remember clearly my aunt gave it to my brother as a gift and we both read it and promptly fell in love! There are 10 books in the series and the last one came out in 2009 so I effectively grew up along with Bobby.
Bobby Pendragon is just a normal kid living his life with his best friends, Mark and Courtney. His only worries are winning the basketball game and getting his first kiss. When his uncle shows up one day, whisks him away to an alternate dimension called Denduron, and asks him to help save it from a Tyrant, Bobby’s life is thrown into chaos! In every book, Bobby has to visit, and save, a different territory and oh there are many!! The world-building is excellent as each plane has its own distinct feel, culture, and technology and yet is just a piece of a bigger whole that we unveil little by little.
In my opinion, this series still stands up today and I will always recommend it🥰
I hope you enjoyed perusing through these 10 Books From My Childhood!
Let’s chat in the comments!
Did you read any of these books as a child? Or what are some of your favourite books from your childhood?
Firstly thank you for linking to my post. This was such a fun read and I love that you included what language each of the books was in too. You already know that I read the Mr Men books too so the only other one that I’ve also read is Winnie The Pooh. My memories of the actual book are so hazy though. I’ll have to read it again one day out of curiosity. Although I love how massively it’s been adapted in so many formats. I really enjoyed the semi recent Christopher Robin film. And stumbled across Goodbye Christopher Robin one day and found myself engrossed by that too, although it was a very different tale than I’d have expected.
I’ve seen Sesame Street but either didn’t know there were any books or completely forgot them. It sounds like a great book for getting readers into books though.
I’ve somehow never really read any Roald Dahl 🙈 I read some Tales Of The Unexpected for school and tried to read Georges Marvellous Medicine but the copy I picked up was misprinted and had only some of the chapters in the wrong order 🤔 I’ve loved many of the adaptations and do want to try some of the books out one day. The crocodile story sounds interesting. I knew there was one but not what it was about 😂
I kind of want to read Howls Moving Castle one day given its popularity. The Edge sounds like an interesting concept too and I hope you get to finish it one day. I’m sure something that Chris Riddell illustrated featured one World Book Day when I was at school but I can’t remember what it was. And now it’s going to bug me 🙈
I loved this post and it was wonderful hearing about your childhood reads. Even though we don’t have many in common there’s something so nostalgic feeling about the post.
My absolute pleasure 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration! I’m glad you enjoyed my post, it was a bit tough picking favourites, I had to skip so many lol. I tried to balance between ones I thought needed to be highlighted and ones that are more popular lol.
Yes The Mr. Men are ones we had in common! & Yeah I wouldn’t mind re-reading the Pooh books myself as well, and I agree just in TV shows alone there are so many!! & I loved the Christopher Robin movie with Ewan McGregor too but I have not seen the Goodbye Christopher Robin one, I really would like to though!
I don’t even know if I watched Sesame Street tv show or not…I just know I received that Ernie & Bert book as a gift when I was a baby lol and I am so glad I still have it.
Oh that is so weird…too bad it was in a wonky order not a great reading experience at all 😖 I need to read more of his books I didn’t read them all. Haha glad you now know what the crocodile one is about. I’m glad I didn’t give any spoilers then! 😛
OH my gosh Howl’s Moving Castle, The Edge Chronicles, and Pendragon I recommend those three with my whole being hahaa. I have all the books for the The Edge…I’m just a wimp but I have been planning to finish them since last year. We finally get to find out what’s at the bottom of ‘The Edge’ (There is a waterfall that falls into emptiness and in the final trilogy there are Descenders that go down to see whats there 😵) Haha oh well Riddell has illustrated SO many things I can’t even help you guess. But hopefully you’ll remember sometime, who knows 😉
Thanks so much, Charlotte 🥰
It’s OK, I’m glad my post made you want to make one too 🥰 and I think you balanced it really well. You could always share others in another post one day too if you wanted to.
There are a few classic ones like that I want to read one day. So true, there are so many. And I’m glad you enjoyed the movie too. Just to warn you that ones quite sad but a very compelling watch.
Ah right. Well it sounds like such a sweet story and it’s lovely that you kept it.
Yeah it’s so random. I must be particularly stubborn to have read it anyway 😂 I hope you get to one day then. And yeah no spoilers, just enough to intrigue me 😂
I’ll have to check them all out sometime. And the reveal sounds intriguing although I also get your wariness as it will be so frustrating if it let’s you down. I hope what the waterfall leads to surprises you in the best possible way. I feel like it was to do with Mortal Engines but I’m not convinced. I’ll have to look into whether there was a world book day short linked to those.
🥰🥰
Thanks 🥰 That’s true, I don’t know if I will but I could in the future.
Oh good to know, thanks for the warning. I do prefer to know what the tone is going in so I’m not shocked by the sadness lol.
Ahaha stubborn, maybe but also kind of impressive that you kept going anyways! 😂 You’re like ‘Nothing’s gonna stop me from reading!’ hehe
Yess 🙂 & I’m pretty sure they won’t let me down because they have all been great so far so I have no reason to really believe that, it’s more than just that it’ll be the end and that alone is sad, I know it’s kind of silly. Anyways Mortal Engines! I read that series, and that was a quite fun one! I also enjoyed the movie even though I don’t think it did well 😂
That makes sense. Especially if you could go into it expecting warm nostalgia otherwise 😂
Well I was on holiday and think I either only had that book or I’d already read whatever else I took 😂😂
Ah that makes sense too. Sometimes when you love a series you really don’t want to reach its end. I never read the books but I really enjoyed the movie so I’d like to check them out eventually. I don’t think the film did great either though as it never got a sequel. Oddly even my dad liked it from what I remember 🤔 and I’m sure he doesn’t usually like the same fantasy films as me 😂
Oh haha my gosh imagine? I’d be so surprised otherwise! lol
That makes sense, holiday reading can be quite limited, lol.
lol yeah I’m really bad at that. like holding on to things I feel I’m gonna love for “later”. Something I am actually working on lol. Yeah that was a fun movie and the books were fun but not amazing. haha it figures the one film you and your dad agrees on didn’t get a sequel, what a bummer! lol 😂
Yeah I could kind of imagine that tone difference bringing you down.
I had a similar problem but for different reasons. I’d put off my most anticipated but because I was scared of being let down 🙈 I’ve gotten much better at actually reading them over the last few years though. Ah right, I probably won’t prioritise them then but do want to check them out eventually. And so true 😂
Hahah yes that’s totally understandable! ♥ & it’s good you’ve gotten better at reading them 🙂 haha yeah fair enough they are enjoyable and since we aren’t getting more movies it’s the only way to know what happens. 😛
That’s a very good point 😂 maybe I’ll rewatch the movie one day & it’ll make me excited to find out what happens next.
and now I feel like rewatching the movie too lol
Lol let me know if you do.
Thanks for the shot-out! Sounds like you had a unique upbringing, and I enjoyed learning about the series that weren’t really around in America. As much Doahl as I read, I hadn’t run into the alligator book!
…out of curiosity, what does Pooh say for “Oh, bother!”?
My pleasure 😄 I guess it was my way of doing a Blast from the Past post…not only from the 90’s but also early 2000’s. I’m glad you enjoyed seeing some of my fav children’s books and I didn’t realize the crocodile book was a Dahl book until YEARS later when I learned who he was. To me it was always just the crocodile book 😂
Ahaha good question, I don’t think any of my Pooh books were in Spanish…they were in English and by the time I could read the Milne book I was already speaking English. I only lived in Colombia for 7 short years. I’ve been trying to Google it because now I’m curious too and I’m not finding anything 🙁
I loved Howl’s Moving Castle! I read it as an adult, though. 🙂 I hated reading when I was a kid, so I don’t have many childhood favorite books.
Haha fair enough 🙂 I am glad you found the joy of reading as an adult and loved Howl’s Moving Castle too, it is so charming!! ♥
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