Books You Loved As A Child-Say 10 And Under

[mike carey]

It's Tolstoy.

 

Конечно русские!

Ha, of course!

[mike carey]

Ha, of course!

(And I thought русский , but it's been a while.)

[EastbayMike]

 

Did anyone ever read "Black and Blue Magic" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder? It's about a boy that is given a lotion that gives him wings.

 

 

 

Gman

50 years after reading it I still think of the story and Harry Houdini Marco quite often.

[EastbayMike]

Mr. Pine's Purple House. Taught me to cherish being an individual.

[Kent1972]

The Wind in the Willows. Mr. Badger is the ultimate daddy!

[Guest]

I was the kid that read the encyclopedia for fun. At that age, it was childcraft

[+ poolboy48220]

Along with all the other mystery books (Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown), we read "The Happy Hollisters" series, a family whose kids solved mysteries. We belonged to a subscription service that sent one every month or so (at that age, my sense of time wasn't that accurate). I think we had the whole series of 33 books, and I still have the bookstand that came with the set.

 

I remember one of my sister's friends, at a drunk party, saying "Y'know, all that stuff in Encyclopedia Brown - that would never have stood up in court".

 

There's a book, I can't remember the name, about a kid inventor. His dad worked for a spy organization called Mongoose, their nemesis was some snake-related name, and the kid called his group of friends VACUUM - Volunteer Agents Crusading Unsteadily Under Mongoose. UPDATE: Just googled it, it's "Secret Agents Four", written by Donald J. Sobol, the same guy who wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books.

[+ honcho]

The entire Doctor Doolittle series (there were 12 books. I think my favorite was "Dr. Doolittle in the Moon").

Also "A wrinkle in time" (*well* before it was made into a movie).

[+ g56whiz]

The Wind in the Willows. Mr. Badger is the ultimate daddy!

I’d forgotten about The Wind in the Willows”. I read and reread it many times. A little later I got into historical novels like Johnny Tremain and Arundel and the World Book Encyclopedia. Ended up majoring in History - Medieval. I didn’t get to Dickens till after college.

[+ AntonGraza]

Along with all the other mystery books (Three Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown), we read "The Happy Hollisters" series, a family whose kids solved mysteries. We belonged to a subscription service that sent one every month or so (at that age, my sense of time wasn't that accurate). I think we had the whole series of 33 books, and I still have the bookstand that came with the set.

 

I remember one of my sister's friends, at a drunk party, saying "Y'know, all that stuff in Encyclopedia Brown - that would never have stood up in court".

 

There's a book, I can't remember the name, about a kid inventor. His dad worked for a spy organization called Mongoose, their nemesis was some snake-related name, and the kid called his group of friends VACUUM - Volunteer Agents Crusading Unsteadily Under Mongoose. UPDATE: Just googled it, it's "Secret Agents Four", written by Donald J. Sobol, the same guy who wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books.

Did you read any of the Danny Dunn adventure / science story's written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams? Danny's mom was the housekeeper for Professor Bullfinch who invented things. An early print version of the Back to the Future relationship with Marty and Doc Brown.

[+ poolboy48220]

Did you read any of the Danny Dunn adventure / science story's written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams? Danny's mom was the housekeeper for Professor Bullfinch who invented things. An early print version of the Back to the Future relationship with Marty and Doc Brown.

I did! Wasn't "Danny Dunn and the anti-gravity paint" the first book? We read that aloud in 3rd or 4th grade, a chapter or so after every lunch period.

[Guy Fawkes]

На английском пожалуйста!

 

It's Tolstoy.

Конечно русские!

[samhexum]

Конечно русские!

(And I thought русский , but it's been a while.)

На английском пожалуйста!

 

But have any of you ever been to Russia? I was there after communism fell, but before the USSR actually split up.

[Luv2play]

But have any of you ever been to Russia? I was there after communism fell, but before the USSR actually split up.

Those must have been interesting days.

[samhexum]

Those must have been interesting days.

 

I don't know if you remember, but after communism fell, there was an attempted military coup when tanks rolled into Red Square. That was the day my friend and I got our visas from the Russian government.

 

We started out in Leningrad, less than a week before it reverted back to St. Petersburg.

 

We had a private car, driver, and guide (cheaply, from a tour company that was trying to get established) and one day on a drive to see a cathedral out of town, we were stopped for speeding. My friend and I thought we were going to wind up in the gulag.

 

The food was so awful (other than McDonald's and Pizza Hut) that one day we stopped in a fancier hotel than the one we were staying at to look for postcards in the gift shop, and suddenly I heard my friend cry out "SAM! They have coke! They have Twix bars!" We feasted that night.

 

And don't get me started on the toilet paper...

Edited December 7, 2020 by samhexum

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

But have any of you ever been to Russia? I was there after communism fell, but before the USSR actually split up.

 

Yes. Several times.

 

I'd go back in a heartbeat. Russia is fascinating.

[+ purplekow]

I was the kid that read the encyclopedia for fun. At that age, it was childcraft

I also read the encyclopedia at night before bed. Strangely, at age 10 I enjoyed reading Advise and Consent. I am sure I missed a lot of subtly but it was a great back of the car reading book. It led me to read other Drury books and then at age 12 or so, Ludlum. I do not recall reading much geared toward the young reader except Dr. Seuss when I was four and 5 and then, once and again when I was a bit older.

[mike carey]

But have any of you ever been to Russia? I was there after communism fell, but before the USSR actually split up.

Yes,, but before the decline of the USSR. I crossed the country on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stopped in Irkutsk and Moscow, then went to Leningrad. A fascinating country at the time. I'd love to go back, but with my government work history I'm not sure I'd feel safe in what can be something of a capricious legal system.

[+ poolboy48220]

I read "Interview with the Vampire" when it first came out - memory's playing tricks on me, the book came out in 1976 (I was 16) but I seem to remember reading it when I was younger than 16, and thinking my parents wouldn't approve of me reading it at that age if they knew about the eroticism in it.

[+ poolboy48220]

Did you read any of the Danny Dunn adventure / science story's written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams? Danny's mom was the housekeeper for Professor Bullfinch who invented things. An early print version of the Back to the Future relationship with Marty and Doc Brown.

There actually was a time travel book in that series; I remember thinking they'd made a mistake when describing some of the events (when one of the characters met his future/past self).

[+ Pensant]

Read all The Hardy Boys, and then read all of my sisters’ Nancy Drew mysteries, plus uncounted books from the library. I was also a rocks and minerals geek, and read a number of books on that topic. I, too, loved the encyclopedia. By ten, I knew the capitals of most states and countries.

[+ Charlie]

But have any of you ever been to Russia? I was there after communism fell, but before the USSR actually split up.

I was there then, too. Our guides spent more time discussing events among themselves than talking to us. I always seem to be in countries while they are breaking up, e.g., Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, (the USA?).

Edited December 7, 2020 by Charlie

[Luv2play]

I don't know if you remember, but after communism fell, there was an attempted military coup when tanks rolled into Red Square. That was the day my friend and I got our visas from the Russian government.

 

We started out in Leningrad, less than a week before it reverted back to St. Petersburg.

 

We had a private car, driver, and guide (cheaply, from a tour company that was trying to get established) and one day on a drive to see a cathedral out of town, we were stopped for speeding. My friend and I thought we were going to wind up in the gulag.

 

The food was so awful (other than McDonald's and Pizza Hut) that one day we stopped in a fancier hotel than the one we were staying at to look for postcards in the gift shop, and suddenly I heard my friend cry out "SAM! They have coke! They have Twix bars!" We feasted that night.

 

And don't get me started on the toilet paper...

I remember that attempted coup. I think Boris Yeltsin was the mayor of Moscow (or Leningrad);and stood atop a tank opposing the coup leaders. His courage led him to the presidency of Russia but we know how that ended.

[mike carey]

I remember that attempted coup. I think Boris Yeltsin was the mayor of Moscow (or Leningrad);and stood atop a tank opposing the coup leaders. His courage led him to the presidency of Russia but we know how that ended.

Yeltsin was president of the Russian SFSR, one of the 15 union republics, at the time and the attempted coup was against Gorbachev who was president of the USSR. I was in the middle of my RAAF Staff College year and this was of obvious interest to a bunch of military officers.