Sunday 24 August 2008

This is My Favourite Children's Book

When I was very small, my favourite book was The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. I loved that cat's naughty antics! It was the first book I bought for my son when he was small. * see edit below

When I was a little older I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton.

I read all 21 of the Famous Five books


I adored the Malory Towers series. I didn't realise at the time that it was based on a girls boarding school very near my home in Scotland, and where a number of my friends at the time were destined to go!

But my very very favourite read at that time was, The Naughtiest Girl series. I probably liked it a bit too much actually, as anyone who remembers my 6 random facts will realise ..


With thanks again to Three Buttons for hosting This Is and PottymouthMama for this week's theme.

*(edit: Dr Seuss' forte was his ability to rhyme. The Cat in the Hat was written as a "beginners book" because he thought that learning to read books should be more fun and didn't like the Janet and John type books. Dr S' cleverness with words meant that in this book there are 1626 words in total but a vocabulary of only 223 words, of which 54 occur exactly once and 33 twice. Only one word in the entire book – "another" – has three syllables, while 14 have two and the remaining 221 are monosyllabic. The longest words are "something" and "playthings"! The Cat in The Hat was one of the first children's books which proved that you could make early reading books exciting and interesting but still use simple words and repetitive phrases.)

10 comments:

angharad handmade said...

I read a lot of Enid Blyton as a child too - this brings back lots of memories! I'm looking forward to introducing my children to the Faraway tree books. I also loved the '... of adventure' series, especially 'The island of adventure'.

Indigo Blue said...

Snap I read the naughiest girl series and Mallory Towers. I also read another boarding school series called St Clares. I picked up a copy off my MUm's book I was stuck at home measles. Had no idea what it was about and ended up getting hold of all of the other books. Guess what, I have still got them. Perhaps I should blog them too. Memories.

Twiggy said...

What a great post :)
I loved Enid Blyton too, my favourites were also the Naughtiest Girl in The School and I liked Naughty Amelia Jane, oh and the Magic Faraway Tree I think they might have been a grounding for my later life :)
Twiggy x
PS I also LOVE The Elephant & the Bad Baby, I bought a copy of this for Twiglet when I was pregnant with him and we read it all the time.

Joanne said...

I was a mad reader of Enid Blyton too and was convinced that when I was old enough I'd be whisked away to Mallory Towers to walk colicky horses around all night in the rain (I remember that but not which book it's from). Sadly Mr J has just tested me on my knowledge of the Faraway tree and despite loving them the only thing I can remember about them is Moonface.

Unknown said...

I love your choices.
The Cat in the Hat is a firm favourite in our house too. Along with Green Eggs and Ham.

And you cant beat Enid Blyton for magical childhood storytelling.

Daisie said...

We too love Cat In The Hat but my very favourite has to be green eggs and ham! I do not like them sam-I-am!! When my brother and I were small Dad would put green colour in the scrambled eggs specially for me.
Books are fab! Did you ever read My Naughtie Little Sister?
XXX

Unknown said...

Fab post ! I just love 'The Grinch'. I think me and Boo watched it 10 times last Christmas - we always cry at the bit where he gets a heart
x

Anonymous said...

I was a lover of the famous five - I wanted to do everything with lashings of lemonade. It always sounded like so much fun.

dragonfly said...

Thanks for reminding me of my Enid Blyton years - I loved Mallory Towers too!

My boys loved The Cat in the Hat too...and Green Eggs and Ham...especially the tongue-twisters!

Gone to Earth said...

I loved the Naughtiest girl in the School and the Famous Fives's. I've only really appreciated Dr Seuss books since my own children fell in love with them! Aah! Lovely, lovely memories!