Favorite Childhood Reads

In honor of Children’s Book Week, I thought I’d list a few of my favorite childhood books:

Written by Janette Sebring Lowrey and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, The Poky Little Puppy was probably my all-time childhood favorite. I don’t know that I cared about the story much, but I loved the illustrations.

I don’t have a copy of Gus Was a Friendly Ghost (written by Jane Thayer and illustrated by Seymour Fleishman, but I remember liking it enough that I wrote my name in it (probably without permission; I considered all pink and purple books my property because those were my favorite colors, so logical…) I also remember the rat having a lot of personality, maybe being a bit rude at times?Gus & the Baby Ghost, also written by Jane Thayer and illustrated by Seymour Fleishman, is another book that I’m pretty sure I wrote my name in. This is another book that I haven’t seen since I was six years old (we moved and I think the book got left behind). I loved the idea of there being baby ghosts, and I was fascinated by the idea of learning how to take care of babies from a book. I think this book inspired my later obsession at age 6 or 7 with a vintage copy of Dr. Spock’s baby book that I found on our home bookshelf.  

I also remember loving a book about a kitten chasing its tail and sleeping in the sun, but I have no idea what the book was called.

Favorite stories from collections of stories whose titles are also forgotten include a story about the buds a Pussy willow branch coming to life as a bunch of tiny gray kittens and another story about dolls coming to life once their owners fell asleep. Anyone know the title of either story?

And yes, I was a girly girl (really the only one from six girls in my family) if this post hasn’t already told you that…

What favorite books do you remember from your childhood?