Top Ten Tuesdays "Rewind": Top Ten Childhood Favorites!

"Top Ten Tuesdays" is a weekly countdown meme, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

This week was a "rewind" - picking past Top Ten lists that we may have missed or wanted to do over - and since I'm new to the game, I decided to go with the first ever Top Ten List, "Childhood Favorites." Being that I am, essentially, always going to be a child at heart, and that some of my playtime favorites remain in heavy rotation on my reading list, the challenge wasn't that difficult.

Here -presented in no particular order - are the books that enraptured my young mind, ensnared my childish soul, and convinced a very shy and very curious young girl what sort of magic awaited those who dared peek between the pages of the well-written world:

1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
I've already waxed poetic on the many outstanding qualities of this life-changing book here, but I'll never tire of professing my undying devotion for this summertime staple. Here's to ten more of my years with Tom!

2. The Nancy Drew series, by Carolyn Keene
Nancy's the coolest. Anyone who doesn't think so, never hid under the covers late at night with a flashlight, trying her hardest not to wake the sleeping sister in bed beside her with her startled jumps and heaving breaths of suspense. I even ended up writing my Junior year research paper about my favorite intrepid teenage sleuth!

3. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
The book that will always remind me of my Dad, the same man who first read it to me, back when my brain was nowhere near developed enough to recognize the witty wordplay and smart storytelling. I recently reread it, and reviewed it here after being stuck in the doldrums for a little too long this Fall Quarter. (Bonus: A documentary on the amazing work is currently wrapping development after a successful Kickstarter campaign, so look out for The Phantom Tollbooth Turns 50 - A Documentary!)

4. The Moon Jumpers, by Janice May Udry (and illustrated by Maurice Sendak!)
Yet another book that's always going to remind me of my Dad. Never realized it was illustrated by Maurice Sendak, however. (You learn something new everyday!)

5. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
Um, duh.

6. Miss Spider's Tea Party, by David Kirk
This book is pretty trippy to look at, but the illustrations were always the most beautiful part! Besides, who doesn't love a great tea party?

7. The Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I am nothing if not an avid escapist in my reading, and if there was anything that could ever make a girl want to wear ankle-length prairie dresses and chop firewood, it was this. (All dreams were quickly eliminated with the use of the Oregon Trail video game in middle school, however.) Still, its some amazing work.

8. Sideways Stories from Wayside School, by Louis Sachar
Let's go ahead and blame this book for my love of everything wacky and un-explainable. As well as my suspicion of all things with the number Thirteen, okay?

9. The Percy Jackson series, by Rick Riordan
Okay, this may be stretching the definition of "childhood" favorites, because I was introduced to this series during the sixth grade, when my friends and I traded lunchroom copies like some kind of contraband. They might as well have been: there was not a single Social Studies lesson that went understood when I had one of these copies hidden underneath the table.

10. No Flying in the House, by Betty Brock
This book is the number one reason why I developed such an affinity for old copies: I had somehow gotten my hands on my mom's edition from when she was a kid, originally printed in 1970, complete with her name scrawled in the inside cover, and I don't think I've ever surrendered it since. (Sorry, Mom!)