which ones stands out the most in your memory (good or bad or both). Mine is The Dog That Cried Wolf the reason: It dealt with fear, being yourself and at the same time and introduced the concept of metamorphosis (looks). As a child I did not link the three together hence why I had remembered to be slightly uncomfortable.
I didn't read many Children's books to be honest. My childhood was spend reading Stephen King and William Wordsworth.
There was those Goosebumps novels too that I remember reading. I loved them at the time, but a) I was young, and b) It was the 1990s! This was the same decade when Green Day were cool.
I loved the Goosebumps series when I was younger, still have about 15-20 of them in the attic somewhere! I also used to love the Fighting Fantasy series, haha. The books where you have a character sheet and a die, and you'd play your way through the book. Memories...
I didn't like those 'choose your own adventure' ones personally. I don't know why. But Goosebumps. Wow, that was where it was at! My favorite one was about that town that was taken over by Vampires. Weirdly, the book I read just after that was Salem's Lot.
It was too long ago, I don't remember any of the Goosebump books I read. For some reason I just got a flashback of the Demon Headmaster, I read that whole series a few times. Heh yeah the "choose your own adventure" weren't for everybody. They were cheesy as hell but I enjoyed them, with Deathtrap dungeon being my all time fave. I remember there being a funky one in space and also one where you were a superhero, but I loved my sword and sorcery tales growing up. Me and a friend from primary school (yes, it was THAT long ago) started writing one but had creative disagreements! lol. I remember picking them up at car boot sales for 20-50p a pop, bargain!
^I never got into Goosebumps. The books that immediately come to mind are the Josie Smith series by Magdalen Nabb and The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson. Enid Blyton books, primarily The Secret Seven and Malory Towers series. That must've been when I was at primary school, but I can't really remember much else of what I read then.
Roald Dahl was my god, I read and re-read his books and poems a ridiculous number of times. As for a book that stood out for bad reasons, I loathed The Velveteen Rabbit- having to burn your beloved toys when you're ill seemed to me to be the Worst Thing Ever, it made me cry so much!
I grew up on Harry Potter, from eight to eighteen, those books have been re-read so many times, and when the last film came out at the pictures it felt like my childhood was officially over. The other series of children's books I particularly enjoyed, and still read now, is a series called Stravaganza, by Mary Hoffman. When I was young young, I remember books like Where The Wild Things Are, The Tiger That Came To Tea, and a book I had called Stories For Five Year Olds. I also loved my Goosebumps, especially the chose your own ending ones as mentioned above, The Princess Diaries, and anything written by Jacqueline Wilson.
That is tragic but here is an idea why don't you rewrite the The Velveteen Rabbit- your own way and make it better. Reinventing the wheel when things did not quite go right first time in a story is my writing dream. I call it perfecting a story, giving it a double meaning or a new twist where by for example the beloved toys did not burn at all but instead got given a special place in your room or came to life to comfort the illeness and make it go away.
I grew up with Harry Potter and loved the Redwall series, but aside form the ladybird books or the learning to read ones I don't really remember reading any childrens books.
Spot the dog was always my favourite, then stephan king.. since then, stephan king has crept away from me...but spot will always ALWAYS ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! be number 1!
I liked both Goosebumps and Choose Your Own Adventure books, so I really liked the Goosebumps Choose Your Scare books, which is essentially a hybrid. My favorite books were Animorphs. Even though it was full of errors that even my elementary school-aged self could sense, it was a killer concept with fairly strong characters. Going younger, I liked Go Dog Go, not just because it was a cool book with tree parties and dogs that could drive tiny cars, but also because it was my dad's favorite book when he was young. We would read it together and it was awesome.
Because Children's books largely bored me, and Stephen King was something that felt more serious, adult and interesting, so I used to steal those books from my sister and read them with a touch after I had gone to bed. Sure, I didn't understand everything that was going on, but it was scary and I liked it. Wordsworth, however, and Robert Burns, is just something I grew up with.
Why am I suddenly feeling very old? We had a series of classic fairy tales that I must have read hundreds of times, favorite of all being "The Bremen Town Musicians". Then Mark Twain and Charles Dickens (although I admit I preferred Mark Twain). I did enjoy Goosebumps vicariously through my son...
I tried Stephen King then I gave up very quickly. Most children like to feel safe especially at night so why did you want to be scared? I am asking because I as a kid did not like anything remotely uspestting or scary.
I think it depends on your personality. I started reading what would be considered 'adult' books from a fairly young age (although alongside children's books), because I wanted something more challenging to read. I read one of King's novels, and many of the horrors and spy thriller novels my dad would bring back from the library with him (although one or two I wasn't allowed to read as he'd deemed them unsuitable, I assume because of sexual content). I think it depends wholly on the individual. Now I'm a bit older, I've rediscovered my love of children's books, and have been finding lots of action fantasy books which are aimed at perhaps early teens/teens, and I love reading them.
I've always found safety a bit dull. I don't know why, but I'm somewhat inclined toward mystery and horror; also because King was easily available, and like I said, it was adult, and more mature.
I always liked to read scary stories. My grandmother would tell me ghost stories as a kid, and I loved those even though they scared me quite a bit.
I think mainly because Twain was American, so the various things he referred to in his stories were more familiar to me. For example, living not that far from the Mississippi, I could 'see' his descriptions more vividly in my head than Dicken's descriptions of London or English villages. And, of course, the language differences - although Twain's use of dialect could be confusing, it was still more familiar than "Briticisms".
Adult is often quite boring and I know because I am one. Children often see adults as strict controlling and boring and so are their books because it is mainly all about them. IT is bad enough the world revolves around adult and children are told what to do all the time. Even their story books are written by adults for children. I have yet to come across a book written by a child for a child that is what I call quality over maturity. I find children quite forgotten compared to what adults actually do and have. I am truly puzzled as to why you thought adult world was more interesting.
