Omg love Tamora Pierce! Her Song of the Lioness quartet was out of print when I first discovered it in the library around 5th grade. I scoured every used book store I could find until I collected the whole set. Of course then she made it big and they were everywhere!
I didn't discover Tamora Pierce until I was an adult. Â
Saddle Club, The Black Stallion series (I think I had every.single.book by Walter Farley), Jim Kjelgaard's books about dogs, Marguerite Henry's books about various horses (King of the Wind, the Chincoteague pony books, etc.). I was more than a little horse-crazy.Â
I loved Meredith Ann Pierce's Firebringer series, and the Darkangel trilogy. Those books, more than any others I read as a kid, have held up so well over time.Â
All of the Oz books.Â
Ooh I remember Firebringer! That's how I found Tamora Pierce, she was shelved right next to them in the YA section at my library.
The Westing Game The Dollhouse Murders The Ghost in the Third Row Key to the Treasure Janette Oke books All-of-a-Kind Family series Trixie Belden series
I loved most of these listed. Also Cheaper by the Dozen/Belles on Their Toes Eight Cousins/Rose in Bloom Anything by Louisa May Alcott especially her thrillers Sarah Bishop The Hiding Place Jacob's Rescue Number the Stars The Devil's Arithmetic Anything about the Holocaust James Herriot's books about his life as an English country vet Swiss Family Robinson The Witch of Blackbird Pond Stormy Anything else by Jim Kjelgaard Anything by Jack London
Thank you to whomever mentioned Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade. I lived that book but couldn't remember the title.
A few that haven't been mentioned yet: - the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib series - books by Marilyn Sachs - the Cheerleaders series - the Caitlin trilogies - the Thirteen, Fourteen and Holding, and Fifteen at Last books
Thank you to whomever mentioned Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade. I lived that book but couldn't remember the title.
A few that haven't been mentioned yet: - the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib series - books by Marilyn Sachs - the Cheerleaders series - the Caitlin trilogies - the Thirteen, Fourteen and Holding, and Fifteen at Last books
I can't believe I forgot Betsy, Tacy, and Tib. I loved those books!
Post by belovedbride07 on Aug 17, 2013 1:26:26 GMT -5
I read a lot of books that my mom remembered as being childhood favorites.
* the Betsy-Tacy books (I still have the whole set) * "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower" and "Little Plum" by Rumer Godden * the "Shoe" books by Noel Streatfield * Yoshiko Uchida's books
I also loved Eleanor Estes's "The Hundred Dressed." I can't wait to buy it for my niece, and I hope to have a daughter to share it with some day.
Trying for #3; FET 8/18 -- BFN. Leaving things up to chance for now... After three years, three IVFs, and two FETs, we finally have our miracle babIES!
Trying for #3; FET 8/18 -- BFN. Leaving things up to chance for now... After three years, three IVFs, and two FETs, we finally have our miracle babIES!
I don't remember a lot of the books mentioned, which is kind of weird since I was a huge bookworm when I was a kid. I'm going to wager a guess that I read many and just forgot the titles.
My favorites from the library that I recall are the Spotlight Mystery Club series and a book called "A Horse Named Skye". I actually bought a library copy of A Horse Named Skye a few years ago and it's on my bookshelf for a future kid or whoever might enjoy it. I probably checked it out of the library 10 times or more as a kid - it was my favorite.
I was also a big fan of the Saddle Club, but IDK if it's really all that unknown of a series.
I actually sort of have a hankering to re read them.
I was going to mention these, but wasn't sure if they would be considered lesser-known. Regardless, RL Stine was far and away my favorite series as a tween.
I also loved Nothings Fair in Fifth Grade. I read that one well into HS.
I was also a big fan of Christian romance novels. I visited my grandparents every summer and our first stop was the Bible Book Store in town, I loved Janette Oke (they made terrible movies out of the Love Comes Softly series) and the Mandy books. I also loved Hilda Stahl but those weren't well known. There were only 3 in the series because she died, but I loved her Blossoming Love/The Makeshift Husband/The Accidental Wife books. I still have them and love them.
ETA: I should add...I am not religious in any way. My grandparents were Lutheran, but not particularly churchy. I haven't been to church since about 2000. I just love those stupid books. So chaste, so great.
Now you are speaking my language. Did you read the Christy Miller series?
No...but now I wish I had! I really had my nose in a book all summer, I read some of those JO books over and over again. They must not have carried them at the bookstore in town! (It is the tiniest town in Northern Minnesota and the bookstore was literally called Bible Book Store. I was really lucky to get what I could!)
Post by Miss Phryne Fisher on Aug 17, 2013 6:37:19 GMT -5
ladygray...The Dollhouse Murders! I loved that one. I owned it and read it all the time. It was so creepy yet really good.
Anyone remember the Nina Tanleven books? They were all mysteries, like The Ghost Wore Gray, The Ghost in the Third Row, etc?
RE: Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade...there were a few really bad sequels including one where Elsie was in HS. Anyone read those? I think I read them once, while NFiFG got read so much that pages fell out.
Another Trixie Belden fan here. Loved those books. I read them all multiple times and then donated them to the library. And then proceeded to check them out and read them all again!
Kiss Me Kill Me series by Lauren Henderson (read as an adult) Midnight Hour Encore by Bruce Brooks Dealing With Dragons series by Patricia C Wrede Beauty by Robin McKinley (she later wrote another retelling, Rose Daughter, that is also good) The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword also by Robin McKinley (these are very hit or miss with people)
I remember an obscure one: I'll have to try to hunt it down.
It was about a girl + her dad (I think) who went on a trip and encountered a set of twins, except the twist was the twins turned out to be triplets and the3rd brother was insane. Like killing people, insane.
Satin Slippers series From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade and yes, pattypoundcake, I do remember the sequels, especially the one where a now-svelte Elsie is dating Craddock (that name ew!) yet fantasizing about Jack, her one-time tormentor in NFiFG. All of a Kind Family The Sunfire romance series
Some others I don't think were mentioned that I loved: Jacob, Have I Loved Ballet Shoes The Half-Sisters/Luvvy and the Girls The Happy Orphanline Samantha on Stage Up a Road Slowly Seven Alone The Lloyd Alexander series - The High King, The Black Cauldron, etc Madeline L'Engle series - A Wrinkle of Time Norma Klein - especially Love Is One of the Choices The Swept Away series where a girl discovers how to time travel using her computer (or something) (i.e. in the first one, Gone With the Wish, she travels back to the 1860s) Couples The Sweet Dreams series - there must have been a couple hundred of those
Love this thread - it brought back some good memories