What were your favorite childhood stories?
 

I grew up as the computer was being developed for mass market. We had no CGI or spiffy special effects. We had Disney and a few lesser known 'story tellers' to fill our imaginations with tales of adventure and mystery. One of the highlights of the Holiday season was getting to watch some of these films during class. All of the old stand by Holiday classics were on TV (I'm not that old) so we got: Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Peco's Bill, John Henry and few others. Real heroes who could plant a nation, deforest a mountain range, lasso a tornado or drive a spike that could divide a continent. They are some of my fondest memories as a child. I feel sorry for the modern generation, brought up on lame Purple dinosaurs (our dinosaurs would eat you, not hug you) and nondescript, multi-colored, egg shaped things. So, in the spirit of the holiday season, I present one of my all time favorites:








So what were your favorite stories and who were your heros? If you can find a video, great. If not, just tell us about it.




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As a very young boy, I loved The Poky Little Puppy

https://onceuponawin.files.wordpress...ttle-puppy.jpg

But it was around Grade One, or so that I discovered, Walter the Lazy Mouse. I used to read this over and over and over.
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...OH3YVapzetb88A

I read a lot, and still do. I got into the Hardy Boys at a young age but it was the stories of Danny Dunn, that I really loved. Danny's science/geek adventures with technology of the future, are today, laughable. Even in the 1970s, these stories were already ageing, but I loved them.
http://whatihaveread.net/i/0471.jpg

Wow, I'd forgotten all about Danny Dunn. Great books.











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My favorite childhood book... Where the wild things are. I was fascinated by the images.

http://www.intergate.com/~canu/art/a.../78wildtg.html

I posted the link to the image, but it's not working for some reason. :(

I, too, liked the American Folk Tales as a kid, my favorite being Pecos Bill, but as a young kid, my absolute favorite book was Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...0881032867.jpg

I loved the idea that all a mouse had to do to get a toy motorcycle to run was to get on it and say, "Putt-putt-putt...".
Can't tell you how many times I read that. (it was around that time I found a little field mouse and tried to befriend him and make him ride my toy motorcycle like Ralph. he bit me and I slung him across the yard like a dumbass)

As I got older, I moved on to The Three Investigators series of mysteries. I wanted to live next to a salvage yard like Jupiter Jones and have a secret headquarters in the junk pile.
Never happened of course, but I still like to wander around junk yards. ;)

Btw, I didn't realize till I was older that their mentor in the stories was real life director Alfred Hitchcock. Duh!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...men/n12379.jpg

Mine was Rikki Tikki Tavi:




I have not thought of this story in years.

I didn't read it, but watched the Rikki-Tikki-Tavi cartoon as a kid, and it scared the crap out of me.

I read a lot, as a child and now, so favorites would be too numerous to mention. These two came to mind right off the bat.



And I still love this one:

http://readingtogeorge.com/wp-conten...night-moon.jpg

I read it all the time at work. It's not much on story, obviously, but I love the images.

Green Eggs and Ham
Where the Wild Things Are
Babar the Elephant (fairly obsessed with that series)
Madeline series
Curious George series
and I loved Fairy Tales. our library had a collection of books that contained fairy tales from around the world. I think I read most if not all of them.
I kind of skipped juvenile fiction though and went straight from picture books to Gone with the Wind. I was, uh, obsessed after seeing the movie.

Where the Wild Things Are
The Lorax (and any Dr Seuss)
Charlie Brown

Eleanor Cameron wrote some books that I really enjoyed when I was about 12.

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954)
Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (1956)
Mr. Bass's Planetoid (1958)
A Mystery for Mr. Bass (1960)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a75...a/davydeer.jpg

Davy Deer was the first book I read by myself. I was 4. As I grew older, I always loved Roald Dahl's stories, they captivated me.

& The Black Stallion
& Thunderhead
& most of the fairy tales (I regret that my kids don't know most of them...)
& The Hobbit
& Genesis

The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Asterix
The Chronicles of Prydain
Star Wars trilogy
The Goonies
Indiana Jones trilogy
The Neverending Story film adaptation
The Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
The Secret of NIMH
The Wizard of Oz
Return to Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz TV series (Naisho Tonogawa)
The Dragonlance "Chronicles" trilogy
The Forgotten Realms "Icewind Dale" trilogy
The Forgotten Realms "Dark Elf" trilogy


From The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (TV):