~FRIDAY FAVORITES~

Friday Favorites is hosted by Lori at Lori's Reading Corner. She says "Every Friday I'm going to post my "Friday Favorites". Each week it might be something different. It could be your favorite author (new or old), your favorite genre, your favorite character or your favorite series. There are many possibilities!

Today I am going to list some of my favorite childhood books. From kindergarten through 6th grade, these were the ones that I remember enjoying the most!

~Where The Wild Things Are~ by Maurice Sendak: As a little girl, I was always intrigued by the cover of this book! The sad-looking monster, sitting in the forest, waiting for someone to come and play with him. Max, in his wolf suit, was "making mischief" and misbehaving, so he was sent to bed without any supper. In Max's imagination, his bedroom is transformed into a forest, with mythical type creatures, with yellow eyes! Max becomes "The King of all Wild Things" when he stares into their yellow eyes and does not blink. Max becomes homesick, and returns to his bedroom, where he finds his supper waiting for him....and it is still warm! (My favorite part of the story!).

~Miss Suzy~ by Miriam Young: Miss Suzy is a little gray squirrel who has her own tree house, until a "band of mean red squirrels" take over. She takes refuge in someones attic, in a beautiful dollhouse. She sweeps and cleans (I specifically remember her sweeping away spiders, who had angry looks on their faces!) and makes the place her home. But she is sad, and misses her tree house. She meets a band of toy soldiers, who chase the red squirrels away, and her tree house is her home once more. I still own this book....I wish I had a child to share it with!

~Sasha, My Friend~ by Barbara Corcoran: A beautiful but heartbreaking story. Hallie and her father go to Montana to live after Hallie's mom is killed in a terrible accident. Her dad is weak from his injuries, and needs a good long rest. They live in a trailer on a Christmas Tree Farm. There is no school close by for Hallie to attend, so she has no way to meet kids her age, and she is terribly lonely. In her explorations into the woods around their trailer, she finds a wolf pup whose mother has been killed by hunters. Hallie adopts the wolf pup and names her Sasha. Sasha takes away Hallie's loneliness, and they form a strong bond. Hallie is finally happy and has Sasha to keep her company. As Sasha grows up, Hallie realizes that Sasha is a wolf, and will want to return to the wild. This is a wonderful story of true love and friendship.

~Are You There God, It's Me Margaret~ by Judy Blume: I remember this book making the rounds in my 5th grade classroom. When someone was finished with it, they would write their name on the inside of the front cover, and hand it over to the next girl in line. I liked this book about coming of age, and learning what it was going to be like to be "grown up". Judy Blume did a fantastic job with her fictional story of Margaret, who moves to a new neighborhood and has to make new friends, and the curiosities of girls her age who are wondering what it will be like when they "become women". This book touched on many subjects and situations that pre-teen girls often encounter. I bought this book and read it over and over again.

~Go Ask Alice~ by Anonymous: This book scared the living daylights out of me. I was in 6th grade when I first read it and was shocked by the story. The book is actually excerpts from a girl named Alice's diary. She is a normal girl, who starts to hang out with the wrong crowd, and experiment in drugs. Alice describes her descent into a "hell" suffering from addiction, running away from home, and finally, losing her mind. The most important message that I got from reading this book, was to stay away from drugs....which after reading it, I did. The book was first published in 1972 when drugs were very popular among young people. This book was an important part of my pre-teen years.

~What were your favorite childhood books?