My favorite childhood books

When I was growing up, my mom took us kids to the library during the summer on a very regular basis. It might have been every week. It was at least every two weeks, because that's what the lending period was. There was a drugstore across the parking lot from the library and my mom usually let us pick out a treat on the way home. I almost always chose sugar-coated lemon drops. Then I took them home and ate them, one after another, until my mouth was sore and I couldn't even taste them anymore. As I ate, I read. I chose whatever books I wanted, and they were usually juvenile or YA literature (the only restriction I distinctly recall was that I was not allowed to check out Sweet Valley High books. Sweet Valley Kids - or whatever the younger, tamer variety of that series was called - was OK).

I caught a whiff of lemon-flavored candy this morning and it brought with it so many memories of reading really good books. Here are some of my childhood favorites.

The Baby-Sitters Club series, by Ann M. Martin. I loved these books and I can still remember details about the characters that are totally irrelevant to my - or anyone's - life. Like how Claudia Kishi's Japanese grandma pronounced iron as "i-ron." Stacey was my favorite because she was supposed to be everyone's favorite, but in reality I think I secretly liked Kristy the best. A darned fine girl with no nonsense about her.

Constance, by Patricia Clapp. Somehow we ended up owning this book. It's a good thing, too, because I ended up reading it approximately eleventy billion times as a kid. The neat thing is that it is firmly based on the truth, which I found out years later when I read Mayflower.

Stepping on the Cracks, by Mary Downing Hahn. When I was growing up, there were a LOT of YA books about WWII. This was one of the best ones. Discussion question: are there still a lot of YA books about WWII?

Calico Captive, by Elizabeth George Speare. A lot of kids read Witch of Blackbird Pond, and that's fine. That's a great book. Calico Captive is better, in my opinion, and has the added interest of being an only slightly fictionalized true story, as well as featuring a literary heroine who ended up with the wrong man.

Boy, by Roald Dahl. I devoured most anything by Roald Dahl, and yet his autobiographical novel was my favorite.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi. They don't write books like this anymore. They just don't (or when they do, they end up being creepy and pedophile-y, like Bloody Jack). I wanted to BE Charlotte Doyle for vast swaths of my girlhood.

The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I get shivers just remembering how a bright, happy story suddenly turns SUPER FREAKY. And AWESOME. This book is scary to kids in all the right ways.

Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson. An isolated fishing village, a neglected twin, plenty of teen angst, unrequited love, and World War II. Oh - and a lovely, fulfilling ending. What more could you ask for?

Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes. The first time I tried to read this as a kid I was so bored I had to stop. I never got much past his stupid hand getting deformed. But when I tried again and finally got into it, I was INTO it. I still love this book.

The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin. I liked to wait a year or so between re-readings so the mystery was as fresh as possible. Sometimes it even worked.

I'm sure I missed some great titles, but these are the ones that stand out. What are your favorite childhood books?