Favorite Kid's Book

[vimes]

1. All Chris Van Allsburg's books my parents had , namely The Wreck of the Zephyr & The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
   
2. Cathedral
   
   
3. In the Night Kitchen
   
   

[Patters]

being younger mine will be quite different

Beyond the deepwoods (sequels as well)

I cannot think of anything else off my head, other than the obvious: Asterix, Goosebumps, Famous five, Harry Potter, and a load of graphic novels.

[OssK]

The drawings from the two you linked are °O°

I've been drawing cathedrals and gothic architecture for a long time now (example below) so tomorrow will have a fnac des halles moment in it...

[toblix]

Remember a lot of children's books fondly. All this talk of French ones lately reminded me of this:

[Wrestlevania]

Fungus the Bogeyman - it was the most elaborate book involving hand-actuated snot and cut-out monsters I've ever seen:

[OssK]

So for me it'll be all of Samivel's books

•Le joueur de flûte de Hamelin

•Ysengrin

•Goupil

•Brun l'ours

(si tu les as pas lu Vimes je te les recommande très très beaucoup !)

•Le chien bleu

I'm at the office at midnight but when I go home I'll browse my library.

[Salka]

In The Night Garden is terrifying, I hate it. It's really creepy. I had a nightmare about it once. Scariest book I've ever read on the toilet.

On the other hand, Jo Zette et Jocko FOR THE WIN!

Auch, die unendliche Geschichte!

Also loved anything by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Hergé...

Also:

[SignorSuperdouche]

For me it would be The Man by Raymond Briggs

As I got a bit older I discovered my Dad's massive collection of pulp sci-fi novels. I still go back and re-read a couple of them from time to time, my favourites were Bill the Galactic Hero

and The Stainless Steel Rat

both by Harry Harrison.

[OssK]

I'm not really sure you're talking children's book here... Not to censure or anything but y'know...

[Spaff]

Holy shit yes Fungus the Bogeyman!! - you rule pete

these are some others that i loved:

my mum says this was my favourite

also these winners:

i loved Seuss books - he's amazing.

"And NOW comes an act of Enormous Enormance!No former performer's performed this performance!"genius.

Holy shit and all of these:

[Salka]

Hey, if anybody has that edition of the Faraway Tree that Spaff posted above, I will actually pay you as much as I can afford for it. It brings me happy memories but I have been unable to find it these days

[gdf]

being younger mine will be quite different

Beyond the deepwoods (sequels as well)

I cannot think of anything else off my head, other than the obvious: Asterix, Goosebumps, Famous five, Harry Potter, and a load of graphic novels.

This +1,000. The whole Edge Chronicles series is phenomenal. Still read them from time to time.

I also loved Chris Wooding's Broken Sky series, awesome shit, and I'm with SignorSuperDouche on The Man, what a sad story

There are many more but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Percy the Park Keeper or something along those lines?

[Patters]

This +1,000. The whole Edge Chronicles series is phenomenal. Still read them from time to time.

I read beyond and storm chaser in 3 days when I was 9

[Nick]

Trouble for Trumpets had some really awesome and interesting drawings.

[James]

Everyone pretend I made a horrible joke regarding the ambiguous scope of the word "favourite" in the thread title. That way I won't have to actually write it and can hate myself slightly less.

I don't really remember much of what I read and had read to me as a child. The earliest books I can remember being really into were Discworld ones and Hitch-Hiker's Guide, both of which would have been in my early teens or slightly before. When I was much younger than that I had The Hobbit read to me, which I suppose is more for children than Lord of the Rings. Anyway, it's not that I didn't read any proper children's books, or that they weren't any good; it's just that I have an appalling memory and a boring personality.

I guess I remember reading and listening to the tape version of The Hodgeheg by Dick King-Smith quite a lot. I also listened to an audiobook version of Wind in the Willows, which had some classical music (all Beethoven, I think) between all the chapters and possibly at other intervals, too. That left a lasting impression on me, and I still associate some passages of the music with lying in my bunk bed waiting to get to sleep. In retrospect, it was a great way to expose a child to "serious" music.

I also had three little books that followed different processes with a bunch of wide pictures with plentiful cut-away sections. The processes they followed were the postal system, and the manufacturing of Lego and bread. It gave the impression that the whole thing was a left-to-right progression and that a large portion of transportation happened in long metal tubes. In retrospect, they might not have been especially accurate. I really liked them, though. I liked to see how things (apparently) worked, and I think I was interested by the slightly artificial and unreal presentation. The appeal was something like that of model railways and so on, I imagine.

I don't think I actually read much, though. I was and am woefully lazy.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Man, you guys in England/France et al. had some seriously interesting and creative childrens' books growing up. I'm jealous -- this was the kind of shit I read as a kid:

[zomboid]

[Nachimir]

Oh man yes, Fungus The Bogeyman and Dr. Seuss all the way.

When I was very young, this one was my favorite:

this was the kind of shit I read as a kid:

We had those too. Love the magical non-decompression cover art.

[Wrestlevania]

Yep, played loads of Steve Jackson's books when I were a lad. I think Trial of Champions was the very first, which I found stuffed into a shelf in my secondary school library in the first year.

[James]

A lot of these covers are ringing bells. Where the Wild Things Are in particular, although if you'd just mentioned the title I wouldn't have known what you were talking about.

this was the kind of shit I read as a kid

Just how challenging were the choices?

[SignorSuperdouche]

Anyone else for Burglar Bill? How about the Funny Bones?

I definitely recognise Not Now, Bernard although I couldn't tell you if I enjoyed it.

That Space Vampire book looks totally awesome. There's a vampire, he's in space - what more could you possibly want?

[James]

I remember both of those! On looking up Janet and Allan Ahlberg (I recognized the name), it turns out they also did the Jolly Postman books. I think I might still have the Christmas one of those around somewhere.

For some reason their name also reminds me of a Caribbean poet who came to my first primary school and read his poetry to us. We bought his book. I think I thought it was quite exciting. I can't remember his name, though.

I just remember another book I liked as a child, but not what it was called or who it was by. It had a load of big pictures of quite expansive scenes involving lots of animals dressed in semi-formal clothes, including, most memorably, a worm who always wore a hat (a bowler hat, I think). And it had cars parked on the roofs of other cars and stuff like that. Does anybody have any idea what I'm talking about? I think the author's first name might have started with an R. My description is thorough.

Funnybones got made into a TV series, right?

[SignorSuperdouche]

Wasn't Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach was it? I don't remember any cars parked ontop of each other but the rest of it seems to fit.

[James]

No, no no. I think it was an American illustrator. Not sure, though.

[Wrestlevania]

I read that to my kids at bedtime nowadays.