I attended a two-room country schoolhouse, and we had a small, but incredible library. I’m sure I read every book on those shelves before I reached 7th grade, and those books greatly enriched my life.
One library book I returned to over and over again was called The Village That Slept. It was the story of two young teens who survive a plane crash and care for a tiny infant survivor as they try to make their way out of the mountains to civilization. When my childhood school closed down, I lost track of that book, and spent three decades searching for it—except I couldn’t remember the title or the author! Makes it very difficult to find a book if you don’t know those two “little” details!
Long story short, I’d almost given up when I came across a reference to the book while I was researching a novel. (Turns out it was translated from the French, and I’d been searching for a story set in the Alps, when actually the crash happens in the Pyrenées mountains.) The book was long out of print, but I was able to locate a used copy online. The dealer was asking $60 for it, but he cut his price in half, and then a dear writing friend I’d done some editing for sent me a $30 gift certificate to that site, so I ending up getting it free! When my book came in the mail some time later, it was like welcoming an old friend home!
(Now there are two copies of The Village That Slept available on amazon, one going for $1599 and another for $499!! I’m sure glad I got my copy when I did!)
On Easter Sunday, I sent that book home with our eight-year-old granddaughter who devours chapter books. Her momma sent me this photo the next day. I can’t express how this warmed my heart! I just love that this sweet girl is as swept away by this story as I was. 
What are some favorite chapter books from your childhood? Have you shared favorite childhood books with kids or grandkids or younger members of your family?
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What a sweet picture!I love that she is enjoying the book that meant so much to you as a child. I think my favorite chapter book was Charlotte’s Web.
Oooh, I loved Charlotte’s Web too…except for the sad parts! 🙂
Like many of us, as a young girl, I devoured any Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books I could get my hands on. I’m sure there were others, but their storylines and titles escape my mind. I spent a lot of time in our small library was an old house until it was replaced by the current library building. As an older preteen, I discovered “romance” books for teens, and one title I loved was Seventeenth Summer. I actually found that title online and ordered a copy which I still have.
Ah yes, I’m a Nancy Drew lover too. I never did read Trixie Belden but read the occasional Hardy Boys if I’d plowed through all the Nancy Drews in my stack of library books.
I love when a book stands the test of time like this one has! One of my favorite childhood chapter books was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I adored that girl and all of her antics. When my goddaughter started reading everything she could get her hands on, I started having a weekly Skype night (Yes, it started as Skype! LOL and then eventually wound up being FaceTime) with her and we read books together. It was so much fun reading that book with her. They had updated the covers of the series to make them appear more modern, but it was comical to read some of the things inside that were definitely a product of the time period in which they were written. But she enjoyed that one and we went on to read 1 or 2 more in the series.
How very precious to be reading with your goddaughter. (And oh, how grateful I am for modern technology when it comes to being able to stay in touch with far-off friends and family!)
I remember going through a horse phase in late elementary school and reading all of the Black Stallion books. As for books that I was able to pass down to my kids, I still have my copies of the Anne of Green Gables books I read as a teenager. I shared them with my daughter, and she loved them. Made me so happy to see her reading the same copies I had read 25-30 years earlier.
So, SO special to share books with our kids and grandkids! I know how precious it was to share books with my mom. One of the first books she told me about (before I’d discovered any Christian fiction beyond Janette Oke and Catherine Marshall) was Stephanie Grace Whitson’s first novel Walks the Fire. My mom and I both loved that book and I was so thrilled when I reached out to Steph, we were able to have lunch and then over the years became dear friends! In many ways, I’m still pinching myself that I get to call other authors (like you, Karen!) FRIEND!
I love that you found the book again! So many chapter books I loved. Maybe the earliest one I remember getting from the school library was Stawberry Girl.
That’s one I’m not familiar with! I’ll have to check it out! Some of the oldies are still the best!
Old Bones, the Wonder Horse by Mildred Mastin Pace. I read it again and again. Actually, there were a number of both horse and dog books, several that I still own, the paperbacks kept in a zip bag as they are 60+ years old and ready to crumble. Irish Red (dog). Champion Dog, Prince Tom (dog). Golden Cloud (horse). But Old Bones remains my favorite. After losing my hardcover copy, I searched and bought another one. Not as pristine as mine had been, but at least I own it.
I’m surprised how many people loved horse books. I never did get hooked on those (maybe because I grew up on a farm and had several horses?) but now I can see the appeal!
The Hornet’s Nest by Sally Watson is a Revolutionary War tale that fired my imagination. Maybe that helped nudge me to write historical novels now.
The local library had it but must have sold it in the semi-annual book sales. Amazon does offer a paperback for less than $20….
Oh, don’t you wish you’d been at the book sale where they sold that one?
I devoured Mary OHara’s books (My Friend Flucka, Green Grass of Wyoming. And Thundercloud) and as a young teen loved The Years of the Locusts by Loula Grace Erdman, which I recommend today in every writing workshop I teach. I am convinced the books we loved as children make a lasting impact on our writing and our lives. I have written many non-fiction chapter books for young readers and always keep in mind how important it is to write with what I call a “lasting legacy.” Nothing more thrilling than adults ordering copies of books they read as children for their children!
“Nothing more thrilling than adults ordering copies of books they read as children for their children!”
I couldn’t agree more, Nancy!
My mother read books to us 6 kids every night before bed. It was the highlight of my day, when I was a child. Precious memories of time spent with my mother! On an aside, she is now 89 and I just reminded her this past weekend of how much I enjoyed and looked forward to listening to her read to us every night. She responded that it was something she really enjoyed as well. One book she read was The Village that Slept. I remember loving the book and my imagination took flight inserting myself into the story and how amazing that would have been. Fast forward many decades (ha!) and a couple of years ago I located the book through our local library system. It was so fun to read as an adult, although the story was wildly different than I remembered. It’s amazing what time, experience, and perspective does to a book. But I do highly recommend this book.
Oh, I love that your mother read that book! I remembered it quite the same as it actually was…but then I bet I read it no less than 5 or 6 times while I was at Fairplay School.
Oops! Typo in message I just sent! “Flicka” not Flucka
Haha! I knew what you meant!
I love this post and all the memories it brings back. So glad you located this book and what a lovely picture of your granddaughter reading it.
One of my favorite books as a child was The Surprise Doll by Morrell Gipson. Not a chapter book, but a lovely picture book about a sea captain who brought his daughter a doll from all of the countries he visited. I loved this book so much, that I found it when our granddaughter was born – a 60th anniversary edition.
I was in elementary school during the 1950’s. In the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, book teas were held at our major downtown department store. Teachers from the Richmond schools could choose a student to attend, and I was chosen to go twice with my mother to meet the authors. One of the books was The All of A Kind Family by Sydney Taylor, which has been reprinted as a paperback and has two additional books. Chapter books I loved were The Bobbsey Twins and The Boxcar Children. Is it any surprise that I became a teacher?
So many wonderful books. And I have no doubt you were a wonderful teacher, Betty!
One book that made a huge impression on younger me was Island of the Blue Dolphins. Maybe because I’m in California and can see some of those islands.
I’d like to tell you how much I love that photo of your granddaughter! It reminds me of a Mary Cassatt painting. 😊
I remember my own kids reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. I often read the books they were assigned in public school, but I don’t remember reading that one.
I agree that photo my daughter took of our granddaughter would make a beautiful painting in the Mary Cassatt style!
How wonderful, Deb! I agree that there’s a very particular and powerful nostalgia attached to books we loved when we were children. How fabulous that you now have this favorite in your collection.
It makes me smile every time I look at it…and more now that I’m sharing it with my grandkids.
It sounds like an interesting read! Will you weave part of the story into one of the books you are working on? Wishful thinking. . .
I suppose everything I read influences the books I write, but I try to make all my stories original.
I recall a book called Puppy Stakes by Betty Canvanna, set during WWII, that my mother owned as a girl. For some reason, I loved the book. A rather snobby city girl goes to live with her aunt in the country when her mother joins dad at his military base, ends up adopting the runt of the litter, and finds her place training him for agility competitions. I would love to either find my mother’s copy (she keeps everything) or obtain one of my own.
Oh, that sounds like a wonderful book! Growing up on the farm, we five kids often adopted the runt of a little of pigs or kittens, or bottle fed a calf whose mother died. There were many sad instances where the runt didn’t make it, but we all rejoiced when one did!