One of the things I love about being a grandmother is reading books to my granddaughter. Lyla is sixteen months old and already has her favorites. One of them, “Hand, Hand, Fingers Thumbs” by Al Perkins and Eric Gurney, used to be one of her mother’s favorites, too. 
I never liked this book when my daughter was young because it didn’t have a plot. My daughter now understands why I got tired of reading it over and over, and has even resorted to hiding the book from Lyla. Ironically, I could read it to my granddaughter all day!
When Lyla gets a little older, I’ll introduce her to another of her mother’s favorites, “Millions of Cats” by Wanda Gag. 
It’s about a sweet husband who sets off to find a kitten for his wife and, when he can’t make up his mind which one to choose, returns with “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.” His astounded wife says, “But we can never feed them all!”
I have a theory that the books we love as children offer hints about the adults we’ll later become, and also help to shape us. My daughter still loves cats, and she visits the local animal shelter often. Like the husband in the story, she would gladly bring all of the cats home if not for the problem of feeding them. A few years ago, she agreed to foster a cat for a few days because he was too rambunctious for the tiny shelter—and Dexter is now a beloved family member.
So I started thinking about my childhood favorites and why I liked them. “The Boxcar Children” by Gertrude Chandler Warner, tells about a family of orphans who make a home in an abandoned railroad boxcar and learn to fend for themselves. 
I was never orphaned but my mother did become gravely ill when I was a child and had to be hospitalized. My sisters and I lived with my grandparents until she recovered. I wasn’t wise enough to realize it then, but I think “The Boxcar Children” appealed to me because the children not only survived the trauma but even flourished. And how fun to make over a boxcar! Just like my favorite TV show, “Fixer-Upper!”
Another book I enjoyed was “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton. 
It’s about the little people who live in the walls of our houses and “borrow” objects from us to furnish their own homes. It explains why so many things go missing, like buttons and spools of thread. The borrowers needed that button for a dinner plate and the spool for a table! Even now, the borrowers provide a handy explanation for all the items I lose. And this book either fed into or created my love for “repurposing” items that others discard. Like a giant-sized “borrower,” I love to scour thrift stores and garage sales searching for treasures to fix and paint and resurrect—like this broken-down bedside table that I turned into a filing cabinet. The plant stand was also a thrift store find.
Another favorite book that I’m eager to share with Lyla is “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter. 
Peter and his siblings are warned not to go near Farmer McGregor’s garden lest they be caught and made into rabbit pie. The good little bunnies heed the warning and stay home. Peter doesn’t. As a child, I almost always obeyed the rules and was horrified by those who didn’t. I shouldn’t have liked this book—yet I did. Peter gets caught by the farmer and only narrowly escapes. He’s punished for disobeying, which appealed to my sense of justice and fairness. But oh, what an exciting adventure Peter had that day! The story provided a way for me to break the rules and be naughty, risking danger and adventure—and yet remain safe.
And isn’t that what reading good books still do? They take us to exotic places and time periods where we meet dangerous people who live extraordinary lives—without ever leaving our armchairs. I can’t wait to read all the books I once treasured to my granddaughter, and relive those adventures all over again!
So, what were your favorite books as a child? Can you see how they may have influenced who you are today?
Latest posts by Lynn Austin (see all)
- Can An Old Dog Learn New Tricks? - November 15, 2021
- A 1951 Christmas - November 1, 2021
- Researching? - October 18, 2021
I love everything about this post, Lynn, and couldn’t agree more about how wonderful it is to read to grandchildren! I especially loved getting a glimpse of your garage sale treasures! They look wonderful!
Oh, and my favorite books as a child were Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, Nancy Drew, and Heidi. Those books influenced one of the biggest parts of my life: they inspired me to become a writer! 🙂
You and I could have some garage-sale fun if we lived closer, Deb!I was a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew, too. I had fun reading them to my kids–and I can’t wait to share them with my granddaughter.
As a child, I loved reading ‘The Boxcar Children” and “The Happy Hollisters”. I am thankful that my parents showed me their love for reading and took me to the library each week. I learned my passion for reading and writing from my parents. 🙂
I lived at the library when I was a kid. That’s because my mom was the librarian! Books were such an important part of my life too, Melissa.
I too loved the Boxcar Children. I was always interested in orphans. My husband and I adopted three children. The first and youngest was from Colombia, SA. The girls were teens from ND. I used to like playing with paper dolls. They were all orphans living together.
That’s a great story, Nancy! I loved hearing how “The Boxcar Children” impacted your life!
“I have a theory that the books we love as children offer hints about the adults we’ll later become.” Now that I think about it, I can see how my kids’ reading tastes when they were small really were indicators of the personalities and preferences that would become more obvious as they grew. Huh. Intriguing!
I fell in love with reading because my mother read to me. I read faithfully to my kids (though none of them seem to have caught the reading bug yet the way that I did). I hope to read to my own grandchildren one day!
I hope you have many, any grandchildren someday, Becky. They are the greatest!
I love the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.Nancy Drew,Lassie and too many others to list here.I remember going to the library as a child and checking out as many as I could each time.I have and continue to love to read books.
I remember reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to my kids, too. They loved them. I read every Nancy Drew book in our town’s library!
I love this post. As a brand new grandma (since February), I can relate to your love of reading to your children and their children! My favorites are Peter Rabbit, Goodnight Moon and anything by Nancy Tillman. I just wrote a story for my grandson to read one day and his other grandma might illustrate it for him. It’s called Prince Liam and King Arlo: http://judydunagan.com/2017/04/04/prince-liam-king-arlo/
My kids liked “Good Night Moon” too. I’ll have to find it for my granddaughter. Have fun reading to your new grandchild, Judy!
My grandmother used to tell us the story of Caps for Sale. As far as I know, she didn’t have the book, but she must have read it or heard it somewhere. Later I found a copy of the book, and, of course, I had to buy it. I read it my grandchildren now.
I loved “Caps for Sale!” I read it over and over to my kids. (“Fifty cents a cap!”)I still have a copy, so I can read it to my granddaughter in a few years. Thanks for reminding me, Winnie.
One of my earliest favorites was The Surprise Doll about a little girl named Mary whose father was a sea captain and brought her dolls from around the world. She had a doll for everyday of the week except Sunday, so she took her dolls in her wagon to the local dollmaker to make her a Sunday doll. That book was falling apart when my granddaughter was born, so I looked online and found a 60th anniversary edition had been printed. Of course I ordered it, and my granddaughter loved it, too. I have always loved dolls and collected them for both my daughter and granddaughter.
Other favorites were the Boxcar Children (also shared with my granddaughter), The All of a Kind Family, and later on, Little Women. My father took us from the age of five to a childrens library housed in the basement of a stone cottage in a nearby park. You have brought back great memories!
That sounds like a really great story, Betty. How wonderful that you were able to find it–and that your granddaughter loves it, too!
Have you seem the boxcar children animated film on netfix instant play? It may still be there. It’s very well done and follows the opening book to the T. My daughter loves reading as do I. I used to read classics like Little Women, Heidi and Call of the Wild. Can’t remember my favourites from when I was tiny but now a days my daughter and I LOVE all the Pinkalicious books and I love anything Dr. Seus.
I’ll have to look for that video. Thanks Sara Beth! And I love Dr. Seuss,too
You’ve gotten astonishing info at this point.