I am a collector of "antique" children's books. I particularly like to collect books written for children and published before 1960. I also love to find books I remember from my own childhood. Right now, I am having to find places to put extra shelves to house all the children's books I've collected.

So, I was wondering what the favorite children's books were of TVNL members. Please list your favorite or favorites and tell why they have such "favored" status.

'The Little Train That Could' was my first book and one of my all time favorites.

ONE of my favorites: The Mystery of the Alpine Castle by Harriet Evatt

I loved books. It would be hard to pick one. Depends on what age you are talking about.

"Big Red" was one of my favorites, about a race horse named Man of War who never lost a race. Well, he was cheated out of one win by a horse who bolted the start, sort of like how Bush became President.

Do you have any specific age range? Books we read ourselves or books read to us?

Man of War is the coolest name ever for a race horse. I also like Sunday Silence.

Both very capable rides in the day.

Honestly, there is almost nothing more beautiful than thundering race horses. Too bad there is so much ugliness under the surface.

I once tried to buy a race horse.

Like most girls, I loved horses. Would have done anything to have one, but that was never to be. I am told horses are actually very delicate animals and given to many problems, so guess it was better this way.

I have never seen a horse race but have heard terrible things go on in the business. Not surprising, where money is there is also tragedy. Greed does terrible things wherever it is found.

Locally we have a harness racing track, but it has been taken over mostly by casino type gambling. Ever on to better things, eh?

Anything by Jules Feiffer.

The Feiffer collection.

And my personal favorite: I lost my bear. It is so fun to read to the kids. And now that they've been reading, it's fun to have them read it to me in their most expressive tones.

I was a voracious reader as a child. My dad would take us to the library every several weeks, I think we could rent books for a month at that time and place. I would usually walk up with books stacked up to my chin.

After we moved to the city, I viewed a summer reading contest that the "city slickers" were having at a local library. Their summer list looked like a months list to me.

I loved the "Hardy Boys" series. Read everyone except for the book or two that the library had lost.

My older brother and sister were precocious readers. In grade school (or jr. high), they were reading books like 'The Prince and the Pauper 'and 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' and 'Don Quixote'. Those books were slightly over my head being a junior by several years.

dori, sorry I'm just now answering your question.

I was asking about any book TVNL members might have read during their elementary and/or middle school years.

Other books that I remember fondly are:

The Luck of Scotland (can't find a copy anywhere! )

Angelina Amelia I first read this book when I was in the third grade. I got the book off the bookmobile, which came around to my school. This little book is extremely rare nowadays. It tells the story of a doll and her various owners from Victorian days to the small girl who did not want to sell her to a modern-day collector. I was able to purchase my copy from an online rare books dealer.

Jemmy Dean This book is another rare one. The story takes place on a Southern plantation and relates the hilarious adventures of a little white girl and her personal maid, a black girl called Darling! Darling and Jemmy Dean are the best of friends but there are lots of references to "niggers."

These are just a few that I have in my collection. I also love to collect those old READERS published by Scott-Foresman, Bobbs-Merrill, and Ginn in the 40s and 50s. I have some original Dick and Jane primers as well as several WE ARE NEIGHBORS original series.

When my granddaughter comes over, she often asks me to read to her from many of these books.

As to the classics, I did my share of reading them, too. I think The Black Arrow was one of my favorites as well as Black Beauty, Heidi, and The Scarlett Letter. I count myself very fortunate in having a complete collection of the works of Mark Twain.

I read anything I could get my hands on. One series I loved was 'Little House'. The books started for small children in heavy cardboard pages with huge letters on them. They progressed through the lifetime of the author but what was so clever was the way the books fit into the life of a growing child. As the child grew, the books became more and more 'adult'.

The Bobsie Twins (sp?) were fun too. And there were Highlights magazines with all kinds of activities in them. 'Big little' books were different. Thick small books on cheap paper, the books told a story in a comic book style but in the corner of each page was a small figure. When you flipped the pages, the figure was animated.

I loved books about nature. Aldo Leopold was a favorite. I still love his work. And various small books to identify birds, trees, plants, flowers--all very interesting.

Read Zane Gray because I liked horses, and because there weren't many books available in the teeny tiny library I could get to.

Never liked romance books or fasion and not big on action either. Too rooted in the real world I guess.

I am sure I am leaving out some of the best, if I remember any I will post them.

Oh, yes, I remember HIGHLIGHTS.

In fact, when I began my teaching career, I got some old copies of that magazine, took out the HIDDEN PICTURES pages, laminated them onto construction paper backing, and gave them out to my second grade students. They would work in pairs to see how many of the hidden pictures they could find.

Great activity for the end of the day when they're getting restless and it's almost time to go home!

My mother subscribed to TEEN magazine for my sister and me. My sister enjoyed it more than I did. I liked comic books, especially those about the Justice League of America.

Another excellent magazine was Cobblestone, the history mag for children. My son had a subscription. The copies of that magazine he received are still on a bookshelf in his old room.

Do you remember a small section in Ladies Home Journal called 'Watchbird'? It was designed to teach manners to children.

This is a watchbird watching xyz. Xyz makes people feel uncomfortable to be around you. If you are not polite and if you do not care how others feel, you will not be welcome.

This is a watchbird watching YOU. Have you been xyz today?

And it went through the gamut of behaviors, giving mothers the chance to work out of the magazine to tell children how to behave.

For some reason 'Stepford' comes to mind, but we did have well behaved children in the 'old days'.

You mentioned 'Dick and Jane'. I loved the Dick and Jane books with Spot their dog.

I didn't meet Dr. Seuss until I was an adult, but love all his works too. Some of us never grow up...

http://www.seussville.com/lb/home.html

Indeed. No, I don't remember the WATCHWORD you mention, dori. My mother usually got the Woman's Day magazine, or Redbook.

You mention children and good manners...this morning, my husband and I had planned a trip to Home Depot to buy some Boston ferns. On our way, we stopped at one of our favorite local restaurants that serves a breakfast buffet that is wonderful. We were led to our table, served coffee and juice and, while we spoke briefly to some friends who were seated over from us, I noticed that the center table was full of men in camo. With them was one young boy, about 9, dressed the same way.

The men went to the buffet, along with the boy, to get their food. We came along behind them. The boy chose several large pancakes, poured warm syrup over them, and let the syrup dribble down off his plate onto the rest of the plates that were stacked beside the buffet hot bar. I doubt if he did it on purpose, but he did not say a word. The kid just went back to his table and began to eat. I did not see any member of the group speak to the servers about the mess the boy had made, and the boy certainly didn't own up to his mistake. Fortunately, there was another stack of plates beside the fruit area, so we got our food and went to our table.

A little later, I saw the same boy go back to the buffet with his DIRTY PLATE, fill it with eggs and bacon, and come back to his place and begin to eat. Again, I noticed nobody correcting him.

Isn't that something? He can be taught by his elders to kill animals as recreation, but he can't be taught how to properly behave in a restaurant that is serving a breakfast buffet!