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Childhood Books You Miss - Page 2

post #51 of 153
1/11/07 at 11:25am
This thread is reminding me big-time of Reading Rainbow. Anyone watch that when they were younger? Definitely one of my favorite shows and one of the very few great ones Television ever had.

Technically I never owned this one, but hearing it read by James Earl Jones on RR made me feel like I had read it myself:

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
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post #52 of 153
1/11/07 at 11:40am
"Butterfly in the sky,
I can fly twice as high,
Take a look,
It's in a book,
A Reading Rainbow..."

Oh, god, the useless crap my brain retains.
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post #53 of 153
1/11/07 at 12:39pm
Man, I loved the "Tripods" series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
Also, when my grandfather found out I liked Roald Dahl books, he got me Dahl's autobiography, "Boy". Let me tell you, that book will shake a 7 year old up like you wouldn't believe....
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post #54 of 153
1/11/07 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes
Patrick, that didn't end with Search for Snout, there was a fourth book called Aliens Stole my Body
You're fucking kidding me. I need that book, now.
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post #55 of 153
1/11/07 at 12:46pm
Oh, and the Phantom Tollbooth is my Wizard of Oz. LOVE that book. Still do.
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post #56 of 153
1/11/07 at 3:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Mohamed
And someone mentioned Wrinkle in Time. Wasn't that book filled with Christian mythology?
No, it was actually based on some of Einstein's theories of time travel. If there were any Christian allusions they went right over my head.
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post #57 of 153
1/11/07 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Man Mundt
I don't specifically miss these, but I did read these as a kid.

The Five Chinese Brothers. Tikki-Tikki Tembo, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Beverly Cleary books (Henry Huggins, The Mouse On The Motorcycle). The Tripods Triology, Tom Swift: Young Inventor, Island Of The Blue Dolphins, Where The Red Fern Grows, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Sounder, The Black Stallion Books, The Black Pearl, Call It Courage, Big Red (as well as other boy and dog books by Jim Khelgaard), Flat Stanley, In The Night Kitchen, Stone Soup, Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel, Ferdinand, The Snowy Day, The House On East 88th Street, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, Harry The Dirty Dog

And I'll tell you what, I haunt the 2nd hand shops and used book stores attempting to re-collect those Choose-Your-Own -Adventure books.
We must be from the same neighborhood. A lot of favorites listed here. Henry Huggins, Mouse on the Motorcycle, Mike Mulligan, and the champion of them all : Where the Red Fern Grows.

I also loved the hell out of those Choose Your Own Adventure books back in the day. What a cool concept. How many children's books offer the reader the opportunity to die in creative and horribly unpleasant ways every few pages? I'm sure you can find them for sale on eBay, or if you just want to reminisce check out this site: http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series...+Own+Adventure
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post #58 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:08pm
"Choose Your Own Adventure" books were the shit. Anybody remember that contest to write your own with a grand prize of getting it published? I was in elementary school and actually submitted something called "The Curse of the Diamond Snake" written in CURSIVE so that they would take me seriously as an adult. It was basically Indiana Jones meets They Saved Hitler's Brain set in the Amazon.

Sadly, I think my mom kept a photocopy of it.
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post #59 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal
This thread is reminding me big-time of Reading Rainbow. Anyone watch that when they were younger? Definitely one of my favorite shows and one of the very few great ones Television ever had.

Technically I never owned this one, but hearing it read by James Earl Jones on RR made me feel like I had read it myself:

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
I used to fucking love that show. My favorite episode by far was the aliens-themed one with clips from Star Wars and Cocoon.

Anyone else here remember those old orange-covered books on movie monsters? There were ones on Godzilla, Dracula, Frankenstein, mad scientists, and God knows how many more. I used to be obsessed with them as a kid and would kill to find them again if anybody knows what I'm talking about.
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post #60 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smilin' Jack Ruby
"Choose Your Own Adventure" books were the shit. Anybody remember that contest to write your own with a grand prize of getting it published? I was in elementary school and actually submitted something called "The Curse of the Diamond Snake" written in CURSIVE so that they would take me seriously as an adult. It was basically Indiana Jones meets They Saved Hitler's Brain set in the Amazon..
The indignity of losing to this pap -

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post #61 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:26pm
My elementary school had a bunch of em. You forgot my favorite one, The Wolfman
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post #62 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:28pm
Thread Starter 
That's it, I gotta break into your elementary school again Ripoll.
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post #63 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:32pm
I loved those as well. Aside from the standard "Choose your own Adventure" ones, I recall digging the "G.I. Joe" style editions.

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post #64 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smilin' Jack Ruby
It was basically Indiana Jones meets They Saved Hitler's Brain set in the Amazon.
That's probably better than anything they'll come up with for Indy 4.
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post #65 of 153
1/11/07 at 7:56pm
Has there ever been a film adaption of the Phantom Tollbooth?
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post #66 of 153
1/11/07 at 8:11pm
Indeed. Done by Chuck Jones.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064806/

No need to use Ebay for Chose Your Own Adventure books. Go to Goodwill or any used book store, those places are lousy with 'em. I also had a good deal of D&D style CYOA books. Nobody remembers the one with the 2 brothers eh?
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post #67 of 153
1/11/07 at 8:54pm
The Dwindling Party by Edward Gorey


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post #68 of 153
1/11/07 at 10:01pm
Good ol' YouTube.
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post #69 of 153
1/12/07 at 12:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin
Anyone else here remember those old orange-covered books on movie monsters? There were ones on Godzilla, Dracula, Frankenstein, mad scientists, and God knows how many more. I used to be obsessed with them as a kid and would kill to find them again if anybody knows what I'm talking about.
My elementary school (Old York Elementary in Branchburg, NJ) had a stack of them, as well. They were actually the first thing my mind flashed to when SarahLynne mentioned her obsession with ghosts, ufos, cryptozoology, etc. And the Wolfman one was indeed the bomb.

As for Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, I had a stack of Indiana Jones ones... actually, still do. I don't remember any of the titles except "Indiana Jones and the Gorgon's Eye". It was my first experience with the CYOA and I recall that I thought it was a regular book. Imagine my confusion when I tried to read it in a linear fashion. My mom had to help me figure it out.
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post #70 of 153
1/12/07 at 12:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Man Mundt

No need to use Ebay for Chose Your Own Adventure books. Go to Goodwill or any used book store, those places are lousy with 'em.
I've seen them at B&N.
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post #71 of 153
1/12/07 at 12:42pm
Is anyone else young enough to have been obsessed with Goosebumps books? Those books were had twist endings so bad it'd make Shymalan jealous.
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post #72 of 153
1/12/07 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Miller
Man, I loved the "Tripods" series:
Hells yes.

Lots of memories flooding back thanks to this thread. Let me also throw out-





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post #73 of 153
1/12/07 at 3:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll
Is anyone else young enough to have been obsessed with Goosebumps books? Those books were had twist endings so bad it'd make Shymalan jealous.
Those books were lame and hilarious. I actually collected all of them as a kid, up until this:


I think the worst twist ending had to be in the Camp Nightmare book, where it was revealed that the camp was a training center for the people to visit Earth. Yeah...
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post #74 of 153
1/12/07 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
I've seen them at B&N.
I'm only interested in the 80's originals.
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post #75 of 153
1/12/07 at 7:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Detonathor
Those books were lame and hilarious. I actually collected all of them as a kid, up until this:


I think the worst twist ending had to be in the Camp Nightmare book, where it was revealed that the camp was a training center for the people to visit Earth. Yeah...
The kids in my grade used to be obsessed with Goosebumps. I remember The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight constantly being seriously touted by friends as "the scariest one" whenever other people starting going on about how they weren't scary.

But this was the series that everyone recognized as the top dog of kids' horror books:


I swear the art for these stories was the creepiest shit I'd ever seen, fit to make your skin crawl.

And fuck yes on Redwall, I used to eat those things up like you wouldn't believe. The sheer body count in a single Redwall book was absolutely incredible for a young adult novel.
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post #76 of 153
1/13/07 at 12:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Man Mundt
I'm only interested in the 80's originals.
Yeah, in some of the later editions the artwork was a lot less interesting.
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post #77 of 153
1/13/07 at 12:40am
Holy shit Stormin, how did I forget about Scary Stories? The illustrations is what made it. I used to creep my sister out with the song about the worms eating through your corpse all the time.

In fact, I've still got the 3rd book around here somewhere...

Redwall I still have all of the hardcovers too, maybe around 10 of the bastards. I think Jaques is still pumping them out.
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post #78 of 153
1/13/07 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
I have most of 'em on paperback, having gotten into them after the first generation of Redwall books had already been released. The last one I read was Taggerung, which had serious Predator/First Blood overtones that I thought was badass as hell. There are really only like 10 bad guys in the entire book chasing the titular character just getting whittled down by the elements and larger predatory animals, until the last three who were the absolute toughest are able to successfully hold Redwall under siege with more success than even the largest armies had in any of the other books.

I would fucking kill to get the rights to do some good CGI Redwall movies someday.
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post #79 of 153
1/13/07 at 1:02am
The only Redwall books I liked were Mossflower, Redwall and Matteo. That was the core trilogy to me.

Also, not CGI, Stormin, but combination Henson workshop and cgi
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post #80 of 153
1/13/07 at 2:26am
I remember loving those Cross-Section books (where they show the cross section of how various castles and boats and shit work) because you could see little pictures of people pooping on the toliets. The castle was especially good because you saw a little tube conncecting the toliet (on which a man was sitting) to a giant cesspool full of shit.
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post #81 of 153
1/13/07 at 2:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin
I would fucking kill to get the rights to do some good CGI Redwall movies someday.
This one didn't cut it, huh?

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post #82 of 153
1/13/07 at 2:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Wood
This one didn't cut it, huh?
Holy shit, I didn't know they made a Redwall movie. I'm guessing (based on the tone of your post) that it blew, but back in the day I would have been so excited to see it.
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post #83 of 153
1/13/07 at 3:01am
The scary story, about the spider laying eggs in the girl's cheek, and the cheek exploding and tiny spiders crawling out, that illustration will forever haunt me.
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post #84 of 153
1/13/07 at 3:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack C.
Holy shit, I didn't know they made a Redwall movie. I'm guessing (based on the tone of your post) that it blew, but back in the day I would have been so excited to see it.
I haven't seen it, and in fact I don't even really know what Redwall is to be honest. But I saw some positive discussion of its animated form on another board. I guess this "movie" is just an abbreviated form of the TV series that apparently aired on PBS.

Episode 1

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post #85 of 153
1/13/07 at 3:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll
The scary story, about the spider laying eggs in the girl's cheek, and the cheek exploding and tiny spiders crawling out, that illustration will forever haunt me.
Jesus, I know exactly what you're talking about. One of those books also had a story about a vampire that breaks through a girls window and attacks her. Still creeps me out to think about it. The other books that scared the fuck out of me as a kid were the Bigfoot/Ghost/Monster type books (especially Mothman. Me and my friends spent almost an entire year believing Mothman lived in a house adjacent to out school's playground.) Even as I read these books, I knew they would keep me up at night but I did it anyway. I can't believie I'm feeling nostalgic about lying awake, terrified.
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post #86 of 153
1/13/07 at 3:44am
Anyone remember reading about the story of Black Aggie?

That little urban legend did more damage to my psyche than all the horror movies combined.
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post #87 of 153
1/13/07 at 6:03am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Wood
I haven't seen it, and in fact I don't even really know what Redwall is to be honest. But I saw some positive discussion of its animated form on another board. I guess this "movie" is just an abbreviated form of the TV series that apparently aired on PBS.

Episode 1
Back when I was in high school they played all three seasons of the show on my PBS station and I saw some of the episodes (which featured intros by Brian Jacques, who is the most awesome old salt/old coot to ever live), and though they had their hearts in the right place and were definitely good for a kid's cartoon they didn't live up to the books naturally. They did a surprisingly good job dealing with the villains and their own subplots (especially in the Mattimeo episodes, which had Tim Curry as Slagar), but with a good budget, screenwriter, and Weta Workshop they could make one hell of a cinematic version of the novels.

As for Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, the creepiest one for me was the one with the guy who kept dreaming about being in the hotel room with the fat lady who went "You're in a veeeeerrrrry evil room" while walking towards him. The drawing of that lady was creepy as living hell.
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post #88 of 153
1/13/07 at 8:30am
On the topic of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books...

...Vampire Express almost drove me to insanity when I was in grade school (it had no successful ending).

For me R.L. Stine will always be remembered as the writer of Badlands of Hark.
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post #89 of 153
1/13/07 at 6:44pm
I read a ton of Christopher Pike between 9-13. The one that messed me up the most?



Especially the ending where the sexy cheerleader character ties up the protagonist and proceeds to force-feed his nose with poisoned cocaine.

My ten year old brain at the time didn't get all the kinky stuff in it.
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post #90 of 153
1/13/07 at 7:03pm

I read loads of Nancy Drew books as a kid. Here they were called Neiti Etsivä, which translates to Miss Detective. Looks like they raped my childhood with this movie adaptation.
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post #91 of 153
1/14/07 at 9:30am
Roald Dahl all the way. I was also a fan of any horror paperbacks that I could find in the grownup section of my local library, the ones with the cool covers and great dirty bits.

and I would fucking devour the Usborne guides to the supernatural and all the practical information on vampires, werewolves, ghosts and UFOs that they provided. I really loved the illustrations in those books, wish I could find some pics to post but I can't.
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post #92 of 153
1/14/07 at 2:43pm
Roald Dahl was great too.





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post #93 of 153
1/14/07 at 9:24pm
In second grade, one of the girls in my class had such a conniption fit over one of the pictures in Scary Stories that her mother (who worked in the preschool) had to take her home. Was the "Taily-Po" story in one of those books? God, that was some morbid shit to foist on children.

I think I saw part of that Redwall movie on PBS. All I remember is some mice trying to persuade a tribe of weasels to help them, and I only remember that because it was the first time I'd ever heard the word "persuade" and I had to look it up in my brand new red hardcover edition of Webster's.
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post #94 of 153
1/14/07 at 9:43pm
On the CYOA tip, anyone ever hear of a book called Snufflegrunt's Treasure? It wasn't an official CYOA book, but followed that structure (i.e. you had to choose whether the little gnomes or whatever took the path through the woods or followed the footprints into the hills). It was by far my favorite book as a kid, and in the event that I have a child, I'll insist that his single mother read it to him regularly.
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post #95 of 153
1/15/07 at 3:00am
In the end, Louis Sacher was my king. As I said before, he introduced me to absurdist humor with the Wayside school books, he wrote some of the funniest and most heartbreaking books I ever read as a 4th grader ("There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" "Someday Angeline"), and he wrote a novel about a kid who wanted to be a stand-up comedian ("Dogs Don't Tell Jokes"), which is what I wanted to do ever since I was in Kindergarten. Hell, I even dug Sixth Grade Secrets.

And Holes is just an amazing story.
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post #96 of 153
1/15/07 at 3:37am
Thread Starter 
Dogs Don't Tell Jokes was awesome. I can still happily remember how he ended one chapter with the short sentence "He peed his pants."
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post #97 of 153
1/15/07 at 11:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes
I read a ton of Christopher Pike between 9-13. The one that messed me up the most?

Especially the ending where the sexy cheerleader character ties up the protagonist and proceeds to force-feed his nose with poisoned cocaine.

My ten year old brain at the time didn't get all the kinky stuff in it.
God, yeah. I must have have read more than a handful. And all of them had some cheerleaders or jocks dying in pretty gruesome ways. That guy really has some issues from high school.
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post #98 of 153
1/15/07 at 2:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll
In the end, Louis Sacher was my king. As I said before, he introduced me to absurdist humor with the Wayside school books, he wrote some of the funniest and most heartbreaking books I ever read as a 4th grader ("There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" "Someday Angeline"), and he wrote a novel about a kid who wanted to be a stand-up comedian ("Dogs Don't Tell Jokes"), which is what I wanted to do ever since I was in Kindergarten. Hell, I even dug Sixth Grade Secrets.

And Holes is just an amazing story.
I didn't like Holes all that much, but I think I read it when I was fifteen. But I agree with you, "There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom" was some sad shit, and "Dogs Don't Tell Jokes" is an underrated classic. I love how the last section of that book is a play-by-play of the talent show, that tells you what all the major characters are thinking, and then culminates with the kid's stand-up act. Fantastic.
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post #99 of 153
1/15/07 at 3:44pm
I remember when I was a kid there was a terrific series - by Usborne, I think - about spying. The books explained how to tail people, leave secret messages, and perform all sorts of secret tasks. Haven't seen them around for about 20 years, though.
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post #100 of 153
1/15/07 at 6:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu
I didn't like Holes all that much, but I think I read it when I was fifteen. But I agree with you, "There's A Boy In The Girl's Bathroom" was some sad shit, and "Dogs Don't Tell Jokes" is an underrated classic. I love how the last section of that book is a play-by-play of the talent show, that tells you what all the major characters are thinking, and then culminates with the kid's stand-up act. Fantastic.
Holes, to me, is just a classic fun children's story. I haven't seen the movie because I'm afraid it won't live up to the book, but it comes together beautifully.

And from Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, I still remember the rap the one kid did. "Goin' Insane". It was so lame but in such a wonderfully realistic way.

Have you read Someday Angeline? That was devestating. I think through Someday Angeline, There's a Girl in the Boy's Bathroom, and Dogs Don't Tell Jokes I grew to understand the people in my classes who were often mocked, and I actually think that that ability to see all sides of things at such a young age made me a much better person today.

Teaching life lessons, and being entertaining as hell. Everything great kid's books should be.
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