• LAVA Moderator: Mysterier

Favorite Books That You Read Before High School

Cool thread idea. :)

Thank you :)

animal cookie said:
OP: out of curiosity, why would you limit the scope of this thread to books read before high school?

lostNfound said:
Also, I can't work out why it has to be about books read before high school?

Just a novel idea, i guess;)


I totally recommend someone else start another "Book Thread" that allows for books from "young adulthood"(9th grade and up) on, that you have read. :) I think it would be perfectly fine to have two separate threads, one for your 8th grade and below(this thread), and one for everything beyond that point(someone else can make this thread). :)



My next selection is THE THIEF OF ALWAYS by Clive Barker:

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Written by the guy that wrote the 'HELLRAISER' movies.

Harvey is a boy who thought his life was very boring. That’s only until Rictus shows up. He leads Harvey into a magical world that seems to drain out all of his worries. He makes new friends, Wendell and Lulu, who he has tons and tons of fun with. For 31 days Harvey lives in the magical house and magical world with spring in the morning, summer in the afternoon, Hallowe’en at night and Christmas just before bedtime. That is until Wendell and Harvey decide that they want to go home, but they find out that there’s no way out of the magical world! Every time they try to go back through the wall of mist in which they came into, the mist somehow somehow turned them right back around. Will Harvey find a way out of the Holiday House, or will he and his friends be stuck there forever?

Some very weird stuff transpires in this book. Highly recommended.
 
To be clear about this thread: I would rather have a separation between what you read as a child and what you have read since becoming a young adult and i think that between 8th and 9th grade is a good separation point.


My next selection is A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L' Engle:

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Meg Murry, a thirteen year old, is very unhappy. Although she is very bright, she has low self esteem, and has problems in school. Her mother and father are both brilliant scientists, but her father has been missing for a over a year. Meg's five year old brother, Charles Wallace, is an extraordinary child, and is closer to Meg than to anyone else.

One stormy night the Murry family is visited by a strange lady who tells Meg's mother, "There is such a thing as a Tesseract." The next day, Charles Wallace takes Meg to meet his new friends, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. On their way they meet up with an older boy, Calvin O'Keefe, and they immediately become friends. The three ladies, who are actually very strange and powerful beings from beyond the Earth, want to help the kids to find their father.

Meg and Charles, with their new friend Calvin, are taken on a fantastic journey which ultimately places them on the planet Camazotz. Camazotz is a planet that has given in to a terrible dark shadow which threatens much of the universe, and has shadowed our Earth for years. Meg, Charles and Calvin must try to free Dr. Murry from the clutches of IT (a disembodied brain that controls all of Camazotz and lies at the center of the darkness).

This book is the first in a series.
 
I kinda though A Wrinkle In Time was boring as a kid. I might have to check it out again, as I believe it's still on my bookshelf

for my bday my girlfriend got me two Clive Barker books

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the first two books in the Abarat series. I can't wait to start them, because I love me some Clive Barker
 
To be clear about this thread: I would rather have a separation between what you read as a child and what you have read since becoming a young adult and i think that between 8th and 9th grade is a good separation.

Good reasoning, thanks for answering my question :)
 
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I search for this book to this day. Based on puns, logic puzzles and grammar. (that is the watchdog, who helps milo along his mission to save the princesses rhyme and reason). I love love this book.
 
I kinda though A Wrinkle In Time was boring as a kid. I might have to check it out again, as I believe it's still on my bookshelf

there are some complex concepts in these books, but they were also written with a certain innocence..but yeah, still very thought-provoking....it may have seemed kind of dense when you first tried to read it. :)

for my bday my girlfriend got me two Clive Barker books

abarat.jpg


the first two books in the Abarat series. I can't wait to start them, because I love me some Clive Barker

this looks really cool, i'm definitely gonna check into it. i wish you would include a synopsis..no problem though, i'll google it.
 
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Nothing ever happens to Henry Huggins. Nothing, that is, until a stray dog named Ribsy comes into his life. Pretty soon, Henry and Ribsy are wreaking havoc on the city bus, getting a ride in a police car with sirens wailing, and winning a prize at the dog show. Thanks to their joint shenanigans, Henry finds himself covered in green paint one day, and later accidentally colors Ribsy's fur pale pink. One week, Henry catches earthworms for his fisherman neighbor to raise money for a borrowed ball Ribsy helped him lose. One football costs a lot of earthworms--1,395, to be exact. Plus 41 worms for tax. Life is no longer dull.

Beverly Cleary's lively, award-winning books virtually shout "good, old-fashioned fun!" Since 1950, Henry and his friends (found in Beezus and Ramona and Newbery Honor Book Ramona and Her Father, among others) have displayed all the mixed-up emotions and tricky jams kids everywhere seem to experience. Henry's action-packed days are captured in droll line drawings by Louis Darling. Luckily for young readers, there are dozens of Cleary books to explore as soon as this one is devoured. (Ages 8 to 12)

[loved this book when I was young, I was thinking about the earthworm hunting part the other day.]

Another one I enjoyed probably in like 6th grade was:

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Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann -- a Boy and His Two Dogs...A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains -- and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. And close by was the strange and wonderful power that's only found...An exciting tale of love and adventure you'll never forget.

peace.
seedless
 
I think that a person with the capacity of above-average intelligence could handle it in the seventh and eighth grade.

But yes, I agree that it would be dense, but still within the scope of a bright young mind.
 
Where the Red Fern Grows made me cry like crazy. Definitely a moving book.
 
FP, Did you see the 1996 Disney adaptation of James & the Giant Peach?

no, i didn't. :( i knew they made it, but haven't had the opportunity to see it. i'll add it to my Netflix queue.

i read several from this series in grammar school:

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from wikipedia ('cause i'm lazy right now):

The first book tells the story of four children: Henry James Alden, 14; Jessie Alden, 12; Violet Alden, 10; Benny Alden, 5; and their dog Watch. Upon the death of their mother and father, their grandfather assumes custody of the children, but they run away because they believe him to be cruel, first from the orphanage and then from a baker and his wife who want to separate the children. Finding an abandoned boxcar, they start a new life of independence.
 
^i loved those books when i was in grade school. i also really liked encyclopedia brown, boy detective

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from amazon (cause i am also lazy)
A Civil War sword, missing roller skates, a trapeze artist's inheritance, a ghost who whistles, eight stuffed penguins... Is there any case this kid can't crack? Introduce your favorite bookworm to boy detective Encyclopedia Brown, fifth-grade mastermind behind Idaville's police force, "a complete library walking around in sneakers." Each book is set up so that readers can try to solve the case along with the boy genius, and the answers to all the mysteries are found in the back.
 
and amelia bedelia

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amelia bedelia is a maid who always takes things literally. such as when her employer asks her bake a date cake, she takes a calendar to and adds it to the cake. or when her employer asks her to dust the drapes, she covers them in dust.
 
and the last one for now, mrs. piggle-wiggle

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from amazon

The incomparable Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves children good or bad and never scolds but has positive cures for Answer-Backers, Never-Want-to-Go-to-Bedders, and other boys and girls with strange habits
 
Let's not forget Enid Blyton.

I read all of The Famous Five, The Wishing Chair & The Magic Faraway Tree books.

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Special mention for Roald Dah's The Twits.
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