Favorite Books That You Read Before High School

[ArcsAngles]

Please list only one book at a time.

Include a summary of the books' plot.

Give some notes, but no spoilers.

The point is to help someone else, hopefully, connect with a story they might enjoy reading.





My first selection is REPLAY by Ken Grimwood:

The book begins with the main character, Jeff Winston, dying of a heart attack at age 40. He "wakes up" into the past, where he is still in college but remembers all the things from the previous life where he died at 40. The cycle continues with Jeff dying at 40 and being transported to the past fully aware of his previous lives except that every time he travels back in time he's always a little bit older. He starts out waking up at 18 but the age he wakes up at consistently becomes an older age. Jeff lives many different styles of lives since he knows all about what the future will bring.

I don't want to give away too much more, but there is alot more, very interesting plot that unfolds.

 

[fizzle]

I didnt read this until after highschool, but one of my all time favorite books is The Princess Bride. I'm sure many of you have seen the movie, but if you havent read the book its a must read for everyone. I have recommended it to numerous people and so far I havent met a single person who doesnt like it. This is taken from a description of the book from the author himself "a story that has everything: "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles." " Its a completely accurate description. An amazing read, and very very clever as far as story and writing go. The movie is ok, but nothing in comparison. Oh, its also very funny .

 

[alasdairm]

^ that is such a great book. many people i have talked to about the story didn't even realise it was a book!

alasdair

 

[TALLY 2.0]

There was also this one book I cant remember for the life of me, but the cover was white with a crude drawing on it. The book itself was a book of really quirky poems. It was pretty thick too, like atleast 2 or 300 pages, which is a lot for a kid. With each poem there was a little crude looking drawing. I wish I could remember. Damn drugs.

 

[fizzle]

^Sounds like something by Shel Silverstein. Hes a hilarious poet.

 

[Keaton]

The giving tree.

 

[Samadhi]

I read "The Power of One" in primary school and fell in love with it. What i love about it most is that it not only resonated with me as a child, but as an adult as well

 

[Fawkes]

i loved Shel Silverstein.

and though i know this goes against the rules set forth in the original post, but since two immediately come to mind, i'm going to refrain the faux pas of double-posting and list them here.

the main character of the story, James, is made an orphan after rhinocerouses (rhinoceri?) kills his parents and is sent to live with his awful and often abusive aunts. one particularly sad day a magical man appears and provides him with secret ingredients to make all of his dreams come true. in his rush home to mix the ingredients, James trips and spills the ingredients near the barren peach tree outside of his home. the peach tree then begins to blossom and produces an enormous peach. eventually, James befriends the enlarged insect inhabitants of the peach and with their help, escapes the wrath of his terrible aunts and goes on an adventure with the peach as his vessle.

i read this in sixth grade, when i was the same age as the main character, Margaret, and it's a great read for any young girl who's about to experience the joys, confusion and awkwardness of developing into a young woman.

 

[Damien]

OP, that looks interesting. These might be some good books for me to check out since I've been trying to get back into reading. It's hard nowadays with the internet being so quick and non committal.

From Wikipedia:

Set during the American Civil War, the plot revolves around Jefferson Davis Bussey who is sixteen and caught up in the events of history. Actual historical personages (e.g. Generals Stand Watie and James G. Blunt) and battles (e.g. Wilson's Creek and Prairie Grove) are seen from the viewpoint of an ordinary soldier, enabled by the choice of protagonist. Harold Keith spent many years interviewing Civil War veterans and visiting the sites depicted in the book, resulting in an authenticity that is rare for historical fiction that targets a young adult audience.
The setting, west of the Mississippi, is also not typical of Civil War novels, so the reader gets a perspective on the war not generally available in other books, let alone one found in children's books.

There are a couple of others but I'll wait for a few more to be posted. Cool thread idea.

 

[ColtDan]

 

[Seventeen]

Yes! I had this book, it was awesome.

My favourite(s)? I have many, many.

You all know what this one is about.

This is amazing. Parallel universes, I Ching, love, power, heaven, hell. It's got it all.

Again, well known. The book is infinitely better than the Disney film though.

"A fish never goes anywhere without a porpoise"

 

[animal_cookie]

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

The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make.

its one of the only books i recall reading in middle school that wasn't fluff like goosebumps.

 

[fizzle]

^That is a great book. I think I read it 3 times... some of those times were even by choice (the first time I read it was for school)

 

[lostNfound]

FP, Did you see the 1996 Disney adaptation of James & the Giant Peach?


Nothing I liked more than The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson back then.

There are two trilogies in the series, aptly named the First and Second Chronicles.

Basically, Thomas Covenant is a writer afflicted by leprosy.
He lives as a hermit on the outskirts of town and is deemed an outcast by the town folk.

He wrote something a while back the made him some money and he lives comfortably.

One day he is hit by a car and wakes up in an alternate reality, which is what we come to know as, 'The Land'.

He fumbles through many adventures if you will, much to his displeasure.
Over time his character must come to save the land from it's peril.

Anyway, I read the complete trilogy 3 times over.
I only read Lord of the Rings twice.


Highly recommend this series.

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant,_the_Unbeliever

 

[TALLY 2.0]

^Sounds like something by Shel Silverstein. Hes a hilarious poet.

Dude, that is exactly what I was looking for. Awesome.

 

[ninjadanslarbretabar]

i remember reading a couple books about animals

and "you are the hero" type of book where you can choose what page you are going to read depending on what you choose to do, i remeber having this one

and this one (the only one i can recommend):

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who is was a french author, journalist and pilot wrote The Little Prince in 1943, one year before his death.

The Little Prince appears to be a simple childrens tale, some would say that it is actually a profound and deeply moving tale, written in riddles and laced with philosopy and poetic metaphor.

i did school paper about it

i remember reading a book about dinosaur too

 

[animal_cookie]

^good choice on le petit prince

i read it in high school french class. i just came across my old copy, it has all sorts of silly notes between me and my husband in the margins.

 

[AmorRoark]

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

its one of the only books i recall reading in middle school that wasn't fluff like goosebumps.

^ Yesssssssssssssss!!!! Amazing.

This Boy's Life - Tobias Wolff

Moving story, fantastic use of language, and particularly poignant for a young teenager's coming-of-age period of life. Memoirs, when done well, can make me feel especially in the character's shoes. This one did it for me. I read it over 8 years ago and I still remember it very fondly.

 

[lostNfound]

I have to add Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts to this list as well.

Also, I can't work out why it has to be about books read before high school? I read Shantaram about 4 years ago and thought it was absolutely brilliant.

 

[axl blaze]

I loved the My Teacher Is an Alien series by Bruce Coville. books aimed at young adults are a fabulous thing for me, as they can still deal with interesting and controversial issues while still making the prose easier to swallow.

this series brought a ton of interesting thoughts to the table:

1) aliens introduced the television incognito to the human world to slow down their notable achievements like space travel

2) the reason behind this ruse was because the majority of the aliens in the galaxy deemed humankind as reckless and rather violent

3) Bruce Coville successfully predicted a couple technological innovations that would later prove to come true in science (I think these books were written in the late 80s to 90s)

4) in the culmination of the series, a couple students from Earth had to prove to a council of aliens that humankind can be trusted, and that they should not be exterminated or quarantined (as some of the alien representatives brought to the discussion)

real interesting books with a collection of great covers that most certainly catch the eye of a young adult. I have seriously considered writing sci-fi books for young adults, as novels like these surely influenced my young brain