The High King

It’s a story of a boy growing up without the benefits of material things, struggling nobly with responsibilities, staying loyal to his word and friendships, and being rewarded with love, respect, and manhood.  It was a story of hope and fulfillment, and a very encouraging tale for someone who spent the first eight years of his life living in trailer parks with very young parents.

John Wiggins
Hagerty Library

The Way Things Work

Probably more responsible than anything else for me going to engineering school.

Josh Roberts
Hagerty Library

My favorite children’s book was and still is Miss Jaster’s Garden, by N.M Bodecker.  My dad used to read it to me while I turned the pages.  The illustrations are beautifully detailed and the story still manages to tickle my funny bone.  It always makes me laugh when Miss Jaster discovers a patch of her carefully cultivated flower garden running away.

Gillian Washinsky
College of Law Library

My favorite was The Fairy Doll, by Rumer Godden.  I checked it out of the library so many times that when the time came for it to be weeded, the librarian called my mother at home and asked it we would like to have it.  It’s still in my bookcase.

Marielena Bradley
Hahnemann Library

Anne of Green Gables - well, what is there to say?!  The beginning of my love of historical fiction (if you can really call it that!)  Anne was everything I hoped to be.

Joanne Grossman
Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and Homeopathy

And Narnia (C. S. Lewis) - read to me by my mother, even though I was in second grade and could read just fine on my own.  She had read these stories first and brought out all the literary significances for me at the end of each chapter.  It was with these books that she taught me how to read more deeply.  And of course, the empowerment of children is the main attraction here!

Joanne Grossman
Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and Homeopathy

My favorite by far is/was Runaway Bunny.

Gabe Farrell
Hagerty Library

I read Runaway Bunny every night to my son, Steve.  I think it was the ultimate security blanket.  Every night it was reinforced to him that no matter where he went or what he did I would be there for him just like the mommy bunny. 

Karen Ernst
Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine and Homeopathy

Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary is the first book I specifically went to the library to read the end of (having heard part of it at school). 

Diane Kinney
Hahnemann Library

I don’t know if this series is necessarily categorized as children’s books, probably more of a young adult trilogy, but I loved Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series.  In particular, I loved the first one: “The Golden Compass”.  On the surface, they’re a fantasy/adventure series in a world that’s a lot like ours, yet not quite the same, but when you get into them, they start dealing with deeper issues, like the meaning of religion, the reality of God, and even scientific theories of dark matter and the composition of the universe.  They were some of the first books that ever started making me contemplate deeper concerns in the world and in our society and helped me to transition easily from children’s books to adult literature.

Bekki Morgan
Hahnemann Library

I adored the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series by Alvin Schwartz.  I probably read them almost every night from second grade to forth grade.  They were a great, simple and often silly introduction to the horror genre which children love, but are often shielded from.  My friends and I still share the stories with each other when we go camping – not because they’re still scary, but because they hold such an important place in our hearts. 

Bekki Morgan
Hahnemann Library

“Madeline”:  The book was fun to read. I still remember the illustrations of Madeline and her classmates walking two by two.  

Rebecca Raszewski
Hahnemann Library

“The Secret Garden”: I loved the characters and seeing Mary (the main character) transform from a sour child into a loving one. 

Rebecca Raszewski
Hahnemann Library

My favorite children's book was Betsy, Tacy and Tib by Maude Hart Lovelace:

This book then led me to the entire Betsy Tacy series, and my favorite book out of that series is Heaven to Betsy. Or is it Betsy in Spite of Herself?? Or, Besty in the Great World??? No, no...definitely Heaven to Besty.

Ann Keith Kennedy
Hagerty Library

The Monster at the End of this Book

I loved it sooooo much that I tried to eat it.  I thought I could keep it with me forever that way.  I didn’t understand digestion just yet.  I also think I may have had a sub-clinical case of Pica.

Gary Childs
Hahnemann Library

My favorite book as a child was “Fanny” by Steven Cosgrove.  I think I initially loved this book because it was about a cat. The book has so much heart because it is all about this puppy named Ruby who befriends a three legged cat named Fanny and helps show the rest of the farm animals that Fanny is ok with being handicapped.

Jess Ward
Hagerty Library

If so, my very favorite childhood book, and I have a vivid memory is my mother reading it to me, was Epaminandus. I can still picture Epaminandus carefully stepping right in the middle of the pies that his mother had placed on the doorstep to cool…..

Linda Katz
Hahnemann Library

Here is mine – a Christmas book of course – “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree” by Robert Barry.  A great story about a too big tree and how the top keeps getting cut off and being passed on and on - from the upstairs maid to the creatures in the forest until the very tip is found by Mr. Mouse and brought home to his family – who live in Mr. Willowby’s house!

Nancy Spedding
Hahnemann Library

My all time favorite is “Charlotte’s Web” which I still re-read every few years.  My third grade teacher read it to my class over the course of several weeks which was probably part of its charm.  The basic premise of a spider spinning words in her web which are then attributed to a pig could never happen in the “real” world but the underlying message of the power of friendship and love is what children and adults alike respond to.  You’d have to have a heart of stone to not feel like crying when Charlotte dies. 

 E.B. White was a master craftsman of the written word whose The Elements of Style is still used as a text in many basic writing classes. As an adult I enjoy the way the book is put together as well as the timelessness of its theme.  The child in me still scoops up spiders in my house and gently puts them outside in memory of Charlotte.

Adrienne Jenness
Queen Lane Library

dinner time

I loved (and still love) this book because of the design…if it weren’t a popup the bold graphics would still catch my eye as an adult. The loose watercolor splotching mixed with well-defined pools of color makes for an appealing contrast and each page also has a lot of nice white space. The book has a unique shape, too…a vertical rectangle that in hardback makes for a very collectible-feeling book. The subject is very simple: a series of animals are each eaten by the next, bigger animal; each animal gets its own 2-page, popup spread that allows its jaws to open and shut. The book shows a funny, whimsical, psychedelic food chain that is entertaining for kids and adults alike.

Chris Wieman
Hagerty Library

I was always fascinated by A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle [the “tesseract”]

Cindy Humphries
Hagerty Library

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Loved the idea of staying overnight in a museum!

Cindy Humphries
Hagerty Library

My favorite book was A Separate Peace by John Knowles.  It was assigned reading in sixth grade and I loved it so much I read it every summer for years afterward.  In fact, now that I think of it, I think I'll re-read it again!

Jenny Roberts
Careers Library and Hagerty Library

Who’s A Pest?

“’Beans!’ said Homer.”  My mother must have read this book at least a million times; four sisters with one brother – how could we not love it?  I can remember even when four of us were nearly teen-agers and my mother was reading it to my (much younger) youngest sister, all of us would pile on to the couch and recite it along with her.  Funniest thing is that I don’t thing we ever owned a copy.  We just borrowed it from the library, over and over and over!

Kathleen Turner
Hagerty Library

Why “Lookout for Pirates” was special for me.  It was actually a toss up between this one and “Little Black, A Pony” which was actually the first book I recall being able to “read” back to my parents –probably without looking at any of the words. But if I recall correctly, it was “… Pirates” where I really managed to decode all the words and how they corresponded to each illustrated scene. And what little boy isn’t fascinated by pirates! Looking back at it now, with the “good” sailors using all sorts of tricks to recover a treasure chest from the ocean floor, surviving storms and shipwrecks, and outwitting sharks and “bad” pirates I can see how the action and cleverness shown by the characters motivated me to make sense of the words. Though at 63 pages I have to wonder how long my before bed story-time lasted each night! It’s a fun one for shared reading with your 1-3rd grade reader.

Tim Siftar
Hagerty Library

I had a tug boat and used it in my bathtub. Like Scuffy.

My mother read it to me and it is one of the books I learned to read from. The images of the book are still with me -- 57years later. Not sure why it sticks in my mind ...

Ken Garson
Hagerty Library

I'd have to say the Redwall series was my favorite (Redwall the book being my favorite of those). They opened my imagination and turned me onto story-telling--something that hasn't changed to this day.

Patrick Fuller
Hahnemann Library and Hagerty Library

Oh, now I remember, The Little Princess, about the girl in the attic, I SOO wanted an English gentleman to come and tell me I was rich beyond belief…….

Dorothy Schwartz
Hagerty Library

Little Women:  I read this book cover to cover at least four times when I was 12.  Each of the March girls were so well-written and relatable, I could imagine them being real.  I still go back to this book when I need to escape from my daily worries.

Katie Bray
College of Law Library

 The Dark Is Rising:  This is one of the most thrilling books I’ve ever read.  I used to stay up way past my bed time just to see what happened in the next chapter. 

Katie Bray
College of Law Library

A Cricket in Times Square

Because of that book, when I finally found myself in Chinatown in New York City, I searched for a cricket cage to buy.  That little cricket cage has survived over 18 moves.  The sliding door still works, but it has never held a cricket.

Cindy Humphries
Hagerty Library

The Little Princess is the story about a little girl of great fortune whose father dies, leaving her penniless. She is resigned to work as a servant at the boarding school she once attended. The school boarders who were once her “friends” and her fellow servants delight in harassing her and ordering her about. This book resonated with me because it’s a story of how the human spirit and imagination can prevail over misfortune.

Anita Chiodo
Hahnemann Library

Edward the Emu – because the Emu’s by far the best thing at the zoo!

My daughter Molly’s favorite book – the illustrations are just wonderful, and it’s a great story about being yourself without being preachy. 

Kathleen Turner
Hagerty Library

Where the Wild Things Are

“Let the wild rumpus start!”  Doesn’t every kid have a “wild thing” inside him?  My son loved this – we had rituals that we had to do as we read it (which included singing parts of the Trogg’s classic . . .).  I can still get about half of the story without even looking at the book!

Kathleen Turner
Hagerty Library

My Side of the Mountain

Okay, sometimes I still have fantasies about going off to live in a tree house in the woods all by myself!  And when I was 10 and sharing a room with my sister, it seemed like a wonderful idea!

Kathleen Turner
Hagerty Library

The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)

It’s funny, has lots of language-play, and was a mystery.  It kept our attention when read to us in class, and then I read it at least twice a year every year after that, through high school.  It was the first time I discovered that books could be fun to discuss with others.

John Wiggins
Hagerty Library

The Poky Little Puppy

Poky Little Puppy is an example from a family collection that included The Little Engine That Could, Peter Rabbit and Little Black Sambo (this was long ago!)  My sisters and brother treasured these books.  We also listened to books as we sat on the floor in the public library, where I later borrowed the Oz books, the Little Colonel series, Nancy Drew series, Lad–A Dog, The Black Stallion…  Books and libraries have always been part of my life, making it richer and more enjoyable.

Martha Kirby
Queen Lane Library

My fave -- Princess and the Goblin

Stephanie Riley
Hagerty Library

The Man in the Manhole and the Fix-it Men

I was fascinated by the hidden world that this picture book described.  Who could forget the long ladders that ran between the open manhole and the bottom of the sewer?  Even more intriguing was the web of connected tunnels running under the street, where Joe and Antonio called out to each other, as their voices echoed through the dark tunnels.  To this four year old, these pictures seemed to represent a world of mystery and adventure!

Dick Levinson
Hagerty Library

Time and Again 

I loved this book (and still do!) because it brings late-19th century New York City to life. The style of writing is so realistic and beautiful. For me, it’s almost like The Princess Bride—it has everything. Time travel. Mystery. Murder. Intrigue. Romance. History. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves historical fiction.

Tara Martin
Hagerty Library

Whose Mouse Are You?

“Whose mouse are you? Nobody’s mouse.”  This book appealed to my sense of melancholy as a child and even now my favorite Dolly Parton songs are the very saddest ones --  in which children die.

Emily Missner Devaney
Hagerty Library

The Librarian from the Black Lagoon

Well, we couldn’t leave it out, could we?

Ramona Forever

All the Ramona books – I read them over and over –

Shin Amano
Hagerty Library

All-of-a-Kind Family is one of the first books that I encountered who had characters like me.  Like me, this was about a Jewish family with all girls.  The book mirrored activities and values that were being taught in my own home.  Growing up in a midsized town in Ohio with a small Jewish community, finding connecting to others through books was a very powerful influence.    

Karen Schneiderman
College of Law Library

The Pushcart War is a personal favorite of mine.  It is a classic story about collective action and honest people organizing to change corrupt systems.  This is a story about the war between pushcart peddlers and delivery trucks in New York City.  The big trucking companies try to take over the streets by eliminating the pushcarts using the “Large Object Theory of History.”  The pushcart peddlers respond with the “Pea-Shooter Campaign.”  It looks bad for the peddlers; the trucking companies control the newspapers and the corrupt mayor.  But the people untied will never be defeated.

Karen Schneiderman
College of Law Library

Tuesday

Cindy Humphries
Hagerty Library

Curious George – how Nathaniel got started observing primate behavior.

Peggy Dominy
Hagerty Library