The Classics Club - December Question

I've been a very bad Classics Club member, rarely remembering to play along with the monthly questions, never trying my hand at the spin to determine what classic to read next, and definitely not getting enough of my classics list read. But this month the question is right up my alley and I couldn't resist.

"Let’s talk about children’s classics! Did you read any classic works as a child? What were your favorites? If not, have you or will you try any classic children’s literature in the future? (We’re aware children often read at an adult level. Please feel free to share adult OR children’s classics that you treasured in childhood OR children’s works that you’ve recently fallen for.)"

I loved classics as a child, perhaps reading almost as many classics as modern books. I expect that may have something to do with the fact that, although we were frequent library patrons, most of the books I owned were gifts that were classics. I still cherish them and my shelves of books I keep for my "some day" grandchildren include these books. Some classics I read as a child but never owned have been purchased over the years to be read to my own children.

My favorites, in no particular order, except one and two which remain two of my all-time favorite books, are:

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2. A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett

3. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
4. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
5. The Five Little Peppers And How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
6. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
8. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
9. Heidi's Children by Charles Tritten
10. A Children's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
11. Daddy Longlegs by Jean Webster
12. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Robert Atwater

If I were to include picture books in this list, you'd also see: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Story of Ferdinand (among many of Munro Leaf's books), The Little Engine That Could, and the Babar books which I adore to this day.

Were you a reader of classics as a child? If so, what were your favorites?