# The first book you remember reading



## Roger E. Craig - novelist (Aug 28, 2010)

*What was the first book you remember reading*

Mine was one about *hobos * crossing America by train during the depression. I loved the story. I don't remember the title or the writer but I remember some of the story. The most memorable part was on a train. The guard-guy with the Billy club was making his way down the train to where they were hidden. He was known to be a killer of hobos. He either beat the hobos to death with the club, or if he was feeling kind, he's throw them off the train at high speed. 
The* King of the hobos * urged a mass bail out at a river bridge that was coming up. He knew the train slowed down on the bridge. All were to jump into the river. One of the hobos cried piteously, *"But I can't swim".* to which the leader roared *"Now is your chance to learn"."*

*If anyone knows this book please let me know.*


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## RobertK (Aug 2, 2010)

I know it wasn't my first, but the first one I can specifically remember was The Invisible Man.


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## kcrady (Dec 17, 2009)

The first non-picture book I remember reading was "The Yellow Fairy Tale Book".  My sister has forgotten, but one Saturday when the bookmobile came, she MADE me check out something without pictures so that I actually had to read it...

The rest is history.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

My first book was Green Eggs and Ham.  I remember reading it to some other kid when we were around 6 and my family went camping. My second book was probably Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.


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## Learnmegood (Jun 20, 2009)

Go Dog Go


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Peter and the Unlucky Rocket by Hazel Corson.  On my very first library trip I checked it out along with a Curious George book.  The space book came first for reading, though!

A kid's father works at a big space center, but there is a problem with launching. Peter saves the day by being lowered inside the rocket where his small hands can remove a troublesome part that can't be reached by big adult hands without lengthy disassembly, so the repeatedly unlucky rocket can finally send the "little moon" into space. I guess satellite was too big a word!  

The book also explained how to make a "rocket" out of a bottle, baking soda, and vinegar. Trouble soon followed in the Claw household.....My butt still hurts!  

Wasn't till years later that I learned there was a series of other books about Peter that I never saw or read! But I did buy a used copy of the Unlucky Rocket book from Amazon a couple of years ago for old time's sake. Just a few bucks.


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## Oneironaut (May 18, 2010)

Mine is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.  I know it's the first adult book I read, and right now it's the earliest one I can remember.  I was in 6th grade when I read it.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

The actual earliest book I read is lost in the mists of time, but I would like to put in a word for a favorite series of mine, the Freddy the Pig books. I hope kids still read them.


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## tachydactyl (Sep 10, 2010)

Judy Blume's Forever is the first real novel I can remember reading.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

R. Reed said:


> The actual earliest book I read is lost in the mists of time, but I would like to put in a word for a favorite series of mine, the Freddy the Pig books. I hope kids still read them.


I had completely forgotten those, but I read 'em and liked 'em! I have a dim memory of Freddy The Detective, mainly the cover.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

The first 'adult' book I remember reading was High Citadel by Desmond Bagley. I was about 9 and didn't understand everything I read but it was the first in a long list of similar books that were on my parents' bookshelves.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

The first non-picture book, non-comic book, I remember reading is Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Which was soon followed up The Three Investigators books, the Black Stallion books, then The Hobbit, and Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Yikes! All that's been close to 35 years ago.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I don't know. 

I do remember seeing all the adults around me reading. I also remember my first grade homeroom teacher letting us take a book home for the first time. It wasn't a Dick and Jane book, but more the 1970s versions -- seem to remember a Tig and a Bill. Anyhow, I remember reading to the adults and them making a big deal out of it. I went to see my grandfather and he even made the neighbors listed to me. Every time I got to the word "said" I'd pause though, because it made no sense to me that that you, er, said that "sed."

I'm going to say that the first one I remember was probably The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but it could have been Little Women too. My favorite books a couple years later were Witch of Blackbird Pond and Island of The Blue Dolphins -- read both a million times. Also, Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott, which I reread a couple years ago and it's pretty insipid. 

In terms of first adult books, way before puberty I was reading historical romances. Of course, I mostly just read the naughty parts. Also, Barbara Michaels who most people are now more familiar with under the name Elizabeth Peters. My mother and grandmother loves an author named Catherine Cookson too, but most of her stuff was way depressing. Stephen King, the early years. There weren't any books that were off limits to me.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

Mine was a creepy little book called "Jane Emily", with had something to do with the ghost of a very bad girl and one of those reflective yard balls. I read it in third or fourth grade, so I'm a little unclear on it's whole plot nowadays.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Oh, and Harriet the Spy.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

In sixth grade there was a half reading time every day and this is the book that got me hooked:










Everything before that was just for children.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

I have no idea what the first non-picture book I read was. I do remember sitting in the car on the way home after picking it out at the library and thinking it looked very daunting because there were no pictures in it. I remember being worried I'd bitten off more than I could chew. I even asked my mom "why are there no pictures in it?" But I can't remember what the actual book was.


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## Pawz4me (Feb 14, 2009)

darkbow said:


> The first non-picture book, non-comic book, I remember reading is Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.


Same here.

The first ever books I can remember reading were the Dick and Jane books. See Dick run. See Jane run. I thought I'd lose my mind.


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

I also vividly remember that this was the first book that I read that was divided into "chapters."


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I think my first non-picture book was Sideways Stories from Wayside School.


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## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer (Aug 10, 2010)

The first book I ever read myself was that horrible grade school reader about Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot. No plot. No characterization. Nothing like kids' books now.
My parents and grandparents read to me--fairy tales, adventure stories, and the short stories of Hawthorne. I remembering being about 4 and listening to my grandmother read the one about the stone face.


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## erin22 (Jul 7, 2010)

Jessica Billings said:


> I think my first non-picture book was Sideways Stories from Wayside School.


I have no idea what my first book was. I have been reading for as long as I can remember because my Mom was both a kindergarten teacher and an avid reader. BUT! I do remember and love Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I bought a copy for my step-daughter for Christmas a few years ago when she was 8 and I re-read it and still thought the stories were fun and entertaining.


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## blackdog (Aug 20, 2010)

I remember reading lots of short stories by O.Henry and Saki. Sredni Vashtar by Saki is one I distinctly remember.
First book I read cover to cover was Treasure Island, borrowed from the public library.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

erin22 said:


> I have no idea what my first book was. I have been reading for as long as I can remember because my Mom was both a kindergarten teacher and an avid reader. BUT! I do remember and love Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I bought a copy for my step-daughter for Christmas a few years ago when she was 8 and I re-read it and still thought the stories were fun and entertaining.


Yup, I just re-read a few of those books 3 or 4 years ago and was still really entertained by them! Awesome books.


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## Groggy1 (Jun 21, 2010)

A Wrinkle in Time? The Outsiders? The Executioner (Mack Bolan Book 5)

Got no clue honestly.


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## askenase13 (Mar 1, 2009)

I started out reading Superman comicx books when i was about 6.  I don't remember my first real book, but my favroite series when i was pretty young was "The Happy Hollisters".  I rememebr that I started to write one myself.  I'd say about 9 years old.  then it was the Hardy Boys (which ARE available on the Kindle).


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

The first ones I remember were the Little Critter books by Mercer Meyer. I loved those stories!


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## ajhunter (Aug 23, 2010)

Jessica Billings said:


> I think my first non-picture book was Sideways Stories from Wayside School.


Oh my. What a great book. Aside from short picture books such as the Berenstain Bears and Little Golden Books, this was one of my early ones as well. I remember reading this and The Mouse and the Motorcycle several times.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

The first book I recall reading - and being captivated by - is _Harold and His Purple Crayon_. (It's a very "writer" sort of book.)

I read so many books when I was young, most of them blur together. Later on, I suppose my first real "book crush" was on _King of the Wind_.

Camille


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## Braumin (Aug 28, 2010)

Hop on Pop.  I was 4 or something.  never looked back!


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

East of the Sun and West of the Moon -- and I think it had this picture:









It's an old romantic memory in my brain that may or may not be false --but it's no less dear!


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

It  had to have something to  do  with  Sally, Dick,  Jane,  and a dog  - since that was how they taught us to read.. hah!


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## Five String (Jun 6, 2010)

The first book I remember completing was Charlotte's Web, although I have no detailed independent memory of what it was about, just something with a pig and a spider. I remember because I read the entire thing, and that was a big deal for me at the time.

The first book I really remember is A Wrinkle In Time. I still re-read it now and then, one of my favorite books.


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## akagriff (Sep 8, 2009)

Dick and Jane in the basement of my neighbors house.  I had a hard time figuring out t-h-e and asking my mom what the word was.  I remember my grandmother reading whinnie the pooh to me. I still have that book.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

Mindy's Marvelous Minature.  It's about a girl who buys a dollhouse that turns out to be a real house that was shrunk.

A biography of Helen Keller is the first non-fiction book I remember, and I learned to finger spell thanks to it.


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## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

Though I'm sure there were books before them, the ones that immediately come to mind were the Boxcar Children. I think I can still smell the musty covers from my gradeschool library.


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## Carol Hanrahan (Mar 31, 2009)

What Makes My Cat Purr?


I have a copy to this day - a newer one.


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## Mercius (Aug 28, 2010)

The Secret Life of Dilly McBean by Dorothy Haas. I remember the cover with a boy using the power of magnetism to move things around. I also remember being extremely disappointed with the ending. There just never seemed to be enough closure.


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## Roger E. Craig - novelist (Aug 28, 2010)

Roger E. Craig - novelist said:


> *What was the first book you remember reading*
> 
> Mine was one about *hobos * crossing America by train during the depression. I loved the story. I don't remember the title or the writer but I remember some of the story. The most memorable part was on a train. The guard-guy with the Billy club was making his way down the train to where they were hidden. He was known to be a killer of hobos. He either beat the hobos to death with the club, or if he was feeling kind, he's throw them off the train at high speed.
> The* King of the hobos * urged a mass bail out at a river bridge that was coming up. He knew the train slowed down on the bridge. All were to jump into the river. One of the hobos cried piteously, *"But I can't swim".* to which the leader roared *"Now is your chance to learn"."*
> ...


*Does nobody know the hobo book??*


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## tbrookside (Nov 4, 2009)

I have very vague memories of _The Borrowers_.

I also had some kind of short story reader with children's versions of classic stories like "A Christmas Carol" and the story of the Trojan Horse, things like that.

Sorry, I don't know about the hobo book.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

There is a movie about hobos on trains and a railroad man who throws them off or kills them. I think the railroad man might have been Lee Marvin. I just trolled IMDB for a title, but couldn't come up with it.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

R. Reed said:


> There is a movie about hobos on trains and a railroad man who throws them off or kills them. I think the railroad man might have been Lee Marvin. I just trolled IMDB for a title, but couldn't come up with it.


I know that one....Emperor of the North. No idea of Roger's book, though. Emperor of the North is (according to Wikipedia) based on a Jack London book called "The Road" and another author's book called "From Coast to Coast With Jack London". Conceivably one of them is the book, but I know nothing of them.


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## Lynn Hardy (Sep 12, 2010)

My mom couldn’t get me to learn to read on my own, so she bought a new Cinderella book and put it on our diningroom table. I begged her to read it to me. 

She said, “Read it yourself.” I’ve been hooked ever since.


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## MelissaJ (Sep 15, 2010)

Dick and Jane rings a bell, Enid Blyton was my favourite author as a child, I loved her Five Find-Outers and Malory Towers (I wanted to go to boarding school after reading Malory Towers lol)


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## Devin O&#039;Branagan Author (Jul 20, 2010)

_Little House in the Big Woods _ by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read it when I was five years old. It so fired my imagination that I not only went on to also write novels, but to live in a log cabin in the woods! I think it's amazing how deeply impressionable a child's mind is.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Groggy1 said:


> A Wrinkle in Time? The Outsiders? The Executioner (Mack Bolan Book 5)
> 
> Got no clue honestly.


_A Wrinkle in Time_ is not the first book I remember reading but the one that probably had the most influence on me as a child. I'll never forget the idea of a tesseract, and how cool I thought that was.

The first "big kid" chapter books I remember reading are the original Nancy Drew series (my mom told me she had read all of them when she was young, so I was determined to read all 56 that summer so I could keep up with her record). Great series--I still love mystery stories because of that series. Then I read The Borrowers--that series seemed so real, with such vivid descriptions and characters that I believed there were Borrowers living in my house as a child. I honestly thought Mary Norton had met a Borrower or was one herself, she imagined their world within our own so vividly.


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## Roger E. Craig - novelist (Aug 28, 2010)

R. Reed said:


> There is a movie about hobos on trains and a railroad man who throws them off or kills them. I think the railroad man might have been Lee Marvin. I just trolled IMDB for a title, but couldn't come up with it.


Thank you. At last a clue. I'll chase it down.
Roger


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## Roger E. Craig - novelist (Aug 28, 2010)

The Hooded Claw said:


> I know that one....Emperor of the North. No idea of Roger's book, though. Emperor of the North is (according to Wikipedia) based on a Jack London book called "The Road" and another author's book called "From Coast to Coast With Jack London". Conceivably one of them is the book, but I know nothing of them.



*Thank you also. I'll find it yet*.


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## 16205 (Jun 8, 2010)

The verrrrry first one. Hm.  I recall this story about a black pony-- maybe a Golden book or something similar-- that I coveted and read over and over.


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## Guest (Sep 16, 2010)

_The Black Cauldron_ and _The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe_ one summer at my Grandmothers house. I think I was 9 yrs old.


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## jackwestjr_author (Aug 19, 2010)

I read Superfudge, by Judy Bloom and loved it.


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## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

jackwestjr_author said:


> I read Superfudge, by Judy Bloom and loved it.


Nice! I'd forgotten all about Superfudge.


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## Violet (Jun 17, 2010)

First book? Dick and Jane.  First real book I chose to read was I think a Bobsy Twins mystery that involved a grandfather clock. First literature was either Little Women or Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.


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## Stones Quest (Sep 17, 2010)

The first book I read and loved was written by Walter Farley and called The Black Stallion. I was crazy about horses and guess what? I still love them.


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## IUHoosier (Aug 6, 2010)

Black Beauty was the first book I got hooked on, too.  I was in the second grade, so about seven years old, I think.  I'd been reading children's books for school and hating them up until that book.  But with Anne Sewell's story, I found my genre and quickly followed it with Watership Down, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Plague Dogs.  I think I finally grew out of my animal-book-fetish in the fourth grade when I found Stephen King....


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Violet said:


> First book? Dick and Jane. First real book I chose to read was I think a Bobsy Twins mystery that involved a grandfather clock. First literature was either Little Women or Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.


Aww, I forgot about Hans Brinker! Not the first, but a favorite...


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

I had the mumps in first grade and my grandmother got me a book to read while I was sick. It was _The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May_, the first real book I can remember reading to myself. The first book I remember owning was a golden book called _We Help Mommy_. I think I had that oneemorized and can still recite pages of it - not that I asked to do it very often.


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## libbyfh (Feb 11, 2010)

BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL. I used to make my mother take me to the library so I could check it out dozens and dozens and dozens of times...


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## William L.K. (Aug 5, 2010)

It was *Old Man and The Sea*. I still love it!


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

It was probably one of those "See spot run" deals.


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## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

D. Nathan Hilliard said:


> Mine was a creepy little book called "Jane Emily", with had something to do with the ghost of a very bad girl and one of those reflective yard balls. I read it in third or fourth grade, so I'm a little unclear on it's whole plot nowadays.


I apparently read that same book somewhere around that same age...I can't remember a single detail about it, but that description just triggered a gut feeling in me of a repressed memory. Of course, now that I have the title I'm wanting to find it and see why I buried it in the back of my mind!


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## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

I distinctly remember "The Poky Little Puppy" and "The Little Engine That Could" as early books that I read and re-read.  My first "real" chapter book was Ramona the Brave.  I absolutely loved it and read everything I could find by Cleary.  I also remember lots of Sweet Valley books (the chick-lit vein runs deep apparently, ha!)  Oh, and the Babysitter's Club, loved those.  My first "adult" book was one I lifted from my mom's nightstand drawer...I can't remember the title, but the plot was about a girl with multiple personalities...an "evil twin" so to speak who had murderous tendencies.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

ReeseReed said:


> I apparently read that same book somewhere around that same age...I can't remember a single detail about it, but that description just triggered a gut feeling in me of a repressed memory. Of course, now that I have the title I'm wanting to find it and see why I buried it in the back of my mind!


http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Emily-Patricia-Clapp/dp/0688045928

Jane Emily is available on Kindle! I never read the book and don't remember, it. But it sounds like something I would've scorned as "for girls!". Ewww!


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## JohnCStipa (Feb 19, 2010)

Not counting the Hardy Boys, the first "real" book I read was The Cask Of Amontillado by Poe. Quite engaging and an influence in my own writing.


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## Velvet Elvis (May 2, 2010)

The first book I remember reading was Ghost Dog from the Sugar Creek Gang series. I was in 4th grade at the time and it was for a book report.


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## Melonhead (Jan 1, 2010)

Maybe Heidi? Or Down the River Road, LOL. My grandmother was a 3rd grade teacher and had an old copy of this reading text in her collection. In Florida we didn't have Dick and Jane, we had Alice and Jerry, with their dog Jip. Same sparkling dialog, though.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

The first vivid book memory I have would be reading Watership Down, the summer between 3rd and 4th grade.  There were obviously books before that, but that's the one that left an impression.


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## CDChristian (Jun 4, 2010)

The Poky Little Puppy!


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

libbyfh said:


> BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL. I used to make my mother take me to the library so I could check it out dozens and dozens and dozens of times...


I loved this book. Forgot all about it.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

I loved The Poky Little Puppy, the Ramona books, the Babysitters' Club . . . this is a great thread.  It's reminding me of some too-long-forgotten good book memories.


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## SidneyW (Aug 6, 2010)

I read a lot one summer in a reading program. Wish I could remember the title of one in which the young characters had dogs named Smith, Brown and Jones. I remember one called "Clues In the Woods" that was good. Also early on a book called "The Saturday Gang." Remember them fondly if not so much specifics of the plots.


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## Kevin D. (Sep 17, 2010)

The first book I read on my own without anyone's help (not including Dr. Suess and similar books) was Charlotte's Web.  Still one of my favorites.

Although I did read The Mouse and the Motorcycle for just about every elementary school book report.


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## Talia Jager (Sep 22, 2010)

The Boxcar Children. Now, I think there's a whole series. I still have the book and have read it to my children.


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

Aravis60 said:


>


OMG! I loved this book as a kid!

My first book was a Bah-sten (Boston) favorite; Make Way For Ducklings


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## Jon King (Sep 10, 2010)

Extreme childhood:  "Pig Newton's Plaid Pants"  by H.L. Ross and Ayme Rosenberg  (since out of print, but the wife got me a copy for Christmas a couple years ago)

Later...:  Either "My Side of the Mountain" or "The Swiss Family Robinson", I'm not sure which one was first.  I ended up reading both many times, so it's probably irrelevant.


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## Nick Steckel (Sep 2, 2010)

First book I've been told I read: Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss, around age 5 or so.
First book I remember reading: Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, fourth grade


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

How do you define book? What length? It may have been, in my case, a long fairy tale. I grew up in India, and for part of my childhood had not a single book in the vicinity. The adults believed in newspapers, not books. I was in a convent boarding school for a while and there was a 'reading period" especially if a teacher was sick, and a nun brought in 30-40 short books that were mostly fairy tales and Ali Baba kinds of stories. Now that I think about it: either Robin Hood, or Ali Baba and the 40 thieves. A very simplified version, perhaps around 10,000 words at most.


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