YA books

Old School Book Favorites!

Angela54 Comments

I was a voracious reader growing up; I would read a book in a day, easily, and quickly collected quite the collection of books in my preteen and teen years by going to the grocery store with my Mom. They had a section of paperbacks, and I got one on every trip. The fact that I had the book read before I went to bed that night did not please her any, but I always reread my books. I lost so many of those paperbacks when they were stored in my parent’s basement and they had a water issue. To replace them now is near impossible as these older books are very expensive.

If you have followed me for a while you know that William W. Johnstone was my favorite author as a teen, and I could not read his horror stories fast enough. I honestly cannot believe my Mom bought them for me, considering what the covers looked like. Go Mom! “Rockinghorse” sent me down a path that literally had me typing a letter to him on my sister’s typewriter, telling him how much his story inspired me, and that I wanted to become a writer. It led to several back-and-forth correspondences, and I am so blessed that he sent me a couple autographed books which are among my prized possessions. As well as the letters I received from him. He went on to write many Western series, which have always been on the best-sellers lists.

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators were another set of books I always checked out of the school library. I read the series several times, but unfortunately now, they have become collector’s prizes and to even get a hard cover book is very expensive.

Encyclopedia Brown anyone? How I loved those stories. And who could ever not read Beverly Cleary? She got me through some tough teenage angst! And my favorite elementary school book was “The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang”. A picture after every 2-3 page story for you to figure out the clues. That one will set you back over $30.00 if you try to buy it now. I have my beat-up-worn-out-copy in my library.

Adventures of the Black Hand Gang Cover Image

What are your favorite books that you cannot let go of?

Nancy Drew – The Series

Angela48 Comments

Can you believe that I had never read a single Nancy Drew book while I was growing up? The same goes for The Hardy Boys. I’m not sure why, as I saw them every time I was in the library. Which was a lot.
What I was reading included The Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown, and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. Throw in some Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume, and you get an understanding of how I spent my younger years.

Judy Blume cover imageEncyclopedia Brown Cover ImageBeverly Cleary Cover ImageThe Boxcar Children Cover Image
I picked up 4 Nancy Drew books at my library this weekend; books 1, 3, 5, and 6. Of course books 2 and 4 were nowhere to be found. I’ll get those later if I come across them. I enjoyed reading these books. They are quick, and easy to read. I love the old-school storytelling and the nostalgia of the stories. No cell phones, internet, social networking, etc etc. All the things we cram our lives with now to make ourselves busier than we should ever be, are nowhere to be found here. I find a sense of comfort in these stories as well as the others I read while I was growing up.
My very favorite book growing up? This one~

Adventures of the Black Hand Gang Cover Image

What was your favorite series growing up, and like me, do you go back on occasion and read them again?

The Books of my Childhood That I Could Not Get Enough Of! (Still Can’t)

Angela20 Comments

One of the joys of having children, or nieces and nephews, friends with kids, neighbors with kids, or just knowing young kids, is that you get to introduce them to the stories you loved when you were young. I may or may not have used my kids as an excuse to go back and read all of my favorites, over and again. There were numerous trips to the library, and I have bookshelves full of stories I can pick up whenever I want a quick read to take me back to my childhood.

These stories are timeless; at least to me. I wish I could remember the first book I ever read that put me on the path of loving books. It does not matter now, but I would love to read it again.

This is certainly not like any cover I had growing up!

The first series I recall reading was “The Boxcar Children“. Gertrude Chandler Warner wrote the first 19 stories in this series, but there are now over 130 titles! I am positive I have not read any of them written beyond Mrs. Warner’s stories, and am unsure at this point if I would want to go back and read further into the series when she did not write them. The series has its own website, and you can visit it here: http://www.boxcarchildren.com/content.cfm/boxcar-children-books

“Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators” by Robert Arthur is another series that I have read over-and-over again. I have not had the time to do it lately, but I would often go to the library and check out as many of these books as they would let me, and spend my weekend reading them for the umpteenth time!

From The Screaming Clock cover, courtesy of http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/
From The Screaming Clock cover, courtesy of http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/

There is a website dedicated to collectors and fans of these books, with a lot of other great information, including forums. If you enjoyed these books as well, be sure to visit the site here: http://www.threeinvestigatorsbooks.com/

If you loved The Three Investigators stories, you must have read “Encyclopedia Brown” as well. Donald J. Sobol had every young reader wanting to be the neighborhood detective. A fun series to read, for those of us who could just not figure out the solution, you could always find it in the back of the book. I know I had several “A-ha” moments reading these stories.

The covers on the books I read did not look like this!
The covers on the books I read did not look like this!

I have to admit that I never read the Narnia series of books by C.S. Lewis until I was an adult. I have no idea how that ever happened, but it is truly one of my favorite sets of books to read. I was fortunate enough to get to read Harry Potter right along with my girls, and J.K. Rowling is probably as responsible as I am for the fact that I have 4 daughters who truly love reading.

What books did you read as a child, and do you ever go back and read them now?

The Wychetts – William Holley

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This was a great, quick read full of laughs and not complicated in the least. This is definitely a YA series (this is book 1) or at least 4 or 5 that are published, with the promise of more titles to come.

The Wychetts Book 1 Cover

The story focuses on Bryony, a presumed teenage girl and her father, Bill. Bill is newly married to Jane, who brings along with her a 10 year old son, Edwin. Bill takes it upon himself to purchase a new family home for all of them, sight unseen. I chose to ignore the fact that no one in their right mind, or any mind, would ever do this. He did not even get the seller’s name or any information. Okay, so we are just going to move along and ignore the clearly impossible things happening here, and enjoy the story for the fun read it is meant to be. This house, called Wychetts (pronounced Witchitts), was created 500 years ago to ensnare the magic from the Guardians, to be used by the Dark One.

Bryony and Edwin are of course 2 Guardians, and Bill buying the house was not by accident. It was all planned in order to take the magic from the guardians and use it for evil.

There is nothing too scary here, and I would definitely let my 10 year old read it. Other than some talk of overgrown spiders, I did not see anything that would be of concern to young readers or their parents. I read it easily in a few hours, and will definitely read the other ones published to date. If you have young readers in your home, these books would be great gifts!

Visit there website for more information here: http://www.wychetts.com/Wychetts/Wychetts.html

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If you missed my Thursday post and the chance for the free Amazon gift cards, be sure to go check it out and register to get your name in the drawing. There’s a couple few days left and I would love a great turn-out for this give-away before my next one 🙂 You can find it here: https://booksandopinions.com/2014/11/06/give-away-1-for-your-holiday-season/