Friday, May 30, 2014

Armchair Bea (Friday) - Memory Lane and Wrap Up (technically Saturday)

Today's Armchair BEA prompt:

Middle Grade/Young Adult 

Our final genre of discussion is one that we know is a popular one these days: books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult. If you do not normally talk about this genre on your site, maybe you want to feature books that you remember impacting you during this stage in your life. If this is where you tend to gravitate, maybe you want to list your favorites, make recommendations based on genres, or feature some titles that you are excited to read coming later this year. 


So basically I'm going to talk about little Wesley's favorite books. They are not in any real order.Ready? Ready.






The Boxcar Children (The Boxcar Children, #1)


This series totally made me want to run away from home and live in the woods. Even in the 90s that wouldn't have ended well.



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A book about tub toys, I'm all in. Even though there's one kind of scary point. Look how cute the puppy is!





The Call of the Wild

I read a lot of Jack London. Puppies and danger and a wild setting, yes please!




The Hounds of the Morrigan

I still love this book. It still sits on my bookshelf and I read it once a year.


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I loved this whole series. I'm pretty sure I read them all. 


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I can't believe she's retired! Bums me out!


There was also a children's book I loved called "Underwear is Fun to Wear" and it was a zebra and some other animal and they wore like 15 pairs of underwear everyday and they loved it because it came in so many colors and was so great. Here's a helpful FYI, when searching that through amazon.com the things that come up will not be beloved children's books from your past. It will be like, men "elephant" underwear and other things that you are not expecting when looking for a kids book. So no cover for you on that one....



Do we share any childhood books?


I'm going to be off in the country for the rest of this weekend, so you're getting your Saturday wrap up a day early. I had so much fun this week, though I'm totally zoinked. I can't imagine how exhausted out organizers and coordinators are, I'm exhausted just posting and cheerleading! 

Thank you so much to the organizers for all the work they done. Thanks to the other bloggers, it was so fun to read new blogs and take part in all kinds of discussions with you. I loved whoever ran the contests where you had to share your middle name, and the other one where you had to write a haiku, that was hilarious!

 It was my first Armchair BEA and I'm already excited thinking about next year.

Also, if you're interested there's room for you to review our favorite women authored book, or talk about your favorite woman author for my blog for All Lady July!

43 comments:

  1. I'm having fun today guessing the ages of people by their childhood favorites! The Boxcar Children is on my list -- most of the rest are too new to be part of my childhood. For some reason, I didn't encounter Jack London until I was an adult. I'm old enough that London was probably pushed on the boys.

    Have a great weekend! So glad that you enjoyed Armchair BEA. It's been a blast!

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    1. haha I'm 28! I think you're right, London was probably "boy reading" for most. I was born in Alaska and had/have family there so I think I was trying to connect to that.

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  2. Call of the Wild looks interesting! I still read some MG books now and then and enjoy them.

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    1. Jack London is really great in general. And an interesting life story to boot!

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  3. I remember reading the Boxcar Children, Call of the Wild, and all the American Girl books that were available when I was a kid. I'd like to get my kids into them but idk they don't seem to be the same as when I read them. Maybe I'm too old. lol

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    1. haha, well at least the American Girls ones they have more recent ones. Boxcar children looks pretty idealized nowdays.

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  4. Ooh I remember the Boxcar Children. That was a good one!

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    1. So many fun adventures when you're homeless orphans, who knew?

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  5. Omg! Was this the book you were talking about? http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61fVJjzwStL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg I loved this book as a kid! And I also had all the Samantha books and the Samantha doll. Love American Girl! Great post :D and have fun traveling!

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    1. YEEESSSSSSSS!!!! Oh my gosh! That's right it was a orangutan and a stork (obviously). Thanks so much for finding it. After reading it, did you always try to wear every piece of underwear you owned at the same time? (Or was that just me and my sister? lol)

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  6. I absolutely loved Boxcar Children whenever I was a child. I still want to bring home a boxcar to live in every time I see a train!

    Kristen @ Pretty Little Pages

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    1. It's be super spacious. Plenty of room for activities! No plumbing is a bummer. They never talk about THAT, haha

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  7. I know the Underwear book you're talking about! My two older kids loved it when they were little - I was reading it out loud all the time. And there was one very grumpy animal who didn't want to wear the fun underwear but they changed his mind. Very fun book.

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    1. Awesome! Yeah I think the grumpy animal was a rhino? Or a hippo? If I was a rhino I don't think underwear would be high priority! Haha

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  8. I didn't read any of these! I loved Sweet Valley High and a horror series I no longer remember. The cover on Deceived though. Wow.

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    1. Oh my gosh. The whole series has covers that bad. It's all about a teenage girl who is home schooled and hangs out only with her grandma and is an amateur sleuth. There was always a heart warming lesson at the end too! Like full house, haha

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  9. Quote:
    <>.
    LOL. I suppose it was educational, but it does sound fun...and weird. In a good way though ;).
    It's really odd I can't remember many books from my early years, though I was a voracious reader. Any Christmas or birthday brought me a book. It would be nice to have kept them. For some reasons, the only one I still own (apart from an Italian book telling the adventures of a cat, because it's partly set in my town) is Momo by Michael Ende. Anyway, I can remember A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Some things are still vivid in my mind, like the endless list of items she received for her doll! And the attic of course, though I can't remember how she was released from it.

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    1. Oops, sorry, I meant to quote this:
      "There was also a children's book I loved called "Underwear is Fun to Wear" and it was a zebra and some other animal and they wore like 15 pairs of underwear everyday"
      but I used the wrong kind of bracket and it didn't show up.

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  10. Oye, I'm afraid I'm of the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames -- oh ,that so dates me -- and The Bobbsey Twins era. (Sorry, I have to go start up my juicer, I'm suddenly feel a bit old.) LOL

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    1. I was just talking about someone with Nancy Drew this weekend. I never understood how she was good at EVERYTHING she tried.

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  11. I loved the Boxcar children too, and I'm sure I would've loved The Hounds of the Morrigan if I had gotten my hands on it. I might try to . . . ;)

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    1. It's so good, even now as a "grown up". It was the first book over like 300 pages that I read as a kid, I felt so advanced.

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  12. Omg! How did I forget the An American Girl books! Well then, I suppose I'll wish you a fun trip and glad to meet a fellow newbie of Armchair BEA!

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    1. I was surprised they didn't show up more on other peoples list. Maybe it's just because of the range of everyone's ages.

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  13. My daughter LOVES Boxcar Children. And my older one listened to the audio until I could (and still can) sing the theme song in my sleep.

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  14. I loved the Boxcar Children when I was younger too! I read a lot of mystery back then - Nancy Drew and the 3 Investigators were my other two favorites. The Hounds of the Morrigan sounds like something I would have enjoyed though - maybe someday with my own little one! :)

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    1. I did the mystery thing a lot too, even if the mystery was "who dyed the hotel pool water PURPLE!" which was totally a book, haha.

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  15. THE BOXCAR CHILDREN! I only read the first few when I was younger, but I LOVED them :D

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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  16. Oh I loooved The Boxcar Children so much. I wanted to run away and find a rail car of my own!

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    1. Right?! It made it sound like there were abandoned cars out there all willy nilly just waiting for occupants!

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  17. I loved the Boxcar Children! I remember my second grade teacher reading those books to us. Can't wait to read them to my kids.

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    1. It seems like they'd be perfect read out loud books to kids.

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  18. I LOVED the Boxcar Children books as a kid. I remember checking the out from the library. I think I have a couple and I am going to have to find them to share with my daughter!

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    1. Yes! I feel like our library was always stocked with them.

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  19. I, too, like the Boxcar Children!

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  20. Nice list of childhood books. I loved the Boxcar Children books. It has been a pleasure meeting you during Armchair BEA.

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  21. I love seeing childhood favorites, too! I missed out the Boxcar Children excitement completely, not sure when they were around. Maybe I was too old and my kids were too young! My daughters loved the American Girl books and I remember reading The Tub People to them when they were little!

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  22. You know (and really this even be so with me being a librarian???) I have never read a BoxCar Children. Yeah. Better change that!

    AND--you won my giveaway from yesterday. Will be emailing you shortly to get your address. Congrats!

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Thank you so much for your comment. I'd love to talk books with you!