Last Week's Top Ten Tuesday List from The Broke and the Bookish: What are your top ten childhood favorites?
I just can't resist questions and lists about books. Here goes.....

1. Nancy Drew (all of the classic series--before Nancy went modern with leather mini skirts and all that other nonsense): Most particularly The Clue of the Broken Locket. This one just captures everything I loved about Nancy and I probably read it at least 50 times. Every time I ran out of new things to read, I went back to this. My mom (who gave me her set of 5-6 1950s editions) and Nancy are responsible for my irrepressible love of mysteries. It's the genre I always return to.

2. Trixie Belden (again, all of the classic series): But if I have to choose one then I'll go with The Secret of the Mansion--the first of the series and the one that introduces us to Trixie and most of the core group for the Bob Whites. When I was growing up, I wanted to be in the Bob Whites. Another mystery series, naturally.

3. The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. I wish I had known that there were more of this series about the Melendy family when I was young. My grandmother (who worked at the local school) often was allowed to bring home books that were culled from the school library from one reason or another. She brought this one to me and I fell in love with the Melendy kids. No real mysteries in this one, just a great story about a family of city dwellers getting used to their big, rambling house and life in the country.

4. Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. This story about a boy who loves chocolate so much and eats it on everything who suddenly breaks out in chocolate spots always cracked me up.

5. Ghosts Who Went to School by Judith Spearing. This one is about the interactions of Wilbur & Mortimer, two ghosts who are bored with staying at home and decided to join the fun at the local school. This book marked my first acquaintance with the musical instrument called the glockenspiel. It's the instrument Wilbur, I think, wants to play in music class....

6. Clarence the TV Dog by Patricia Lauber. A rollicking good story about Clarence who loves tv and actually winds up on TV.

7. Harry Cat's Pet Puppy by George Selden. The stories by Selden about the animals who live in the Times Square subway station are classic, feel-good children's stories. I loved this one where Harry and Tucker Mouse take in the poor bedraggled puppy and then have to find a home for him when he outgrows the drainpipe where they live.

8. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Although the fairy tales and fables in his collections weren't actually written by Lang, he put together some great collections of the darker versions of popular stories (like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). These aren't Disney's take on fairy tales, but I loved them.

9. Tom Thumb (not sure of the author on this one). Another one brought home to me by my grandma. An old version (like, 1909 or so...I don't have it in front of me), but no matter how many times I come across different versions, this one's my favorite.

10. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. I loved reading about this plucky, fearless girl and her wacky adventures. Made me want to have adventures of my own....not that I ever did, really.