Hello, everyone! Today, I am going to be sharing some of my favorite books from my younger years. This post was inspired by Anna Lane’s blog post, A Revisit of Childhood Books (+ My Thoughts). I enjoyed reading about some of Anna’s favorite books as a child, and I thought it would be fun to share some of my own!

These books will be roughly in chronological order of when I enjoyed reading them, and I will include books I read between ages six and twelve, as my reading habits in my teen years were pretty similar to what they are now. This list is in no way comprehensive; I was quite the voracious reader as a child, so these are just a few of my top favorites! Without further ado, here is a list of some of my favorite books when I was a child!

Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish

The Amelia Bedelia books were hands-down some of my favorite picture books as a child. The way Amelia Bedelia always took things literally and got herself into funny situations was very entertaining, and some of them had good educational value, teaching figures of speech. I enjoyed these as read-alouds and reading them on my own.

The Moody Family Series by Sarah Maxwell

This is the first chapter book series I remember really enjoying. I remember taking turns reading chapters out loud with my mom and always really looking forward to our time reading together. I liked how the characters in the book were homeschooled like I was and the family antics. I only read the first eight books in the series, along with the two Christmas specials, but there are ten books total (twelve including the Christmas ones). I went back and reread a few of these books when I was older, and while they didn’t quite capture my attention the same way and I found how perfect the kids were to be a bit annoying, I think it is still a fun read for homeschool kids, and I have good memories attached to the series.

The My America Series by various authors

This is the first chapter book series that I remember reading and enjoyed independently. This historical fiction series covers the lives of seven different children throughout different periods of American history, and each child had three different books written about them. They are written in diary format and nice, short reads for young middle-grade readers. If I remember correctly, my favorites were Meg’s Revolutionary War diaries, Joshua’s Oregon Trail diaries, and Corey’s Underground Railroad diaries. They were one of my first introductions to the genre of historical fiction, which is still one of my favorites to this day.

Prairie School by Lois Lenski

This one is a stand-alone, but it is another historical fiction story that I loved! It is about a group of children and a teacher who are caught at school during a massive blizzard in South Dakota in the 1800s. This was an engaging, suspenseful survival story. My history-loving self also liked the fact that it was based on a true story (and that my library’s copy was an old edition from the 1970s or something like that, lol).

The A Life of Faith Series adapted from the novels of Martha Finley

I read these books when I was nine or ten, and I LOVED them! Similar to My America, there are actually different books centered around different characters, so there are 10 about Elsie, 10 about Violet (Elsie’s daughter), 10 about Millie, 1 about Laylie, and 4 about Kathleen (though I never finished the Kathleen books because they were so different from the other books in the series, I didn’t enjoy them). Elsie and Violet’s stories are based off the original Elsie Dinsmore series by Martha Finley, and Millie’s stories are based off the Mildred Keith series by the same author. These historical fiction stories follow the girls as they grow up, fall in love, go through different historical events and changes in their lives, and more. They have a lot of good Biblical lessons and encouragement, too. I couldn’t get enough of these books and was sad when I finished the series. Oddly enough, I haven’t ever done a full re-read of the series since then, though, but I would like to sometime in the future!

The Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series by Janet and Geoff Benge

I discovered this series when I was around nine years old, and they were my first introduction to Christian biographies. I enjoyed learning about many heroes of the faith through these books. They are written in an interesting narrative style, and the stories and testimonies were always so inspiring to me. My favorites in the series were George Muller, Gladys Aylward, and Corrie ten Boom.

Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter

I was interested in reading the book after watching the old Disney movie starring Hayley Mills, and I ended up enjoying the book even more than the movie! I loved Pollyanna’s upbeat attitude. I also read and enjoyed the sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up, which stars a young adult Pollyanna, along with some romance and mystery! This is one of the first classics that I read, and it led me to seeking out and enjoying other classic children’s and young adult novels such as Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Daddy Long-Legs, and A Little Princess.

The Prairie River Series by Kristiana Gregory

This was my top favorite series as an 11-year-old! I enjoyed the historical setting (in the West right after the Civil War), the threads of romance, and the Christian themes. The story follows 14-year-old orphan, Nessa, as she flees an arranged marriage to a much older man and her journey to a new life out West. Looking back, these books were a bit cheesy, but as a preteen girl, they were very enjoyable!

The Viking Quest Series by Lois Walfrid Johnson

This series was amazing! I read the books in one day or two each, they were so exciting! The story followed Bree and her brother Devin after they were kidnapped from their Ireland home by Vikings and their journey back home. The Viking, Mikkel, was my favorite character, and I enjoyed *SPOILER ALERT!* his change of heart and his and Bree’s budding romance. *END SPOILER!* I also loved the Adventures of the Northwoods series by the same author, which were fun middle-grade mysteries set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in the 1900s.

Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk

Another historical fiction book (can you tell I was a historical fiction fan? :P), this one followed the story of Crow, who was abandoned as a baby and found and raised by a man named Osh on an island in Massachusetts, as she seeks to learn more about her family history. The story was fascinating, and the true history behind it was sad but interesting to learn about. Also, I just love Wolk’s writing style. It is so beautiful and lyrical. I was also obsessed with the beautiful cover, haha.

Through the Tunnel by Rebekah A. Morris

I read this one shortly before my 13th birthday, and it was my first introduction to Christian indie fiction. I had stumbled upon Kate Willis’ blog at Once Upon an Ordinary through hearing about her book Keira from a different blogger (which I also read and enjoyed not long after ;)), and I found her review of Through the Tunnel. I had recently read and enjoyed several books about kids in foster care, so this one looked like it would be right up my alley. It definitely was, and I ended up reading it four times in the span of three years I enjoyed it so much! I just loved the sweet story of Lissa and her twin brother, Leigh, finally finding a family after so many years in foster care.

Well, I will stop the list there, though there are so many other amazing books I read as a kid that I could mention! As I was looking back at the lists of books I read during my childhood years (my mom kept track of them all once I started school, plus I started keeping track on my own when I was ten), I found so many favorites that I had forgotten about, too, so it was hard to choose!

One last thing before I go: the e-book version of The People Beneath the Petals by H.A. Yang is now available! I recently read this middle grade non-magical fantasy story and greatly enjoyed it! Click the image below to find the e-book on Amazon, or click here to read my review!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about a few of my favorite childhood books. Let me know in the comments what your favorite childhood books were!