TOP TEN TUESDAY: Top Ten Childhood Favourites

Hello everybody! This week I am starting a new weekly feature called 'Top Ten Tuesday.' This meme type thing came from thebrokeandthebookish and as they already have a long list of ‘top tens’ in place I figured I’d cut my workload and use their list as a guide. That means that my first ‘top ten’ is ‘Top Ten Childhood Favourites’ so I’m going to cut to the chase and get started.

1.       Famous Five Go to Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

   I read all 21 of the Famous Five books and so did my Mum, proving that these books are timeless, Treasure Island was just one of my personal favourites. I also loved the Secret Seven series by Blyton. The Famous Five have trumped them however, because even as a teenager I really would love to go for a picnic and ginger ale with George, Anne, Timmy, Julian and Dick.

2.       Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling

    Anyone who has read my other ‘favourite book/series’ posts will know that Harry Potter will forever be in a different league in terms of books to me, and movies really. I’m ridiculously emotionally involved, POA is my favourite book by a mile, and it is also the first film from the series that I saw in the cinema, aged 7. Deathly Hallows and Goblet of Fire are second joint.

3.       Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

   I really wasn’t a fan of the ‘classics’ when I was younger but I did love Ballet Shoes and Little Women, I re-read it twice after the remake with Emma Watson was released. Good old fashioned novel.

4.       The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

  I loved this entire series, they really appealed to the side of me that is very much like Klaus in the books, curious and willing to learn. I’m proud to say that 8 year old me learnt the words ‘austere,’ ‘penultimate’ and ‘ersatz’ purely from the covers of these books. I still have all 13 in my bookcase and they are some of my most prized possessions.

5.       The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

  I still think this book is one of the cleverest concepts for young children, the illustrations are beautiful and the holes in the book makes it good for even very, very young children.

6.       Guess How Much I Love You? By Sam McBratney

Probably the first book I ever remember, it’s still tucked away somewhere. I can’t exactly vouch for the intellectual quality of this book but it’s so damn cute I don’t care, basically following the age of argument between young children and their parents about who loves the other more.

7.       The Twits by Roald Dahl

     Just as there needed to be an Enid Blyton on the list, Roald Dahl was necessary for this to accurately reflect my childhood. I was more than a little obsessed, to the point that I collected the magazine that was released in the mid 2000’s about him and his books. The Twits just edged out George’s Marvellous Medicine and Matilda as my favourite, almost purely because the monkeys are brilliantly genius characters.

8.       Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz

   The Alex Rider series is my absolute go-to for anyone who says they don’t enjoy reading. They are easy enough going for a child to read easily and yet exciting enough for a teenager to still enjoy. They have worked on more than 1 occasion in encouraging my friends to read more. I still have to read the last couple of books in the series but Point Blanc is one of my favourite books ever.

9.       Artemis Fowl and The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer

I read this entire series of books in Primary Seven, along with every other book in our class library which included ‘The Book Thief’ so I really do have my teacher to thank for some of my favourite books because in terms of books aimed at 8-12 year old these are only preceded, in my mind, by series’ number 8 and 10 on this list. Artemis is one of these characters you wish you could hate, but you can’t bring yourself too. I love a good story about fairies, goblins and the supernatural too.

10.   Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson

Hands down favourite action series in the whole entire world ever. Maximum Ride is also up there with my favourite characters ever, she is everything that bookish-eleven year old me aimed to be. A kickass teen GIRL hero who was incredibly sarcastic and was able to completely annihilate a group of enemies before making dinner for her younger ‘siblings.’ The whole ‘DNA manipulation’ theme was really interesting and the running plot line about the flock’s birth parents makes for an interesting back story. Modern, kick-ass and some of the best young-adult and children’s books going. 

  I plan on continuing this and I have the next few weeks worth planned out already which is extremely unusual for me! I'll hopefully be finished the book I'm currently reading by Thursday so I can give you another book review and then I have another new feature for you all on Friday! Until then, adios!