Geek kid reading

I spotted this over at Loobylu: 67 books every geek should read to their kids before age 10.

I intentionally linked to the "Arabel's Raven," page, that is one of my favorite-books-ever-that-so-few-other-people-have-heard-of. (Most of Joan Aiken's stuff is good. She's written some fairly Gothic historical stories for children as well, which are just the thing to read in bed on a night when it's windy and rainy out).

I remember reading most of the books on the list (well, most of the ones that were out when I was a kid):

Wind in the Willows
Shel Silverstein's books.
The Princess Bride
The Hobbit (Yeah, I never made it through the whole Ring trilogy...)
Half Magic
The Borrowers
Harold and the Purple Crayon
The Mouse and His Child (which is fairly philosophically complex and I think adults might find some things in it if they read it - I've read it many times, including a couple times as an adult. I rushed to get my own copy when it came back out in hardback.)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. (That takes me back to my third grade classroom; that book was one of the "SSR" books I read in third grade)
The Phantom Tollbooth
James and the Giant Peach...

I didn't read The Railway Children or The Invention of Hugo Cabret until I was an adult, but I still enjoyed them


and oh, lots more.(Little Bear! Frog and Toad! A Wrinkle in Time!)

It makes me happy to see so many books I love on that list. (He did leave off Richard Scarry, one of my favorites, and also Bill Peet, but I guess lists can't go on and on....)


I might add a few more:

The Miss Bianca books, by Margery Sharpe (again, the language in those is so great)

The Moomintroll books (I know some people who read them said they found them "strange" or "depressing," I did not find that to be the case. I think I actually found the strangeness of some of the characters comforting, that they were not all happy perky people)

A good series of fairy tales, like the Andrew Lang "Color Fairy Books" or something like that. (Maybe not STRAIGHT Grimm for small children, but nothing too prettied up)

No Flying in the House, which is probably a book that appeals more to girls than to boys...

The 101 Dalmations, which is more complex than the Disney movie of the same name

The Chronicles of Narnia

Five Children and It (There are at least two sequels to this one as well. This is another one I didn't read until adulthood)

And Paddington! How could I forget Paddington Bear? I LOVED Paddington when I was a child, and I admit I sometimes still think about leveling a "hard stare" at someone (the "hard stare" was Paddington's main mode of defense).

There was also a series of books about bear secret agents; I forget the name of those. And one about a gang of mice who were trying to steal from a cheese shop but wound up eventually going honest? (I think).