Recently, a challenge has been going around Facebook to post the top ten books that have influenced or stayed with you most. As the book lover I am, I thought I might as well and post it here. In forming my list, I realized that I had way too many favorite books. Also, I realized many of them are children’s books. It’s amazing what can stay with you at the time it does and the way it does.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith This book. Oh, this book. I read it sometime in the past two years and it’s been one of my favorites since. So much of this book connects to my heart. I miss it right now, as I haven’t read it in a while. It’s absolutely beautiful. Not does this book only hold my heart in its thoughts, but also in its love for books: “From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.”
The Giver, Lois Lowry One of the first books as I read as a child and was left in absolute awe of the world. I owe a lot of my love for both literature and hard thoughts to this book. Anyone can read this book and be affected, but I think it’s crucial that children read it. Lowry’s writing style has always made me want to write.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh/The House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne Childhood fantasy and emotion come from these stories. They mean so much to me.
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis As a child who listened to these stories before she could read herself, they are some of my fondest memories. Books like these show me that stories are more than mere words on a page. They can mold us throughout our lives.
Catcher In The Rye, J. D. Salinger I read this book when I ran away, otherwise known as vacationed, to New York this March. Holden Caulfield shared his cynical thoughts to me in airplanes, airports, and NYC itself. Holden’s phobia of growing up and desires matched what was swimming in my mind at the time. Where the ducks go when the pond freezes over in the winter? I don’t know, Holden, I don’t know.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald One of the only books I’ve read several times and its felt like the first every single sentence. Gatsby’s portrait of the crumbling American dream that we could never reach is important. This spring, I finished re-reading it in a playground at sunset and remember thinking to myself “How can words mean so much when they speak of something so meaningless?”. I suppose it is because we know there is more.
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling I need not say anything else.
Little House On The Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder Growing up, I was obsessed with pioneers and the west. Laura’s stories were the ones I re-read til they fell apart and imagined them farther way into the night. When I think about what has inspired me to be a writer and the life I desire, I owe so much to Laura.
A Chance to Die, Elisabeth Elliot One of the first missionary biographies I read. The one that made me feel every emotion, good and bad, about the mission field. Amy Carmichael’s story is one I want to reflect with my own life.
The Diary of A Young Girl, Anne Frank. I’m quite convinced this book is possibly one of the best things ever written. Anne Frank’s diary isn’t a book someone worked at years and edited over and over. It’s true and real words from a girl in a real world. It still affects me as it did when I read it two years ago.
Honorable mentions: Safely Home (Randy Alcorn), Surprised by Joy (C. S. Lewis), The Book Thief (Markus Zusak), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell), Walk Two Moons (Sharon Creech), Les Miserables (Victor Hugo), The Lord of The Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien), Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney), and (If short stories count) The Birthmark (Nathaniel Hawthorne). There’s too many to count. How glad I am the world is mine for reading.
run free 
SO many of these are so, so good, but finally, someone else who loves Miss Rumphius! That book is amazing, even if it is a children’s book. Both the story and the illustrations are simply wonderful.
yes. love “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and “The Giver”.
this is a fantastic list, Neeley!
I approve of this list.