1-A Little Princess/Burnett (all my favorite genres in one: orphans, historical fiction, school story)2-Anne of Green Gables/Montgomery (the ultimate orphan)
3-A Traveler in Time/Uttley (time travel, and one of my other favorite things, Elizabethan England)
4-Betsy-Tacy series (if I had to pick just one, I guess Betsy and Joe)
5-Masha/Mara Kay (not very well known but adored by anyone who read it, orphans and school story)
6-Charlotte Sometimes/Farmer (school story and time travel and I think she’s an orphan too)
7-The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Aiken (orphans almost always a theme with Aiken)
8-Ballet Shoes/Streatfeild (although Skating Shoes a close second) (more orphans)
9-Knight’s Castle/Eager (although it is hard to pick my favorite Eager between this and Seven Day Magic and The Time Garden)
10-Diamond in the Window/Langton (yet more orphans)
Runners-Up
Time at the Top/Ormondroyd
The Lark and the Laurel/Willard (first in one of my all time favorite series)
The Prydain series/Alexander
Emily series/Montgomery (Powell’s has these in YA but AOGG in middle grades-as a series I like these better but AOGG beats them out individually)
Emmy Keeps a Promise/Chastain
Autumn Term/Forest (I am tempted to count this but did not read it until grown up)
I did this one the other day too! And it was insanely difficult to choose! I like your list - lots of unique titles!!
ReplyDeleteI am not publishing my list (which I just submitted), but wanted to say I was so pleased to see your image because I ended up with Wolves of Willoughby Chase at number one. (I am very fond of Laura Lippman's appreciation of Wolves, published in Shelf Discovery, by the way.)
ReplyDeleteI really hope some men contribute lists, because I think theirs would be quite different.
I had to leave off Judith of France by Margaret Leighton (which I adore) because no one has else has read it except my mother, whose copy I have, also all of Robin McKinley (I suppose I could have kept Beauty but that is not my favorite) and And Both Were Young, which is definitely YA in the new version. I am not sure about the new edition of Charlotte Sometimes. I will check to see if my nieces' copy is revised.
ReplyDeleteI do love the Wolves of Willoughby Chase but was not absolutely sure it belonged in my top ten. Then one of the criteria I used was how many times I had reread it. I really need to read the whole series in order (because I have missed some of the late ones) but there is no time.
Oh, I should have thought to make our brother Scott do it! Though many of his favorites are the same as ours, Beverly Cleary, Elizabeth Enright, Edward Eager.
ReplyDeleteI only counted the first four Betsy-Tacy book as middle grade; Betsy says in the comments that only single books can be nominated, not series, so I chose one. I also left off Beauty when I realized I included it just because I was rereading it at the time (though I think it's marvelous). I also think it's not really middle grade.
Well I'm with her on the first two books ... "A Little Princess" was one of my favorites as a child. And I just "discovered" Anne of Green Gables this year and fell in love. I wish I'd read it as a young girl ... I would have been in heaven.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many wonderful books here. I would include The Wood-Be-Goods and New Treasure Seekers, which I adore. Or at least one of them. But what could leave the list?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess that the Would-Be-Goods!
ReplyDeleteMy mother likes the Bastables better than I do. If I were choosing a Nesbit, it would be Harding's Luck which is my favorite. However, I am more perturbed at having omitted The Sherwood Ring.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it stands up, but as a girl I LOVED "Jessamy" which was orphans and time travel. Think I will go reread....
ReplyDelete