Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The books you read when you were young...

The big three that I remember reading very early were the unexpurgated "Gulliver's Travels" by J. Swift, "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien, and "The Dying Earth" by Jack Vance. I think I read Gulliver before age 6, and all of these before age 7. I don't remember reading any books prior to Gulliver but after the first book I read on my own, "Little Bear" by Sendak. I must have, though. I know I read the other two fairly soon after Gulliver, but it's hard to remember.

I don't think I was necessarily too young to read them content-wise, though there are some off-color/racy parts in Gulliver. I think that "The Dying Earth" probably encouraged a love of post-apocalyptic yarns, and the bleak and fantastic in general. To this day Jack Vance is one of my favorite writers. I don't know that Lord of the Rings changed me much, but boy did I love it at that age.

I had to dig up this thread because I JUST remembered the name of a book that I've been trying to remember for ages!
No Flying In the House
DId anyone else read it? I'm putting it on hold at the library asap. It's a good little read (as I remember)

I've been looking for that one for DD for ages. Our library doesn't have it.

Thanks for digging it up! I missed this thread the first time.

Others have mentioned books that I still remember so fondly, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time (well, all, Madeline L'Engle really), Ann of Green Gables, and all Douglas Adams and Roald Dahl as well. All magical in my memory.

On the other hand, I remember being upset at The Velveteen Rabbit, Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan. But as far as having lasting effect I'd have to go with Watership Down, which I read when I was 6 or 7. I think I was actually kind of traumatized by the violence. I remember being a little mad at my mom for giving it to me. I also have a vivid memory of staying up very late sitting in front of the heat vent in the winter to finish reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry and crying, but I must have been a bit older then.

Bridge to Terabithia

No Flying in the House - I never read it, but it was one of my dd's favorite. I still remember the vacation that she read it!

All these books - I don't remember reading them as a child (I guess I am too old and the grey matter has deteriorated), but my dyslexic son and I have enjoyed so many of these - Roll of Thunder, all of Richard Peck, Madeline L'Engle, Charlotte's Web, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings.

His Dyslexia is a huge challenge, but since "he loves literature and hates to read", we have had an opportunity to enjoy these books together - in ways I never enjoyed with my dd who read them independently. There is almost always a silver lining.

Oh--Oh!!

The mention of Watership Down made me remember this one (why I associate the two books in my head is beyond me, but anyway-- I do):


Jonothan Livingston Seagull.

My dad gave it to me when I was about eight.

Transformative; the parallels to what life is like as a gifted child were unmistakable. It was as if the book was speaking specifically to me, about my life, and not just about seagulls.
I must have been in my twenties before I realized that most people think it is some sort of new-agey parable about the meaning of life. I just thought it was about the gifted experience.


One of my father's last gifts to me was a lovely signed edition he found for me (back when haunting bookstores was an art form) when I was about sixteen. It's one of my most treasured possessions.

Fiction was never my thing, unless it was in the form of a movie. For me it was encyclopedias and text books. I did however read one fiction book in grade 4 as it was the last book my adult cousin had read, just before a car accident. It was "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", a somewhat explicit book. Wrote a book report on it (left out the explicit stuff) and always wondered if the teacher knew how adult the book was.

For all the other required reading in school, I just read the odd paragraph and skimmed the books. Managed to get good marks without ever reading the whole books.

I desperately wanted to be Claudia in From the Mixed Up Files and Mary in The Secret Garden. I felt like I was living Mrs. Frisby's adventures in Nimh, wanted to be the 5th Musketeer and traveled with Gulliver all over the world.

But the 3 books that had the most impact on my life were To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I clearly remember that I read Mockingbird when I was in 3rd grade and made it my life's mission to be Atticus Finch (failed miserably!). I don't necessarily think that I was too young for the story, but I obviously appreciated it more with each successive reading.

I don't know when I first read Wuthering Heights, but I do know that I have never felt such a kinship (?) with a book or an author. As soon as I read it, I then read a biography of Emily Bronte and found her poetry, and my love of that genre was born. To this day, I enjoy reading poetry even more than books.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn opened my eyes to the way the poor suffered. I was a quite sheltered, middle class child who never had to worry about where my next meal was coming from. This book taught me about the lives of too many children, and I think I must have read it too early. I remember enjoying it, but I also remember going into a pretty deep depression for quite some time after. I would say middle school at least for my son.

And not a book, but I have to put in a plug for A Misummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, since they led to a love of theater, broadway and ballet.

I'll stop, because I could go on and on and on...

Oh, The Mixed Up Files and Mrs. Frisby. I LOVED them, and reread them many times. I also adored the Adventure Children series by Enid Blyton, and Snow Treasure by Marie Mcswigan. And my children have loved them all (the best part of being a parent, IMHO, is sharing my favorite books with them).