Top Ten Tuesday

What a fun idea! We love lists, and the folks at The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme called "Top Ten Tuesday" - in which they offer a topic, and bloggers post their personal top ten. Make sure you click on the link to see what other bloggers have posted.

The topic this week is: the ten books you wish you had read as a child. This is tough, because Miss Ami read EVERYTHING when she was younger. Her family lived way out in the country, and she always checked out the max of 50 books whenever she got to go to the library. She would often read 2 or 3 while standing in line, and have to go grab a few more at the last minute. There were a few that escaped her notice, though (or just weren't published yet), so here are her picks:

1. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Always a nature-lover, I would have swooned over the idea of helping a garden regenerate itself. Kid walking, father home, blah blah, whatever - but I would have been madly in love with Dickon.

2. The Pink Refrigerator, by Tim Egan. I was painfully shy for much of my childhood, and this might have eased me into trying new things sooner.

3. Christmas Tapestry, by Patricia Polacco. I would have loved the tear-jerker aspect, and hopefully would have absorbed the all-things-work-together-for-His-purpose message.

4. Wabi Sabi, by Mark Reibstein. Hmm - many of these are centering around concepts I wish I'd understood and embraced much earlier in life - like the ability to find the beauty in the ordinary.

5. The Araboolies of Liberty Street, by Sam Swope. I 'discovered' this book in a workshop as an adult, and immediately squeed and paired it off with The Big Orange Splot, by Daniel M. Pinkwater. That one I did read when I was younger, and adored.

6. 101 Questions Children Ask About God (and its sequels), by David Veerman. Simple, straightforward, nondenominational answers to questions I didn't know I necessarily had, and wouldn't have known who to ask them to.

7. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, by Bruce Coville. I would have read this one to pieces. Our library has three copies, and a giant stuffed dragon named Tiamat.

8. Any Small Goodness, by Tony Johnston. A world I was unfamiliar with, as a small-town Ohio girl. Brilliant book, satisfying ending.

9. Squire's Tale series by Gerald Morris. Excellent introduction to King Arthur, characters that don't have to be all good or all bad, and absolutely hysterical. The fantasy aspects would have hooked me, and I would have absorbed a lot about human beings that would serve me well later.

10. The Thief series, by Meghan Whelan Turner. Because it took me too long to get to them to begin with. Sigh.

So, what's your top ten? Post it here, or join the group at The Broke and the Bookish!