Favorite Childhood Books and The Book Swap

Today is the last post for the Preview to Summer Book Swap, and the theme is favorite childhood reads.  This time I'll be linking up with Nina from Run Dance Love.  I also get to share the goodies I got in the book swap!
My partner is from the blog Blair's Head Band.  If you're in the mood for a little snark and a good laugh, you definitely need to go check her out!  She's all the way across the country in New York, she's getting married in the fall, and she is pretty brilliant at speaking her mind and kind of saying what a lot of us have thought at one time or another (as witnessed here).

This was my first ever swap, and it was great.  I got two books that I can't wait to start reading- Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and Ali Wentworth's Ali in Wonderland.  She also gave me a sweet little New York notebook and a little bag from the famous New York book store the Strand.

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Big thanks to M for all my goodies!  You really helped make this such a great experience, and while I apologize again for the tinsel in your package, if it kept the books from being soaked in champagne, then it did its job!  

Now, on to the link up.  My favorite childhood reads...

First, I'll start by saying that when I was little, I wasn't a big reader, much to the disappointment of my Mom.  She would take us to the library on a regular basis, hoping to spark something.  It wasn't until 4th grade when  my teacher read The Westing Game to us that I really wanted to read on my own.  I was hooked- I even got my Mom to take me to the library so I could finish the book early. (And then tell my classmates how it ends.  Hey, they asked!)

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So that book really got me to love reading on my own.  If we are talking little kid books, though, then The Pokey Little Puppy was always a fave.  

I also read The Chronicles of Narnia every summer when we went on our annual beach trip.  But I will only read them in the original order. None of this nonsense that Lewis' stepson used to change the order to match the book's chronological order. 

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A Little Princess and The Secret Garden were also favorites, along with Babysitter's Club.

So what were some of your childhood favorites?  I could add more... Mr. Popper's Penguins, all of the Ramona books...

I hope you have a great week, made sweeter by the fact that it is short!