I love children's books. I read them all the time! My all time favourite author is Diana Wynne Jones (fabulous writer. I recommend everything she's written! ) so obviously I have my complete collection of her books still.

But I've also kept Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, Anne of Green Gables, Mary Poppins, my Peter Dickinson books (though I don't have the Changes Trilogy, I'll have to put that on my wish list!), Robin McKinley's books, and all my Arthur Ransom books. 

These were all books that I knew and loved in childhood. What's on your keeper shelf from when you were a kid?

The only one I kept was Charolette's Web. I love those series you gals were talking about - LIttle House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, etc. But I have BOYS....there are little now but I'm excited to see what they will be in to :) 

 I've kept all of my Nancy Drews, Trixie Beldens, Donna Parker, Kay Tracey, Connie Blair and a few Bobbsey Twins :)

   I lost most of my books in a house fire when I was 10.  So I've been looking for them as time goes by.  I've also got the Secret Garden, Gus the Friendly Ghost books, and some historical fiction as well. My all time favorites were by Ruth Chew, and I've re-collected hers as well.    My SIL has bought DD a Newbury Winner every year for Christmas, and the Velveteen Rabbit for Valentine's Day.  She's going to have a wonderful library some day.

i kept The Wind in the Willows,  The Little Princess, and my Dr. Seuss books , and my most treasured The night Before Christmas with illustrations by Grandma Moses.  Many other favorites didn't survive, but I have enjoyed sharing newwer editions with my kids--including Harold and the Purple Crayon,   The Phantom Tollbooth, Charlottes Web,  The Egypt Game, and many more!

I'm 51, but several years ago I was in the local Radio Shack store and noticed they had a small section where they sold used books. (It's a small town.  Can ya tell?)  I found copies of two horse stories that I had loved when I was about 10 years old!  They were Hobby Horse Hill by Lavinia R. Davis and Born to Race by Blanche Chenery Perrin.  Oh yeah, I'm keepin' 'em all right!

Ann, your The Night Before Christmas sounds so great!  I love Grandma Moses!

The Little House Series. I got them for my 9th birthday from my parents.  I'm actually trying to find a book called Walking Out from my younger yrs. Its about a girl whos in a plane crash and who has to survive in the forest.

My Judy Blumes, Beverly Cleary's, Anne of Green Gables series, The Westing Game, The All-Of-A Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor, The Blue-Nosed Witch, Caddie Woodlawn, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Devil Take You Barnabas Bean, The Marvelous Mud Machine, and several others.  Some of them I have replaced with new copies to read because the other ones are falling apart.

My favorite book is "The Phantom Tollbooth" (I can never remember the author).  The book has so many double meanings so kids as well as adults will love it.

I kept my copy of Heidi until it fell apart.  I had gotten it for Christmas when I was in second grade.  It was the first "real" book I had received.  A few years ago, I found the exact same book in a antique/junk store in Vermont.  This was quite a coincidence since we live in Georgia and were in New England for my son's wedding.  I also have my Shirley Temple Treasury, a collection of stories of several of her favorite movies.  I wish I had saved my Bobbsey Twins and Alcott books, they just got too much wear and tear!  I'm using PBS to help build a hardback Curious George library for my grandson in RI.

Sara I think I have walking out, send me a pm and I will look. If I do I will read it and post it. Jean

I have all on my Nancy Drews through 60.  I have an orginal copy of Ruloph that was my mother's that she gave to me as I got older it is not is great shape but I still read it with my kids.  I also have my copy of Heidi. The better Homes and Garden story book. Lassie, Just a smile, gus the friendly ghost, the forgotten bear, rosebud(my great grandmother bought it for me and she always said I was her rosebud) the little fish who got away, cinderella, the magic fish, Olf Reads.  The sad thing is that my children who love to read have had no interest in almost anything that I saved now I don't know whether to keep them or not.  My Nancy Drews and Ruloph are not going anywhere but I am not sure what to do with rest of them. Jean

I loved to read as a child and now my basement is lined with bookshelfs, talk about a fire trap.lol. Some of the ones I loved as a kid and am now sharing with my daughter are Anne of Green Gables, The secret Garden, Anything Judy Bluem or Beverly Cleary, Alice in Wonderland, but my fav from childhood was little women. There was something about Jo that I connected with.

My mother also saved and collected over 1000 golden books with the gold spine starting with the original Doctor Dan. My favorite golden book was a story called There's a Monster at the End of The Book- it featured the Sesame Street monster Groover.

As my daughter has grown we've also had our favorites like Uncle Jed's Barbershop, The Rough Faced Girl, Brown bear,Brown Bear, Everyone goes Poop and Mama Do You Love Me and even though she is 13 there are still times when she asks:  Mama do you Love Me? To that my response is always Yes, I do dear one.

<<The sad thing is that my children who love to read have had no interest in almost anything that I saved now I don't know whether to keep them or not.>>

I read that and **sighed** because I am in the same boat! I have just finished my L M Montgomery collection and have all the Anne books, Emily books, short stories...as far as I know I have it all except her book of poems. I even have her four journals.   I am so disappointed that my children aren't interested in Anne AT ALL! There they sit and I will NEVER get rid of 'em.  (They really do enjoy the movies though....)  The other set they aren't enjoying are by Madeline L'Engle. I notice that no one else mentioned her stuff.  Swiftly Tilting Planet and such, Meet the Austins. I keep most of that series as well.  Many of the books mentioned I kept but a few authors I'd never heard of and hope to read over the summer! THANKS for the suggestions!

I read a lot as a child and when I was 12 I took all my books and catalogued them.  I typed the titles, the author, the synopsis of the book and a rating system for the books.  I must have had about 70 books that I loved.  I still have a few of the cards from over 30 years ago and they are fun to look at.  We moved when I was 14 and all my books were gone in the shuffle.  I have replaced them over the years plus many others that I hadn't read as a child.

My mom loves childrens' books, they are almost the only kind of books she will read. So we still have almost ALL of my childhood books! Some of my favorites, though, were Anne of Green Gables series, the Happy Hollisters, the Boxcar Children, and anything by Louisa May Alcott.

I saved my box set of Little House books, Chronicles of Narnia, and a box set of E.B. White books. I have a few others in a box, but I can't remember what else I've got. I think some Beverly Cleary... I really hope I have some horse books--I remember I LOVED Marguerite Henry's books at one point... I think I've also got a box full of Star Wars books that my brother and I read in junior high/high school.

LOL I need a new bookcase so I can get all of my books out of their boxes. Our last house had built-in bookshelves, but this one doesn't, so a lot of my books are still packed away. :(

I liked alot of the ones you mentioned above.

Also I was crazy for the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I never owned them but got them from the library. My friend is the librian so now when they discard them she puts them back for me. So I own the exact copies I read.

There was a book I don't know the author I absolutely loved called "The Singing Boones" it was about a families journey west in a wagon train. I read it about 20 times from the library too..., I might have to start looking for it.

Two other favorites I found a couple of years ago because my copies that were first my sister's just didn't survive my dragging them up the trees to read were Ready Made Family and Runaway Alice.

As for the person worried that her kids won't appreciate your books. There is always the grandchildren. I wouldn't throw them away yet. I read ancient books at my grandmothers that had my mother handed them to me I never would have touched (a first edition Louisa May Alcott).

Something of your grandmothers is always treasured.

Well I have books still on my shelves that I enjoy going back to and then books still on my shelves that I share with my daughters (or will when they are a bit older).

LM Montgomery Books - especially the Emily books, but the Anne ones too

This series called Friends-4-Ever that was about a really close knit group of friends

Afternoon with the Elves

The Pigman

LookandSee books - Jack and the Beanstalk, Thumbelina, Little Red Riding Hood

Sticky Stanley

Harriet the Spy books

and this Children's Bible that transforms the ENTIRE bible into manageable stories and illustrations - Its even great for adults to read and get the "gist" of what's goign on - especially through those Old Testament books.

I did not have books saved for me, but when happened to get some and read them to my children I remembered them!  I loved Runaway Bunny and Put me in the Zoo.

Tammy - that's really cool! I've made sure that my Narnia books are the exact same copies I read, too. Took me years to build that set! But there is something about seeing the original covers and pictures that makes re-reading childhood books even better.

Trixie Beldens, Boxcar children(got them after I was grown!), secret garden, nancy drews

Books that I have my original copies of:

The Secret Garden

The Little Princess

All of Sharon Creech's books (I loved her-Bloomability, Chasing Redbird, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Walk Two Moons)

Half Magic (actually my mom's old copy)

Harriet the Spy

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

The Chronicles of Narnia (all except my copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of my friends still has it)

Holes

The Cricket in Times Square

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Books I've replaced after they've disappeared:

Peter Pan

Summer of My German Soldier

Ella Enchanted

Shiloh

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Charlotte's Web

And there were others I'm keeping my eyes open for: The Egypt Game, Time Cat, Number the Stars, some Roald O'Dahl books (The BFG, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach). I was completely obsessed with the Animorphs books for a while, I think I still have some of them lying around somewhere...

My mom was always trying to get me to read all her old books, Little Women in particular, but I think the only one I read was Half Magic (still love this one), and maybe Alice in Wonderland though I don't remember. I was SO not interested in Little Women, to my mom's dismay-and even though nowadays I feel kind of bad I never really gave it more of a chance, knowing myself back then, I was right in thinking I probably wouldn't have liked it.

My parents did not encourage reading.... so sad really.  But I do have favorites from my youth ....

The Incredible Journey, The Call of the Wild, Of Mice and Men, Great Expectations .....

Now that I am the mommy .... my all time favorite is .... The monster at the end of this Book 

other mommy favorites are newer ... like ... the Septimus Heap Books ... Magick and Flyte.  I cant wait for the next one to become available....