This is my 100th post.

What the front door?~!

There should be bells and whistles.  And chocolate and Dr. Pepper.  I’ll take care of the last two for me.

You’re on your own.

But here’s an image to get you on your way.

In honor of this post, I thought I’d ignore the whole foster parenting doo-dah and give my own book a rest and write about my favorite thing EVAH!  Books.

That’s right.  Color you surprised.

Books.  Yay books!

But not just any books.  I have always been a book worm.  I actually remember the moment I became a bookworm.  Maybe someday I’ll tell you about it.  If I haven’t already.  I should check that.

But I have usually wandered the lonely road of finding books by myself.  For this reason, a lot of the amazing children’s books that were out in my day, I didn’t read.  I was too busy reading Sweet Valley Twins.  Damn it.  So here it is.

THE TOP TEN BOOKS I WISH I READ AS A KID

10.  The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.  Can you believe I missed this one?  Pshaw.  Pfft.  Pfui.

9.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.  I don’t think I even knew there was anything other than the Disney movie as a kid.  This carried on for quite some time after I was an adult.  I remember when Lion King came out, and it was a big deal because it was their first original story.  I was like WTF?!  They weren’t all original?

8.  Blackbringer by Laini Taylor.  As an adult, I like Daughter of Smoke and Bone better.  But this is a story about a battle fairy.  I mean…I would have gobbled that up again and again.  Sure it wasn’t out when I was a kid, but if it had been….

7.  The Flavia de Luce books by Alan Bradley.  These aren’t really intended for children.  But I read a LOT of stuff I shouldn’t have as a kid.  And these aren’t really children IN-appropriate–kids just aren’t the target audience.

6.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  I know.  Shut up.  Just shut up.  BTW, I STILL haven’t read the sequel.  Shut it up.

5.  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente.  I bought this book, as an adult, signed because I loved the title.  It reads like Alice or The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  But I think I actually like it better.  Isn’t that crazy town?  If you like the others and haven’t read this one, quit being so dumb and READ it.

4.  The BFG by Roald Dahl.  You know what makes me sad about this one?  That I LOVED The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Considering the amount of time I spent in libraries and the number of librarians I made my friends, you’d think I’d have learned how to find other books by authors I really loved.

3.  Fables by Bill Willingham.  Yes.  This is completely inappropriate for children.  It has boobs in the art.  Even still, like I said, I read too many things I shouldn’t have as a kid.  And this fairy tale retelling is possible the best out there.  Except it’s not.  There’s too much competition.

2.  Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  Have you read Beauty by Robin McKinley?  I read and re-read that.  This is better.  Now, this one might be the best fairy tale retelling ever.  Evah!

1.  Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.  A sweet romance.  That’s not dirty.  I loved it as an adult.  I would have read it to shreds as a kid.*

Now maybe you’re asking.  Um.  Something is missing here.  Something obvious.  It just seems to me that #1 isn’t good enough for this book/series.  It’s BETTER THAN THAT.  BETTER I TELL YOU.  IT’S AMAZING.  HARRY POTTER DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE NUMBERED.  IT LIVES IN A CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS YOU CAN REACH ONLY BY HIPPOGRIFFS and BROOMS.

Yes I’m yelling.  WHY OH WHY OH WHY WASN’T I ELEVEN WHEN HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE CAME OUT?!?!?!?

Damn it.  Just damn it.

Are these my favorite children’s or YA books?  No.  I mean The Fault in Our Stars isn’t on that list.  (But of course, yes, the Harry Potter books ARE my favorite books of all time.  In the following order if you were wondering: 5,7,4,6,3,1,2)  But the rest of these books ARE the books I’d have loved the shit out of as a kid.  Let’s be real.  My tastes have evolved.  I read and re-read The Vampire Diaries as a youngling.  That’s pretty tragic to me now.  But YA wasn’t the magnificent multi-headed monster that spews books like it does now, and I had to search harder for what *I* liked.  I mean, I remember the cancer books.  Anyone ever ready Up a Road Slowly?  I think that’s what it’s called.  I read that.  I had to.  There wasn’t anything else.  Cancer books, blech.  Except John Green’s.  The Fault in Our Stars doesn’t count.  The Fault in Our Stars is a miracle of a book.  It’s a blessing straight from God.  Not quite the blessing Harry Potter is, but still…

Now I’m just rambling.  What do you regret not reading as a tot?

~Amanda

* For those of you questioning Anna and the French Kiss as my #1.  I’m with you there.  I mean..over the others.  But this list is for the childhood version of me.  She read and re-read The Vampire Diaries.  She’s the OLD me.  The new me likes Anna, but #1?  Hardly.

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