Did you have a favorite book growing up? Mine is "My Father's Dragon". The imagination is so great, you get a crazy and wild picture of what is going on in your head. I read it so many times and each time I read it, it was never dull.
For me, it was the Oz books. Many people don't know that there were about 36 of them, 13 or so written by L. Frank Baum and then continued by other authorized writers including an illustrator of the originals. I never did complete my collection, ending up with 30, some of which I found in old bookstores and Goodwills, since they went out of print. They are worth a few dollars, I guess, but I wouldn't part with them for the world. "Escaping" to Oz got me through many a rough time in those growing up years.
I can remember that Charlotte's Web was the first book I can remember that made me cry. Black Beauty was and is still an absolute favorite! My Grandmother introduced me to the Trixie Belden series around 9 years old and I have read all of them and still have the paperback collection.
I read all of the Cherry Ames Student Nurse mystery novels (some of them several times). This posting really made me go back and think about what I read as a kid and why. I remember that she was my hero, and I always really wanted to "be her". But, after all these years, I couldn't remember exactly why. So, I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and this is what I found....now I understand.
"Cherry's early adventures are set during World War II. In these early adventures, Cherry solves problems and captures criminals when men in authority have failed to do so, "demonstrating that women can succeed in the public, working world."[2]