I love taking part in a good blog hop. Anything that brings fellow book bloggers together is a lot of fun, and I’m excited to be taking part in another one today!
Today is World Book Day, and every hour, we’ve got another UK YA blogger sharing their favourite childhood books on their blog. (Before me was Lauren at Northern Plunder – hi Lauren!) There’s a graphic at the bottom of this post with all of the bloggers taking part, so have a look at that and head to their blogs to find out their childhood favourites. Without further ado, here are my top 5 favourite books from childhood, in no particular order…
Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson
“My name is Lola Rose. That wasn’t always my name. I used to be plain old Jayni – until my dad lost his temper, and things became really scary at home. We had to run away in the middle of the night – me, my mum and my little brother Kenny. Now we’re starting again in London – new names, new identities, a brand-new life. But escaping the past isn’t as easy as I thought. And dad might find us one day…”
My sister and I have always been big Jacqueline Wilson fans (I think all kids are!), but my all-time favourite JW book (or maybe even one of my favourite books of all time…) is Lola Rose. I don’t know what I love so much about it, but I still love to read it now at 24 years old!
Angels Unlimited series by Annie Dalton
“Mel isn’t your average angel.She certainly never expected to wind up at posh Angel Academy. Why would she want to learn about halos, when shopping is much more divine? But when she joins an elite group of time-traveling angels fighting against the Opposition, she learns angel business is a lot more dangerous — and a lot more fun — than she ever could have suspected.”
Ugh, this is one of those series that I still love SO much. The series is so cool because it teaches you so much about different points throughout history in a fun way. What couldn’t be more cool than angels being able to time travel?! I just love these books!
Give Yourself Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
Did you ever watch the horror TV show Goosebumps when you were a kid, or read the novels by R. L. Stine? Well, I didn’t watch the show, but I read a couple of the novels, and I absolutely adored the ‘choose your own adventure’ versions called Give Yourself Goosebumps. They were written in second-person POV, and you’d choose the path you wanted to take at the end of each page. They’d have loads of different endings and you could pick which way the story went. They were so cool! (This was my favourite. Or this one.)
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
“Charlotte goes off to boarding school and suffers from all the confusion and shyness of a new girl. At first she thinks this is why she has difficulty in remembering names and faces. But then she realizes that something odd has happened: she’s slipped back to 1919 and become a girl called Clare.”
My mum used to read this book to my sister and I, and it’s still one of my favourite books from childhood. The copy we’ve got belonged to my mum when she was a kid! We especially loved this because the main character is called Charlotte, and when she goes back in time, she has a sister called Emily (my sister’s name). This is such a good story that warms my heart when I think about it. Now I want to read it again.
Ally’s World series by Karen McCombie
“Ally’s World is a series of books written for young adults by Karen McCombie, focusing around the Love family and written from the view of 13-year-old Ally. It tells of the family dramas and friendship crisis she has as she grows up in London, and is set out as a story for her traveling mother about what her children have been up to in case she ever returns.”
I always remember these books mainly because I spent ages writing my own version. There was a companion book that went along with the main series of novels which was like an encyclopedia, and it was all about the town, the family, and Ally’s house. I wrote my own of that book, too. I just loved these books and I always wanted to be Ally’s sister, Rowan.
There are probably so many more I could have mentioned (a few examples are Roald Dahl, the Mediator series by Meg Cabot, the Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison, and so many more). However, these ones that I’ve picked are the first ones that came to my head when I considered my top 5, so they’re the ones I chose.
Next up on this huge tour of wonderful YA bloggers is Layla at Readable Life, so head there after 10am to find out her favourites! There will be posts every hour right up until 1am (perfect for you night owls), so it’ll be going on all day. Wooo! It’s like a party!
Featured: Lauren – Northern Plunder // Charlotte – Wonderfully Bookish // Layla – Readable Life // Vicky – What Vicky Read // Isabelle – Folded Paper Foxes // Connie – Connie Reads // Neelam – The Tsundoku Chronicles // Beth – BooksNest // Olivia – Stagey Bookish // Lauren – FictionTea // Shaye – A Reading Brit // Jaz – Travels in Fiction // Nikki – Books and Lemon Squash // Amy – Little Booknerds in the Corner // Ben – Ben Reads // Imi – Imi Reviews Books // Faye – A Daydreamer’s Thoughts // Stephanie – Never Enough Novels
