B.O.B 5 Favorites

Today's mini challenge for Bout of Books 16 is 5 Favorites!

A simple challenge where you select any categorizing topic you'd like (genre, heroines, trope, cover, anything) and highlight your five favorite books that fall into that category.  Super easy to do, but very difficult to narrow down.

My chosen topic is...My Five Favorite Books from Elementary/Middle School

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

This is probably one of my favorite books of all time and one I've re-read multiple times since I first discovered it in elementary school.  That's saying a lot since I rarely re-read books.  I loved Charlotte and her relationship with Zachariah and I wanted to go on adventures with them.  Her initiation into the crew left me completely on the edge of my seat and wanting to know what would happen next.  So good! 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor

I read this in middle school during a phase I went through where I was obsessed with anything to do with the South, slavery, the Antebellum, and the Civil War.  Though the setting is significantly later than the war, the ramifications and resentments are still felt throughout the South and portrayed in this book.  I should probably read the first three books in the Logan series...

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Again, this book falls into the "favorites of all-time category" but I've only read it twice.  My first encounter was as an 8th grader when I asked my Language Arts teacher about reading recommendations.  Since we had been studying the Civil War and I was pretty into the era (see above), she recommended this and boy, oh, boy I was hooked.  I loved EVERYTHING about this book...Scarlett, Rhett (sigh), Melanie, Mammy...everything.  I even love the movie!

Our Sixth Grade Sugar Babies by Eve Bunting

This book was just fun for me.  It's not anything significant, but I was immediately enamored with it as a kid.  I mean, what young girl hasn't been completely mortified in front of her crush when she has to do something as silly as carry around a sack of sugar dressed like a baby?  No one?  Huh...

Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

This book.  What can I say about this book aside from the fact that, as an adult, I specifically searched for it in used bookstores everywhere until I found my very own copy.  Like Confessions, this is one I've re-read several times.  I was so creeped out by this book as a kid and still find it unnerving.  Creepy kids are creepy, man! 

There are so many more that I could easily add to this list, a lot were entire series of books, but I tried really hard to pare it down.  What are some of your favorites from when you were a kid?

Happy reading, fellow Bout of Bookers!