(You can listen to this episode here.)
For our last episode of 2024, we talked about our favorite children’s books of 60 years ago, which we defined as 1964-1966—a great era for children’s books.
Here are our favorites, but it’s more fun if you listen to the episode first. Each of us picked five. We disqualified three books from the period that we’ve done episodes on, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken, and The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.
Mary Grace’s top five:
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
4. The Strange Light by James Reeves
3. Ismo by John Verney
2. The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander
1. The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh
Deborah’s top five:
5. The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill.
4. Apples Every Day by Grace Richardson
3. The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz
2. Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban
1. The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh
Honorable Mentions:
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken
The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L’Engle
Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service by Keith Robertson
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang by Ian Fleming
Other episodes mentioned:
Rereading February’s Road by John Verney
Rereading A Wrinkle in TIme by Madeleine L’Engle
Rereading Henry Reed, Inc. by Keith Robertson
Our Favorite Children’s Books from Fifty Years Ago
The podcast is hosted by Buzzsprout at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms. You can listen to it on Buzzsprout here.
You can find Deborah’s author interviews at Books Q&A by Deborah Kalb and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.
This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.
Rereading Our Childhood 