What's (Not) Hot?

In the spirit of this week's stroll down memory lane, I am going to highlight three of my favorite books from my childhood, all of which are part of a series, and are more middle grade than young adult:

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. (1955). Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, Inc. (reprint edition).

While Little Women is not a "timeless" classic, in that it is a product of the 19th-century when it was written, time has not dimmed its appeal for me and for generations of other readers. Alcott's house, in Concord, MA, remains a heavily-visited historic site due to her perennial popularity. The story of tomboyish Jo and her three sisters, it makes being a nonconformist not only acceptable but also the whole fun of the book. While it does get preachy and sentimental at times, it is also a classic, in the best sense of the word.

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables. (2008). New York, NY: Modern Library Classics (reprint edition).

Another book that celebrates a bright, cerebral, different girl who does not fit into a stereotypical mold. Anne is a red-headed orphan who despises her hair and whose imagination often runs away with her. Yet she is loved by her friends and her readers for always and unapologetically being herself. Prince Edward Island is another significant character in the books about Anne, and every year almost one million people visit--a good number of those because of that irresistible "Anne-girl."

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods. (2004). New York, NY: HarperCollins (reprint edition).

This is the first book of the semi-autobiographical Little House series, perhaps the most successful of the three I have named here. They remain popular even among my 2nd- through 4th-grade readers, and I often hear anecdotes of families watching together episodes of Little House on the Prairie, the TV series based on the books. Further indication of the continued popularity of Laura Ingalls Wilder is the runaway success of a newly annotated version of her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, when it was released last year.