The older I got, the more I read age appropriate books. Somewhere in the fourth to sixth grade, I discovered The Box Car Children. It was my first real book where children left on their own have to solve their own problems, something with which I had no experience. I admired their courage and determination to put up a front and stay together.
Their independence paled when I received a box from my Aunt Lucille that contained a copy of Michael O’Halleran. An orphan, he not only took care of himself by being a newsboy, he took in the fragile and bedridden little girl, Lily Peaches. He had to carry her in a basket. Michael heroically cared for Lily until two adults came along who wanted them both, and Lily had the longed-for operation that enabled her to climb out of that basket for good. A tear jerker? You bet, but the sheer pathos and romance made me love it.
Gene Stratton Porter’s Keeper of the Bees came next. Peopled by old fashioned Americans, they simply self sacrificed, husbanded the earth, worked hard and loved easily, with lust way down the line.
But I digress. Kiddy lit included The Bobbsey Twins series, The Honeybunch series, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys. Maybe readers now love the Maisie Dobbs books because they are somehow reminiscent of childhood series. It’s reassuring to visit a friend every so often.
Of course, there were also comic books and the funnies: Little Orphan Annie, the kid who could see without eyeballs, was my favorite (another orphan, albeit a lucky one). The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, L’il Abner and others.
And the animal stories: My Friend Flicka and Green Grass of Wyoming, both by Mary O’Hara, fed my love of westerns. Black Beauty broke my heart.
Orphans and animals, who could resist them. They almost always made for the best, most spell binding stories a kid could want.
What was your favorite series, animal story, or comic book character when you were in gradeschool?