My Top 10 Favorite Books in the Children's Genre

I'm linking up with The Broke and The Bookish for one of my favorite memes of the week - Top Ten Tuesday!  This week's top ten list is my Top Ten Books in a genre I pick.  I struggled with this one because I read a lot of genres but when it really comes down to it the books I tend to grab for reread are either romance or children's books.  Then the other day Emma and I were having a discussion about books.  She was telling me that she had tried to reread her favorite series from when she was a kid (Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series which is pretty good) and couldn't get through it.  I read them when she got really into them and while they're definitely children's books I enjoyed them.  That got me to thinking about the time I tried to reread my favorite Louisa May Alcott book and came to the same conclusion but I've loved others of my childhood favorites I've read in the last few years.  So I'm wondering, maybe there's an age range that makes it more difficult to enjoy children's literature?  Maybe at 17 it's just too recent to have the beauty of nostalgia?

So after all that rambling here's my favorites:

1.  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - This was one of my absolute favorite books as a child and when I reread it last summer (Yay free Kindle books!) I fell in love all over again.

2.  The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (Review) - I actually didn't discover this one until recently but it's definitely one of my favorite Montgomery's.

3.  Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright - this book is almost pure indulgence for me.  Two kids find an almost abandoned lake surrounded with abandoned Victorian summer homes and spend the rest of the summer having adventures.  The sequel is wonderful too.

4.  The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright - this is the 2nd book in the series that Enright wrote about the Melendy family.  All four are wonderful but this is probably my favorite.  I read this to pieces a child and was delighted when I rediscovered it.

5.  Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Errnestine Glibreth Carey - this is another book I read to pieces as a child.  This and it's sequel were 2 of my very favorite books and it's still a pretty fun read.

6.  Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder - I loved this series and I reread this book not too long ago and really enjoyed.  The life they lead is so different than the ones we lead now and I really enjoyed the look at how much work it took to keep a family fed and safe.

7.  Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott - this book is often overlooked since it's not part of Alcott's books about the March family but I always loved it more.  The story of the newly orphaned badly spoiled Rose who finds herself suddenly living with her extended family and a large quantity of cousins is such fun. If you have a Kindle it's free which is always good.

8.  13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathryn Tucker Windham - these were my first taste of ghost stories and I read them until I had them memorized.  She has a number of books in this series all involving Southern States.  Her books for adults about growing up in a small town in Alabama and then becoming one for the few women reporters during WW2 are also very good.

9.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - I've read them all but this and the Magician's Nephew are my favorite.

10. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery - Okay so I'm using Montgomery twice but it's not the same series!  This one is probably my favorite of the Anne series though I do spend a lot of time wanting to shake Anne.