Childhood Favorites...Rosamond duJardin

Childhood favorites. Everyone has a favorite book or author from childhood. A book that touched them or changed them. A book that perhaps initiated their love of reading and put them on the path of libraries and learning.

Books: Childhood Favorites is a monthly series focusing on beloved books from the past. 

Donald Zolan, Quiet Time.

This week was Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday and I adored her books when I was a teenager. I read Fifteen, The Luckiest Girl and Sister of the Bride so often I wore my copies out. I still remember them.

When it comes to books, we all have our childhood favorites. I have so many, it would take years of blog posts to cover them. Maybe I'll start a series.

There was one series that I absolutely adored as I was growing up. To share this will completely date me and give you hints as to how old I really am.

I used to check these books out of the library. So often that I probably could have claimed a frequent reader card or something.

Rosamond duJardin wrote a series about twin sisters in the mid-1950s. So the books were about 20 + years old when I discovered them. I was just entering junior high school and I remember wandering into main part of the public library, not wanting to be in the children's section anymore. I saw Double Date sitting there on the shelf and checked it out. I was instantly captivated. I wanted to be Penny and meet a boy like Mike. I wanted to go to dances wearing 50s formals. I loved watching Pam go from flirty and shallow to mature and in love with Jeff.

I loved these books. I devoured them and suddenly they disappeared from the library shelves. I think they were deemed too old or too old fashioned. I haunted used bookstores, but never found them.

Because the Internet can be awesome, I went searching one day and discovered a website called Image Cascade Books where I could purchase reprints of "old" books. And Pam and Penny were there! The Doctor insisted I get them and they arrived this week. I am giddy. Literally giddy at the thought of re-reading them.

What about you? What is one of your childhood favorites?

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