Children's Classics I Am Going To Assume You Are Familiar With

"Black Beauty" was one of my favorite books growing up. It was such a part of my childhood, in fact, that I assumed it was one of those things, like Winnie the Pooh and Sesame Street, that is a natural part of every child's experience of growing up in America.*

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found out that not everyone has read this book. In fact, it seems very few people I know have.

I made this discovery when I was crammed into an overloaded car on the way to an establishment that serves beverages. I went around the vehicle and demanded to know who was familiar with the story of Black Beauty, Duchess, Ginger, Rob Roy and Merrylegs and no one - not a single person - was.

I was shocked.

"Black Beauty" is not the only book that was so integral to my youth I just take for granted that it holds the same meaning for everyone else. If you aren't familiar with these, I am just going to assume you are some horrible beast from the furthest reaches of outer space or something because you cannot possibly be human and not know these books:

• "My Side of the Mountain": I loved this book so much I had my fourth-grade picture taken with me holding a copy. No joke. And I still want a falcon as a pet.




• "Where the Red Fern Grows": This is one of those really sad children's books, and yet I read it over and over again. I have a vague recollection of my mom seeing me read it, probably for the 112th time, and gently saying "Honey, isn't it time you read something else?"




• "Misty of Chincoteague": Yes, I read a lot about horses when I was young. Didn't everyone?




• "Sideway Stories From Wayside School": Oh, how badly I wished that I, too, could go to a school where everything was weird all the time.




• "The Mouse and the Motorcycle": Or really anything by Beverly Cleary, including the Henry and Ribsy and Ramona and Beezus books. Cleary's work, to me, is Americana in writing form.




• The Goosebumps series: Because kids need mildly frightening stories about swamp things and masks that take over your face exactly the same way they need sunshine and vitamins.




• The Boxcar Children series: Eventually, these came to grate on me with their wholesomeness, but that was only after years and years of devouring flimsy paperback after flimsy paperback of the Alden children running around solving mysteries.

*If you want to be technical about it, this is a 19th-century English novella. But still - America!