Books I Should Have Read In School But Didn't Challenge

With the arrival of the New Year comes new resolutions.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I intend to read more books that I somehow missed when I was a child or just overlooked for whatever reason or I read but don't remember anything about them.  Then of course today, a few of us started talking about Dana's Books I Should Have Read In School But...Didn't Challenge (you can read her post here).  Dana is an English Teacher and a blogger over at Much Madness is Divinest Sense.  She is challenging people to read anywhere from 2 to 12 or more of books that they never read in school and should have.

I am a little embarrassed to actually list these books and admit that I have never read them.  I hate admitting that I ignored some great books when I was a child.  However, as a child I read what I liked and ignored everything else which meant I read a ton of mysteries, fantasy fiction, and historical fiction, but not necessarily anything else.  And when I first started teaching, I focused primarily on picture books due to the grade levels that I was working with, which meant that there were even more wonderful books that I failed to read.  Glad I now have a way of encouraging myself to get back to these titles.

Here are the books that I hope to read as part of this challenge (listed in no particular order):

FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER

by E.L. Koningsburg

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH

by Norton Juster

SHILOH

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

HARRIET THE SPY

by Louise Fitzhugh

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS

by Wilson Rawls

STUART LITTLE

by E. B. White

OLD YELLER

by Frank Gipson

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS

by Scott O'Dell

JULIE OF THE WOLVES

by Jean Craighead George

THE WHIPPING BOY

by Sid Fleischman

CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD

by Avi

M.C. HIGGINS, THE GREAT

by Virginia Hamilton

Is there a book in elementary or secondary or even college that you now wish you read?  Why don't you consider joining in on the challenge? - Aly