Here's what you've all been waiting for: the results of the in all honesty Little Golden Books quiz, and my top 10 Little Golden Books of all time!
I've added a few more to make it a top 20. Well, I couldn't leave any out, could I?
1. I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss. A child's imagination comes to life as she hoots like an owl, swims like a fish, and gubbles like a mubble in a pubble (as you do).
2. The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter. Always overlooked, the little red caboose saves the train, and learns it's just as good to be a caboose as a coal truck or even an engine.
3. The Colour Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown. The story of two colour-loving kittens, their search for green, and how they create every colour in the world.
4. The Taxi That Hurried by Lucy Sprague Mitchell. My mum read this as a child. A hurrying, scurrying book - "We're terribly late and the train won't wait" - with pictures of how things used to be.
5. The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown. I love the way the rhymes in this book switch between fun - "Fat dogs / Doggy dogs" - and magical - "A dog that is barking over the hill / A dog that is dreaming very still".
6. Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton. In which an adventurous toy tugboat wants to swim in a river ("I was meant for bigger things!") but discovers that the bathtub is the best place after all.
7. Just for Fun by Patricia Scarry. I discovered this on my mother-in-law's shelves. It reminds kids of all the things they can do with paper bags, boxes, chairs and other household things - "When pots and pans are handy, a big parade is dandy."
8. Little Peewee by JP Miller. A tiny circus dog grows and grows and grows until he has to leave the circus because he's a normal sized dog, until he grows and grows and grows until he's a giant circus dog with a place in the circus after all.
9. Tootle by Gertrude Crampton. Who wouldn't love this story of a free-spirited engine who disobeys the most important rule - "You Must Not Leave the Rails No Matter What" - to race with horses and smell the daisies?
10. The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown. Cars, trains and submarines won't do for this dog: he was born for the sea. "And here he is where he wants to be, a sailor sailing the deep green sea."
11. The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey. A poky little puppy learns that puppies really shouldn't dig under fences and go for walks in the wide, wide world.
12. The Golden Sleepy Book by Margaret Wise Brown. A collection of sleepy stories and poems like "The whispering rabbit", about the yawning bunny who swallows a bee, and "The dreaming bunny", where Bunny No Good dreams the day away in a cabbage.
13. The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone. A LOT of fun, the pictures tell the tale as Grover plunges through wooden barriers, brick walls and other obstacles to discover the monster at the end of the book. Do you dare to turn the next page?
14. The Saggy Baggy Elephant by Kathryn Jackson. A little elephant wanders through the jungle calling himself "Sooki" because he has no idea what he is, and escapes tigers, lions and teasing parrots to discover he's part of a great, big, wonderful family of elephants.
15. Ukelele and her New Doll by Clara Louise Grant. This was in my collection, but I've only just discovered how beautiful it is thanks to Nicole G. The story of an island girl who's given a new china doll by a sailor, but who loves her old wooden doll best.
16. Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself by Margaret Wise Brown. Crispin's Crispian, so called because "he belongs to himself", discovers a boy who also belongs to himself, and they decide to belong to each other.
17. Animal Friends by Jane Werner. A kitten, rabbit, dog, bird, squirrel and chick discover that they weren't made to live together - but they find some homes just right for them.
18. The Marvellous Merry-Go-Round by Jane Werner. A boy grows up to create a marvellous merry-go-round with real animals on it, painted to look like wooden ones. Who knows the animals are really alive? Only the children who ride on them.
19. The Train to Timbuctoo by Margaret Wise Brown. A rollicking tale about a big engine with a big whistle that goes whooooooooooooooooooooooooo and a little engine with a little whistle that goes wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and how they make their way clackety clack - clickety click from Kalamazoo to Timbuctoo.
20. Seven Little Postmen by Margaret Wise Brown. A boy posts a letter promising a visit to his grandma and it makes its way via aeroplanes and trains and mail vans and post offices too small to be called post offices to his lonely Grandma's house.
I could keep going, but that's enough nostalgia for one day!
Which Little Golden Books were your favourites?
