Zoobooks was that magazine that you could trade your “fundraising points” for to get a subscription to if you raised so much for whatever school fundraiser you were doing. Most kids inevitably skipped over the subscription for a bag of parachute army men or some other kitsch, but there were a few of us that actually wanted to read about elephants and rattlesnakes. Once you were done reading them, the pages often became wall decorations or essential elements in craft projects too.

Submitted by Christine R

In Superfudge Judy Blume introduced us to situations that a lot of us experienced at one point in our lives, but isn’t addressed in a lot of other literature for children that age. It ruined Santa Claus for a lot of us, but it was totally worth it. Did she ruin Santa Claus for you?

Submitted by Sal O

Colorforms was like a do-it-yourself book or verbal fanfiction. You could invite your friends over and have a whole scenario happen on the pages.
You could also make Colorforms characters do whatever you wanted them to do. Colorforms were great for learning sordid things from older siblings!

Submitted by Sal E

What’s that? You want to me to change the towels? Let me just get my scissors. Wait, draw the curtains? I’ll just get my pencil and paper.
Ahhhh, that lovable maid who was always getting into trouble because she just took everything too literally.

Submitted by Johnny’s Girl

If your childhood wasn’t touched by Dr. Seuss, you should probably run out to the nearest bookstore right away and catch up. Every Christmas, families across the globe sit down and watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Green Eggs and Ham is like required reading for young’uns. Most importantly though, Dr. Seuss cleverly disguised socio-political messages in his books, like The Butter Battle Book, which was a criticism of the Cold War.