so what did you read as a kid????

Reading the replies here and to a similar topic on OT branch, I wondered - when do kids in English speaking countries get introduced to other than English language writers?
This preoccupation with all English and only in English looks rather strange to someone from continental Europe.

enid blyton ad infinitum

can't edit so will follow here: i always loved it when those five friends went into underground tunnels -is that where i got my infatuation with caves and all things underground from?

i also read; michael ende, although he wrote less books so not ad infinitum
astrid lindgren

Or was it "The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham ?

He also wrote The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, The Midwich Cuckoos.

Not really kid's books though.

Curious George
Tom and Jane
My Side of the Mountain
Penthouse Forum

I guess I read many of the same books as most of those who answered on the OT branch. Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, etc. Anne of Green Gables, and some orange-covered series about American historical characters. Plus the Narnia books which I read several times to my own kids. I used to go to the public library every week and get tons of books. "The Island of the Blue Dolphins" was one I remember liking.

And that answer's Fieldgate's question: in English language libraries, the kid's section basically contained books by English-language writers. Since there were so many of them, they didn't need to bother buying translations, other than Pippi Longstocking.
I also read Wyndham's books. Anything I could get my hands on.
In high school, we had to write book reports. When I was 15, I did one on Alan Sillitoe's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". The teacher called me in and asked, "Do your parents allow you to read these books?"

Too funny, BJD... I can relate. I was reading Stephen King novels when I was 12 (I loved scary books at that age) and the librarian gave my mom a little lecture about how sixth graders shouldn't really be reading Cujo. My mom, a teacher, lectured her right back... her philosophy was to let me read whatever interested me, and if something scared or confused me, we could talk about it.

At the age of 6: Everything by Astrid Lindgren and Arthur Ransome. Also everything I could get on wild life - note that I grew up in a communist country - it was extremely difficult to obtain anything worth reading. My grandpa used to read me stories of Hanzelka and Zikmund, the first travellers who did a rtw in a car.
At the age of 12: anything from Balzac to Bukowski, Eco and Kundera as a result of newly acquired freedom and hunger for quality literature.
And then I got a degree in Anglo-American literature:)))

note that I grew up in a communist country - it was extremely difficult to obtain anything worth reading.
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That's quite an interesting statement. I grew up in Poland (another communist country), and as it looked to me, the array of world literature available was much wider that in the English speaking countries, at least judging form the replies above.
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And as a side comment -
"At the age of 12: anything from Balzac to Bukowski, Eco and Kundera"
Weren't you too young for those writers, or was it a typo?

Now that I think of it, perhaps not all the books we read were by English-language writers, but as a kid, I don't think I would have looked to see whether it had been translated from another language. And the fact that the book was set elsewhere would not always have been a clue. I just accepted that books could be set anywhere.