The earliest book of mine that I still have is my copy of The Reluctant Dragon, but that only dates to 2nd grade or so.

ETA: Oh, I do remember sitting with my sister over our family copy of Ferdinand the Bull (the red cover with the Munro Leaf illustration on it) and reading it together. I was probably in kindergarten then. We nicknamed our dog Ferdinand (even though the dog was a she) just because she was such a lazy dog, which English bulldogs tend to be.

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators

Okay, help me out here - wasn't there a story in one of those books where the kids were kidnapped and part of the coded message they sent home was "Peggy's as good a name as any" - referring to some non-existent pet or something - which was supposed to translate into "Pegasus" and give some clue to where they were? I HATED that, it has always stuck with me as just so illogical. I think that's the first time I got kicked right out of a story and went, "Huh?"

Generally I liked those books, but I think I read them when I was a little older and a little more aware as a reader. I'm sure there were plenty of "huh?" moments in the Cherry Ames books, too, but I zoomed right over them.

Black Stallion went alien!?! I definitely didn't read far enough in that series.

I don't have my first book but I do have my first "chapter book": Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parish. I loooooved that book. So much so that my dad got sick of seeing me read it and put it on top of the fridge so I'd have to tea something else. Years later I found out there was a sequel--had he only known!

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.

I went through a bunch of those when I was a kid. My biggest disappointment (as with Scooby Doo) was that the supernatural stuff was always faked.

A childhood (early teen era) book that made a big impression: anybody else ever read House of Stairs?

I think I only read the first Black Stallion book. Now I really want to find the rest and read all of them.

A childhood (early teen era) book that made a big impression: anybody else ever read House of Stairs?

Yes! I actually came here for help figuring out what it was -- I had read it and loved it in seventh grade.

That was my first encounter with principles of operant conditioning/behavior modification (though I can't remember how they labeled it in the book). I think I still have a copy of that in my shelves.

Makes note to self to check when I get home tonight.

anybody else ever read House of Stairs?

I haven't, but I have the movie Cube waiting for me to watch at some point.

I don't know what I read first, but in nursery school I know we had the Dick and Jane books. I have few memories before age 3-4, so I'll go with that.

A childhood (early teen era) book that made a big impression: anybody else ever read House of Stairs?

The Books on the Nightstand podcast discussed it at one point and it sounded so good I put in on my TBR list.

Speaking of which, my college roommate (who has a blog on writing that focuses on the YA market) wants me to guestblog for her as she gets closer to her pub date. While, I've been reading more YA of late (including 13 Reasons Why, The Hunger Games, Tomorrow When the War Began, When You Reach Me, The Giver), I'm looking for recommendations. It doesn't have to have been published recently.

Oh, I remember House of Stairs! Creeped me way the hell out as a seventh grader, and thus I read it about ninety times in less than a year. That's definitely on my need-to-reread-someday list.

And I just remembered another favorite from that time, Richard Peck's Ghosts I Have Been (book discussion here, image of the one true right and proper cover art here).