Ooooh, before twenty?  Hard decision.  Probably Archy & Mehitabel  and other books by Don Marquis.  I LOVE Archy & Mehitabel!  Also, any books by Richard Armour - humorous books about words and language.  

I read Gone With the Wind at about age 14, I think, just to say that I had read it.

One of my favorite books when I first started to read chapter books was "Baby Island" by Carol Ryrie Brink (who also wrote the Caddie Woodlawn books).  I also liked the Homer Price books by Robert McCloskey, and other "youth" books like The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  I also read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" before I knew it was part of the Narnia series.  Before I was 20, I had also read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and it made a great impression on me.  

I was also in advanced English classes in junior high and high school, so we read several classics, including A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Dickens, and Silas Marner by George Eliot.  My love of Charles Dickens began then.  My love of Shakespeare began a little later.  

Midkid5 said:

What was your favorite childhood book

I loved the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series and read all of those books repeatedly. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favorite, I think.

I liked The Boxcar Children and the Nancy Drew series.

Favorite books:
The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley

The Dragons of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

oh..I was a voracious reader in grade school and high school..I read almost anything including some my Mom found toooo suggestive!! (Stranger in a Strange Land!) Series I loved; Nancy Drew, the Boxcar Children, Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, Bobsey Twins....we had a subscription to the Reader's Digest Condensed books and I would devour those every month!! I got majorly hooked on science fiction in middle school and loved anything that Heinlein wrote (hence the Stranger in a Strange Land!! She confiscated that until I was in high school!)

JulietDeltaOscar (fixin2quilt) said:

any books by Richard Armour

ooh I loved him too!!!  .."the discoverer who went looking for the Fountain of Youth was de Leon...he used to be Ponce de Leon, but he lost his ponce...." hahhahahha

I did not read 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' before 20...odd cuz I read so many other books..but I did read it before my kids did!

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley The Dragons of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

oooh loved those too....

Midkid5 said:

What was your favorite childhood book, say before age twenty?

Oh dear, I don't think I can answer that.  I have always loved books and started reading at a young age.

The first series I read was The Bobbsey Twins....my mother had tons of them and it was before I started school so I didn't have the library available.  I adored them.  Then Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.  Ramona was always a favorite.  Oh and Pippi Longstocking!  The Black Stallion was very  much a favorite.

Once I hit junior high I had moved to random mysteries and things of that nature so nothing really sticks out.  I do remember reading Valley of the Dolls at an incredibly inappropriate age.  I think I was about 12.  We were on a family trip and it was my car book.  About halfway through the book my brother told my mom.  She had no idea what the book was about, but once she looked at it, she was certainly not happy.  I was mad because my stupid brother took my car book away.  I finally read it as an adult and laughed and laughed ..... never was there an more inappropriate book for a child to read.

Now I read what I call airport or beach books.  Simple fun mysteries, nothing thought provoking or soul searching.

I adore books :)

Mishii said:

I adore books :)

Me, too.  :-)

Mishii - my folks subscribed to Readers Digest Condensed Books also; I devoured them.  Ditto with the encyclopedia year books (hmmm.. I don't remember which encyclopedia it was but it wasn't the one in the libraries.  I would also read selections from the encyclopedia upon occasion.)  

Once upon a time, I was a Book Snob.  If it wasn't a *real*, *physical* book, then it was beneath my notice.  As a result, I accumulated tons of books, most of which I would only read once.  I don't really care to re-read books; it doesn't appeal to me.   Bringing reading material on vacation was a real problem because I'm a fast reader (for fiction ... reading non-fiction and educational material is different).  So, in order to make sure that I would have enough books to read on vacation, I would bring A LOT.  Boy, did they take up space.   But, that's the consequence of being a Book Snob.

Then .. about 2 or 3 years ago, a crafting friend won a Kindle Fire at a raffle.   However, she didn't need it / didn't want it because she had a different eReader.  She offered the Kindle to me.  hmmmm.  Well, I knew what a Kindle was but sure wasn't going to plop down my money for it but .. for free?  Sure.  With many thanks.

Well.  I am no longer a Book Snob.  :-)   I collect ebooks.  While it is nice to hold a physical book, turn the pages and feel its heft, there is *nothing* like an eReader to pack *hundreds* of books into a small footprint.  My point of view has been turned around 180°.  :-)