 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another Top Five Friday. Today we are talking about the top five, my top five subjective, this is a subjective list. Please don't think it's the end all be all, but my top five children's books. But first, before we jump into the video, I need to introduce my special guest. Hit it. Hey, E. Hey, everybody. My name is Patrick Tumulty. I'm a horror writer and one of my favorite children's books also happens to be one of the most influential books when it came to wanting to become a writer. It is called In A Dark Dark Room. And I can read book level one. Now I say it that way because if you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you realized that not everything that said it was for children was actually for children. This book gave me nightmares. And anyone who's ever actually read The Green Ribbon, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't read it, read it. It's fantastic. This book is the most macabre thing I've read as a child. And it really did want me to become a horror writer. It's got great illustrations. Let me see. Yeah, that's it. The most terrifying thing I saw as a child. And I dreamt about that for years. Like I said, not really for kids was geared toward kids. But I do recommend it for those who love horror and want to, you know, get their kids into it early. I will leave you off with one of the poems I memorized when I was a little kid and still creeps me out to this day. It's called The Ghost of John. Have you seen The Ghost of John? Long white bones and his flesh all gone. Ooh, wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on? It's for the kids. Well, everybody, I hope you have a wonderful Halloween season. And I hope you stay happy and healthy and all of your family and friends do as well. Number five. At number five, we have Go Dog Go. This is my favorite children's book that I read early in life and that I read to my own children. I believe I read it, unless I'm having some kind of Mandela effect, I believe that it was out around the time that I was a child. I could be wrong. But I do remember reading this one myself. So this what that's why I went out and hunted it down for for my own kids. This one is it's not a Dr. Seuss book. The author is someone completely different. Someone who slips my mind right now. But it did come in the Dr. Seuss like pack that the that you can sign up for. It's kind of like a gift, not gift box, but a subscription service. And it did come in that. And that's what I ended up looking it up and finding that service. And I got this book for my kids. It there's not much to say about this one. The reason why I'm doing this list is because it came rather highly not recommended, but it's requested a lot. I'm not quite sure why people wanted to to tap me for my favorite children's books. But here you go. Number five, go dog go. Number four, at number four, we have rolled dolls, the witches. I love the original movie. I have not watched the reboot. But the book itself is as long been a favorite of mine. It was sent to me a couple years back by my friend, Jessica. Hello, Jessica. If you watch these, I don't know if you do or not. But she sent it to me along with the house with the clock in its walls, the movie that the one that they adapted with Jack Black. Anyways, the witches was it might actually be my first experience with horror. I'm not sure. I remember reading it very, very young in life because I enjoyed the movie and my mom got me the book. But this one, I especially love all the I think this is one of the things that made me love like not recompense, but villains getting their comeuppance, you know, I really enjoy the final scenes of the book and the movie. It's probably my favorite as far as as far as, you know, kids movies, not my favorite, this is only number four, but not my favorite kids book. We'll get we'll get to that one. But yeah, this one, I think it's a good jumping off point for any parents who want to get their kids into something that's a little scarier than, you know, maybe your your average children's book. And I'm not sure is this one considered middle grade? I really didn't go into this one with a theme. I just picked my my five favorite children's books. And then I went and researched that they're considered children's books. And this one didn't say middle grade, but it might be middle grade because of the content. I'm not sure. Another one, I don't want to say that it's tied, but the BFG, the the big friendly giant, you doom fans get your mind out of doom. But yeah, I mean, even when I was younger, when I when I played doom, I, you know, kind of side eyed the BFG, the book, and it's like, it doesn't have something to do with that. Anyways, back to the witches. The main character, the little boy, I can't remember any of their names been so long since I read it or watched the movie. The little boy, this cunning, clever little boy defeats all of these witches. And it gave me a sense of, you know, not only that sense of magic, but that feel good sense that, you know, the the right person one. And it's funny because I'm not as an adult, I'm not a big fan of happy endings. But but in this one, it does have most children's books have happy endings, because we want to give kids hope. But yeah, so number four is the witches number three. Okay, so at number three, we have a wrinkle in time by Marianne. The angle, I think it is, I probably murdered that, but I'm not sure. Anyways, this one is this is one of those ones that like the surreal aspect that I was talking about in a was a few top five Fridays back, but I love surreal things. Now this one doesn't deal with mental illness, like I was talking about in another top five Friday episode. But this one does deal with a very surreal worlds. This this child is going through through time. I do I do remember like the Oprah Winfrey. And I remember that movie, I actually enjoyed that movie, it's a bunch of crap, but I enjoyed that movie. But unfortunately, I remember that more than I remember the book nowadays. But I do remember loving the book as a kid. And I believe that there's a whole series of these books. I'm not sure if the series is called a wrinkle in time or not. But yeah, this one had that magic, you know, and that I think that's a running theme with children's books, you know, the magic of imagination, getting kids out of their or deeper, not deeper into their own heads, but out of their own heads in the sense that, you know, you take them from, you know, their normal thoughts into a world of magic. And too many adults have lost that sense of magic. I think that's why I like Stephen King as much as I do, because I like that sense of magic. And he's never lost that sense of magic. And if I say sense of magic one more time, anyways, but yeah, this one, I enjoyed it, especially for all the running around through the different worlds that they did. So number three is a wrinkle in time. Number two, number two is a book that I just reread within the past five years. And that is the phantom toll booth. I'm sorry, I'm not saying the titles of these books. I'm kind of in a rush trying to get this stuff done because I have other work to do. So I didn't look up any of these books other than to make sure that they were actually considered children's books. And this one, I loved it as much. In fact, I'll try to remember to link you guys to my video review down there in the doobly-doo. But this one, it really, it speaks to me. It's a children's surreal road trip kind of fantasy deal, meeting all the different people, the educational stuff that's in there, whether it be numbers, what any number of things, math, English, any of that stuff. Also, I have a question. Do you guys, for those of you who are not English as a first language, do you guys have another version? Is it just like literature? I've always wondered that. So if you grew up somewhere that English wasn't your first language, what did they call your literature studies? Just let me know. I'm honestly curious as I'd love to hear from as many people as possible on this. But back to the book. The phantom toll booth, the dog he hangs out with, the toll booth, everything about this book is amazing. I had fun reading it as an adult, so I can recommend that adults go and try to read it themselves. Also, the phantom toll booth is an amazing, amazing title. It's one of those ones that stuck with me from my childhood, my middle years or whatever you want to call it, young adult years. And I liked it enough to actually seek it out and buy it just so I could review it on the channel. I want to connect with as many people as possible who love this book because I don't think this book gets nearly enough credit for all the cool stuff in it. So if you've read the phantom toll booth, I would love to hear from you down there in the doobly-doo. But that's my choice for number two, the phantom toll booth. And at number one, we have where the wild things are. I don't have to say too much about this. Spike Jones made the movie adaptation, but I have a very, it's really, really dark too. In fact, I don't know that there's a lot of adults that would take their children to see it because it is so dark and it's, I think it's far more dark and depressing than the actual book itself. Now the book itself has some scenes and moments like that, but I mean, what's cooler than going to an island or a different world filled with monsters, kind monsters that you can just chill out with? The artwork in this is phenomenal. It's something that anytime, if you've read the book or even if you know vaguely about the book, you can close your eyes and picture the cover and the monsters walking by and the little kid in the monster costume. It's pajamas, isn't it? But that's me. And I think that's a lot of you guys too, as far as horror fans, that we would be that person in monster pajamas hanging out with monsters because a lot of us are outcasts. A lot of us are outsiders. Yes, I have 10,000 subs on this YouTube channel, but I still feel like an outsider. I'm stuck somewhere in between smaller channels think I'm too big and bigger channels think I'm too small. So I'm right there in the middle and I've kind of been that way my entire life. That's why I like looking for differing opinions. I like talking to people because I'm pretty much an introvert. It doesn't seem that way on camera, but the only person I'm talking to is the camera when I'm filming these things. So it's really easy. It's much easier than getting up in front of people. And if I don't want to read comments, I don't read comments. If I'm not in that mood to dig through the trash and the trolls and all that stuff, I just don't read them. But I think this book speaks to most of us that don't feel like we're a part of something bigger. I feel like I'm on the outside of everything. I'm on the outside of YouTube, I'm on the outside of the horror community. And that's kind of good. It's kind of bad. I don't get embroiled in too much drama anymore. But also I miss a lot of stuff. I miss talking to a lot of great people. I don't know why this one turned into a rant on my own. I guess it just speaks to the tonal quality of the book. It speaks to outsiders and outcasts. And that's how I look at myself. But yeah, this one, here's a question for you. Instead of the outro question, I want to know about the Phantom Toe Booth. If you've read that one, I also want to know if you don't like this book. I especially want to hear from people who don't like where the wild things are. I want to know why you don't like it. I would love to hear why you don't like it or maybe why you don't think it's a good book for children or any number of things. Just let me know your thoughts on it, especially if you didn't like it. But that's it for this week's Top 5 Friday. Leave your own favorite children's books down there in the doobly-doo and please answer the questions I asked about the last two books. But until next time, I have been E, you have been U. This has been another Top 5 Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!