What childhood books do you remember?
From the time I learned how to read, books have made a huge impact on me. I’ll never forget my third-grade teacher reading, “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and bringing me and my classmates to tears.
Other books I remember:
Charlotte’s Web
Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow. Celia Garth transforms from a fashionable dressmaker to a patriot spy during the Revolutionary War.
My Side of the Mountain
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg is the story of how Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jamie run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and solve a mystery about an angel statue.
What childhood books made an impression on you?
Exercise: Reread your favorite childhood books to see from an adult perspective how the author created a story world that stayed with you.
onewildword 
One of my favourite childhood/young adult books was a science fiction anthology called “Tomorrow’s Children,” edited by Isaac Asimov. it was not so much a children’s book as that the stories were all ABOUT children. I recently found it on a used-book site, and am looking forward to reread it – I like your exercise idea, too, and will be reading with that in mind!
“Tomorrow’s Children”sounds really interesting! I will have to check it out.