What children's book changed your life?

The CCBC--a librarian's dialogue group--is asking this question this week, and I thought it would be interesting to see what I got.

As I have written before, we had no books in my home, no library in my schools or in the town until I got to high school, so my early reading life was a slim affair. I do remember someone giving me Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, and since it was the only book I had, of course, I remember it fondly. The determination of the Beauty despite all odds inspired me--I know that some thought it sappy, but I loved it. Then later in a box of handed-down clothing came another book The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter.
It is the story of an eccentric herbologist who finds a woman in the forest, nurses her back to health and falls in love with her. Again, another sappy book as all of Porter's were, but in middle school it was all I had. My art teacher in 6th grade visited New Orleans and came back with a book Dinner at Antoine's by Frances Parkinson Keyes. She gave a long review and read some of it to us. It grabbed my imagination. 6 years later my senior class went to New Orleans on our senior trip and I got to eat at Antoine's--Oysters Rockefeller. It was green and yucky as I remember. I think I read all of Keyes' books later.

When I reached high school, I caught up with all the Nancy Drew books (yes, they were all in my high school library) and began my life-long love affair with mystery novels. And that is really all I can remember.

So, from childhood to grade 12 what books absorbed you? We will ask about adulthood next.