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Children's books

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Original poster

What are the boy equivalents of Little House on the Prairie/Anne of Green Gables/Malory Towers/Judy Blume>

84 replies

BellaBearisWideAwake · 15/07/2011 20:42

You know, the books where you end up reminiscing about one night with friends and everyone has read them.

(I appreciate I am generalising heavily about boy and girl books, apologies. Just had a bit of a sad moment when I realised that having no girls I am less likely to pass these stories on to my children)

OP posts:
Nameforaday · 16/07/2011 15:12

Takver - that's right... There were six sections but only 5 in the shop or something like that? At least I know I'm not making it up.

Books seem to have gone backwards in the gender stereotyping stakes - I think probably half the books I loved growing up had male protagonists, where now the assumption seems to be girls only want to read about girls and boys about boys. Or maybe boys never read 'girls books', but girls read everything?

fraktious · 16/07/2011 14:55

I thought Children of the new forest was civil war?

And The Dark is Rising has 5 books Grin

Yy to swallows and amazons and that whole series, also just william, Jennings (I adored those!), lone pine and biggles.

Takver · 16/07/2011 14:47

Nameforaday, I can't help you with the name, but I remember the book too! Wasn't there a problem in that a bit of the scene was missing?

NerfHerder · 16/07/2011 13:43

Yes! to Alan Garner... how could I have forgotten his books? I loved them so much...

scrappydappydoo · 16/07/2011 13:23

What about:
Stuart Little
The Indian in the cupboard series

Ponders · 16/07/2011 12:10

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Fourth-Grade-Nothing-Blume/dp/0330398172/ref=pd_sim_b_1\Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing} is the first of the Fudge books

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/Judy-Blumes-Fudge-Set-Blume/dp/0142409065/ref=pd_cp_b_1\Fudge box set}

(I haven't read them for sooo long I'm tempted to buy that myself Grin)

Ponders · 16/07/2011 12:05

the Fudge books are fabulous - although Fudge himself is quite small his brother is older, & it's aimed at that age group - they are v v funny.

& yyy to Michael Morpurgo Smile

acsec · 16/07/2011 12:04

My brother loved The Hardy Boys books, which are similar to (the original) Nancy Drew books.

How about The Famous Five, Adventurous Four and Secret Seven - both my brother and I loved all of them!

SevenAgainstThebes · 16/07/2011 12:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nameforaday · 16/07/2011 10:10

The Brothers Lionheart is quite sad, be warned.

Can anyone help me remember this book - it was a bit like The Indian in the Cupboard, about a boy whose fantasy world comes to life. The thing that comes to life is a 3D scene cut out of the back of a cereal box, and I remember him having to eat loads of this cereal 'which tasted like doormats' to put together all Thr bits of Thr scene to complete the adventure. Please put me out of my misery and tell me what the book was...

Original poster
BellaBearisWideAwake · 16/07/2011 09:10

Is that Lynne Reid Banks? I adore her adult books

OP posts:
basingstoke · 16/07/2011 08:49

DS's favourite book so far is the Indian in the Cupboard.

Original poster
BellaBearisWideAwake · 16/07/2011 08:44

I loved Pippi longstocking so anything by astrid lindgren sounds good

OP posts:
HumphreyCobbler · 16/07/2011 08:37

OMG How could I have forgotten Alan Garner and Susan Cooper?

Elidor is a fantastic read.

Nameforaday · 16/07/2011 08:35

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren

notcitrus · 16/07/2011 08:22

Also Diana Wynne Jones - the Chrestomanci series for younger readers especially. Do watch out as she wrote a couple for adults which have been reprinted in the same sparkly covers - it freaked me out recently to suddenly encounter lots of sex in the middle of a typical DWJ plot!

Hardy Boys/Three Investigators are the equivalent of Nancy Drew etc.

I loved Willard Price - very ahead of his time, speaking out against game hunting (and hunters often being characters to be tricked and laughed at) and capturing animals in order to conserve and breed them. OK, they also regarded circuses as contributing to the conservation effort. And they try hard to be respectful of all the native people they work with, which was quite the novelty to me at the time, even if they look rather clunky and patronising now. The bits about the Australian prison system were fascinating too!

saltyseadog · 16/07/2011 07:42

The Dark is Rising trilogy by Susan Cooper and The Owl service by Alan Garner - both brilliant.

Original poster
BellaBearisWideAwake · 16/07/2011 06:51

These are wonderful thank you all!

Loving the clam shell advice.

Lots of books on here that I've read and loved but akso loads I've never even heard of.

OP posts:
thisisyesterday · 15/07/2011 22:54

if you see headlines about a woman arrested in the seafood aisle of sainsburys for brandishing a knife and rag... that'll be me

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 15/07/2011 22:51

Ooh I had forgotten about Gerald Durrell!

NerfHerder · 15/07/2011 22:32

The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne

My brother and I used to love The Hardy Boys and the Hitchcock's Jupiter Jones /3 investigators series.

suzikettles · 15/07/2011 22:24

You need to jam your knife into the side of the shell which would sever the nerve that makes it close.

If you don't have a knife then you're fooked.

Chathampocket · 15/07/2011 22:22

Well, thisis, it was a very long time ago that I last read it but I think it was a holding your breath for ages/having a big knife tied to leg with a dirty rag/manly prising apart of the shell/and/or stabbing the clam in a weak spot scenario type thingy. I think.

thisisyesterday · 15/07/2011 22:07

just out of interest, how do you get your foot out of a ginat clam shell?

Chathampocket · 15/07/2011 22:06

ooh ooh I loved the Willard Price Adventure series and remember the clam shell incident very well. Unfortunately I also have had no call (as yet) to release my or anyone elses trotter from a giant shell, but rest assured I'm ready for when it inevitably happens.