If you grew up in the 80's what books did you enjoy?

Most of mine have already been mentioned, but as a horse mad child, I also loved the 'Jinny at Finmory' series by Patricia Leitch.

..and someone mentioned the Born Free books... loved them especially the pictures of Elsa & Joy.

Yes, Anne McCaffrey..especially if dd is an angst ridden teen, 7 might be a bit young to engage but they have good, strong, female characters. The Narnia chronicles were entertaining at that age (though reread them to ds1 when he was 7 and the language/themes were a bit archaic and needed putting into context, particularly the expectations of girls). Loved Black Beauty and Swallows and Amazons, Pigeon Post etc

The Alfred Hitchcock books mentioned earlier would have been 'The Three Investigators'. Good fun. Liked the Hardy Boys books as well, although not at 7. :)

Flossie Teacake, I think the series was by Hunter Davies.

Cherry tree farm and the other farm books were Enid Blyton again.

Willard Price
The children of cherry tree farm - who was it
Gerald Durrell
I capture the castle - Dodi Smith
George Orwell
Rumble Fish - about gangs
Jill and her ponies books
Anne Mcaffrey - her Pern dragon books
The naughtiest girl books by EB
Malory Towers & St Clare's

The Ramona Quimby books!

Oh and Back Home by Michelle Magorian

The Bagthorpe Saga by Helen Cresswell. She wrote some other books, too.

(Hated Nicholas Fisk. Grinny. Really didn't enjoy it.)

Also, if you can get them in English, Dietlof Reiche's Hamster Freddy series. I've only got them in German, but they have been published in English.

Robin Jarvis Whitby witches trilogy!

Also:

The Sheep Pig and The Queen's Nose by Dick King Smith
Moondial
Lizzie Dripping
Stig of the Dump
Rebecca's World
Tarka the Otter
Lots of Enid Blyton
Roald Dahl
Racso and the rats of NIMH
Olga da Polga
Nurse Matilda
Charlotte's Web
Little House series
And a fab book I can't remember the name of but it was about a boy that went off by himself to live wild in the forest.

A reading scheme called Tim and the Hidden People by Shelagh McCullogh

Watership Down

Loved

A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair By Nicholas Fisk and The Ogre Downstairs By Diane Wayne Jones.

Plus the Choose Your Own Adventure series

There are loads more Tamora Pierce books, not just the Song of the Lioness series, I still collect them now. Thanks for the trip down memory lane all, so many fab books, it makes me want to read them all again!

I loved trixie beldon too!
The silver brumby
The famous five
Flambards was my all time fave I still read them now every now and again!

Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf
The witch family
Gobbolino the witch's cat
The tale of olga da polga
The wickedest witch in the world
The children of green knowe

I loved The Bullerby Children. I really wanted to slam a door to extract a tooth!

Pook and autumn, I loved the Bullerby Children too. I planned to marry a Swedish farmer when I was a kid, because I wanted that life!

I bought a second hand copy for dd a couple of years ago. She loves it too! :)

Trixie something ... Beldon? series

Lois Duncan - mentioned above. Loved this author as a young teen and just bought stranger with my face for my niece. I had to read it first just to check it was not too scary you understand.

Also... Naughtiest girl in the school, loved sweet valley high and Mallory towers.

Helen Creswell books were great, especially The Secret World of Polly Flint and Moondial.
Robert Westall's books were good, spooky too especially The Watch House and The Scarecrows.
Philippa Pearce The Way to Sattin Shore.
The Silver Sword.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aikens.
Charmed Life by Diane Wynne Jones.

The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye is really marvellous, it's an absolute pleasure to read out loud.

Of the books I foisted on them because I liked them myself, my kids also loved The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel, and The Great Ghost Rescue by Eva Ibbotson.

All the ghost stories by Eva Ibbotson are absolutely fantastic, I cannot recommend them enough, she's a sensational, wonderful, funny, beautiful writer. She has middle grade books, too, Star of Kazan, Journey to River Sea, and wrote romances for adults that are sold as Young Adult now. They're all great. But for age 7, start with The Secret of Platform 13, which happens to tell the story of a mysterious platform at Kings Cross that contains a portal to a world of magical people. But it's MUCH better than that makes it sound.

Anything and everything.

When I was younger: Mary Kate, Milly Molly Mandy, Teddy Robinson, Worst Witch, Lightening Lucy, The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark, Rumer Godden Doll books, Mrs Pepperpot, Dick King Smith.

Then later:
Professor Branestawm
Charlotte's Web
Just William
Jennings and Darbishire
Billy Bunter
Chalet School
Enid Blyton
Roald Dahl
The Silver Brumby series
The Black Stallion series
Black Pony Inn series
Willard Price
Penelope Lively ghost stories
Little House books
Catherine Storr (I loved Marianne Dreams especially)
Green Knowe
Narnia
Robin Jarvis - Whitby series and Deptford Series
Brian Jacques - Redwall series
The Borrowers
Classics like the Railway Children, Secret Garden, Heidi 101 Dalmations - actually I preferred the sequel, The Starlight Barking.
The Demon Headmaster
Nicobobinus
Books by A Rutgers Van Der Loeff - Avalanche, The children of the Oregon Trail.
My Friend Flicka and The Green Grass of Wyoming

Everything by Enid Blyton
The Willard Price adventure books
The Tree that Sat Down by Beverly Nicholls (which I think I may have 'accidentally' kept from my school library)
Joan Aiken's books - Wolves of Willoughby Chase etc
The Chalet School books
Little Women
My all time favourite - The Dark is Rising Sequence (I had a massive crush on Will Stanton, even though he's fictional)
Seaward, also by Susan Cooper
The Hunting Of Shadroth by Victor Kelleher
The Little Grey Men by BB
Basically, I read anything I could get my hands on and my dad and I would go to the library most Saturdays and get a whole load of books out - loved it!