Obscure children's books that you used to love

Really obscure one here: Riddleton Roundabout.

It was dm's about some children evacuated during the war and sort of normal.village life. They pick blackberries for jam, eat a cake that had been saved for with rations, watch an enemy bomber drop one bomb in a field, put on a play in aid of the war effort.

Sort of nothing happens but it's quite interesting in a funny way.

Just bought the jolly postman for my godchildren!

Each peach pear plum, anyone ?

Jolly Postman was a huge seller. When I worked in a bookshop it was our number one children's book every xmas. And then the Jolly Christmas Postman!

I had a book about the trail called, I think, Antelope Singer, about a family left behind after ? Pa is bitten by a snake and the Native American boy with the withered arm saves them and they restore him to the tribe.

I loved Orlando. And my friend Flicka. Brilliant description if ASD child.

Rumer Godden's Holly and Ivy, sentimental but sweet, and not sentimental The Diddakoi. ( made into Kizzy? )

One of my faves, The 12 Days if Christmas, brilliant and funny.

As a result of thus thread just bought and reread The Warden's Niece. Didn't grow on me on first rereading but now, oh yes. Lovely book. Must read more Avery.

Masha. Costs a fortune.

T h white, the once and future king, mistress masham's repose, the v scary the master.

Loved Miss Bianca. Just read the first again.

Elizabeth Goudge, not all obscure. I see they have retitled Linnets and Valerians The Runaways. Loved it. The little white horse.

Ponies' plot by , I think, Parkinson of Parkinson's law. About ponies.

I can jump puddles. Australian. Yes to the Brumbies. Also Victorian Australian, cuddlepot and snugglepie and the wonderful The Magic Pudding. Such an ornery pudden.

The Phantom Tolbooth. Brilliant introduction to concepts...the idea of a boy who might be 2/3 and growing downwards. Or eating your words, and division dumplings with multiplication stew. And a castle in the air. And a number mine. And an orchestra creating colour.

Susannah and The Mounties.

Eleanor Farjeon. My favourite was the one about Griselda and the book by Dekker.

I hated William Mayne. Wasn't at all surprised when revelations came out about him. Whilst t h white was obv into cruelty it wasn't directed against children. Mayne was creepy.

The Dolphin crossing about Dunkirk.

I remember reading some very obscure books in the 70s and 80s - I'd inherited my mother's collection of 1950s pony books, and my older sisters' books too.

Does anyone remember My Horse Says - where a horse tells a little girl what to do in her dreams at night, all connected with a house that needs renovating?

There was Smoky, Snow Cloud Stallion, Brumby, Come Home Brumby too. And the Boundary Riders - bunch of Australian kids setting off to ride the boundary line, then getting lost in the bush. All at the age of 11 or so.

There were a couple of American books I'd love to read again too

One was about a girl whose mother was in hospital and expected to die, and her father was preoccupied and ignored her mostly. She really wanted a bicycle and didn't get one, but the bit that sticks in my mind was that she ate a caterpillar on a leaf for a dare, which made everyone at school think she was odd. The book was full of references to American sweets like tootsy rolls, which sounded so exotic!

The other book was a library book I read a lot in the 70s and would love to re-read now. It was set around 1880 I would guess, about a young man who left "civilisation" and joined an Indian tribe, possibly the Blackfeet? He had a flintlock rifle and a great big Newfoundland dog, and there are vivid descriptions of a buffalo hunt, where thousands of buffalo are driven over a cliff to die. Would love to read this as an adult.

I have one I can't find! It was about a teenage girl ( her name was Sylvia?!?) and she lived near a factory which spilled chemicals in a lake. People went swimming there and were taken away by mysterious men to die horribly. The brother of the girl who was taken away comes to investigate, falls in love with Sylvia much to her previous boyfriends disgust. Both current and ex boyfriend die horribly at the end because they have discovered the secret of the chemicals. Any clues as to the title?

Really pre! I love finding out that other people remember those books! Thank you also to the poster who mentioned Lotta's author upthread

Yes we've got the Astrid Lindgren Lotta book where she runs away ...to next door's playhouse I think.

Also love Quanglewangle's Hat - with the Helen Oxenbury illustrations. My username on here was Quangle previously, in tribute!

The quanglewangle's hat.

The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles

Yes; Tottie and only Marchpane (bad doll) got burned, I think.

The Uncle series of books by JP Martin in the 60s and early 70s. Fantasy effortlessly mixing animals and humans. Uncle is an autocratic elephant millionaire in a purple dressing gown who lives in a vast mansion and battles constantly with the hooligans who live in a ruined fortress opposite him. At first I sided with Uncle but gradually realised he was a smug snob and third rate would-be intellectual. Wonderfully subversive, especially when you realise it's written by a vicar.

Tim The Traveller by Dulcima Glasby. Published in 1943. Ostensibly about a cat who treks home to London after being sent away to the country. Again, I missed the point when I first read it. It's actually about the loneliness of child refugees sent away from bombed British cities in WWII.

Jason's Quest by Margaret Laurence written in 1970. Jason is a young mole who's considered to be a bit of a tearaway in Moletown. But he's the only one who realises that the colony is being infected with a creeping sickness of boredom because they are afraid of change. He goes to find the cure by venturing above ground with an ancient map to Londinium with Oliver the Unwise Owl and two cats - the motherly Calico who's determined to prove that cats aren't villains, and flighty Topaz who goes along for the ride.

Wasn't that Tottie, based on The Doll's House by Rumer Godden?

Wasn't the Lottie and the doll's house TV series that strange one where they all got burned at the end? I was very scared.

Another obscure one I loved so mum dm bought it for me when the library withdrew it was "Clara's Country Year" written about farming life in 19th century. It has a lot of information about farming back then. I shout the harvest rhyme when we see a hay truck still. Dh thinks I'm strange at times:

We ploughed
We sewed
We reaped
We hoed
And we carried it all into the barn with ne'er a load throw'd.

(But I also sing "Riding along in an army truck" from Trumpton when we see an army truck)

The Little Witch by Otfried Preussler?

Also loved the Miss Bianca books, about an elegant crime solving mouse and her trusty side kick. Especially loved Miss Bianca in the Orient. The Disney film 'The Rescuers' was based on this series of books. Really charming.

And can anyone remember the book, might have been called 'The Littlest Witch' or something like that? She is a rubbish witch always getting spells wrong. The Witches Law states she can't practice magic on Thursdays, but practices in secret and then gets found out! Can't remember the ending but I loved this book when I was 7/8.

The Little Bookroom - Eleanor Farjeon - especially the 'How gold's the king of Egypt?' story.

Minnow on the Say - Phillippa Pearce

And loads which have already been mentioned.

The Lotta books are by Astrid Lindgren, who also wrote Pippi Longstocking. They are back in print - I bought them for dd a few years ago.

From a long way back in the thread but LoloKazolo you are thinking of The Vandal

www.goodreads.com/book/show/2041579.The_Vandal

One I've always wondered about was a book I read at primary school about a boy having an adventure on what I think was a toy train set somehow but he was actually very ill and in the end died. From something vaccine preventable and I think the adventure was somehow related to discovering the vaccine. Anyway it was very very sad!

Was there also a TV series about a Lottie and a doll's house? Seem to remember loving that too.

I loved a book about a little girl called Lotta. She had older brothers and sisters. In one of the stories, she ran away to a little playhouse but came back when it was time for bed. It was beautifully done and I'd love to share it with my DD.

Smith the Lonely Hedgehog.

Land of Far beyond is the Enid Blyton take on John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress isn't it?

Was the Kon Tiki expedition the one that was hand written rather than typed? I remember being fascinated by that too.

Anyone come across the Important People series by Dow?. Strange tales but fantastic drawings, influenced how my mum draws people.