Obscure children's books that you used to love

So many of my favourites on here. Even Brown Mouse. Dawndonnaagain can't believe you know this book too. It's Frank Jennens by the way. It was my mum's favourite book then mine and DD loved it too. Wendy and Sheila and the lovely filmy golden dresses and her mean old sisters and lovely Clive the fact that she was beautiful really .

YY to Rebecca's World and to Mister Glister being Liberace. I still have my copy with the Larry Learmonth (?) illustrations. Fab. Have read that to DD as well.

Bottersnikes and Gumbles is great too.

Also loved the Giant Jam Sandwich and Tikki Tikki Tembo and so do the DCs.

They've loved all these but the one I loved the most was the Animal Family by Randall Jarrell about a hunter who marries a mermaid and they adopt a series of wild animals (a bear, a lynx). The DCs didn't love that as much heartless beasts

I have all of these at home so could share them but the other one I loved that I don't have is called the Kerry Caravan about some children who end up living by themselves in a gypsy caravan, fending for themselves and cooking potatoes in straw boxes

the Yami of Yawn.
wish I could get it for my kids. brilliant psychedelic seventies illustrations.

Oh and I remember the Twin books - Cave Twins, Eskimo Twins, Spartan Twins and Chinese Twins are the ones I remember. They were actually quite modern-thinking in that the girls were always trying to do as well as their brothers and be allowed to join in - in the Chinese story the girl runs away from a (threatened) arranged marriage and goes in disguise as a boy to go to school with her brother. I always wished I had more copies of the stories than just those ones - they never seemed to be in libraries or anywhere.

On the subject of books that make you cry, I am David by Anne Holm. Escape from totalitarian prison camp, journey across Europe to an address which is all he has, and the door opens - 'My son, David'

Yes to Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge! And A City of Bells.

Yes...the Silver Sword, we read that at school. Wonderful book.

Still love everything by Alan Garner - the more of his books you read it just gets better, they all start to join up somehow.

Lots of these!

Has anyone mentioned Joan Aiken's Dido Twice books, especially The Cuckoo Tree and Dido and Pa.

Robinsheugh by Eileen Dunlop is a fab creepy time travel book.

Some great books on here

Additions from me. The Paper bag princess, family from one end street, moonlight kingdom, Rosie's walk,

And Giant Jam Sandwich is a firm favourite here

Actually, can anyone help me identify a book I read, probably as an older child?

All I can remember about it is that the child character got into bed and the nanny/guardian type character who was cold and horrible had put a dead crow under the sheets at the end of the bed as a punishment.

Not much to go on I know, but I have never forgotten that part of the book, and often wonder what the book was.

So many memories being dusted of in the distant reaches of my mind her.

One of my favourites was a book I later reread as an adult (was about 8 when I first got it) was The Glassblower's Children, one of the main character's was a witch called Flutter Mildweather - I really coveted that name.

Phoebe and the hot water bottles ...!
I bought that for DD ( when she was 30 ) as it was a book we often borrowed from the library and she always wanted it . Tracked it down in Canada and she cried when she unwrapped it !

I'm coming to get you by Tony Ross . Monster rampages through space eating planets and terrorising gentle beings until he spies a small green planet and a boy " I'm coming to get you " he roars and waits for Tommy but .... Well you will have to read the book !

Not now Bernard ,a firm favourite with Dgc.

The young visiters ( sic) written by Daisy Ashford at 9 years old in 1919" Mr Saltena was an elderly man of 42" love it and can't find my copy. ,

The silver Sword by Ian Serrailier the first book that made my DS cry when he read it to himself . Brilliant book based on a true story during and after the Second World War as 4 children fight starvation to travel from Poland to Switzerland.

Oh Mrs Snufkins, I too harboured thoughts of calling a DD Eilonwy. And DS Fflewddur. My Welsh dad would have been all at me though.
And The Little Wooden Horse was just bloody heart rending. With his peeling paint and all. Between that, Mr Benn and Oliver Postgate, my left wing leanings were sealed.

So many favourite books of mine on this thread! I still own The Armourer's House (& read it often) and still have some Sam Pig books, The Ordinary Princess and The Necklace of Raindrops. Oh and all the Rumer Godden books but then I'm dolls house obsessed so those are particular favourites of mine.

I don't own Green Smoke any more sadly, or Flossie Teacake, but my DM today brought me a copy for the DDs of the new Puffin reprint of clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf. Hurrah!

Some picture books I was very fond of: Big Dog & Little Dog (still in print) and Snuff by Quentin Blake (not sure) and Captain Najork which was illustrated by Quentin Blake. But my no 1 favourite picture book is from the 1950s - passed down by my aunt, but I have my own copy now, it's called I Wish, I Wish, by Lisl Weill. If you have a DD and she loves cats, well, try and track down a copy, that's all I'm saying.

Rikki tikki tembo nosar rem bo charry Barry ritsi pip berry pembo
Excuse spelling. I can recite it but not write it

I think the roman one might be a Geoffrey Trease.

I loved the Parlicoot books which were published in the 1940s (I think) and belonged to my DMum.

My particular favourite though was "Spidersweb for Two" - in which the two youngest children of a messy, extended family are left at home for a year when their siblings leave home to study and work. They find themselves taking part in a wonderful treasure hunt throughout the year. It seems to be a 1960s American book - but I adored it...so much love and detail.

Also "Silver Snaffles" from my 'I want a pony' phase.

The very best stories were the ones that my DDad made up for us about me and my sisters.

PageNotFound I am the same. I have very clear memories of all sorts of details from long ago but need to consult my diary to remember what I did today!
I can remember the feel of those comic books and the excitement at getting a new one or swapping with a friend. The one I remember most is about a gymnast who was too poor to practice at a gym but used fences and trees outdoors and always won the competition in the end and beat all the snobby girls.

pagenotfound is that The Midnight Horse by Monica Edwards?

The horse is Silver Circus in that, but the girls make plasticine horses called Spanish Gold and Cornish Cream

hels71 - when I was a children's librarian I used to read Tikki-tikki-tembo at story time - I used to know the whole name straight off, but now (35 years later) I can only get as far as Tikki-tikki-tembo-no-sa-rembo...

I remember a lot of these, from my own childhood, my library days and my children's books, and adding some of my favourites

Silver Snaffles (Primrose Cumming)
Moorland Mousie and Older Mousie (Golden Gorse)
A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair (Nicholas Fisk)
Go Well, Stay Well (Toecky Jones)
The Witch Family (Eleanor Estes)
The Otterbury Incident (C Day Lewis)
The Magic Pudding (Norman Lindsay)
Nine Lives of Island Mackenzie (Ursula Moray Williams)
Lad: a dog (Albert Payson Terhune)
Timber: the story of a horse (Judith M Berrisford)
The Mr Twink books by Freda Hurt - I'd love to get some of these, but they sell for anything from about £75 to £300

And two I've never come across again and don't remember author or title:
One was about a family of children who ran away, I think because they thought their new stepmother, who they'd never met, was going to make them get rid of their dog.

The other one, which has been bugging me for ages, was a historical one set in Roman Britain, where the son of the Roman governor of London (called Lucius)gets kidnapped and sold as a slave and travels to Wales with another slave called Crispin - they meet a Welsh chief's daughter and there's something about a brooch. I've tried googling, but I just get stuff about The Queen's Brooch by Henry Treece, which it definitely isn't, nor is it Rosemary Sutcliffe. I think it might have been one of the reading scheme books - possibly the Gazelle/Antelope/Reideer one - does anyone remember those?

Yes to so many of these.
My childhood book though was called 'the duchess bakes a cake' I have such lovely memories of my dad reading it to us over and over again and joining in with the words. My dc were a bit meh about it - I was gutted.

Violet Needham, Dawn. Black Riders was her best known. I read it to ds, followed by the white riders by Monica Edwards.
Also loved House of the Paladin by her too.

Zipity I used to get those comic "specials" as well. The only one I can remember (inevitably) was a horse story, with the usual near-death, horse thieves, triumph at the showjumping etc. I remember the horse was called Cornish Gold. I have absolutely no idea how I can still remember that, given I can't remember what I was doing at work last week.

My love of odd children's books has led me to seek out similar for my own children; there are some real gems. So in the future I expect they will be writing similar posts e.g. 'Does anyone remember a book where the family lived in uncles hat then a violin and also nowhere?'
Attaching some pictures for Rebecca's world fans.

Brown mouse by Frank someone.
The horn of merlyns by violet ?
Anything by Joan Aiken, I loved black hearts over battersea.
All the Malcom Saville adventure books, too.

From the first page, Dear Mr Henshaw....I must have read this over and over. Was it Beverley Cleary? Also Tikki-Tikki-Tembo is great, bought a copy for my children a few years ago.

Also, The Wild Baby, bought from Amazon recently and ended up being library copy from US. My kids love it!

Demon Headmaster anyone?

I remember Te Fate of Jeremy Fissick. I think I got it from school.

I am 3/4 the way through reading the Lone Pine series to Ds. Who loves them, although he does he a bit giggly about the Gay Dolphin. They're touring with a Lone Pine play this summer. (member of the Malcolm Saville Society)

Another one I love but no one else has ever found is Make Believe by Elizabeth Goudge. And Smoky House and Linnets and Valerians.

Then Arthur Catherall. Shanghaied is good, and the Unwilling Smuggler.

I've just managed to get a copy of 1066 and all that.

Dd2 has just discovered my Dimsie book collection (and is complaining it isn't bigger)

And the first Antonia Forest I got has a strange coincidence. I got it at uni a good distance away from where I live now It's an exschool library copy... From the school dd1 is now at. And I've just got copies f her historical ones.