Obscure children's books that you used to love

I am still here! Thanks Amazons.

I remember Drina the Ballerina books. Also the Sadlers Wells ballet books.

And the Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Also I loved the Great Gilly Hopkins. I still have copies of most of them. must dig them out.

Wow- this thread got long!

laurachant (if you see this) that Noggin book is named 'The Island'; it's one of my favourites. I also love 'The Game'.

Yes Laura, that was The Growing Summer. They have to go stay with Aunt Dymphna in Ireland. I've just reread it.

marmaduke the Marmalade Cat.

Marianne's Dreams
The Lost Prince by Francis Hodgkinson Burnett. Loved this book.
a Gift from
Winchlesea by Helen Cresswell.
The Little White Horse - fab book and I've always liked the name Loveday since.
The Tamsin and Rissa series by Monica Edwards and also The Punchbowl series particularly The Black Hunting Whip
Lots of stuff by the Pullien Thompson's particularly the one with the grey pony on the cover who had a silly name - Adonis from memory.
Charlotte Sometimes. Loved that one.

Oh what a Busy Day!

It was my favourite book as a young child (aged about 5). It's full of beautiful pictures, you could look at it forever and never be bored.

At Xmas I got a copy off Amazon for DD1. I opened the 1st page having not seen it for over 30 years...and promptly burst into tears! I had a massive flashback to the innocence of my childhood [sniff]

Oh God, Children on the Oregon Trail. Is that the one where their parents die, and then the baby dies and the eldest brother has to be really harsh to keep the others alive? It made a big impression but it was harrowing stuff.

Was The Growing Summer the one where the kids went to stay with an aunt on an island or something, and the water came out of the taps brown, and there was a refugee from Kenya (?)?

The Tree That Sat Down (and the two others in the series)
Professor Branestawm
The Golden Goblet (seriously scary, about an orphan in Ancient Egypt)
Carbonel
Green Smoke

DD really loved the last two!

How about 'Ronia the Robbers Daughter'? I think I got it via the school book club, so I bet someone else has it too.

One if my favourite picture books is called 'The Night if the Paper Bag Monsters' - is that obscure enough?

Oh, and if we're including books we read at school, then I'll add:
Me and my Million
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
A Pattern of Islands

The High House - loved that - I think there were a couple of sequels too.

Fireweed by Jill Paton Walsh - boy and girl on the run in the London blitz.

The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy, and also Catalogue of the Universe -- so obscure I can't even find it on Amazon

I remember the Giant Jam Sandwich and DD (10) has Olga the Polga.

You can get Flossie Teacake's Fur Coat as an audio book on Audible - I got it for DD a couple of years ago .

I used to love a book called Crocodile Medicine, which we regularly got out of the library, and the Woodland Adventure stories by Lucy and Eric Kincaid about a pair of badgers called Basil & Dewy and their little mole friend, Willy.

I had hundreds of Sweet Valley High books as a teen - I remember someone selling a huge box of them for a fiver in our local paper and Mum taking me round to get them.

Did anyone else read The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler?

A question for posters mentioning The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, what age would you recommend this for please?

Thinking of reading it to my Dcs, 7 and 9 years old, but worried it might be a bit scary? I haven't read it myself but if Clive Barker's adult fiction is anything to go by, which I do read I suspect it could be?

'Carrie's War' is an absolute classic, can't wait until DD1 is old enough to appreciate it.

Anyone remember the Kevin and Sadie books by Joan Lingard?

cocobean my DS' nursery had Not Now Bernard as a theme one half term. Goodness knows why, it's a horrible book DS enjoyed it though and we have a copy.

I also really enjoyed the Trebizon books but the last two in the series are only available for £££ on Amazon so I've never read them. They're on my treat list for when I'm very rich.

Yy to Fattipuffs and Thinifers.

The High House by Honor Arundel- a brother and sister get orphaned and parcelled off to different aunts. The girl goes to her boho aunt in Edinburgh. Brilliant.

There was also a book set in Amsterdam during the war from the point of view of the young daughter of a Nazi officer. Anyone read that?

For reading to dd, 'The Tea Party of Miss Moon'.

My own - The Mermaid's Daughter and Amberwell.

At school - 'Shag the Caribou'. I kid you not.

Ah, The Land of Far Beyond - I rather liked Mr Scornful or whatever his name was - made it to the gates of Heaven but then thought hope was more important than love so wasn't allowed in. Or was it faith?

DS has all my Fighting Fantasy books now. He loves the stats and dice rolling whereas I like MrsS often didn't bother with them - it was about the story and exploration for me! My favourite was Khare: Cityport of Traps. It did annoy me you always had to be a hero - I think there might have been one book you could choose to be a girl instead.

I have (or rather, I hope my parents still have!) all the Drina books, I had those in the 90s and loved them (although they weren't a patch on Saddler's Wells).

Loved lots on here, especially 'The House at World's End' and 'Miss Happiness and Miss Flower'.

I read Green Smoke to DD1 not long ago and she loved it. Very keen to go to Cornwall now! And she's just got Olga de Polga out of the library.

Not obscure but I loved The Pigman by Paul Zindel as a teenager. When I was younger I also loved Haki The Shetland Pony (by Kathleen Fidler who also wrote 'The Boy with the Bronze Axe').

So pleased to see that other people have loved Children on the Oregon Trail - I've never known anyone else who's read it before.

Another one we had read to us lots of times at bedtime was Enid Blyton's Shadow the Sheepdog. I loved it mostly but was scared about the chapter with the eagles

This thread is going to do nothing to help my resolve to buy a few less books. And guess where I'm going later this summer - Hay-on-Wye. Oh dear.

prepperpig did you know there was a sequel to Marianne Dreams called Marianne and Mark? She's a teenager in it and it's wonderful in my opinion.

I also remember lots of these very fondly, especially The Ordinary Princess, Plague 99 (and sequels! Guess where my name is from), Not Now Bernard, Trebizon I reread on kindle recently, Jeremy James, Tripods (all of John Christopher is worth it), When marnie was there is being made into a film soon!

I came here to add - Emily Culpepper. An old lady who made the tradesmen of the village small and kept them in jars. It was a picture book! And also Phoebe and the hot water bottles, sadly condemned by the fire service to stay out of print.

Ooh YES, the Ramona books; when she drew the Qs as little cats.