Obscure children's books that you used to love

That's the one! I remember the weak bladder too. Rather strangely clearer than some of the violence which scared me so at the time.

DeeWe that one is by Robert Cormier, who also wrote The Chocolate War, another excellent and creepy novel. I always remember that the girl in After The First Death has a weak bladder and is constantly worried about wetting herself!

Robert Swindells wrote Brother In The Land, among many others.

Robert Westall wrote one of my teen self's favourite books, Futuretrack 5, as well as lots more.

Lots of Roberts!

Had a creepy one from the library called "After the First Death". About a girl who's driving a school bus to nursery school when it get hijacked. They drug the children and try negotiating over them. They then kill one of them I think the girl ends up fancying one of the hijackers who then kills her.By someone like Robert Swindells.
Gave me nightmares.

Another Rebecca's World fan here. I think it was read on Jackanory with different illustrations to the book, as I can clearly remember quite different images. I got so obsessed with finding it that I did buy a stupidly-priced one, and I will forever be annoyed that I only paid slightly less than I could have done a month previously, to get a signed copy...

DS, thankfully, loved it.

Can anyone else remember The Nargun and the Stars?

The Patchwork Cat

Takver no I haven't re-read "Children of the Oregon Trail" as an adult, and thanks to your advice I won't bother!

I read The Bewitching of Allison Allbright a lot.
The Prince in Waiting trilogy.
The Beverley Nichols Tree That Sat Down series - I have all these and most of his other books.
The Otterbury Incident is terrific.
Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles also.
Plague 99 trilogy
When Marnie Was There has been made into a Studio Ghibli film this year.
I have copies of all these.

My obscure books that I had to hunt for are -
The Ghost Garden by Hila Feil - about a 11/12 yr old who spends the summer living in a commune on Rhode Island and meets a new friend who wants to call up a ghost after they find a secret room which belonged to a little girl many years before.

Also, Late for Halloween by Camilla Fegan about the witch Murgatroyd and her cat Hornsbydale who are exiled to Judy's garden for a year. She learns magic and makes a friend of the Chinese dragon Chinquintafizz who is conjured to life from an old tin tray.
I now have both of these, along with early Jean Ure, all the Alan Garners including Red Shift, Wynne Jones, and the absolutely stunning and sinister Devil on the Road by Robert Westall.

"The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark" - about an owl named Plop.

I've just checked and it is illustrated by Larry Learmouth!

playinghouse it was read to me in what is now year 3 so 7 or 8 (almost 40 years ago!) and I never forgot it. Bought it and read it for myself a couple of years later.

Lucky you to find it in a charity shop. If it's the one with the Larry Learmonth illustrations it's worth a bit too

Ninnypants, I remember Plop the owl too! My teacher read that out loud to us at primary school.

Does anyone else remember Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn? A really lovely story about two girls who are both outside the cool clique at school but get paired up by a teacher and create a children's book.

Found a copy of Rebecca's world in the charity shop yesterday!

Bought it for dd1 after remembering how many of you loved it! She is 7. Is she ok to read it now or wait a bit?

Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden. I read it till it fell apart I bought a new copy for my DDs a couple of years ago. They were gentle and polite in their dismissal.

National Velvet, anyone? I adored that book and it was my emotional 'escape' at the boarding school I hated.
The Flambards books - not sure if they are considered obscure.
Once Long Ago - a collection of illustrated fairy stories from around the world. I lent it to a friend when I was a child and never got it back, and I searched for it unsuccessfully for years.
Then the Internet arrived and I found a copy at once.

Oooh, the Otterbury Incident, I'd completely forgotten that. We had it read to us in juniors and I loved it.

We had Rebecca's World read to us at school when I was about 8 or 9. I'd love a copy of it.

I loved the Tim and the Hidden People series. There were loads of books; it was a reading scheme. Really good.

I remember Olga da Polga, and we have The Giant Jam Sandwich. The kids love it.

Another one we have that I've never seen anywhere else is The Boy Who Was Followed Home, about a boy who is followed home from school by a hippo.

The book I mentioned - Kerry Caravan - had a hay box too. Has anybody ever tried this outside of children's fiction? I seem to remember you needed a wooden box and some straw and hey presto - roast chicken and gravy

Just remembered another fond favourite - Lion at Large by Richard Parker. About an ordinary schoolboy who found a lion in his garden and fed it dog food - it wasn't mystical - it was a real lion and he was trying to get people to take him seriously whilst at the same time I think trying to keep it secret.

I've just bought myself a copy of The Children Who Lived In A Barn.

Dh is going to be cursing this thread, when he sees how much I am spending on books thanks to you lot!

Don't stop though - I can handle him!

There is a haybox in The Children Who Lived In A Barn, too.

ISn't there a hay box used in one of the Fell Farm stories?

Oh yes I was just going to say Trouble for Trumpets!