Obscure children's books that you used to love

Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. I think they were American, a never ending series, they were Christian, and each story had a moral.

I've still got all my Susan books.

When Marnie Was There was my favourite book ever. Charley was also good. Did anyone read A Few Fair Days, I think by Jane Gardam?

Up A Road Slowly - American book about First Love, among other things.

A Girl of the Limberlost.

I read it over and over again. The rich lady spots Allison from a train and tries to spirit her away from her home where her family don't have any money. Most of my childhood books got damaged in a damp attic (sob!) so I'm slowly replacing the ones I can remember. That one is definitely going on the list.

purpledaisies I'm so happy someone else remembers it! I still sneak a quick read when I go back to my M&D's and it's in the bookshelf...

I remember The Bewitching of Alison Allbright. Had totally forgotten about it until I read your post. It was good!

I'm starting a wish list of all these books I've been reminded of.

Oh, and another one - Fifteen, by Beverley Cleary who also wrote The Ramona books. It was a coming of age book set in the 1950s. I learned everything I knew about dating (ie not much!!) from some outdated 1950s book set in San Francisco!!

So many memories here! Some books I remember really well and others that ring a vague bell but I'll have to go and look up to remember what they were about.

I also loved Rumer Godden, the diddakoi, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum. And had forgotten the Dolls House so thank you for that.

I also loved the Susan books!

And Trebizon.

I read all the Kevin and Sadie books too - remember them seeming very grown up.

And when Marnie was There. Also by Joan G Robinson, Charley is an excellent book - I bought if off Amazon second hand recently and it was as good as I remembered.

Another book I loved but I never see mentioned anywhere was called The Bewitching of Allison Allbright. It was about a girl who was 'adopted' by a rich lady who took her under her wing and bought her clothes, took her to her glamorous house - it turned out that she was the double of the lady's dead daughter and she was reliving her life via Allison. I read it literally dozens of times. Anyone else remember that?

I also loved Back Home by Michelle Magorian about a girl returning to England after being an evacuee to the U.S. during the war.

And, as many have said, The Silver Sword.

And Don't forget the bacon!!

I will have to check that out.

I will never know about the oxo cubes.

The series is on youtube now

The dragon rings a bell but sadly not the oxo cubes

Bruffin I think I might need to buy the book. My main memory was of a painting with a dragon on it?

And more bizarrely, I associate it with oxo cubes...

No, I don't remember why either

I bought the dvd of Children of the Stones for dc. Looks dated but still scary, i think i still have the book around somewhere. Bought the Tripods ( well the 2 parts the bbc made) and that went down well .

Oh, Micah I didn't know Children of the Stones was a book too. I LOVED the tv series, though my memories are hazy. It was a long time ago.

Marshmallow I loved Treasures of the Snow & The Tanglewood Secret.

Children of the stones- about a dad and son who go to live in a community within a standing stone circle as part of dads research job.

Freaky stuff with stars, magnetism and mind control, all orchestrated by the nice village head.

Happy day!

The Talking Parcel by Gerald Durrell

One more thing... For those of you trying to track down obscure books for a decent price, try www.bookbutler.com. It currently shows copies of Rebecca's World for £8 on the French Amazon site (which works with your UK Amazon log in, incidentally).

And for those of you who are Rumer Godden fans - I bought this off eBay and it arrived yesterday. I can't wait to watch it.

These are some of the childhood favourites that I rescued from my parents' loft. I was a big fan of the local library though so there are hundreds more that I didn't own. Thank you for this thread; my Amazon wishlist has suddenly grown huge!

As previously mentioned The Diddakoi- by Rumer Godden, it was made in to a TV Series in the mid 70's called "Kizzy", I remember being so taken with that I named my daughter after the character.

My obscure book would be "The Wave" by Morten Rhue (Todd Strasser), which was based on a real life experiment called "The Third Wave" ( to show the rise in popularity of the Nazi party), which was used in an American High school history class.

Ooh Lavender you have reminded me we read A Dog So Small at primary school, it's all come flooding back! Have just looked it up and its by Philippa Pearce of Tom's Midnight Garden fame. I am going to get it for ds2 who is hankering for a dog. We also have a more recent book by her called A Finders Magic which is lovely.

I loved A Dog So Small, about a boy who was desperate for a dog, and wasn't allowed one, so conjured up a dog so small he could keep him in his mind
Mary plain - my sister threw away my almost complete collection and I'm slowly buying them again.
I loved a book call ed Tubby and Tootsy, about two little bears. If anyone else has heard of it I'll be so chuffed!

Oh and I had a friend with v religious parents who had Treasures of the Snow and all the Haffertee Hamster books - I regarded the religious messages being smuggled into the story with deep suspicion as a child. Same with Heidi and Little Women really, they are very preachy, but I did love them.

I had the One End Street stories from the library - I remember Lily Rose ironing a green petticoat that shrank to the size of a doll's skirt - but the only one of the series I had my own copy of was the Dew Drop Inn, a story about Kate only who goes to stay in the country to convalesce after scarlet fever or something. And wins all the prizes at the Flower Show for her poems and wild flower arrangement.

I want to get my hands on a copy of The Little Girl and the Tiny Doll - think it's recently been reprinted - and the Old Nurse's Stocking Basket, both have Edward Ardizzone illustrations and I loved them both.

And whoever mentioned Tilly's House, I found a copy in my local charity shop recently, and was thrilled. Bought much more for me than for the DDs.