What did kids read in the 70s and 80s?

Sweet Valley High, Chalet School, Noel Streatfeild, Judy Blume, at 12 I had also read MASH (!) and any Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffery I could get my hands on.

My dad also put me onto CS Forester and Dorothy L Sayers at a young age.

I read several of Penelope Lively's books for younger readers, one I remember loving and reading over again (including quite recently!) was the Ghost of Thomas Kempe. I didn't realise for years that she also wrote for adults.

Rosemary Sutcliff. Richard Adams. Anything illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. (So that's a lot of the Puffin books)

Arthur Ransome.

User4xxx (please name-change to something more human!) Brat Farrar is Josephine Tey. She never wrote a single duff novel!

I agree with the points made about generational differences in reading patterns too.

I recently did a 'writing for children' course, and apparently books now have to be fast-paced, cinematic and written in the first or limited-third person. Books with lots of description, an omniscient narrator, multiple viewpoints etc. just won't get published.

I have to wonder if it's because children don't want them, or just aren't offered them, but heyho. I put my four-viewpoint epic fantasy back in the drawer.

So many good books mentioned on here!

For instance we tried reading Paddington out loud from the original books and it was painfully slow! Also non abridged Just William books were torturous to read aloud, yet when I read them as a kid they were fine.

Do kids still read several books a week? I don't think so. It was heaven at my grans, Why don't you in the morning and then TV closed down so days and days spent reading whilst mum and dad did jobs for her. My kids are for want of a better description " academic" but more than a couple of hours reading on holiday was enough ( even when you didn't have wifi in every holiday let in rural france!)

" They don't cope as easily with flowery texts and slow moving plot. "

I was just thinking something like that - not sure a 12 year would deal with some of these texts in the same way that we did.

all of the above!

mrs frisby was my utter favourite though.

Shed loads of LHOP , K M peyton ( besotted with Flambards on TV!), What Katy Did, Ann of green gables etc

James Herriot

BUT I agree it's not as simple.It takes a 21st C child time to aquire the reading skills and persistence that we did. They don't cope as easily with flowery texts and slow moving plot. I've just chucked out a load of Katy and Ann of Green Gables books From eldests room ( she's 23) un touched . They were a hand me down from a friend about 6yrs older who read them avidly like I did. It's not that DD didn't read or " wasn't up to it" but she didn't see the point given the instant gratification stuff on TV or Harry Potter type books.

Brat Farrar - who wrote that?

x posted yes that was it

did Robert Westall write something about abortion? Or unplanned pregnancy? I remember reading it and feeling really 😮😮😮

oh goodness thanks Lord Trash you just reminded me of a whole lot more....plus..
Anything by Agatha Christie or Catherine Cookson
The Owl Service

This thread is ❤️ so many forgotten books! I want to re-read almost everything now

Devilinmyshoes was it this one? www.goodreads.com/book/show/992601.The_Diddakoi (Mine had a different cover).

Enjoyed all of the above. Probably more in the 90s, but I really liked anything by Robert Westall too who I don't think has been mentioned yet. I also started reading Agatha Christie, after the famous five ect, love a good detective story even now.

Thank you for starting this thread Op, has bought back some lovely memories. Felt like at the time was the only one not reading point bloody horror so glad to know there were others out there!

All of the above (except Babysitters and I only read one Sweet Valley High.) We didn't read Virginia Andrews with adults knowing about it, and our copy of Judy Blume's Forever was confiscated by the headmaster when he found us reading it in the playground.

Biggles, which coincidentally, I reread over the weekend. (Biggles Learns to Fly, anyway, not all 100 or so Biggles books.)

Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby series

John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began series. Too recently published to have read it as a child, but good books anyway.

KM Peyton, especially the Ruth Hollis and Pennington books. Some bits may have aged - even in the '80s, I raised an eyebrow at Ruth's brother earning £10 a week and it being a meaningful contribution to the family finances. Other books were set in historical periods anyway.

Mind you, I read the back of the cereal packet or anything else to hand, if I had no books available.

Does anyone remember Lizzy Dripping stories? Loved those

The Kizzy book was actually called The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden.

Loved the TV series, wish I could watch it again.

Shedloads of Enid Blyton (Famous Five/Malory Towers series especially)
Narnia series (my absolute favourites at primary school)
Wind in the Willows
The Secret Garden
Anything by E Nesbitt (Five Children and It, Phoenix and the Carpet, Story of the Treasure Seekers)
Jennings and Darbishire series by Anthony Buckeridge
The Hobbit
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
My mum's Catherine Cooksons from the library...

Hardly anything actually written in the 70s and 80s, strangely.

Oh yes! Thanks!

oh the story of the little girl who was a traveller - was it Kizzy?

Swallows and Amazons
Tom's Midnight Garden
David Copperfield
The Sound of Coaches (Leon Garfield)
Cricket Magazine
The Chalet School Series
Little Women
What Katy Did/What Katy did Next/what Katy did at school
anything by Noel Streatfield
Follyfoot/the Worlds End Series - Monica Dickens
A little princess
The Secret Garden

Enid Blyton- I still have over 200 of her books - my guilty pleasure!
In my early teens I read loads of the 1960/70s Nancy Drew books 2 or 3 a week sometimes - have over 70 of those books.
I then used to buy books of the afternoon classic series e.g. Margaret Thursday, Come back Lucy. I still love reading - late starter of chalet school 3 years ago now have the whole series and am half way through reading them!!

And the Pullein-Thompson books of course.

I also liked a story about a little girl who was a traveller but can't remember what it was called

Helen Cresswell; Moondial and The Secret World of Polly Flint.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Phillipa Pearce; Tom's Midnight Garden and The Way to Sattin Shore.

Anne Fine

Little House on the Prairie books.

Enid Blyton

E Nesbit

James Herriot series

I used to read Catherine Cookson too.

Jill's Gymkhana series, Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka