DD2 (9) wants to know what your best ever children's book is

Oops. Meant Mountain of Magic. (That's the third. I have em all. Did I say?)

Just got MP in the apple orchard, though I wanted him in the daisy field.

Still got my old copies of the Princess &the goblin and Curdie. DD wasn't hugely impressed by them though

The Mary Plain books seem to be oop. My bro loved them.

Wahoo, I have The Stream that Stood Still too. Full house!

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Randomly, our county libraries don't have either The Tree that Sat Down, or the Stream that Stood Still - but they do have the third in the trilogy, the Mountain of Magic, which I don't remember at all.
Adding to the list of very good books which are almost impossible to get hold of - what about Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field. I loved that one as a child. MP in the Apple Orchard (which IMO is not half as good) is still in print, but not MP in the Daisy Field. I wanted to buy a copy for DD as we have family in Lewes and the stories are set all over Sussex, but again, only available for lots of £££s.

Oh - and The Midnight Folk

The Bagthorpes books by Helen Cresswell

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Precious Bane by Mary Webb. Lovely story about a girl with a hare lip.

well done Jux _ I should have thought of it earlier! I shall just have to go and scour old bookshops - I have found a newly opened one that had an old hardback edition of the Princess and Curdie so might look there.

Wow - I have both! Were mine as a child and now DD is reading them.

(Merrylegs braves DD's bomb-site of a room to rescue pension fund...)

I got the Tree that Sat Down for £7 2 days ago. sorry It's in the post.

Can't find the Stream that Stood Still for less than £30.

Right, well, won't be buying The Tree that Sat Down any time soon - any of you who have it, you might want to make sure you keep it in good nick as it seems to have achieved collector status and I can't buy it for anything less than £17 (up to £85).

I have the first Bottersnikes and Gumbles book - I wouldn't recommend that either because it has the same collector status and is not available at less than about £25; shame cos I wanted to get the other books.

Sorry, Green KNOWE, not Knowle. By Lucy M. Boston.

Another vote here for Tom's Midnight Garden, absolutely love that book, also The Secret Garden, Moonfleet and the Green Knowle series. All great page-turning stories.

I've been picking up a lot of these old classics in the charity shops too, over the last couple of years. It's very satisfying.

I can't remember much about the Tree that Sat down and Stream that stood still, but I do remember them being good. I can't remember the storyline properly though.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were the toads weren't they, belonging to the witch?

(I knew how to pronounce them, I went to sunday school a lot, we learned that sort of thing)

I am thinking I need to find the Tree That sat Down now! I have never heard of it before, so must seek it out...

I loved the Tree that Sat down et al too.
Ditto the Princess & the Goblins / Curdie - I never owned a copy but recently found one in a 2nd hand shop. In fact I always trawl the childrens shelves & have picked up copies of lots of my old favourites over the last year or so (to add to the two large boxes full rescued from my parents loft )

did I put the Princess and the Goblins and the Princess and Curdie down before? if not, they're good too. Dunno if they're still in print anywhere.

here it is!

Lynne Reid Banks wrote a book about a fairy which I loved so much, and just can't find

The Narnia books
the hobbit
Green Smoke is AMAZING I loved it to BITS

The famous Five books are all a bit "cheese and Chutney and Sally the Maid" but very fun.

Must add support for the Family from One End Street series, the Worst Witch, and all Roald Dahl books - all wonderful at that age.

I was also DELIGHTED to see that someone else recommended When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - one I read over and over again.

Can I also add:
The Otterbury Incident - C Day Lewis (very old-fashioned, my dad's favourite as a boy, but I loved it too!)
Ronia The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, who wrote the Pippi Longstocking books
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler - Gene Kemp
The Ramona Quimby books - Beverly Cleary
The Nicholas series - Rene Goscinny
Henny Takes a Hand - Barbara Paterson

Lots of strong, interesting and funny female characters amongst that lot!

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.

Boy by Roald Dahl, his autobiography about when he was at boarding school is brilliant.

I was just thinking of The Diddakoi

Lynne Reid Banks The Indian in the Cupboard (there is a series of books some aimed at older children too) is good, well my dd is really loving it, she is slightly younger but loves reading.

Huckleberry Finn

I will watch this thread, it will be good for inspiration.

I clearly hadn't read far enough Fennel - I was so excited to get the name of the first one my heart jumped!

I have been wracking my brains to remember the name of the book and here it is - a third person in the world who has read The Tree that Sat Down. Wonderful book. I have never forgotten Meschach, Shadrach and Abednego because it took me so long to decide how to pronounce them!

There was another in the series which I've forgotten the name of too.