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Original poster

Enjoying children's classics

104 replies

Rayn22 · 20/10/2022 20:33

Rereading all my old favourites. Love getting cozy under a blanket with a cup of tea and a hob nob! Confused
Just read;
5 children and it.
The railway children
Whole Narnia series

Just about to start Peter Pan.
Was an eighties child and having difficulty remembering what else I read.
Not the famous five as done them to death.

Any others you can recommend?

OP posts:
Tarahumara · 21/10/2022 08:32

Great username @CatChant Smile

SquitMcJit · 21/10/2022 08:20

@CatChant

That is a brilliant list - thank you.

I loved Penny’s Way - I tried for years to find it from bits of the story and was so happy when I finally did.

Also, definitely written for younger children, but I also loved and reread as an adult the Ursula Moray Williams series - The Three Toymakers, The Toymaker’s Daughter and Malkin’s Mountain.

burnoutbabe · 21/10/2022 08:17

Ballet shoes gets a regular re-read.

And I love the what Katy did books -as a child I read 3 and as an adult found there are 2 more -girls gone by publishing released them- clover and in the high valley.

Also reading the chalets again.
And all the Blyton "mystery" books -5 finder outers plus dog

SquitMcJit · 21/10/2022 08:12

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

This is a lovely thread

Lolly86 · 21/10/2022 08:11

Marianne Dreams

Albgo · 21/10/2022 08:11

Twoducksonthewindow · 21/10/2022 07:27

Robert westall especially of course the machine gunners

Omg. And blitz cat. ♥️♥️♥️

Also, flambards by k m peyton.

FinallyHere · 21/10/2022 08:10

Richmail Crompton's

Just William series

While ostensibly a children's series, these are even more enjoyable as an adult do think they deserve mention in this thread.

RiverSkater · 21/10/2022 08:05

Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Black Hearts in Battersea and
Midnight is a Place.

RiverSkater · 21/10/2022 08:01

The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard, and the follow up Across the Barricades.

Those times were troubled. I've always lived Big cities and there was always a background fear of something happening.

sissyspacek · 21/10/2022 07:55

ArtichokeAardvark · 21/10/2022 07:25

Has anyone mentioned the Alanna books yet? Tamora Pierce. Loved those as a child!

I just adored these books - think I reread them once a year !

Howeverdoyouneedme · 21/10/2022 07:51

Oh, and Penelope Lively’s children’s books like A Stitch in Time.

And Ballet Shoes.

Howeverdoyouneedme · 21/10/2022 07:48

I forgot A Traveller in Time! Also Diana Wynne Jones.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/10/2022 07:44

When I was about 11 I read several books by Gillian Avery, who was very successful in her day but sadly now mostly forgotten, I think. I was so pleased as an adult to get hold of a copy of The Warden's Niece from an online secondhand bookseller. What a boon the internet has been for getting hold of old books!

Also delighted to see a mention of Cynthia Harnett, whose books I adored.

Has anyone mentioned Alan Garner or Leon Garfield? More prolific and well-known writers from my childhood. Alan Garner's books were what would now be labelled as Young Adult, I think (in my childhood there were children's books and there were adult books and nothing to bridge the gap).

Don't want to bring the thread down but I also really liked the books of William Mayne, and was horrified to learn decades later that he had been convicted of child sexual abuse and sent to prison. I don't think I could re-read those now.

Tarahumara · 21/10/2022 07:31

Loved loads of these (especially Antonia Forrest, Noel Streatfield, Arthur Ransome) but my absolute favourite was Diana Wynne Jones.

ChessieFL · 21/10/2022 07:31

Boarding school - Malory Towers, St Clare’s, The Naughtiest Girl (all Enid Blyton), Trebizon (Anne Digby)

Solasum · 21/10/2022 07:31

I loved Jenny Nimmo’s books as a preteen

Onesundaymorning · 21/10/2022 07:27

I've just started rereading Moondial.

Twoducksonthewindow · 21/10/2022 07:27

Robert westall especially of course the machine gunners

Twoducksonthewindow · 21/10/2022 07:26

RockyOfTheRovers · 20/10/2022 22:56

Not sure whether this would appeal to you, but there have been some excellent more recent books that are very much in the school of old children’s classics. I loved Five Children on the Western Front, Skylark’s War, Princess and the Suffragette, Midnight Guardians, When the Sky Falls, Tyger. Loads more too. Children’s literature is very much in a golden age if you can get past the wall of celebrity nonsense and find a decent library or bookshop with some proper choice.

The children's section in my local library is littered with celebrity books.

ArtichokeAardvark · 21/10/2022 07:25

Has anyone mentioned the Alanna books yet? Tamora Pierce. Loved those as a child!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/10/2022 07:22

tobee · 20/10/2022 21:34

Oh and of course the 20th century classic, Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner

I loved that book! My Mum did German at school way back in the 1940s and I think may have read the book in class. She had fond memories of it and may have suggested borrowing it from the library. I also read Lisa and Lottie, adapted for the film The Parent Trap.

paisley256 · 21/10/2022 07:17

Rosa Guy books

RomanMum · 21/10/2022 07:12

My Friend Mr Leakey
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
The Box of Drlights

Talipesmum · 20/10/2022 23:25

Glorious lists, everyone. I’ve recently been going through all our old children’s books at my parents house and so many of these are on those shelves (if they haven’t been swept onto mine).

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 20/10/2022 23:09

Yes to Marianne Dreams - so scary! Not the light! Not the light!

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