Children's fantasy classics - Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, Robert Westall, Ursula le Guin, and more...

Yes indeed. This is very much my kind of thread. As you know.

Yes to Jennie Bustopher but my favourite Paul Gallico is definitely The Man Who Was Magic, such a lovely book.

Yes! The description of the blister forming. Yuck. And the joy when Chrestomanci appears in his dressing gown. The only Diana Wynne Jones I didn’t really love was Hexwood, despite being dedicated to Neil Gaiman! Did any of you enjoy it?

<shudder>

But then some bits are so funny - the bit where Charles expresses his rage in coded form in his diary! I got up, I got up, I GOT UP’. 😄

I liked the twist in perspective in The Power of Three. The Dalemark Quartet (The Spellcoats, particularly) is also good and very myth-like in style. I did enjoy the Carbonel series, @Sadik. Carbonel was very superior, wasn’t he? Very cat-like. Have you read Jennie by Paul Gallico? It’s about a boy who has an accident and wakes up as a white kitten. He is looked after by a stray cat called Jennie when he is thrown out on the streets.

Fingers crossed for fifty, @UnaOfStormhold

God yes, "It hurts to be burnt, it hurts to be burnt" stayed with me for a LONG time.

I recently read Carbonel to my 9 yr old and was quite surprised how dated it was in terms of setting but it's such cracking storytelling that it doesn't matter. We also read Gobbolino the Witch's Cat.

I reread Witch Week recently which I think is one of her best - it manages to be both completely hilarious and genuinely chilling.

Diana Wynne Jones is my favourite and my best - I think I've read everything she ever wrote. Top three are probably: Fire and Hemlock; Witch Week; Power of Three, but I love all of them really - such clever storytelling. I recently re-read Archer's Goon which I rescued from my parents' bookshelf cull.

And talking of the cull, I also rescued the Changes Trilogy which I'm planning to re-read, and The Borribles (it had a horrifying version of the Wombles in it IIRC).

I read and loved most of the books on this thread, also Margaret Mahy who wrote for a wide age range, but I got hooked by two strange, supernatural young teen romances: The Changeover and The Tricksters.

Hello Pollyhemlock - knew I’d find you here!

The Box of Delights is brilliant in many ways and you can see that it influenced TDIR, but I can never get over the massive disappointment of the ending. For that reason I always much preferred its prequel, The Midnight Folk. A great witchy book.

Oh, me too. ‘ A kit among the stars shall sit/ Beyond the aid of feline wit’ .

Definitely found a tribe here !

I went to Green Knowe (the real house) last year and was very delighted to see the patchworks, the art, and the little items in the books such as the wooden carved mouse. Hugely recommend a visit if you can.

Ah yes, I loved Carbonel!

There's a lovely meme which goes something along the lines of...
When I was 8 I looked into wardrobes but never got to Narnia.
When I was 11 I was sad not to get my letter from Hogwarts.
When I was 14 I was sad that a centaur didn't take me to Camp Quest.
Now I'm nearly 50 and waiting for Gandalf to come and take me on an adventure...

Another DWJ fan - the Homeward Bounders and the Power of Three were my favourites as a child, though I also loved Charmed Life (just a little too old for the others in the series).

Susan Cooper too, particularly the last two set in Wales. Strangely though although I read lots of children's fantasy, I never got on with Alan Garner.
Does anyone else remember the Carbonel books?

Yes - the Britishness is the point, especially with Susan Cooper. That’s why the film adaptation of TDIR failed so badly - they failed to grasp that it wasn’t just another ‘boy wizard’ story, but a tribute to British mythology, history and landscape. The idea of making Will’s family American was idiotic.

That seems a fair assessment! And did we all suffer a sense of loss that we were never told we were Old Ones (although I’m getting there…), Going to Hogwarts or that we had Nine Lives😁?

I’d forgotten the Changes books -it was an interesting idea for a series. I always liked how everyone in Europe had been plagued by the English bad weather after England ‘changed’.

Love this thread remembering all these books. Urn burial was my favourite westall book.

Just got my kids the dark is rising series. They loved green knowe (so much so we visited the house which is well worth it!) so hopefully get will enjoy

Box of Delights currently on iplayer and Britbox.

Ah what a lovely thread! I love Diana Wynne Jones and Alan Garner. I'm itching to introduce DS8 to Diana Wynne Jones - hope he'll love them as much as I do. And yes, the Changes was terrifying. I'm a big fan of Robin McKinley too - The Blue Sword in particular. And the podcast of the Dark is Rising was excellent (if scary!) company for wrapping presents.

Are we all just people who really like displacing our real problems into wizards and witches?

I confess to a definite liking for escapism...

Loved all these. The tv show of green knowe was fabulous. Sadly the box of delights adaptation hasn't really aged well

Anyone ever come across the Borrible trilogy. About a tribe of feral children living in the tunnels and waterways of London engaged with an ongoing war against each other.

I remember Peter Dickinson and The Gift. John Gordon was another I loved. The Giant under the Snow and the House on the Brink were terrifying!

Ooh - I don't know Playing Beatie Bow - but I've just ordered it for £3.89. If some of the rest of you like it then I suspect I will!

I've got A Candle in her Room as well - Dido the doll...