What are your favourite kids books? (Not so well known ones)

[somanydevices]

Happy world book day everyone! (DD's school did it today. DS's tomorrow, still one to go...)

I thought it could be nice to share some book recommendations with each other, outside of the classics & really popular books we all know. My kids read loads and I know I can struggle to find decent new stuff online. I'd love to know abotu some more "hard to find" stuff.

What are your family's favourite kid's books that not everyone knows?

Here's some of ours.

Fox and the the Star The illustrations are stunning! This book feels magical!

Journey. The first of 3 books. If you have a young child who likes to get involved this is good. It's not got any words at all, so you make up the words as you go along. DD loved "reading" it to me. Again the pictures are beautiful.

The Problem with Problems Not strictly a favourite as I haven't actually read this yet, I just ordered today as I heard the author talking about it and it looks great.

Morris's Dissappearing Bag
We have a copy of this from when I was little! I loved it, the story's great. Lovely to see they still sell it.

Also I came across this podcast on children's books today, looks good. www.spellboundkids.com

For older kids:

Voyage to Magical North - the Accidental Pirates My eldest loved this chapter book. It's so beautifully written. The main character is a girl, and it's a swashbuckling adventure full of magic. I love that it's good for both girls and boys to have a book with a female main character in this kind of role & setting.

Cogheart A steampunk kids novel featuring a girl and a boy going on adventures to save their dad. The first in the series - DS loves these.

@ComeOnGordon - I still say "Goodnight my chickadee" when I put the DC to bed (age 8 and 11 now!).

For older kids -
'Love That Dog'
and 'Hate That Cat'
both by Sharon Creech. Make sure to have a box of tissues handy.

'The Tale of Despereaux'
and 'Great Joy' (a lovely Christmas story).
both by Kate DiCamillo.

The 'Henry' books by Mary Calhoun.
Very likely out of print. Great fun. Henry is a curmudgeonly cat.

The Jenny's Cat Club series by Esther Averill, featuring a little black cat named Jenny who wears a cute little red scarf.

For little ones:
The Boo and Baa books by Olof and Lena Landström.

I used to love Jane Shaw's Susan books. Also echo a pp's recommendation of Patricia M St John. I had several Christian-themed books I'd got as Sunday School prizes, and took the religious elements in my stride.

My two loved Daddy Lost his Head by Andre Bouchard. I picked it up really cheap and thought it would pass a few minutes for my eldest at bedtime. He asked for it every night for ages, as did his brother a couple of years later. Funny and quirky and illustrated by Quentin Blake.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - the original book by Ian Fleming, then the very differently written sequels by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Ooh like a previous poster love Astrid Lindgren, particularly the Bullerby Children books.

Also Cold Christmas by Nina Betchcroft which I've mentioned on here before. Although it's a ghost story, the non ghostly bits really resonated with me:- those times as I child where, because of your parents friendships, you occasionally have to socialise with children you don't know. And, being a child, witnessing how adults behave together. There's a great description of turning up to a social occasion and feeling over dressed as a child.

So many! Some honorable mentions though:

The Seasons of Fern Hollow by John Patience- my dad bought a house for this author/illustrator once so I was gifted the books but they are beautiful. Love a map in a book!

Tiger that came to tea: obviously well known but it makes me feel a certain way. Hard to describe.

A book called We All love chips!

Teddy Robinson - looked for these for my kids but couldn't find.

Emma & I - about a guide dog.

Anything by Noel Stretfield. Also well known but the Gemma books seem to be less classic but more contemporary to my childhood.

Trebizon - loved all boarding school series but again mentioning these because they felt more contemporary to my childhood.

I’m bookmarking this thread to check out tomorrow.

One of the first books I read on my own and loved as a child was Anna Witch by Madeleine Edmondson. I’ve never met anyone else who read/remembers it but my husband found me an old library copy which I’ve kept for my wee girl. I so vividly remember writing my own version of the story on an envelope and trying to come up with other names that were palindromes (I didn’t know they were called palindromes at the time!).

Teddy Robinson is lovely Brightlights.

The House on Falling Star Hill is great probably for age 9-12. It's a nice mixture of adventure, fantasy (but not over the top), learning about yourself, and just a really good story!

I also read a lot of Dick King Smith but think my favourite was probably Tumbleweed, about a nervous knight.

The two Wilma books by Kaye Umansky are very good as well, a re-writing of fairytales from the point of view of a girl who will be a wicked queen one day.

I loved the Willard Price series of books when I was a child, way back in the mists of time - Amazon Adventure, African Adventure, South Sea Adventure etc. They were so exciting and there were loads of them to keep me engrossed.

I also loved the Just William books. He was the Horrid Henry of his day!

Thought of a few more. All of the Moomin books by Tove Jansen so beautifully written, gentle and atmospheric. Gobbolino the Witche's Cat. Any of the Pippi Longstocking books.

Anything by Colin Dann was a favourite when I was a child, the Animals of Farthing Wood series, but also King of the Vagabonds was a massive favourite for me.

I also read a duo of books called The Witches of Whitby and The Warlock of Whitby and they were amazing as a child.

I didnt grow up with a lot of books so these I read over and over and over.

I loved "an ordinary princess" by MM Kaye. Read it to my little boys

These are really old and might not be easy to get, but I loved the Beverly Nichols stories: The Tree That Stood Still and The Stream That Sat Down.

I vaguely remember these titles, can anyone give a synopsis of the plots? I'm sure I liked them...

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. I loved it and always wanted to name by child Posy!

"Waiting' by Kevin Henkes.

Just today stumbled across another - 'The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse' by Mac Barnett.

Hilarious and also very moving.

@Adaline - me to regarding Posy

Favourite books (which are sitting on my bookshelf behind me)

Teddy Robinson
Milly Molly Mandy
Moomintrolls

Spellhorn by Berlie Doherty. I'd forgotten all about it and found it in a charity shop last week.

I can't recall the author, but I loved and read many many tines a book called Henry's Leg.
Also loved the My Naughty Little Sister books and another one called Millie's Secret, again the name of the author escapes me.

Also the Jinny and Shantih books by Patricia Leitch