Books from your childhood

[Seriouslymole]

DD, year 5, had homework this week to interview someone about books they remember from their childhood. I suddenly remembered all the Jill Ferguson "Jill and her pony" books which I loved as a child. I've now purchased two for DD off the back of this. I wonder if they will be as I remembered them.

Has anyone re-read childhood books recently? I read The Outsiders recently which I brought for DS (11) and realised he was too young for it. I loved it as a teenager and read it over and over again. Reading it as an adult was really not the same experience.

Swallows and Amazons series. Loved them then, love them now. The difference is I feel a lot more sympathy and admiration for Susan now than I did as a child.

I reread the 'Jinny at Finmory' series a few years back - wonderful books about a young girl and her Arab horse Shantih living in rural Scotland. Absolutely loved them and they haven't lost any of their magic.

Jill Paton Walsh, KM Peyton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, all the Pullein Thompson sisters books, Anne Digby.

I wanted a horse in my back garden, basically

Milly Molly Mandy, Pippi Longstocking, My Little Sister, The Borrowers, Nancy Drew, Famous 5. Have revisited with my 7 year old, I enjoyed them more than she did!

The Trebizon, Mallory Towers and St Clares series.

I really wanted to go to boarding school!

I've ordered The Babysitters Club and Malory Towers box sets of books for DD for her birthday and Christmas off the back of the recent TV adaptations which we've watched together, but also partially because I want to read them again when she's finished with them.

Tamora Pierce's Alanna of Trebond series - the first one is a bit childish but they get better. Bad ass female hero, tales of derring-do and magic and some humour.

Yup, we’ve read Toms Midnight Garden, all of the Secret Seven, halfway through the Famous Five series, Blyton’s Adventure series (just as good as I remembered). However the Moomins and Alice have been part read and put to the bottom of the pile by my DS!

Antonia Forest’s Marlow series (Autumn Term etc), Chalet School and Famous Five. Find them reassuringly safe at the moment.

Antonia Forest’s Marlow series (Autumn Term etc)
Glad you posted that as I couldn't remember the name & I re-read those books over & over. I wanted to be Nicola Marlowe but was probably more Lawrie.

When I was a bit younger I loved The Worst Witch. I would've been Mildred.

Harriet the Spy. I would only have tomato sandwiches in my lunchbox after reading it.
All Enid Blyton books
Any boarding school book.

My Mum ended up as a boarding school matron and my son went to boarding school...shattered all my illusions!

I had Hilda Boswell Treasury of Poetry, as a child, beautiful illustrations, I loved it, read it so much it dropped to bits! I found one online a couple of years ago so i bought it. It’s a treasured possession

Another fan of The Marlows! I always thought life would be utterly perfect if only I were Nicola Marlow...

Jinny at finmory
Saddle club
Jill and her pony
These books were my childhood

The Tree That Sat Down, still love it.

Most of those already listed, but does anyone remember Speedy the Mini? DSis and I loved those books in the 60s. I taught myself to read with them.

I still have all my copies of my Judy Blume and Paula Danziger books. The Paula Danziger aren't as great to read as an adult. They have dated a lot. With Judy Blume although I still love them. I (as an adult) kind of read them as being set when they were written. Are You There God was published in 1970 so I read it as being set in 1970 rather than being contemporary. Obviously I didn't do that when I first read them (1980s). I recently re read the Fudge books. As a kid when I read them the fact that the characters lived in flats in New York I associated that as being 'not well off' - embarrassing in know but I (back then) only thought of high rise flats as being council flats
Re reading them recently I was more aware of the parents jobs. In Fudge the Dad works in advertising. As the first book was 1972 then essentially he would have been working in a Mad Men environment. In Shelia the Great the Dad is an university professor. This totally went over my head as a kid that these families were fairly Middle Class. I read them with very different eyes as a grown up.

Black Beauty. The Secret Garden started my love of reading.

The very first real book I remember reading (apart from the picture books etc.) was a translation of 'Little Women' with the "approved by the allied authorities censorship board" stamp on it. It belonged to DM.
The other was one in a series of traditional girl's books by Else Ury (she was murdered in a concentration camp) printed in the twenties in fraktur - so very difficult to read. That too belonged to my DM.

@Jux

The Tree That Sat Down, still love it.

I loved that book!! Thank you for the reminder. I think I've still got it somewhere - if not, I'm going to have to buy a copy.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g said everything I wanted to say!

But also When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
I loved that book- had it on permanent renewal from the library, I don't know how many times I read it.

Little Women, Little house on the Prairie. Sad let’s Wells books by Lorna someone! Noel streatfield, Alan Garner, Malcom Saville.
I may have been a bit of a loner!

What Katy Did

As a small child, the books I remember reading most often were the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and L Frank Baum's Oz books. Lots of people don't know there was a whole series of Oz books, telling stories that expanded beyond Dorothy et al. Some weird stuff in those books!

My dd has read and enjoyed all my old Judy Blumes and Paula Danzigers.