Is there a magical website that helps you find books from your childhood?

[NigelWithTheBrie79]

I've tried googling details I remember for different books but no luck as of yet.

One of the best searching sites is called 'Stump the Bookseller' and they have archives you can search as well as post your question, and there are tons of people that help solve them. The archives have lots of the books people are looking for already - it seems like certain books often come up and are the ones that stay with people. You put in whatever details you have and people try to help.

www.loganberrybooks.com/stumpthebookseller/

@Bloodybridget

Try Booksleuth. But put what you remember on here too; lots of people have been able to find titles from other MNers. In

Just looked up a book I read as a child and it found it thanks

@LifeAdvice

I have one that stumps me - if anyone could help……?

I picked it up and read half of it on a family holiday, before my Mum saw me reading it and took it away as being too grown up! Always wondered what happened….. I remember the title being ‘Family Secrets’, but there are millions of books called that. This had a young girl (toddler?) picked up and taken by a man and they were driving across the country (America?). Not sure if the man was kidnapping or if he was someone taking her from a bad home life. I remember one scene in a petrol station where she wandered off and a horrible gas station attendant was trying to touch the girl.

The book would have been published 1993 or earlier, I suspect I read it in the 80s.

Any help at all!?! I’ve been through Good Reads for this title and it still eludes me!

That sounds an awful lot like Lolita, although obviously not a toddler?

Oh I have one but can't remember much at all! It was a pony book, probably a Pullein-Thomson or similar about a girl who rescues a steel grey pony from the knackers and calls it Kestrel. I'm convinced the pony was called Kestrel but never been able to find it by googling! Any ideas?

Please can anyone help with a series of books I read in the mid 80s I think. They were titled something like Giants or Witches and had interesting drawings and stories about rabbit's paw or old myths etc. I would live to get my hands on them again.

@SalaciousCrumble that sounds like on of the Patricia Leitch books to me?

I still have my pony books in the loft, will check time I clear out up there (overdue!).

UnfinishedUsernam that would possibly be A Pair of Jesus Boots and/or A Pair of Desert Wellies. I think the character you are talking about is called Rocky. I think I may still have the books.

Yes that sounds familiar! I wondered if it was To Save A Pony but can't find any reference to the pony's name online. They were all basically the same plotline of course but it's funny what sticks!

Jealous you kept all your pony books, I threw out most of mine in my late teens and regret it now.

@bendmeoverbackwards - I think yours might be 'Nancy Nutall and the Mongrel' by Catherine Cookson, which is one of my all-time favourite books.

@bendmeoverbackwards - you can see the cover here

The Saturdays and the Four Storey Mistake were two of my absolute favourites!

How about this one? It was a book of rhymes for 8+ years I would say. Large (annual size but not as thick) I was reading it in the late 60s. It had a lot of stylized drawings in it but mainly printed in black. One of the poems went
'Our Anna May Amelia Clare
Took half an hour to dress her hair
She had to look her very best
To be a birthday party guest' etc
Loved my parents reading this book to me and would love to see it again.

There is such a website. Its called Loganberry books. Its American but lots of British books asked about too.

I have one:
book series (4 books I think), set in England around WW1, each from the perspective of a different sister. Eldest one has a love interest but one of the younger sisters is in love with him as well.

Idyllic and Edwardian at first, then changes tone when the realities of WW1 kick in. No idea about author/titles :-(

@Helocariad

I have one: book series (4 books I think), set in England around WW1, each from the perspective of a different sister. Eldest one has a love interest but one of the younger sisters is in love with him as well.

Idyllic and Edwardian at first, then changes tone when the realities of WW1 kick in. No idea about author/titles :-(

Oh I read these! Have a feeling the book titles were nature related... Will see if it comes back to me!

@Helocariad

I have one: book series (4 books I think), set in England around WW1, each from the perspective of a different sister. Eldest one has a love interest but one of the younger sisters is in love with him as well.

Idyllic and Edwardian at first, then changes tone when the realities of WW1 kick in. No idea about author/titles :-(

The Quantock Quartet by Ruth Elwin Harris?

I love these threads

Ha, I've found them - Ruth Elwyn Harris' Quantock Quartet!

www.goodreads.com/book/show/344203.Sarah_s_Story

[quote JoanOgden]Ha, I've found them - Ruth Elwyn Harris' Quantock Quartet!

www.goodreads.com/book/show/344203.Sarah_s_Story[/quote]
That's it- thanks, you've made my day

@wolfstarling

Please can anyone help with a series of books I read in the mid 80s I think. They were titled something like Giants or Witches and had interesting drawings and stories about rabbit's paw or old myths etc. I would live to get my hands on them again.

Could it be the Through the Rainbow series cultreading70s.blogspot.com/2006/10/through-rainbow.html They are called things like Princesses and Witches.

I don't know but I'd love to find one. It's about the plague (black death).
Family of modern day (at the time!) Children go into a deserted rural cottage and go back in time to become a family living there during the plague (hiding away from the town to avoid it). The mum gets ill, they have to look after her etc. At the end they come out of the cottage back into the present day and you didn't know if it was all in the girl's imagination or they really time travelled. It was great, I really engaged with it. But I've never been able to find it.

@JKDinomum

I don't know but I'd love to find one. It's about the plague (black death). Family of modern day (at the time!) Children go into a deserted rural cottage and go back in time to become a family living there during the plague (hiding away from the town to avoid it). The mum gets ill, they have to look after her etc. At the end they come out of the cottage back into the present day and you didn't know if it was all in the girl's imagination or they really time travelled. It was great, I really engaged with it. But I've never been able to find it.

That sounds familiar to me as well. Following in the hope someone remembers it!

MN has helped me find a couple of books I only half-remembered, which I’m very grateful for

I've got a couple.

The first was a set of books-I think there were 6 in the set, but the library only had 3. They were called something like "Anna and ....". I think they were translated from another language.
Anna was the oldest child of a number and they were orphans that had been taken in by a relative maybe? I know there was a woman in a wheelchair (possibly relative's wife) who disliked them, except I think she petted one of the little ones. She got tossed by a bull and died in the third book I think, just as she was thawing towards them.

Second one I've asked a few places and not found. Another children's book. Main character was kidnapped, possibly as a hostage. They try to escape and the kidnapper turns violent....
I stopped reading at that point and the book went back to the library and I never found it again. I've wondered what actually happened. Very vague!

I remember that book. (The Saturdays) The housekeeper was called Cuffy (Miss Cuthbert) and she was very strict but loving. She made the eldest child who had saved her pocket money for a beauty salon pampering sesh remove her nail polish with perfume. I tried it one time and it didn't work

I have one.

Read in the 90's, a novel that included a boy or girl, or maybe both, skating north on the frozen river Ouse past Ely up to the coast. I think late Victorian/Edwardian times. Wonderful description of Ely cathedral appearing floating above the fen mists. Cannot remember anything else but would love to read it again!

Anyone else hoping to see a description they recognise? Was excited that I knew one of them in the op