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.

[quote IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]@NoisyBrain could be the Worst Witch series?[/quote]

I was thinking this. There were 5 books in the series I think.

@IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads (love the username by the way!)

Sadly not, but thanks. I think it predates those books. The story was quite dramatic and I think. dragon may have been involved somewhere. Actually, there may have been many dragons. Arrgh, why is it my brain can remember the registration number of my parent's Volvo from that era but not the title of this book?!

Could the Anastasia books mentioned, be the ones written by Lois Lowry? Anastasia Krupnik, Anastasia's choosen career, etc?

Actually no, I think only 3 in the original series but more now

[quote SmolCat]@NigelWithTheBrie79 (brilliant name, love that film) is the second book the Anastasia series by Lois Lowry? She wore round glasses and they moved house and her bedroom had a turret. Her new baby brother is called Sam.[/quote]
Oh my goodness! I had completely forgotten about these books. I loved them as a child and used to always get them from the library. Didn't see write a diary and have lots if lists?

@NoisyBrain

I have one! It was about a school for witches.That's literally all I can remember about the story. I read it in the early 80s (maybe J K Rowling did too ) I think the cover was pink and yellow and I vaguely recall silhouettes of witches on broomsticks.

The worst witch?

@SoItWas

Could the Anastasia books mentioned, be the ones written by Lois Lowry? Anastasia Krupnik, Anastasia's choosen career, etc?

I was thinking of those too.

I think the cover was pink and yellow and I vaguely recall silhouettes of witches on broomsticks.

My early 80s Puffin copy of The Worst Witch had a pink and yellow cover with silhouetted witches, so second this suggestion.

@NoisyBrain

I have one! It was about a school for witches.That's literally all I can remember about the story. I read it in the early 80s (maybe J K Rowling did too ) I think the cover was pink and yellow and I vaguely recall silhouettes of witches on broomsticks.

Worst witch

I remember a Meg and mog one with the same cover as well

I'm now wondering if the silhouettes were dragons not witches, my brain has officially given up! I'm pretty sure it's not The Worst Witch, even though it's the right time period.

Mine is a late 80s early/90s book about two teenage girls from Liverpool and one of their friends dares them to see how far they can travel on five pounds and they end up in the Lake District where one pretend to hurt her ankle and the other one meets an American medical student called Michael.

Can anyone help me with this impossible one that I remember nothing about 🤦‍♀️- it involved Authurian legend and was set in Cornwall. There was a boy who was finding out about a secret plan (spies? Thieves?!). I think there might have been an element of portal into another time or time travel maybe… it was ‘modern’, not set in the times of King Arthur.

The only scene I remember is I’m the boy hiding behind a grey stone wall listening to men discuss the plan and “the sound of folding money”.

It’s driving me mad!

Is it in Tom's Midnight Garden where the main character thinks a tree (an apple tree?) is dead because it's winter, but Tom scratches away some of the old wood with his nail to show him/her that there's green underneath? That's the only part I remember but I think of it every year when I see bare trees!

I don't suppose it's the same book as @MargaretThursday but I also have a kidnapping one - a group of 2-3 children put some kind of firecracker through the letterbox of a big building as a prank, and it causes a huge explosion and they panic. They somehow get involved with a man and a woman who convince them that they'll be in loads of trouble if they get caught and they need to hide from the police. They take the kids to a house to keep them hidden. The kids eventually figure out that the real cause of the explosion was the man and woman planting a bomb in the building, and they've been kidnapped because they're potential witnesses. The man wants to let them go but the woman wants to harm/kill them or something, and there's an ironic bit about how the main character's parents taught him that if he needs help from a stranger he should ask a woman because it's safer. You'd think it would be easy to find with that many details, but all my googling efforts just turn up news stories about vandals throwing fireworks.

@NoisyBrain

I have one! It was about a school for witches.That's literally all I can remember about the story. I read it in the early 80s (maybe J K Rowling did too ) I think the cover was pink and yellow and I vaguely recall silhouettes of witches on broomsticks.

Spell me a Witch by Barbara Willard? I read that about the same time. www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3661595-spell-me-a-witch

@bendmeoverbackwards

Oh I’ve got one, can anyone help me with this?

Short ish chapter book. Main character is a girl called Lucy. From illustrations she has dark curly hair. The story is about dogs, she wants a dog or rescues a dog. It has an orange cover I think with a picture in the middle.

Any ideas?

Got to be the Invisible Dog by Dick King-Smith? www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XPTNYJQ?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

@Loookinmecoookboook

Can anyone help me with this impossible one that I remember nothing about 🤦‍♀️- it involved Authurian legend and was set in Cornwall. There was a boy who was finding out about a secret plan (spies? Thieves?!). I think there might have been an element of portal into another time or time travel maybe… it was ‘modern’, not set in the times of King Arthur.

The only scene I remember is I’m the boy hiding behind a grey stone wall listening to men discuss the plan and “the sound of folding money”.

It’s driving me mad!

Was it Elidor by Alan Garner?

@psychomath Isn't that The Secret Garden not Tom's Midnight Garden.

Unfortunately the kidnapping one doesn't sound like mine!

@Loookinmecoookboook

Can anyone help me with this impossible one that I remember nothing about 🤦‍♀️- it involved Authurian legend and was set in Cornwall. There was a boy who was finding out about a secret plan (spies? Thieves?!). I think there might have been an element of portal into another time or time travel maybe… it was ‘modern’, not set in the times of King Arthur.

The only scene I remember is I’m the boy hiding behind a grey stone wall listening to men discuss the plan and “the sound of folding money”.

It’s driving me mad!

Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper?

@SamhainToImbolc

I am sure that's Tom's Midnight Garden

It is. Have just looked in my copy. Chapter 23 is called Skating. Tom and Hatty skate through the fenland to Ely.

Thank you for this! Off to find a copy to reread it. I remember it had an ethereal feel to it when I was a child.

I think it was this series.

Could the rescue dog book, be one of the puppy patrol stories, by Jenny Dale?

@NoisyBrain

I'm now wondering if the silhouettes were dragons not witches, my brain has officially given up! I'm pretty sure it's not The Worst Witch, even though it's the right time period.

Witch Week by Diana Wynn Jones?

@lookinmecookbook

Definitely Over sea under stone by Susan Cooper (the Dark is rising series - might go and re read it! )

The witch one might be 'Witch Week' by Dianna Wynne Jones

@bookworm14 that’s it! Thank you! I can get it for my son now.

I hope it was, for the PP's sake, to revisit that book. Part of The Dark is Rising series. I particularly loved The Grey King about a wolf (dog) and a boy called Bran with raven eyes. They are all at my parents' ... I might see if DD1 is interested. Some of my old books, she really hasn't taken too, but others she surprisingly has, like St Clares. Unpredictable... If she doesn't like them, I think I'll reread them. Great thread!!!