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.

I used to read a book about a boy- think it was written in the first person. They went to school and got up to all sorts. It was written almost like a diary and had doodles in it I think. Not Adrian mole as the kid in it was younger. Sure his name began with a B and the cover of the book was red

@MissCrowley

I used to read a book about a boy- think it was written in the first person. They went to school and got up to all sorts. It was written almost like a diary and had doodles in it I think. Not Adrian mole as the kid in it was younger. Sure his name began with a B and the cover of the book was red

Could this be Geoffrey Willans/Ronald Searles' Molesworth books?

[quote postitnot]@bookworm14 you have a very apt username![/quote]

@MissCrowley Molesworth for sure - Nigel Molesworth, of St Custards. A wealth of wonderful expressions in those book - How to be Topp, Down with Skool etc. Uterly wet and a weed is one of my favourite insults.

@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 :-(

Set on a farm by any chance? I can remember the series but the name is eluding me at the moment!

[quote Bloodybridget]@MissCrowley Molesworth for sure - Nigel Molesworth, of St Custards. A wealth of wonderful expressions in those book - How to be Topp, Down with Skool etc. Uterly wet and a weed is one of my favourite insults.[/quote]
Indeed - as any fule kno

@SalaciousCrumble maybe janebadgerbooks.co.uk/product/jills-riding-club/

Oh please can I ask about a couple of books?

1. it was called something like Noel’s First Christmas - he has come back from living in a warm country with his mother. There were siblings, one called Dinah I think. He fell over the stair bannister at one point. He was learning about God too and talking to the vicar.

2. some siblings get stranded in a snowstorm in a random house and have to fend for themselves. They keep a log book of what they use and what’s going on. Either the author or one of the characters was ‘Llewelyn’ or something along those lines.

I would be thrilled if anyone knows these!!

I've been looking for a book too - my brother had one called The King and his Magic Marbles, he owned it in the late 60s. I cant find it anywhere. Anyone happen to have this?

@pollyhemlock as you named the last book another one I remember
A young women gets pregnant after a short term relationship/ one night stand to a conductor in a orchestra her parents make them marry and they rent a light airy room somewhere the baby is born and I think they nick name him Ludwig?
His actual name is Daniel ,I remember the young women forgets to wash the conductors shirt before an important performance?

Please can anyone help with a book from the early 80's, i would have been about six so for younger children. It is about a princess locked in a tower with seven locks, i think seven is a recurring theme and when she escapes she has to swim across the moat. Sorry not much detail

[quote x2boys]@pollyhemlock as you named the last book another one I remember
A young women gets pregnant after a short term relationship/ one night stand to a conductor in a orchestra her parents make them marry and they rent a light airy room somewhere the baby is born and I think they nick name him Ludwig?
His actual name is Daniel ,I remember the young women forgets to wash the conductors shirt before an important performance?[/quote]
That’s Pennington’s Heir by KM Peyton. I read the Pennington trilogy when I was a teenager, and adored Pennington. When I reread it as an adult I found myself firmly on the side of Ruth’s (the 17 year old he gets pregnant) mum.

I fairly recently found out there was actually a fourth book, Marion’s Angels. It shows Ruth growing into her adult self, and learning that she matters as much as Pennington.

Just to add, Ruth’s parents don’t make them marry. In fact, they tell him explicitly he can walk away.

[quote BoobsOnTheMoon]@pastapestoparmesan that's The Greatest Gresham! I loved that book as a child but my own children were very meh when I got them a copy.[/quote]
Oh my gosh, thank you so much!

[quote Blackcountryexile]@MissyB1 There was a series of books about Brownies written in the 1970s by Verily Anderson. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many still available and I couldn't find one about Christmas.[/quote]
Thanks @Blackcountryexile I will do a bit of research on those.

Thank you so much for this thread and the poster that suggested booksleuth. I have found and just purchased a book that I remember from my childhood that I have googled in vain in the past.

Thank you to the poster who came up with Spell Me A Witch! I read this years and years ago but could never remember what it was called, only the school for witches bit and the fact that it wasn’t The Worst Witch. The main bit I remember is the headmistress finding her assistant (Bethany? Betony?) as an abandoned baby and getting embarrassed about saying “There, there” because it was such an unwitchy thing to say. I think she may also have kept her baby tears for some sort of spell?

I read a book in the 90s and probably published around that time about a boy who was approached my an unusual man who gave him a magic bag that possibly either swapped things or made things happen, I think there was a bit where he hadn't done his homework but when he opened the bag there was a typewriter doing the homework for him. There was a detailed description of the boy watching the news and there was a story about a famine in Africa and the news showed people with flies crawling on their faces and the boy wondered why they didn't swat them away.

@Ascii

Oh please can I ask about a couple of books?

1. it was called something like Noel’s First Christmas - he has come back from living in a warm country with his mother. There were siblings, one called Dinah I think. He fell over the stair bannister at one point. He was learning about God too and talking to the vicar.

2. some siblings get stranded in a snowstorm in a random house and have to fend for themselves. They keep a log book of what they use and what’s going on. Either the author or one of the characters was ‘Llewelyn’ or something along those lines.

I would be thrilled if anyone knows these!!

Could your second book be Fell Farm for Christmas by Marjorie Lloyd? they do get lost in a snowstorm at one point, and they are a group of siblings staying in an old farmhouse, where they get snowed in and devise various ways to amuse themselves....

@RobertaTheBuilder that does definitely sound like Fattypuffs and Thinifers, maybe you remembered the original French title Patapoufs et Filifers?

@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 :-(

Is this Flambards by KM Peyton?

@EdithGrantham

I read a book in the 90s and probably published around that time about a boy who was approached my an unusual man who gave him a magic bag that possibly either swapped things or made things happen, I think there was a bit where he hadn't done his homework but when he opened the bag there was a typewriter doing the homework for him. There was a detailed description of the boy watching the news and there was a story about a famine in Africa and the news showed people with flies crawling on their faces and the boy wondered why they didn't swat them away.

Not a Bobby Brewster story perhaps? The magic bag sounds like that, but not the news bit.

Hi @wolfstarling, as soon as I saw your post I thought of the Ruth Manning-Saunders books. I was obsessed with them and luckily our library had loads.

@bookworm14

It’s Mardie where she falls off the roof.

I still have my Mardie books! Could never interest my kids in reading them unfortunately.

@MargaretThursday Almost certain it wasn't a Bobby Brewster story, they seem a bit twee compared to the one I remember.