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What were your favourite books to read over and over again as a child?

264 replies

sprigatito · 01/03/2025 19:47

I'm currently rereading some of my childhood favourites on my Kindle and it's lovely ☺️

So far I've read A Traveller in Time, Marianne Dreams, Green Smoke, Charlotte Sometimes, A Stitch in Time and loads of Enid Blyton.

What were your beloved books as a child? I also loved Carbonel, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat, Tom's Midnight Garden, the Noel Streatfeild books and E Nesbitt.

OP posts:
Snowmanscarf · 01/03/2025 20:28

St Clare books
Charlottes Web

and my Twinkle annuals!

Pianoaholic · 01/03/2025 20:29

Sorry, just saw a PP mentioned When Marnie was there...missed that

MuchuseasaChocolateTeapot · 01/03/2025 20:29

The Enchanted Wood
Bogwoppits
What Katy did
The Water Babies - it was my mum’s with beautiful illustrations in it

i read the Flowers in the Attic series far too young. Was many books in and couldn’t understand the subtext, just got a really dark gloomy feeling from them. Don’t know how it ended

dotdotdotdash · 01/03/2025 20:31

Miss Happiness and Miss Flower; and The Didakoi, both by Rumer Godden (also Greengage Summer as an older teen - just reread that and it is wonderful)
Ballet Shoes
Laura Ingalls Wilder
What Katy Did and What Katy Did Next
Judy Blume
Ramona books by Beverley Cleary
Charlotte Sometimes
Dear Daddy Longlegs
Young Elizabeth by Jean Plaidy

Great thread, thank you!

RustyBear · 01/03/2025 20:31

Monica Edwards’ Punchbowl Farm & Romney Marsh series
Arthur Ransome Swallows & Amazons series
Carbonel/Kingdom of Carbonel Barbara Sleigh
Mr Twink books Freda Hurt
Flambards KM Peyton
Jill books Ruby Ferguson
Three Jays series Pat Smythe
Edward Eager Magic books - Magic by the Lake, Knight’s Castle, Half Magic etc
What Katy Did series Susan Coolidge
The Land of Green Ginger Noel Langley (my favourite book)
The Nine Lives of Island McKenzie Ursula Moray Williams
Green Street Honor Arundel
Ladybird What to look for in Sprimg/Summer/Autumn/Winter
The Chesterfield Gold Roger Pilkington
Friday’s Tunnel John Verney
Moorland Mousie & Older Mousie Golden Gorse
The Unicorn Window Lynette Muir
Silver Snaffles Primrose Cumming

Dappy777 · 01/03/2025 20:32

I loved Roald Dahl, especially Fantastic Mr Fox, the BFG and his autobiography Boy.

Also loved The Wind in the Willows and a children’s version of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, which I had on cassette (yes, cassette…oh god I’m so f-ing old).

My gran used to read Alice in Wonderland to me, which was kind of magical. Harold Bloom thought it was the greatest children’s book ever written, and so did Nabokov, who translated it into Russian.

YouHaveAWomansHand · 01/03/2025 20:33

Roald Dahl - The Witches, Matilda, The Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox.
My DC enjoy them now :-)

smallchange · 01/03/2025 20:36

The first book I was OBSESSED with Harriet the Spy. I didn't even own a copy, just constantly got it out of the library.

I also read as many Rosemary Sutcliff books as I could get my hands on, ditto Diana Wynne Jones, especially Charmed Life, Witch Week and later on Fire and Hemlock.

I also read and re-read all the Little House books, the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, and all the Anne of Green Gables books.

I wasn't a massive fan of What Katy Did, but loved What Katy Did at School.

Irridescantshimmmer · 01/03/2025 20:37

Mister Meddles' Mischief.

Sherrystrull · 01/03/2025 20:44

Sweet Valley Twins and High
Sweet Dreams (loved them and used to get them from charity shops)
The babysitters club
Point Horror
Famous Five
Judy Blume
Paula Danziger

CocteauTwin · 01/03/2025 20:46

I think all mine have been mentioned already:

Charlotte's Web (our teacher read it to us in primary school and I still have my 50+ year old tatty paperback I got for my 9th birthday)
Charlotte Sometimes (discovered on Jackanory in the early 70s, I was thrilled when The Cure wrote the song based on it)
Mallory Towers and St Claire's series. I didn't like any other Enid Blyton books but they hit the spot despite coming from a decidedly working class background

We didn't have a lot of money to spend on books so as others have said, I'd return to ones I already had as I knew I'd enjoy them all over again.

Bonjovispyjamas · 01/03/2025 20:49

My Rupert the bear annual 😁

Magpiecomplex · 01/03/2025 20:50

A Wrinkle in Time was the one I got out of the library on repeat, but also the Dark Is Rising series, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Edward Eager. And the Katy books, as a complete contrast!

Middlemarch123 · 01/03/2025 20:51

Stig Of The Dump
Worzel Gummidge
The Magic Faraway Tree
Chronicles of Narnia
Alice in Wonderland

Tortielady · 01/03/2025 20:54

As well as Enid Blyton, annuals (Judy, Bunty, Diana, Jinty, Princess (I devoured them all) and children's classics like Mary Poppins, Nurse Matilda, Black Beauty, the Katy books, The Secret Garden and Little Women, I loved historical fiction. Much that was written for children in the 60s and 70s isn't in print any more, but some of the titles and authors might be familiar to people of a certain age:

Child of Ebenezer - Angela Bull. 19th century industrial town in the north of England. A lonely little girl grows up with her factory-owning father (her mother died when she was a baby) in an atmosphere of religious bigotry and fear about "The Irish Question." Really powerful stuff - I loved it because of how Bull treats her young readers as intelligent beings, capable of understanding complex issues.

The Grandmother Stone - Margaret Greaves 17th century setting, mostly on Sark (Serq in the book.) A rebellious fourteen year old is packed off by his mother to live with his grandfather and finds himself in a place where witchcraft, or rather the belief in it still holds sway. And looming over the island in the vague shape of a woman is the ancient Grandmother Stone. . .

Barbara Willard - Mantlemass books. I can't remember specific titles, but they were also 17th century set

Hester Burton - Time of Trial (amongst others.) Early 19th century. It's 1801 and the authorities in England are twitchy. If the French can chop off aristocratic heads, what's to stop the English doing the same? The story concerns the Pargeters, Margaret, her brother John and their father as they try to survive the upheaval around them.

A Candle In Her Room - Ruth M. Arthur, early 20th century. Three young sisters encounter a sinister doll and their lives and those of succeeding generations are affected forever.

Kialla · 01/03/2025 20:55

Some lovely memories on this thread. .

Re-reading has always been a comfort, I still do it now. I probably read these books at least 10 times.

Famous five
Mallory Towers
The Borrowers
Heidi
Black Beauty
My friend Flicka
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
What Katy did/What Katy did next
A Little Princess
Little Women
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Hobbit
Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh
Charlotte's Web
The Demon Headmaster
The Queens Nose
Jane Eyre
The Railway Children

DD is 9 and has been reading some of my old books so I've indulged in reading some along with her. It's been lovely.

deeplybaffled · 01/03/2025 20:56

i borrowed the Uncle books by J P Martin on almost continuous loop from my library.
Also loved the Five Findouters books by Enid Blyton.
Another vote here for Joyce Stranger’s books and I still have most of them .
Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles was a favourite, and various pony books, despite never having been on a horse in my life😂

Taytocrisps · 01/03/2025 20:58

Lots of Enid Blyton:-
The Famous Five
The Secret Seven
The Five Find Outers
Island of Adventure and sequels
Malory Towers
St. Clare's
A lot of the mini-series like The Faraway Tree/Children of Cherry Tree Farm/Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm/Mr. Galliano's Circus

The Chalet School series

The Anne of Green Gables series

The Little House on the Prairie series

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series

Most of the Noel Streatfeild books

Most of the Judy Blume books.

Nancy Drew and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators

The Kevin and Sadie series by Joan Lingard

I loved Little Women too.

Anyone else remember 'I am David' and 'The Silver Sword'?

My sister had a big collection of books and we also borrowed a lot from the library, or bought them at second hand stalls. We never read the books in the right sequence though - we just read them as we came across them. You'd maybe read the first book in the series and then the last one, and you'd catch up on the middle ones at a later stage.

We read a lot because there wasn't a lot else to do, especially in winter. There was no internet and children's TV was limited to a few hours a day.

LordEmsworth · 01/03/2025 20:59

LegoLandslide · 01/03/2025 20:28

It's now a film too although I haven't seen it. Anime, so probably not my thing.

The film is surprisingly good. Obviously not as good as the book though!

NerrSnerr · 01/03/2025 20:59

I loved
The Island Bus (Elizabeth Beresford)
The Ghost of Thomas Kemp
Stig of the dump
All the point horrors
Room 13 (our school resedential was near Whitby and we spent a day there which made the book scarier)
Famous Five
Ghosts and Journeys

LuckysDadsHat · 01/03/2025 21:00

Malory Towers and The Worst Witch Series.

menopausalmare · 01/03/2025 21:01

The swish of the curtain. It was made into a BBC children's programme in the 1980s with a very young Sarah Greene.

burnoutbabe · 01/03/2025 21:01

Jaffapaffa · 01/03/2025 19:49

Chalet School, and Antonia Forest

Snap. I stlll read them plus my Trebizon books.

What Katy did -and as an adult the final 2 of that series. Plus little women and the 3 follow ons.

Stickystickysticky · 01/03/2025 21:04

Anything by Enid Blyton
The Family From One End Street
Christine Pullen Thompson pony books
All the Jackie pony books
Nancy Drew

FadedRed · 01/03/2025 21:06

For lovers of the Katie books, do you know there are several more than the 3 most well known books, and they are free on Kindle?

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