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

[sprigatito]

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.

Lots of Enid Blyton - Famous five, Secret 7, Mysteries series, Brer Rabbit.
The Little Women series, What Katy Did series. I also had Gobbolino the Witches Cat. I also had some large hardback books which were my mother’s when she was little which had a compendium of stories for girls. Loved Grimms fairytales. My favourite was the 12 dancing princesses

Perraults Tales illustrated by Gustave Dore. Proper gruesome ‘not for the faint hearted’ fairytales with absolutely beautiful illustrations.
My dad brought a copy back from America for me. I particularly loved the fairies; where the good daughter is enchanted so pearls and gems fall out of her mouth when she speaks but the bad one has all sorts of horrid slimy creatures tumble out of hers. Each tale also has a moral at the end. Still in print today: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/135419339684?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=JuumZthaThC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=ibxqVVaxQda&var=&widgetver=artemis&media=COPY

I'd forgotten Nancy drew and trebizon! I read so many books as a child and young teen.

The faraway tree books, My Naughty Little Sister series and the What Katy Did series. Still pick them up now to escape for a while.

All the William ones, filched from a GM’s bookshelves - they’d belonged to DF.

And a book nobody else ever seems to have heard of - Chalky, by Howard’s L. Apps. Fantastic adventure story of 2 ordinary boys, set in Essex and the marshes in the 50s, but funnily enough it doesn’t really feel dated. It’d make a brilliant film.

I’d forgotten Alfred Hitchcock’s 3 Investigators! Thank you, @Taytocrisps .

I loved those, and the Hardy Boys. I was less fussed by Nancy Drew and her “special friend”, Ned.

Loved Paula Danziger’s books too.

Actually, one book I should have mentioned was, 'New Patches for Old' by Christobel Mattingley. I loved this book so much. It's about an English teenager who moves to Australia with her family (against her will) when her Dad is made redundant and gets a job offer down under. The book depicts the girl's struggle to adapt to a new country and a new life. I read it at just the right age and it made a huge impression on me.

Anyone remember the sisters series of books by Marilyn Kaye?

Loved this!

I’m currently re-reading a couple of ‘Jennings’ by Anthony Buckeridge which I found in a 2nd hand shop for £1.

So many of these.

But my biggest comfort read was ‘Cue for Treason’.

Phoebe, Daphne, Cassie and Lydia.
They were my absolute favourites.

The secret garden, a little princess and the three muskateers

Lots of those mentioned about, and I have to add The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Absolutely loved these, along with the Alan Garner series starting with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Happy days. My sister and I read, re-read and re-re-read these ones, and both still love fantasy today.

@MuchuseasaChocolateTeapot We also had a beautiful illustrated copy of The Water Babies!

We used to go to the library every week with our mum, I can still remember the excitement of going through the wooden revolving door with the shiny brass rail and the smell of I guess the polish on the floor and the books.
We knew the librarian in the children's section as Auntie Jean , a tall, slim woman with immaculate hair. She remembered what books we liked and seemed as delighted as me when she said that a book I wanted to read had just been returned. Such a lovely lady who always had time for all of us.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Roald Dahl

Yes ! And she wrote another small series about three girls who were adopted. Loved those

There's more ??😱 I only knew what Katy did, at school and one other I can vaguely remember!

Clover
In the high valley

Mostly about clover and Elsie living out in colarado, very enjoyable.

Roald Dahl - all of them

Enid Blyton Famous Five and Faraway Tree trilogy.

Sweet Valley High and Goosebumps were very popular but I wasn't fussy for those.

I've just remembered the My Friend Flicka and Silver Brumby books - they were lovely!

Oh my days, I’d totally forgotten these but I LOVED them!

I Loved Ballet shoes by Noel Streatfield as a 10 year old. My daughter has just finished it and we went to see the National Theatre production of it last weekend which blew me away. Her costume arrived for World Book day today and she’s been twirling around like Posy for hours. My heart wants to burst with how much fun she’s having dreaming away in her tutu.

Although I am ashamed to admit I didn’t realise until last week that Noel Streatfield was female!

Ballet shoes and the babysitter books

Oh, and Virginia Andrews in my early teens - the ones with all the incest and other child friendly things!!

My copy of Charlotte Sometimes went missing at some point and I'm still sad about it.
Other than that (loads have already been mentioned):

Black Beauty - the first ever book that made me cry
Little Women
They Railway Children
When Marnie Was There
The Way to Sattin Shore
The Chalet School books
Baller Shoes
Narnia series
The Wishing Chair
Faraway Tree
Malory Towers
The Naughtiest Girl books
Famous Five books - I only had a few but I read those ones over and over
The Children of Cherrytree Farm and its sequel (learned so much about animals from those!)
The Secret Garden
The Snow Spider trilogy
The Animals of Farthing Wood
The BFG (also one of my childhood favourite films)
So Much to Tell You by John Marsden - I've read it at least once a year since age 12 and it still makes me cry
Rosemary Sutcliffe's King Arthur trilogy

From about age 11 I was obsessed with Point Horror books. I specifically remember reading Fun House multiple times.

Those are the ones I can remember right now.

Was no one else reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain? I was absolutely fascinated by that boy's mischievous shenanigans.