Which books from your childhood would you like to re-read?

[Idontknowhatnametochoose]

I'm feeling quite down lately and been thinking I'd like to re visit some of the books I loved as a child. At the moment I want to read...

Enid Blyton:

Adventure series, starting with The Island of Adventure.
St Clares series
Mystery series starting with The Burnt Cottage.

Patricia St John:

Treasures of the snow
The Tanglewoods Secret

Jill Murphy:

The Worst Witch

Just wondered if anyone else is re - reading old books?

I Capture the Castle I had forgotten about this. Dorothy Edwards wrote My Naughty Little Sister and Shirley Hughes illustrated it.

Oh, Henrietta's House! My mum gave me that book when I was about nine, it had been a favourite of hers when she was young. I read it a lot, then somehow my copy vanished and I forgot about it until after the death of my mum, when I bought another copy and re-read it. It was funnier and sweeter than I had remembered and it's a lovely memory of my mum. However, she also liked the Arthur Ransom 'Swallows and Amazons' series and, as an adult I have tried and tried to read those and just not got on with them! So I'm sticking with Henrietta's House.

Did anyone else find Five Go To Smugglars Top really frightening? I wasn't scared of any of the other Famous Five books but that one terrified me. I think it was the character Block.

I loved that one!
I grew up in Ireland and I thought this was typical of English life - I thought everyone was a smuggler and everyone had secret passages in their houses. I was a bit disappointed to find out that was not the case.

But yes, Block was pretty frightening!

I love those books 😊 ❤️

Without a doubt The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.

Could they be the ‘Oxus’ books? Set in Exmoor involving ponies, here is a n article about them:
kleinletters.com/Blog/reading-the-oxus-books-by-katharine-hull-and-pamela-whitlock/

Thank you, they seem very similar but no it's not any of them

There are quite a few ‘pony book’ groups on Facebook. You might find the answer there.

I re-read lots of my old favourites. Some so many times they’ve had to be replaced even though I’m careful with books. They’ve been shared with the DC too, and DD also re-reads, so one way and another I can’t complain I haven’t had full value for the 20p, 50p or even £1.25 the original paperbacks cost.

In no particular order:
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Watership Down by Richard Adams
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
All the Diana Wynne Jones intended for around ages nine and up. Wild Robert is about the youngest title I will re-read repeatedly.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, and yes, how one’s perspective changes as an adult! I used to think Ma was a bit of a wet blanket and Pa was fun. Now I think of that poor woman being dragged from pillar to post by a feckless loon.
Lucy M Boston’s Green Knowe series
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes
The Ghosts/The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber
All Antonia Forest’s Marlows series, bless Girls Gone By for reprinting them.
Cynthia Harnett’s wonderful impeccably researched historical novels.
All E. Nesbit’s children’s books
Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, especially Moominland Midwinter, Moominpappa at Sea, Moominvalley in November and Tales from Moominvalley.
The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden.
Rosemary Sutcliff, especially the Dolphin ring series.
CS Lewis’ Narnia chronicles except for The Last Battle, which I have always disliked.
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Barbara Willard’s Mantlemass series
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
The Five Find Outers’ Mystery series by Enid Blyton
Cold Christmas by Nina Beachcroft
A Pocket of Silence by Barbara C Freeman
Carrie’s War and The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden
Ballet Shoes, The Growing Summer, The Circus is Coming and White Boots by Noel Streatfeild.
Mary Norton’s The Borrowers series

And I expect there are others I will kick myself for forgetting.

I’d love to reread a book called A boy and his donkey. I think it was by one of the Pullein Thompson sisters. I absolutely loved it

I re-read mine ALL the time. Some are falling apart from being read so much. Nothing I’ve read as an adult has come close to resonating like:
Noel Streatfeild (reading Gemma currently!)
Trebizon
Family from one end street
Jean Ure’s 80s books

I also love Pamela Brown, Antonia Forest, Little House series and Arthur Ransome, but only came to these as an adult.

Yes! These really spoke to me. I didn't realise at the time, but with hindsight I see that she was really very progressive and certainly not conventional; Ken with his veganism and environmentalism, the concern with social inequality generally, as well as the mysticism.

Also Monica Dickens’ Follyfoot books. I don't really remember the TV show, but people say that it was quite cosy; as I remember, the books weren't at all. I mean, I used to read them on a fairly surface level because I just loved the horses and the other animals, but again with hindsight I can see that they dealt with very grown-up themes like middle-aged women coming back to work, and I'm sure there was a retired military male figure with some sort of trauma.

I read it to my DS1 when he was about 9. Also bored him to death at the time butt he actually was rummaging through our bookshelf a few days ago and picked it up and exclaimed;'Oh, I LOVED that book!'. He's got it next on his list after The JUngle Book. It was certainly news to me that he loved it- I recall me sobbing at the death of Onkel Julius and also of Pumpel and DS looking at me with baffled incomprehension.

PS- he's 14 now.

Oh we haven’t even got to onkel julius death yet 😢😢 I’ve said to him you know this is a real story and this amazing little girl grew up to be a famous author. And he’s like ,,,, I know. 😂

A book called The Lord of the Rushy River about a swan. I can't remember anything about it but the cover and the title but I know I loved it when I was 6 or 7. I've not been able to find it.

I do re-read a lot of children's fiction because I work in a school. I find it really interesting what stands up and what doesn't. The Moomins definitely do but I adored The Adventures of. Little Wooden Horse as a kid and found it unreadable sentimental as an adult.

I haven't yet re- read Mary Plain but if I ever see a copy in a second hand store I will. I loved that one too.

Just googled the Lord of the Rushy River and it's really easy to find! I don't know why I couldn't find it before...

Go onto Facebook and look up Jane Badger's pages. She republishes old pony books (she's republishing the 'Jill' series at the moment) and she also knows a very great deal about pony books and their authors. She might be able to pinpoint the story and author for you.

thanks I've already looked on her site but it wasn't there

I meant go to her Facebook page and ask her.

You're right - thanks! Haven't read all her others; may be time to seek them out.

Yes to a PP's mention of Barbara Freeman. I loved A Book by Georgina and Snow in the Maze.

Did anyone else read The Winter of Enchantment by Victoria Walker? - I don't think I've ever seen anyone mention it on these type of threads (it's in my list earlier on this thread) but I think it's such a great book which I re-read many times, including to my DD several years ago.

I reread them all in my 50s after a breakup. It was like revisiting beloved places and people of my childhood and realizing that absolutely nothing had changed since the last time I was there. Except me, obviously but I had no trouble adapting. A perfect escapist read.

Goodnight Mr Tom was always wonderful