What stories that you read or had read to you in your childhood have stayed with you?

[Yourinmyspot]

I remember one, though no idea what it was called about this old man that was grumpy and never smiled at anyone. The local children were frightened of him, but this one little boy used to smile at him whenever he saw the man.

The man never smiled back to start with, but then started to and it turned out he was just lonely and this one little boy just smiling at him cheered him up, then he was happy and started smiling at everyone too.

I wasn’t that old when I read it and it’s always stuck with me, that sometimes just someone smiling or acknowledging someone can make a difference to them.

Dogger, Each Peach Pear Plum and the Tiger who came to Tea. All ones I’ve read endlessly to my own DCs.

I don't remember my own childhood books (although my mum said I loved Little Grey Rabbit), but my own DD reminded me the other day that I used to read poetry to her. We were having a discussion about reading and she said that she still remembers poems like Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Tyger Tyger and A Smuggler's Song.

She's 35 and I haven't read them to her since she was about ten. I was quite touched that she remembered so well.

Unfortunately my memory is appalling.

Rikki Tikki Tavi was the first story I read to myself as a child, I loved it and all the Just So stories that my dad used to read to me.

I remember being able to read the Miss Bianca stories but couldn’t understand them at first - odd feeling. Once I understood them they also stayed with me.

There was a book that might have been The Princess and the Goblin that I loved but when I went back to it it didn’t seem to be the right one. I still think there is a missing book somewhere there.

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren was a firm favourite when I was a child, and I love it still (as does my eldest). It's so sad and frightening and also so full of love and hope.

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids - I think my parents could still recite it from memory and I’m mid 40s!

In no particular order Winnie the Pooh, Anne of Green gables, What Katy did, My naughty little sister, Little House on the Prairie.

Oh and I forgot Carrie's War

The Faraway Tree.

My best friend lives in Australia, opposite seasons and opposite time of day when I talk to her, I often feel like she’s living in a different world at the top of the Faraway Tree.

Some of the required books at school were awful. I understand all about tone and symbolism etc. but I'm King of the Castle by Susan Hill was just a horrible read. At least it has stuck with me though!

And William Blake needs digging up and killing all over again for the dross of his we had to study for what felt like decades.

Some English lessons (when the teacher was hungover) we just had to read any old book in the library. I can't remember what it was called but I picked this weird tale about a wild woodsman who lives on a hill and meets a wild woman and they get together and have kids and it goes into detail about how a quality child can only be conceived if the woman orgasms too. Gave 13 year old me some very odd feelings.

For slightly older children The House on Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson and The Last Bear by Hannah Gold

I loved the Moomin books as well as the Silver Brumby series, also read the Dr Seuss books and Beatrix Potter.

Danny the champion of the world. I then read it to DD.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield

Rupert the Bear locked over night in a furniture shop from my Rupert Bear Annual. Everytime I walked past Denhams as a child I used to wish I could get locked in there overnight so I could sleep on whatever sofa or bed I liked!

I really enjoyed Grimms fairytale too.

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 😊

Here it is!

Enid Blytons books and I still reread st Clare’s, Mallory towers and famous five,

Brer rabbit too. I remember staying at my Grandparents when I was five and my gran reading from a copy that belonged to my dad when he was little. Still have it now.

The hobbit. Read by my year 3 teacher every day half hour before hometime, gave me a life long love of Tolkien.

as a teenager I loved Louise Lawrence books, Robert Westall ( absolutely still love The Wind Eye)

Carries War

and William Horwoods Duncton Wood series and also Jean MAuel Earths children. Very adult book but then I was a good reader

Watership down too.

so many and I’m sure there were more

This was my favourite
Have you seen the trailer for the film? Im anxious about it, but also really excited!

The one that stands out to me is When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Mine loved those poems as well ( the last two you mentioned). Snuggled up in bed and pretending there's smugglers going past outside.

I'm planning to read that at Xmas. I'm glad it's memorable.

My favourite childhood book was "Little Katia" by E M Almedingen. I reread it obsessively from age 7 to about age 9. So much so that I don't remember reading any other books during that time. Then I started reading Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and read very few children's books after that.

Orlando the Marmalade Cat. The pictures were gorgeous.

And the stories about the rabbit with wings? I can't remember his name.

I had a book of stories (probably 1960s). One of them was about this thing called the influenza virus that came down the chimney and made everyone ill. The illustration showed the virus looking like a couple of wire coat hangers bent together. But I've no idea what the book was.

The Witch-Child by Imogen Chichester, I've just found it on eBay and I'm very tempted to buy it!

The Ghost Drum by Susan Price.

And we had a book read to us by a cover teacher, who didn't get to finish it, and I still don't know what it was.
It was about a boy and a girl in Victorian times, who wanted to go to school but they were homeless orphans, and they were going to get a man they knew called Mr Parrot to pretend to be their father. The girl was called Jubilee.

The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailler
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Carbonel
Magic in my Pocket
Pondus the Penguin

I grew up in an Israeli family abroad and the canonical story I remember is about five children being given five different balloons and how they each pop in turn (the cat claws one, the wind blows another away), with a line repeated to the effect of "Oh well, that's the end of every balloon". Could not tell you why it's such a popular book, but every kid in Israel knows it. My parents sent a copy for my children - I think it swiftly fell behind the bookcase.

With DD I was constantly reciting Cat in the Hat to her. I have fond memories of resting her on my chest when she was tiny and reading it to her again and again. By 2.5 she recited it to me word for word.