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.

Stig of the dump in primary school

lord of the flies at secondary

The rabbit with wings was called Pookie or Pooky. I think he lived in a hollow tree. I loved him, and Orlando! This would have been late 1950s/early 60s.

The Little Matchstick Girl
The original (sad) Little Mermaid

I was given a Hans Christian Anderson collection and both of these broke my heart, I remember I couldn't believe a children's story could be so sad.

My lovely dad read us “the wind in the willows”
and “Just William “
I was an avid reader but loved 🥰 101 Dalmatian’s by Dodie Smith .

The Little Match Girl, which was in an anthology of fairy tales I had as a young child. It made me cry every time!

Same for The Happy Prince.

So basically, any story with dying children in them!

I read Private Peaceful when one of the children was doing it at school
or should I say howled my way through it !
Consequently refused to read or see “Warhorse “ in any of its forms.

Dear God! “The Happy Prince”
so sad

When I was five I used to get Shirley Hughes' Sally's Secret out of our school library again and again even though my mum thought I was too old for picture books, because I loved the pictures so much. Also loved the Ladybird Cinderella, and a picture book called Charlie, Charlotte and the Golden Canary. Chapter books I loved were Aurora and the Little Blue Car, My Naughty Little Sister, and Matthew's Secret Surprises. Also every Enid Blyton book I could get my hands on - I think my specialist subject on Mastermind would be the works of Enid Blyton.

Our teachers used to finish the day by reading a book to us. Even though it was 55 years ago I still remember The Ship That Flew. I bought a modern copy of it and enjoyed reading it as an adult.

Famous 5, Swallows and Amazons, Anything by Agatha Christi, Brer Rabbit & HuckleBerry Finn

Loved them all.

I had the most lovely Primary School teacher, Mr Thorn - I was about 8. This was the mid 70s. Every day, last lesson I think, he read aloud to us. All the classics, Narnia, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory etc. But my favourite was Carrie’s War. Then in the last year of Primary I was lucky enough to have him again as my Form teacher, he still read to us, but this time the Sadie and Kevin books, The Twelfth Day of July by Joan Lingard. I can honestly say he installed a love of reading in me. I’ll never forget him.

Nancy Drew books

I must admit that I cried a bit when she thanked me for reading poetry to her. One of those things that they don't really appreciate fully at the time, I suppose!

Brambly Hedge. I wanted to be small enough to enter the illustrations, as I did with the Hundred Acre Wood map.

Faraway tree, Famous Five, My Naughty Little Sister, Beatrice and Ramona, Dogger (DH sniggers at the title), Alfie, Babar, Roald Dahl, Ballet Shoes.

Later I remember Tuppence to Cross the Mersey, and Tom's Midnight Garden and the Children of Green Knowe stuck with me.

Most impactful was probably the Secret Garden or Wind in the Willows.

Wish I could do it all again for the first time.

ETA oh Narnia. How could I forget.

@Calliopespai had forgotten Ramona! And Tuppence to cross the mersey! I think we must have had very similar taste! Also makes me compare the books I read with those my kids like.

Wind in the Willows
The Borrowers series
The Narnia books
Moomin books
The Little House on the Prairie series

Yes, Tuppence to Cross the Mersey was my first taste of a "realist" literary world that was not in some way magical or particularly desirable. I think I felt very sophisticated!

The Famous Five ones don't seem to translate well at all to this generation I think. Did you read the Moomins at all?

I reread The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aikin until it was ragged. Was disappointed by the sad lack of wolves in our area.

My old school friends and I also still reference The Owl Service - "that pattern is a bit Owl Service" - with a shudder. Around the time we read it, the TV series was repeated on kids TV and was v creepy.

Mum reading to me: the Quangle Wangle's Hat by Edward Lear
Being read to at school: The Way to Sattun Shore and Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce
Me reading: Charlotte Sometimes

I still have my copy of The Owl Service and watched the TV series.
I won't pretend I understood either 😅

Many of the books we were read at the end of the primary school day - Stig of the Dump, The Weird Stone of Brasinghamen, The Silver Sword. Read them all to my children. Also loved - Famous 5, The St Claire’s books, Mallory Towers etc. Plus Willard Price Amazon Adventure etc - two boys Hal and Roger collecting animals for their father’s zoo. Had a crush on Hal.

Goodnight Mister Tom

Read it so many times and now live in perpetual fear of ww3 😄🙈

I was immediately going to say The Selfish Giant before opening the thread, and the OP somewhat describes that plotline.
I thought Danny the Champion was fabulously exciting in quite a real way and couldn't wait to read it to my boys.
I also loved The phoenix and the carpet and the old BBC series, with its dodgy special effects.

Yes! Pookie. Thank you! Such a sweet little thing.

Oh yes, the William books by Richmal Crompton. I re-read them all again a few years ago. such good characters - the school teacher (Ole Markie), the wet vicar, the maiden aunt, the cook, Robert and Ethel, etc. Some stories had me crying with laughter, e.g. one called William and the Chinese God. Brilliant.

I also loved E Nesbit - The Phoenix and the Carpet, etc.