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.

I remember a book as a child at school, can't remember the title or actually the content, it was the pictures. I seem to remember it was some sort of Germanic folk tale. I enjoyed it a lot and read it quickly as a result, the teacher then swopped my book, I never saw it again it must have been around 1975.
At home Swallows and Amazons provoked an interest in sailing. I learnt at 40 to sail a yacht.
Famous Five for wanting an mysterious adventure, which has yet to happen! 😂

Ramona Quimby! That’s another series I loved
CS Lewis too.

such a lovely thread

so many memories and books to google.

ohh there’s another one I really loved, the haunted dolls house or something, two sisters live in a house where they find the exact replica of the house in the attic and every night this dolls house reenacts the murder of their grandparents.
sort of a horror/crime book and it was brilliant.

owl service
ive just found Elidor in a box of books in our attic, there must be more and I’m sure I’ve got the owl service somewhere.

Jinny and shantih books by Patricia Leitch.

Anastasia Krupnik, I remember Anastasia making a stew to impress someone whilst her brother had chicken pox? And the cover was a picture of her wearing long purple gloves. I loved those.

I've still got my Jinny and Shantih books, and Jill by Ruby Ferguson.

My Very Own Sister by Astrid Lindgren (I think?)

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
"please don't go, we'll eat you up, we love you so" love that line so much.

A Kindle of Kittens by Rumer Godden

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner.
I don't think I ever recovered from that bit where they're underground and the tunnels are getting smaller and smaller.

Thnx!

Oh ramona quimby - had totally forgotten that.
Charlotte sometimes.
carbonel.

Yes that’s what it was like.

I remember one called Just Awful too when some children had to see the school nurse. One had a belly ache and one a sore finger, and they were worried about seeing her but she was really nice to them. I’ve not seen or read it for years.

I remember reading crocodile plaster to my much younger brother about a crocodile who broke his tail and was in hospital with the children we loved that book too.

At primary school age I remember enjoying..
Hairy McClary, Lynley Dodd.
Funny bones, Allan Ahlberg.
Peace at last, Jill Murphy.
In my preteen years I loved, Judy Blume, Sweet Valley High and later Flowers in the Attic.
My sons in his early twenties but when he was little he loved..
Dogger, Shirly Hughes.
Bear (Mike Inkpen, he loved this!)
Balloonia, Audrey Wood.
The Bear, Raymond Briggs.

As a small child I loved ‘Chicken Licken’ being read to me, still remember the front cover!

My nan was an avid reader and used to read Roald Dahl to me, with wonderful accents for different characters which kept me interested in the stories. One other book that stuck with me was ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’. I wish this was read at school.

In my own time I’d read every Enid Blyton book then onto any boarding school drama book I could get my hands on!

…and thanks to secondary if I never read Lord of the Flies again, it’ll still be too soon!!

Gobbolino, the witches cat. Thursday's Children and the Diddakoi by Rumer Godden, anything by Enid Blyton, although I especially loved the 'XX of Adventure' books with Kiki the parrot. I also loved the Naughtiest Girl in the School series. As a small child, the picture books I loved best were Funny Bones, Burglar Bill, Alfie

And the misunderstandings Ramona had were incomprehensible for an English kid. When she left for school late because she worked out that a quarter past must be 25 as a quarter was 25 cents, or when she thought a Dawnzer was a lamp beacause if the star spangled banner 😂

And I really loved a book called The Secret, about two kids who were left home alone because their mother left them for the weekend and was hit by a car. I used to save my pocket money to spend in the school book fayre

Gobbolino!! We were read this by the teacher in Year 2.

I loved Funny Bones but my mum thought it was horrible and I wasn't allowed it. Then my sibling got given it - and Burglar Bill! I was quite put out.

Funny Bones was one of the first books I bought for my dc - but by then I didn't love it all that much either!

The magic faraway tree has stayed with me forever, I so wished it was real! I'm excited to see the movie when it comes out.

For me it’s A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. A short story we did in gcse English. I think you can read it online now. It’s stayed with me for nearly 40 years.

As a young child I was a voracious reader - loved a lot of Roald Dahl esp Charlie … and Danny…
Charlottes Web
I had a big book of Hsns Christian Anderson’s tales. Aldi had some old brother’s Grimm books too (they had blue covers). Lived Winnie the Pooh/Christopher Robin as well. I kept some books for years, still maybe around somewhere as I passed them on to DC.

And Pippi Longstocking

The Story of Holly and Ivy, by Rumer Godden.

We probably had the same book. I still remember the illustration of the matchstick girl when she’s looking in to the house.

Machine Gunners by Robert Westall, and Dolphin Crosding - both WWII books, which I read when I was in fourth year juniors. I brought copies of both these books when my ds were young.

Children of the dust
Gowie corby plays chicken
Emil and the detectives
Superfudge

The Magic Faraway Tree

Paddington bear a firm favourite with DD too and she has inherited my copy 💖

Dream of fair horses by Patricia Leitch. "in that magic circle that shut out the troubled unease of the world and enclosed the three of us in a dream of fair horses". Loved that book.

I’d forgotten all about Brer Rabbit. I had it on talking book when I was little.

Yes the Silver Sword. I loved that. DH bought me that a few years ago, I must read it again.