to want to re-read the whole Malory Towers and St Claires series?

[SlightlyJaded]

Oh the twins. And drippy Gwendoline Mary, and Darrell Rivers... although I can't quite remember who went to which school.

omg - im also a saddo that wanted to re read this series (not sure why lol)

so brought them all off amazon- st claire now has 9 books and m towers 12

It's the only thing that saddens me about having only boys. (well Malory Towers, St Clares and Naughties Girl they won't want to hear) or Jill's Gymkhana

Mind you I can still reread them all in secret!! Have all of my old copies in the attic and am planning to force them to like the Adventure series and the Five-finder outers whether they like it or not!!!

I started a thread a while ago about the Jill books. I think it was on Chat so it would have gone now. There are lots of Jill fans on here.

I re-read some and they were as good as ever. I found myself calling people "feeble" for a few days and hoping I'd discover that my garden shed was really a stable only I'd never noticed before .

BalloonSlayer - that is funny - I have periodic re-reads of my Georgette Heyer collection (complete, I might add ) and for a few days during and after start talking in a somewhat old-fashioned manner and throwing around a few "damn his eyes" and other epithets of the time! Haven't quite caught myself saying anything is "frightfully" anything yet, but it's bound to happen (her Whodunnit novels are set more in the early 20thC)

Talking about using teh words from the bookes DS1 (whose 6) has been very into Secret Seven and just the other day he was looking at something he found off and announched 'how very queer that is'

Wasn't too sure if I should explaing to him that the usage of the word is now changed

Thumbwheel - the Little House series blows the TV show out of the water, you should try them, though don't know how they stand up as an adult read (much better then St Clares and Mt, I'd imagine).

The Little Women series is great - I'd definitely go back and reread those. also loved The Green Gables books.

Begonya - I am easy to please in terms of age-appropriateness! Has anyone else read the other LM Alcott books - The Aunt Hill (or Eight Cousins) and A Rose in Bloom? I was lucky to find the both of them in an old charity bookshop years ago. The first one is more of a child's book, the second one more adult.

BalloonSlayer - I agree, the Jill books are excellent.

How do you pronounce Rapide? I have always wondered.

I dowloaded the complete works of LM Alcott to my kindle for a couple of dollars! It was brilliant

ohh great thread. Re reading my childhood books is how I switch off in the evening. Chalet school have to be my favourites, especially the Tyrol ones. Am gradually replacing with the GGB ones. Little House ones also fab, TV series didnt cut it for me. Ballet Shoes, White Boots,The Little Princess, Railway Children - so many. Gutted DS is a boy!

I'm reading the Little House biooks with DD.

I also have the LM Montgomery books....all her Anne ones, plus the the Emily of New moon and Pat books!

OK so am now bidding on a plethora of Chalet books on ebay.

And just felt the need to mention how much I also loved 'What Katie Did' - especially when pious Helen reveals that the 'horrible and spoilt girl..' was 'actually me!'

And The Secret Garden - a morbid fascination with ailing Colin helped with this one.

So lucky to have DD and the excuse to do them all again

I love children's lit. What does that say about me, really?

Slightly - have you read the Katy books which are more about Clover? Clover and In The High Valley (?) are very different to the first 3. My favourite is still when they go to school and meet Rose Red though.

For the Aussies does anyone remember A Little Bush Maid? An Aussie nanny started me on those...

And one which might have been called 7 little Australians where one of them died at the end of the book because she was crushed by a tree?

Oh yes the "what Katy did" books were fab, loved them and you reminded me of the girls' names - Clover and Rose Red. Wasn't Clover the sister and Rose Red (or Rosemond Redding in full hee-hee) the popular rascally girl from the school she boarded at?

I never got into the Chalet School books, but my older sister loved them.

Thumbwheel I will watch out for the subtle changes then once DD opens the Naughtiest girl books - how exciting

Someone mentioned the other stretfield books like white Boots and Ballet Shoes, loved loved loved those too oh and Apple Bough and the Final Curtain (i think it was called - or maybe Curtain Call).

Yes I got the other Clover books and the ones about the orphan and her cousins too! Dirt cheap on the Kindle!

Ooh - I had the same books: Malory Towers, Swish of the Curtain, St Clare's, Chalet (not all sadly), My Galliano's circus, Ballet Shoes and White Boots, some Trebizon ... books a comfort read well after I had read them the "1st time!"

Thank god for like minded people

During my last pregnancy I read the Chalet School books in order for the first time (yes I do have the set) and while they get a bit samey especially towards the end they have so much more excitement than the school stories written at the same time.

Agree with not updating, maybe not so much the racist stuff but when you read the 'Katy' or Noel Streatfield books it really gives you a sense of the time. Have just had DD so now have an excuse to buy them for 8 years time when she's ready to read them!

Has anyone read 'a vicarage family' by Noel? It's autobiographical and there are a couple of sequels which I managed to track down. TBH they explain a lot about her books...

I loved the Trebizon books. They felt very modern after reading Malory Towers and St Clare's.

Even as a child I recognised that the characterisations of MT and StC's were daft. If you didn't like sport, you were evil. And that was about it. :o It didn't stop me loving them though.

These were my St Clare's books

Panzee not sport so much as Lacrosse.

Oh and oooh what about the E.Nesbit stories?

The Phoenix and the Carpet
The Story of the Amulet
Five Children and It

I loved loved loved these. Especially Phoenix and the Carpet. I can remember being thrilled when the BBC did a Sunday afternoons adaptation of it which was, to my mind at the time, pretty good.

I'm on a roll now....

I think that the most abiding thing about the MT books for me is that, to this day, I cannot hear/read about a baby having colic without thinking of poor Bill walking her horse round and round the yard in the middle of the night in the rain, waiting for the vet to arrive.

Still think even that which sounds a bit racist or dodgy should still be kept in. It's an important history lesson of how people thought at that time and you can talk about it with your child (if they actually even notice it).

Did anyone read the Abbey Girls Books by Elsie J. Oxenham as a child? They were my Mum's and followed a group of girls through school and into the second generation when the children all had the names of their Mums' friends and all began with a J - there was Jen, Janice, Joan and Joy, etc. I just checked and the last one was printed in 1959. I would love to read them again but sadly my Mum has got rid of them now.