to still be freaked out by some books from my childhood

[babyfedleaning]

Following on from the thread about children's tv programmes from our youth, it got me thinking about the books I used to love that unnerved me. Several of them got made into tv programmes but loads didn't. In particular I remember The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner where all the ramblers in the countryside are baddies! And A Parcel of Patterns about the plague. Anyone got any more?

Yes to all the Alan Garner. I recently re-read The Owl Service and can't believe they were ever considered kids books. The Red Shift is downright wierd. But I loved them as a kid.

As an utter bookworm I no doubt read many inappropriate book at an early age, I can remember many scenes that stick with me now, but can't identify the particular book.

My DD was also obsessed with Not Now Bernard! We got another by the same author about elephants that engage in genocide - DP threw it away in disgust!

I came on to say the owl service too. We had to read it at school.

Yy to The Moomins.

And When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs which will haunt me forever.

Mrs Brisby and the Rats of NIHM scared the absolute shit out of me as a kid. So did the Phantom Tollbooth and Where The Wild Things Are, which still gives me the wibbles. It's DD1's favourite book too, so I have to read it a lot and suppress my fear.

Not so much as a kid as such, but i do remember studying Night by Elie Wiesel at high school and being very affected by it. Which is I suppose the point, but I was the only Jewish kid at a very white school in rural Australia. None of my classmates seemed bothered by it that much, but it really got to me.

The Dark is rising series by Suzanne Cooper, read them all when I was about ten. I loved them but sooo spooky.

Another Moominphobe here.

velocity that was the one I was going to say too but I couldn't remember the name - thanks!

The Sad Story of Veronica, who Played the Violin.

Just why?

My parents had a shelf of John Wyndham books which I used to freak myself out with regularly as a child.The worst/best one though was On the beach by Neville Shute. Post apocalyptic WTF we're all doomed at it's best!
I got a hold of The Last Man by Mary Shelley at the tender age of around 10 as well. Barrel of laughs that one was..

Slightly off topic but I am thinking of getting the Ursual Le Guin books (Earthsea books) for my ds. However, I never read them but remember my brother loving them, but I can't remember how old he was when he read them. Are they suitable for an 8 year old?

Alan Garner is clearly responsible for freaking a lot of us out. Owl Service (the tv show terrified me and THEN I read the book. Why? Just why?) is worst, then the tunnel bits in the Weirdstone. Elidor is scary too - I used to visit my grandparents in a city where there were still bombsites even in the 70s and was convinced something weird would happen.

But the absolute horrors..... the Armada books of Ghost Stories edited by Aidan Chambers. I used to buy them with my book club stamps at school and they were absolutely totally and utterly petrifying. There was one with skulls, and one about wisteria that killed people (I think. Sounds odd though) Very very scary. My parents never realised that was why I had so many nightmares. I must have had three or four of them. I think they would still scare me tbh.

Earthsea for an 8 year old? No. But Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series might work. Start with The Lives of Christopher Chant.

The magic finger on audio read by Roald Dahl himself, I think, it was super creepy.... "And then I saw....RED"
A ghostbusters story where they turn the corner in a deserted street to see only a single giant eye rolling silently on the spot.
The story in London in Goodnight Mr Tom is very

Almost all of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm (aptly named!). Their tales were horrifying to me as a child. The poor little mermaid, suffering the pain of walking in order to see her Prince. That poor butterfly tied to Thumbelina's boat. The tin soldier melting in the fire. I was I suppose quite sensitive and these tales dwelt in my mind for years.

YY to The Happy Prince (poor little swallow!) and Goodnight Mr Tom. The latter was sinister in the extreme.

My father used to read to me a book called Pookie, about a rabbit who had no home. Belinda took him in and loved him, and he grew wings. I used to sob my heart out. It can still be bought online, but I daren't get it as I'd be in tears again!

Does anyone remember a book called (I think) The Wooden Doll? I found that a really disturbing book. I think it's out of print now; I'd love to read it again.

I agree with the Alan Garner books being very weird.

Z for Zachariah was disturbing. Teenage girl think she is sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust until a man arrives and things get a whole lot worse. Terrifying to a 12 year old.

There was a book that sticks in my mind about 3 teenage survivors of a deadly virus. Can't remember the name though. A teenage boy left alone in London finds two girls. One he falls for, the other goes mad with jealousy and tries to kill them. Fun times.

Under Plum Lake springs to mind. I can't remember it clearly but I think it deserves a re-read to remember why it weirded me out so much.

Does anyone remember a book on the same vein as Children of the Dust? Same era, I loved it and read it over and over but can't remember it's name now. It's not When the Wind blows by Raymond Briggs. I loved that too. My favourite books had a similar theme :)

Oh yes, a worrying proportion of my reading material was post-apocalyptic or dystopian fiction. In one year at school, our set texts were 1984, The Chrysalids and Lord of the Flies. The underlying message throughout my late childhood and adolescence was "we're all doomed". And don't get me started on 'Threads'...

I read a creepy story about seals in the water bobbing around watching people on the beach with their bleak eyes and it turned out they were children that had somehow been turned into the seals and were doomed to be there forever (or something). Can't remember the name or author.

Does anyone remember a book Valle Adams Ark? Nuclear fiction (again ) in a play form. I did it in high school and I can't find anything about it now.
A group of school children gatecrash a nuclear bunker with their teacher and hide from the fallout. People die and one girl gets pregnant. This was in what is now year 9. Fun times...

Book called Adams Ark.
Bad typing

Another story that stayed with me was 'The Gift of the Magi' by O.Henry.
It's about poverty and sacrifice and the pointlessness of trying to do a good deed; at least that's how my younger self interpreted it.

'Grinny' by Nicholas Fisk. Scary but amazing book, would love to read it again - about a very strange grandma.

Another one for 'When the Wind Blows'

'Children of the Dog Star'

The Little Match Girl I found distressing as a child and still do. I couldn't get over the Little Match Girl being left out in the cold to die, I imagined her as my age.

Z for Zachariah really bothered me too. We read it in English when I was about 13, so not that young really, but the idea of the family all going off and obviously dying in the radioactive landscape and leaving Ann (?) all alone forever was horrifying. I used to worry about something like that happening to my family.

Not a children's book, but a copy of one of the Pan Horror books managed to find its way into the class bookcase when I was 10. I read all of it over several free reading sessions, with that sick compulsive feeling and the story of the teacher found dead in the well (by MR James) haunted me for many years- especially the part where one boy is talking about the ghost he saw and says something along the lines of "He was all wet- and I'm not at all sure that he was alive."

I have that book in my vast horror collection now, along with all James's stories.