To love re-reading old childhood favourites

[balletnotlacrosse]

Having found a stash of my old childhood books in my parents' attic a few years ago I have become hooked, once again, on school stories, ballet stories, etc etc and love buying old Noel Streatfeild books, Chalet School stories and so on to re-read.

AIBU to spend as much time reading children's books as adult's book and to enjoy them more just as much?

This thread has inspired me to have a look through a couple of boxes of my old books that my dad brought round a few weeks ago which had been stored in my parent's attic for around 30 years.

I'm so excited - I've found my favourite childhood book, 'Ballet Shoes'! Does anyone remember the BBC series of this book? Well, my copy has a photo of Sarah Prince who played Posy on the cover. I loved this book so much as a child. I remember sometimes re-reading it again as soon as I'd finished it. I've also discovered my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection, Enid Blyton's Enchanted Wood books plus so many more old favourites.

So looking forward to snuggling up this evening with 'Ballet Shoes'!

Oooh,Charlotte Sometimes, Tom's MidnightGarden, The Owl Service, the very fabulous A Rag, A Bone, and a Bank of Hair, Chocky, The Tripod Trilogy... I loved a bit of weird, me. Nobody does weird like YA writers.

I still have all my Anne books although dd isn't interested yet. She does like Milly Molly, though. I have hopes for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase soon. ds is currently engrossed in Wimpy Kid, although he does love my old Misty annuals.

5foot5 I love The Children Who Lived in a Barn. I lost my childhood copy somewhere along the line and bought the lovely Persephone edition a few years ago. I've re-read it several times. It's such an unlikely story but who can forget the haybox?!

Swallows and Amazons - I read the entire set of 12 most years. I love how they link together and how the children chat about the other characters from the books. Ransome said that in fact it was one book in 12 volumes.

I plan to read DD2s Malory Towers series this summer. Just laze in the garden on a hot day and indulge. Also Enid Blyton's Shadow the Sheepdog.

Other favourites are the What Katy Did series, the Anne of Green Gables series, A Secret Garden and A Little Princess, Tom's Midnight Garden and a whole lot of books about twins in different countries. the Indian Twins, The Norwegian Twins, etc. Really dated and sterotyped but in fact interesting because of that. Also some of Penelope Lively's books and The Diddakoi.

Nothing wrong with good children's books. I have a degree in Eng Lit and read a lot of 'harder' books too, but there's nothing quite like re-reading a favourite one from childhood.

These are my current re-reads. I've had to 're-buy' most of them as my dear old dad carried out his threat of selling my book collection at a boot sale if
I didn't move them out of my old room. He did ask for over 10 years to be fair!

The Greatest Gresham - Gillian Avery.
Moondial- Helen Cresswell
The Secret World of Polly Flint- Helen Cresswell
Marianne's Dreams - Catherine Storr

5Foot "I've got The Chilren Who lived in a Barn" too. DD1 and dd2 loved it.
Also the Fell Farm set, and various ones of Pamela Brown.
Anyone else read "The Young Detectives"? (by R J McGregor) Another one the dc have enjoyed.

Anyone remember Masha by Mara Kay - just remembered it and looked it up. Set in Russia about a girl studying Ballet.

Also, the Sadlers Wells series by Lorna Hill

Still think the Little Women series is amazing.

The Little House Series - Laura Ingals Wilder. Wonder if they would live up to my memories.

Loved Anne Of Green Gables of course.

The Tripods by John Christopher

The Awakening Water by R G Kesteven or something

Oh and Paul Zindel's books for teenagers. Used to make me laugh out loud and cry.

i'm not sure they hold the same feelings these days as they did and it ruins the mystique of what it used to be a bit, if you get me?

that said I'm loving revisiting some of the kiddy picture books I enjoyed with my toddler DS. As he gets older I think it will be a bit more fun to go back to the childhood classics for slightly older kids I used to enjoy (blyton, dahl etc).

My kids are avid readers but very unimpressed with Stig Of The Dump. Can't get them to read any older or classic books. Youngest has read a few Blyton but finding the old style and language a bit lame and dull.

Have managed round it by audio tapes in the car. Currently listening to Swallows and Amazons. They're calling it for saddos but still asking for it tp be put on.

Oh and loved the Mary Stewart - Arthur books!

I really want to re read the Sadler Wells books that I read as a child. I must have a look round to see if I can get them.

Bamba, was Paul Zindel the author of My Darling, My Hamburger? I think I read it when I was about ten and found it terribly sophisticated. The protagonist had hair 'like blonde linguine'!!

Baby - yes, they were quite sophisticated and probably meant more for teenagers. I read them probably early 80's. I don't think there was anything else like them at the time, I loved them. Just looked and he was still writing up to around 2002.

babytuckoo, totally might be outing myself but I was the original poster in the Mrs Marlow tiara discussion!

YY to The Magicians of Caprona! And I loved the Drina books, I re read those and the Trebizon series recently. I got them really cheap on Kindle.

LawrieMarlowand MirandaWest both post on mumsnet quite often, though I don't think I've ever seen them on the same thread.

thegreylady I like the Abbey Girls books!

Starling, look what you started! Well, it was a most enjoyable battle royal. I started a few AF fights myself, but can't now remember what my username was, it's so long since I stopped using LJ.

I've always assumed that statistically, some Trennels people must be on here, and vaguely thought of MirandaWest and LawrieMarlow as possibles!

I recently re-read Penelope Lively's The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, and it stands up to adult re-reading - what had escaped me when I was nine was the extent to which it's about social class, as well as faintly sinister rural customs and scapegoating. But I have a weakness anyway for anything that begins with children heading off for a holiday by the sea with neglectful/eccentric adults somewhere in the background, and features folklore...

That was my first experience of arguing on the Internet!

I take it you still visit the community even if you're not on lj anymore?

Bambam, I LOVED Masha, read it from the school library in about 1977, and have wanted to read it again, but it's one of the ones I can't find at an affordable (for me) price.

Also, The Village That Slept by...wait for it...Monique Peyrouton de Ladebat. Impossible to find!

I thought of Penelope Lively last night, partic Astercote.

I do still read Trennels from time to time, and have been dipping in to the read-through with enjoyment. The start of the historicals has been a lot quieter than the others, so maybe I should wade in and start a bunfight about why Forest's Shakespeare is so like Rowan Marlow, or something...

Bambambini - re Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yes, I can confirm they will still live up to your memories. I got lost in Little House on the Prairie last Saturday and I want to reread all the other ones now. Off to Amazon I go!

I grew up in the mid-80's/90's, yet I used to love all of the classic children's books.

Fantasy and adventure was definitely my thing. So Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath I loved, and still do.

I also loved Enid Blyton's three Faraway Tree, and two Wishing Chair books. I can recall quite vividly, imagining myself climbing into one of the lands at the top of the tree into, the land of treats, or do as you please.

Now her books are so PC. Dame Slap is Dame Snap, and the kids names have been changed from Jo, Bessie, Dick and Fanny, to Joe, Beth, Rick and Frannie. For obvious reasons, but very young kids do not have dirty minds. They are also names that were common back in the day that they were written and first published.

Also ,my eldest sister who is almost ten years older than me always bangs on about how she used to love the Misty stories. Apparently, they were spooky stories about young teenage girls who were in mortal danger.

Does anybody on here know more about these Misty books/stories?

I am currently rereading

Little Women which I have loved since I was about 10
All of the Mary Poppins stories
101 Dalmatians and The Twilight Barking - vastly better than the film

Oh do, do! The historical discussions aren't being nearly as much fun.

I'm looking forward to the themed chats though.

Note to self: Never read such threads on the internet... it's rather expensive...