To ask if you remember this VERY strange book from my childhood ...

[eatsleepread]

I'm mid-forties, and I've sometimes wondered about a book I read while at primary school. It really was weird. It's about a dark-haired young girl who lives in a tent with her family. Looking back, I think they were made out to be gypsies.
The girl discovered a tasty herb growing locally, or possibly some sort of salad leaf. She used to pick it and hide it under her duvet. When her father found out, he beat her.
I read it at lower primary, and it was a story/picture book, as opposed to a chapter book.
Reading my post, it makes me wonder how a book like this could ever have existed. But I'm not making it up!

@ovener oh my wow you amazing person!!!! Thank you so much I have just screamed with excitement and the kids are so confused! Of course bannoffee pie

'@ddl1 the Joan Lingard book is called Across The Barricades'

I think there were a few in the series; also 'The Twelfth Day of July' and 'Hostages to Fortune' - others too, but I don't remember all their titles.

Kevin and Sadie:

Twelth Day of July
Across the Barricades
Into Exile
A Proper Place
Hostages to Fortune

The first three are available on kindle.

I periodically wonder what happened to them, and what they are up to now. I like to think that they made it (I am aware that they’re a fictional couple, honestly).

@Tangelafangela

AramintaLee That sounds a lot like an old book we have called The Winter Bear by Ruth Craft & Erik Blegvad. The children of the family go for a long winter walk and along the way find an old teddybear stuck in a tree. They take the teddy home and repair it. On one of the pages it says "One stroked a rough back. How now brown cow (Even a cow wears a sensible coat just now.)"

I have been trying to remember the name of this book for years! Thank you.

@nonevernotever I think your book is The Day the Ceiling Fell Down by Jennifer Wayne. She wrote a number of entertaining family stories in the 70s

@angelcakebananabrain I think that’s another Philip Ridley book -see thread above. Sounds like Scribbleboy.

Here's mine ...

Read it in the late 80s. A little girl, aged maybe about 9 or 10, is one of about 5 children all named after flowers, the baby is called Sweet William. She catches measles and has to go to a quarantine hospital where she meets another girl the same age who is quite naughty. They become good friends and when it is her birthday, her new friend sends her a "deepest sympathy" birthday card which I remember I found hilarious at age 9 [laugh]. I am sure it was a series of books.

The Family from One End Street has a baby William.

'Sweet William' rings a bell, but I'm not sure that's it

Yes, that's the Family from One End Street - a lovely set of books (there are 3).

Lily Rose, Kate, James and John, Margaret (Peg), Joseph (Joe) and William

The first baby was named after Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.

And yes to the measles - Kate, Peg and Joe all ended up at the Dew Drop Inn to convalesce.

I properly LOVED those books.

Although I don't remember any quarantine hospital in that - may be mixing it up with a different book.

'Although I don't remember any quarantine hospital in that - may be mixing it up with a different book.'

I think Lily, Peg and Jo do go to a quarantine hospital at the start of the book, but that is not the main part of the book. Peg and Jo go to the country to convalesce, and Kate goes with them to help look after them. I don't remember a naughty girl or sympathy card, though the children do meet a naughty boy, Johnny, in the country.

That definitely sounds like the Family from one end street series but possibly mixed up with something else. Knock and Wait by Gwen Grant has a girl who has to stay in an open air hospital.

[quote pollyhemlock]@angelcakebananabrain I think that’s another Philip Ridley book -see thread above. Sounds like Scribbleboy.[/quote]
That’s the one! I was thinking of graffiti boy lol, knew boy was in there somewhere. Thank you!

Now who can help me with Herbert sherbert and his piles?

@RaspberryJam200 I think it might be this one: A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa

[quote muggleaunt]@RaspberryJam200 I think it might be this one: A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa[/quote]
Sorry, @StrawberryJam200 this was meant for you

Here's one for all the book detectives.... this was probably mid 80s and was more a young adult book, I dont remember much about it but I'm near sure the girl in it was called holly hobby and I think it was based maybe on the rag doll but wasn't a young kids book. All I remember is that I think it was a drama/mystery type book and it was set in Cornwall. I have thought about it loads of the years and no amount of googling is getting me anywhere.

Our teacher used to read us a chapter each afternoon of The Family From One End Street. It was a real treat at the time and I loved it. I have a big framed print on my wall of the Sargent painting, all because of that book!

I went to look up a book I remember reading early in secondary school in the 80s, called Toowoomba Jack. It was about some kids who befriend an Aboriginal man and I remember absolutely nothing about it apart from that. I wanted to see if it's a pile of racist shit or if I'd actually been taught something thoughtful.

However it just doesn't come up on google at all - so I must have the title wrong. Did anyone else do this book at school?

This is going to drive me crazy till the end of my days. How can there be no reference to it at all on google?!

BTW thank you all for the Joan Lingard rabbit-hole. I read all the books that went towards making Maggie but I don't think I ever saw the tv programme!

@mrswishywashy1, could that be The Adventures of Holly Hobbie by Richard Dubelman? I read it in the mid-80s, but it's set in the US and Guatemala.

[quote WorriedDaughter1]@mrswishywashy1, could that be The Adventures of Holly Hobbie by Richard Dubelman? I read it in the mid-80s, but it's set in the US and Guatemala.[/quote]
Omg I actually think that is the book I've been looking all these years 😍 I must have got my memories mixed up with 2 different books and that's where Im getting Cornwall from, I got so excited there and was going to buy it but it's $39 for the only one I can find 🙈

Oh I've actually just found one on EBay for £5 so I'm going to buy it 😁

@mrswishywashy1, I'm so glad it was the right book and you've found a copy!