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!

@Crystalfromdynasty

Does anyone remember a book about a family who were in some sort of religious cult. It was based around the daughter.I think she had a sister. I remember they were never allowed to communicate with anyone outside of their group/religion? I think the front cover was of a girl with red hair. It was our class reader in 89/90. I've been trying to find it for years. I keep thinking it's called children of the corn but obviously it's not.

Could it be Abomination by Robert Swindells?

That can't be it because it was first published in 1998. But the storylines sound almost identical🤔

Replying to matilda

@Whatnext2018

Ooh, don’t remember that one 🤔 it did make me think of ‘The Indian in the cupboard’ for some reason. I was obsessed with that book.

There were several books in the series! Still stand up pretty well now.

@Quarantimespringclean

This has sent me off on an Amazon wormhole. I’ve just downloaded ThenKingdom of Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh. I wonder if it will be as good as I remember? I’m also eyeing up Gobbolino the Witches Cat but that’s pricey on Kindle.

Theres a sequel to this one too!

Serves me right for reacting to the post and not reading until the end! I always forget if I wait... it was the Carbinol and Calidor one I was thinking of.

Shock Headed Peter was made into very creepy puppet show aimed at adults in the early 00s, the music was all done by a group called the Tiger Lilies whose singer had a spooky falsetto voice. It stayed with me for a long time after I saw it.

Crystalfromdynasty:

Does anyone remember a book about a family who were in some sort of religious cult. It was based around the daughter.I think she had a sister. I remember they were never allowed to communicate with anyone outside of their group/religion? I think the front cover was of a girl with red hair. It was our class reader in 89/90. I've been trying to find it for years. I keep thinking it's called children of the corn but obviously it's not.

Could this be Robin Klein: People Might Hear You?

I think it might be Maggie and the Chickens which lo and behold I still have on my shelf. I think you may be muddling up the salad leaf scene with her being beaten for stealing chickens..

@eatsleepread I've looked through it some more and she picks salad and gets fed up with it so starts steeling chickens. She hides the feathers in her bed and her baby brother Noah finds them, here's the pictures. And Maggie under the pink blanket. Your memory is god. The pictures are lovely but you're right- it hadn't aged well!

Good- and hasn't! Sorry for the typos. I was so excited that I had your book!

Does anyone remember this book I read in junior school, late 1970s: some children go on holiday on a plane to an island and some sort of magical adventures? I remember them getting off the plane into the warm air and I think there was a parrot on the cover. Pretty certain it was a Puffin book.

There were some odd books then. I was obsessed with a book about a girl who loved hot water bottles. No one else has ever heard of it.
My cousins had a picture book about slug people that used to make me feel sick

My mum still has all the carbonel books

loved the carbonel books. Does anyone remember a series of books where the UK is under a spell that makes everyone distrust technology/linking it to witchcraft and they go back to living in the middle ages, but some children arent affected. In one a brother and sister find an american whos crashed his plane and help hide him...

I think that was called The Changes. It was on telly as well.

@ddl1

Crystalfromdynasty:

Does anyone remember a book about a family who were in some sort of religious cult. It was based around the daughter.I think she had a sister. I remember they were never allowed to communicate with anyone outside of their group/religion? I think the front cover was of a girl with red hair. It was our class reader in 89/90. I've been trying to find it for years. I keep thinking it's called children of the corn but obviously it's not.

Could this be Robin Klein: People Might Hear You?

Yes yes that's it! Thank you so much. I've been searching for this for years!!

I would love to know what book I remember from when I was a kid... I know it left an impression but all I can remember is someone falling or being pushed down the stairs and 'laying in a crumpled heap at the bottom' that line has stayed with me.

It's so vague tho I'll never know....

The lure of beloved books is immense. I paid £40 for a copy of A Circling Star by Mara Kay - it’s been out of print for decades. But I absolutely loved it as a child and I still enjoy reading it.

There were some odd books then. I was obsessed with a book about a girl who loved hot water bottles. No one else has ever heard of it.

Rainbo83 Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles! I have heard of it (and my mum still has a copy!)

@Monstermissy36

I would love to know what book I remember from when I was a kid... I know it left an impression but all I can remember is someone falling or being pushed down the stairs and 'laying in a crumpled heap at the bottom' that line has stayed with me.

It's so vague tho I'll never know....

Green willows: A novel of horror? Dh did a Google search for that line. We want to give back😂

So true haverhill. This thread has made me very nostalgic and I have searched and bought loads of books I loved as a child, a couple of which are out of print and so hideously expensive. My DPs have hundreds of kids books in storage, I’ve just told them they are sitting on a goldmine!

@Genderwitched I remember a poem I think, The Land of Counterpaine. Where a boy created a land on his bed with pillows for hills and his knees making valleys.

bookworm14: Phoebe and the hot water bottles is £62 on Amazon! Your mum clearly has a goldmine too.

Gunpowder Sadly her copy is extremely tatty as it dates from my childhood!