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!

Does anyone remember a tv series called 'Maggie ' ?
I do. My dad was teaching in quite a rough secondary school in Scotland at the time and I wondered if his pupils were like her. Bomber jackets and a hairdresser shop seem to be in my memory too.
Didn’t BA Robertson write the theme tune?

I've been trying to remember the title of a book for probably a decade now....
I probably read it about 25 years ago. It was about a kid and a snowman. From what I remember the kid (think boy) crept into a neighbouring garden and found a snowman, he took the snowman on a trip to the beach where they did a sandcastle competition and ate ice cream. I think they went on the train. Very vague but I'd love to read it to my children!

Icantreachthepretzels Sadly not! It’s illustrated very similarly to Molly Brett books

@eatsleepread
Yes! I have a copy of The Patchwork Cat, the illustrations are lovely

This thread is lovely, I'd like to jump in with my long searched for book but I'm not expecting anyone to know as it's rather obscure and I've been searching for years.
It's an older children/teen book I will have read late 90/ early 00s.

The main points I remember focus on a family that moves somewhere new the teen gets involved in a gang they often walk under a bridge with graffiti on to get to the bell tower.
The mum seems to be quite unwell and buys a sun tan bed for the house (which back then I thought was unbelievable) she's always making lemon meringue pie (or possibly a similar traditional pudding)

The ending has the teen gangs fighting and some one is tied to the bell in the bell tower.

I can't even remember the point of the story but it doesn't seem to be a well known book I've been searching every few months for years

I’d forgotten about The Changes trilogy until now! In my year six classroom we had a shelf of books to choose from and I think the second in the series was there. I read it but didn’t realise it was part of a series so I didn’t properly understand what was going on or why

Does anyone remember a book called Lark’s Castle by the actress Susannah York, about a doll who gets left behind in a French holiday home and is brought to life by a magic stone dropped by a witch? Susannah York also recorded it as an audiobook which is mostly how I remember it as we used to borrow the cassette from the library but I also read the book. She discovers other toys the witch has stolen from children over the centuries and I remember it being awful when they came to life too and realised their owners were long dead.

I love these threads

I have one that has bothered me for years. I read it in 1990/1991 but I'm sure it predated that by a while.

A book about an American hillbilly family. It was funny, the lead character contradicted himself all the time. He was a small man in dungarees. Each chapter was a different story I think. The title was his or the family name and it rhymed (McGraw/McGrew). The front cover was yellow I think and maybe had a picture of the man and a horse/family on it.

@ddl1

'I ain’t half gonna cop it from my teacher in the morning” (exclaimed by Walter Pobjoy when the goat eats his exercise book)'

I don't remember reading a book with that in it; but I'm sure it appeared in one of the stories about a zoo that you could get on the phone during my childhood - 'Dial a Story' or similar. Walter was always teasing the animals and getting his come-uppance. There was also a rather silly zoo visitor called something like Mrs. Doolallytaps.

Yes, Johnny Morris recorded audio versions; I found them online before I found a copy of the book. In fact the audio stories may have come before the book because when you read them they do real like plays/scripts and JM was famous for doing voices.

We have taken to calling our DS “Walter Pobjoy” when he is naughty. I am sure he is quaking in his boots at the idea of a beaver eating his cricket bat or a gorilla throwing mud at him .

I remember that story Yellowwibble, the reason why cats hate mice, and why dogs hate cats, I can't remember which book it was in though!

These are my favourite MN threads, I've had two books found for me over the years thanks to MNers

Some of these stories sound delightfully random.
The Sad Rice Pudding

Think there were quite a few 365 Bedrime Stories books.

The book I've tried searching for online was a collection of nursery rhymes, a big hardback, probably published early seventies or slightly earlier. Beautiful illustrations and the rhyme I particularly remember was a long one that went over 2-3 pages (inc illustrations) about Winken, Blinken and Nod, characters who sailed away to Sleep Land or something similar. They wore nightshirts and nightcaps, three children.

Does anyone remember a Children’s book about a family that lived in a big red bus.? I read it as a child about 9 or 10.
I have tried to find the title but no one seems to remember it.

@NorfolkEnchance this may be The Snowman who Couldn’t Melt by Paul Stewart

I've got one which has bothered me for ages. I probably read it late 80s. It was about a bunch of kids and a search for either the last unicorn or a black unicorn horn (something like that) and there were some bug stones (in my head like Stonehenge) which were maybe moving or part of a magical realm?

There was definitely a baddy who i think was female and some sort of witch. At one point one of the kids was being chased by a big black car with no driver and he hopped on a bus to get away. He asked an old woman on the bus if she noticed anything strange about the car which still followed the bus (i.e that it was driverless) but she didnt seem to and said she didnt know anything about cars. And the kid realised that the magic made people see what they expected to see which is why the grownups werent aware of all the shit that was going down!

This has bothered me for years- anyone can shed any light i'll be delighted

I've already ordered two books as a result of this thread!

@NorfolkEnchance www.amazon.co.uk/Snowman-Who-Couldnt-Melt/dp/0140361367/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+snowman+who+couldn%E2%80%99t+melt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1592476817&sr=8-1

@OnceUponAMidnightBeery
Thanks it does sound possible but I'm sure the word end featured in the title or perhaps I just haven't remembered correctly. .It definitely had something at the end of a rainbow in it so that book could be the one.
I loved Charlotte Sometimes, I only realised this year that The Cure song was based on the book.

I watched the whole of Kizzy following this thread
had the book as a child and loved it.
what bullies those children were

@pollyhemlock OMG THAT'S THE ONE! Thank you. Gonna buy it immediately!

@FindingNormal could it be Elidor by Alan Garner?

There's definitely a toothpaste river in Ninety-nine dragons by Barbara Sleigh

No that's not it :( i do remember that though

I also have a strange recollection of a book I read as a child, there was a girl in it that was somehow teleported to another time and she found she was in a castle and sounded like she was actually Cinderella, she was actually a real girl from the present but somehow had gone into a book as the character or something? It's so so vague but I would love to know if it's real or if I dreamed it!

@CrumpetyTea
I had the dolls house story but it was an audio cassette of different stories. I played it over and over. I’m sure it ended with one of the dolls catching on fire.
One of the other stories on the tape was about 2 children (a boy and a girl) who hide in a hedge to spy on someone who was up to no good.

@Monstermissy36 could that be the Emily of New Moon books by L M Montgomery? In one book Emily stands on some scissors that have been left at the top of the stairs and falls down the whole flight. I'm pretty sure it's Emily anyway, and not Anne of Green Gables (by the same author).