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Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

books from the 1980s that no-one else remembers!

341 replies

GoldenGreen · 21/12/2010 11:22

For some reason I have been compulsively trying to track down half-remembered books that I read as a young teenager - not sure why as they are not classics but I would really like to revisit them. I had hoped my younger sister might have picked them up but she never liked the same books as me.

Does this ring a bell with anyone:

Series with the children of detectives - I think a brother and a sister and an adopted sister (her parents were police officers who died - I think she was Irish, red haired and fiery - obviously) - they solved mysteries based around school. In one they caught a vandal because of the paricular way he wrote "H". In another there was a school trip to France with an old fashioned type of Polaroid camera - this was a key part of the plot but can't remember any more!

The other book that I remember reading obsessively was a teen romance one with a girl whose parents were repressed and abusive. She was not allowed any freedom at all but managed to meet a boy and sneak out. The thing I most remember is that she had no clothes apart from school uniform so she had to embroider flowers on her school shirt when she went out to meet him.

Anyone else got any vague memories of books they once loved and that no-one else ever remembers?

OP posts:
topsmart · 21/12/2010 15:44

Cor, wish I could help with yours but am coming up blank. The embroidery intrigues me - did she have to unstitch every time she went home?

I've been trying to remember the name of a book about a young girl, probably set during or after WW2, v cheeky character with working class family. I have strong memory of her being poorly - chilblains?? - and being sent away to hospital. Any ideas? Driving me potty. Must have read it a dozen times when I was little.

GoldenGreen · 21/12/2010 17:03

re: the embroidery - yes, she did!

Your one doesn't ring a bell either, but someone must know!

I've just remembered that I had a compendium of pony related stories when I was about 9 or 10 which was great - one story involved a girl called Judy and was set on a ranch in Argentina (I think) - I wasn't generally pony mad but hopefully someone on here was and can remember.

OP posts:
madamehooch · 21/12/2010 21:43

The embroidery one is 'Waiting for the Sky to Fall' by (wait for it) Jacqueline Wilson.

Confess that this was one of my favourite books as a young teen. Read it and then read 'Love Lessons' by the same author......

Have drawn a blank on the other one I'm afraid.

ravenAK · 21/12/2010 21:54

Book called, I think, 'Pauline'. Cover by the same artist as did a lot of the Antonia Forests (or very similar style, anyway).

By a writer called something SIMILAR to Storr/Storey, but neither of those.

Eponymous teenage heroine ended up living with cool school friend & her sexy older brother. I think...

May be conflating two separate books here!

There you go - is that muddled & obscure enough? Grin

madamehooch · 21/12/2010 22:00

More info on 'Waiting for the Sky to Fall'. Girl was called Catherine. Very bright. Just taken her GCE's (see how long it was ago). Did really well in her mocks but worried because she messed up her exams. Father ran a sweet shop. Obese mother. Younger sister called Nicola. Met a paper boy called Richard. Went out with him (embroidered daisies on school uniform) and ordered Campari(!) Touched on sex! Sister ran away after big scene following receipt of exam results.

Ring any bells?

BertieBottlesOfMulledWine · 21/12/2010 22:05

I used to have a book which I loved - one of those lovely children's picture books. Was about a puppy who was the runt of the litter or something - all his brothers and sisters teased him. I think they may have been sheepdogs? Anyway at the end the mother dog licks his nose and says "I love you just the way you are" :)

Soppy I know but I really want it for DS!

llareggub · 21/12/2010 22:15

I had a book set in a girls boarding school, with a picture of the 2 friends on the front cover, holding lacrosse sticks. It was a crime/mystery novel, involving a rich absent father and a kidnapping, I think. I remember the front cover vividly as I was desperate to go to Malory Towers boarding school. I'd love to find it again.

I also loved a series involved 2 teens who survived a nuclear war. I think they were called Matt and Dani and they decided to walk across the US to the west coast where they believed people had survived. The story was about their journey and I'm pretty sure it was called Fire something. I had a big crush on Matt.

arentfanny · 21/12/2010 22:19

llaregrub - wasn't Trebizon series by any chance.

stickylittlefingers · 21/12/2010 22:28

llaregub - that's Firebrats... The Burning Land

Though your first - I don't think it was Trebizon as that was tennis? I remember being astounded the heroine had a place in national rankings (I was about 285th in my school, national rankings seemed a distant dream!). Tho what it's not is not especially helpful!

gaffataperules · 21/12/2010 22:31

I tried to find 'Z for Zachariah' a while ago but it's out of print, I love post apocalyptic stories and this one sticks in my mind, along with Judy Blume, that nurse/midwife series from oop north (Lynda Barron in the telly series?) and Anne of Green Gables. No wonder my life is so 'eclectic'! I've tried to get DS1 to read Redwall but he doesn't like it :(

Sorry I can't help with the fuzzy memories :)

stickylittlefingers · 21/12/2010 22:41

Gaffata Really? That's a shame - I remember reading Z for Zachariah as a "set book" at school, so they had 30 copies of it in hardback. You'd think some of those would be floating around second hand.

Have you read Canticle for Leibowitz? I like that genre too!!

llareggub · 21/12/2010 23:02

I can't believe Z for Zachariah is out of print! I loved that book. I wish I'd kept hold of my teenage novels, I loved them so!

No, definitely not Trebizon. I had the whole series and this particular book was a stand alone. One of the girls was very blonde and pretty, the other was brown haired and sullen.

Yes, it was Firebrats! There were a few in the series and I always felt like ended mid-way. Very annoying. I wonder if Amazon can help..

ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo · 21/12/2010 23:05

i used to love nancy drew. is she still around?

also there was a series abouta girl who went to a private boarding school, with blond hair. one of teh covers was her in a hockey uniform. acn't remember what but this was late 90's rather than 80's.

llareggub · 21/12/2010 23:13

Z for Zachariah for sale at Amazon.

My forgotten book was definitely in the 80s. I graduated in the mid 90s so would have read this bool in the mid to late 80s at least, and it was definitely lacrosse. I've just spent ages on Amazon looking for it!

Blackletterday · 21/12/2010 23:19

One called Cry Vampire, I must of had that out of the library 10 times, was fab. I also loved those books about the brothers (Hal and ?) who buggered off around the world collecting animals {very un-pc now).

For some bizarre reason "The devil rides out" was also in the childrens library, LOVED that one Grin.

Pantofino · 21/12/2010 23:28

When I was a teenager, I dug stuff out from the collection under the stairs. Harold Robbins, the Godfather, endless Mills and Boon, The Amityville Horror, the Exorcist....oh and the Thorn Birds, I loved the Thorn Birds.

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 21/12/2010 23:28

The Drina Ballet books by Jean Estoril, there were around 10 in the series iirc

I was desperate to board at a dance school

And the Anastasia Krupnik books- her Dad was a poet and she had imaginary conversations with a porcelain bust of Freud.
Very funny, or I thought so at the time.

Iwasthefourthwiseman · 21/12/2010 23:31

I loved the Drina books. Am trying to collect them as I used to get the from the library. Wanted to call dd2 Andrina but dh wouldn't let me!

boogeek · 21/12/2010 23:35

Topsmart: private, keep out; sequel knock and wait. L

boogeek · 21/12/2010 23:36

Sorry, iPod troubles! Tried to say that I loved those books, I believe the first is still in print and Lucy Mangan mentions them from time to time :)

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 21/12/2010 23:37

I just had a look on Amazon- lots of copies of Ballet for Drina, I'm sure there were lots more though, named after countries iirc- Drina dances in Madeira, Drina Dances in New York etc

What was her Mum called? Elizabeth Ivory?
Loved them, anyway.
The books followed her into adulthood, I'm sure she married in the last one (Drina Ballerina?)

SecretSquirrel193 · 21/12/2010 23:42

Little Dark Thorn

Very sad book :( From memory girl's mum dies in childbirth, step mom hates her, she is left in charge of little sister who then drowns under her watch and she is sent away and no-one likes her

mylifewithmangers · 21/12/2010 23:45

Teen fiction I loved but now sadly out of print (and stolen from every library I've ever visited):

'Easy Connections' and 'Easy Freedom' by Liz Berry

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:45

boogeek - I was just about to say Private Keep Out as well!

My mum has kept all my old books and I read that one again recently. It's hillarious and quite moving as well.

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:46

Private Keep Out - Gwen Grant

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