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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?

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BellaBearisWideAwake · 23/12/2010 19:36

sorry, that was about forever

SnowWoman · 23/12/2010 19:43

Love Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones, Alan Garner, Monica Hughes, Barbara Willard among others...

and thanks for reminding me about Playing Beattie Bow - brilliant story!

The South African one is Journey to Jo'burg by Beverley Naidoo. She wrote some absolutely cracking novels for teenagers too.

tribpot · 23/12/2010 19:46

I'm out of touch with older children's books, bar the Harry Potter/Artemis Fowl crossover genre. I'm assuming boarding school books are much less popular than in ye olden days? I'm thinking Trebizon particularly, Chalet School, St Clare's and Malory Towers (Forrest being a different category all of her own). Why did we read those books in the 80s? Did we know anyone who actually went to a boarding school? They were good books and I would read them now, but I wonder what the appeal was.

One of my mum's favourite books, that I read as well as a child was 'Triplets at Royders'. I think it's very unlikely anyone else remembers that one but I thought I'd throw it out there! Seems to have been a one-off but off to Google!

Udderly · 23/12/2010 19:53

Cynthia voight anyone? I think the book was called Homecoming?

GeorginaWorsley · 23/12/2010 19:55

scouser thanks for that!
Yes,I read it aged about 10/11 then later,and got the sub plot about the older sister and the man they were staying with.
Thanks for that,will look out for it for my DDs.

tribpot · 23/12/2010 20:00

Oooh! Jan Needle! I had forgotten, but this guy actually did a talk at our school. Does anyone remember him?

parched · 23/12/2010 20:05

OnEdge - I think the books were called Tobias and Sebastian, that might help you track them down

RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 20:08

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RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 20:09

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CardyMow · 23/12/2010 20:10

Tiger's Eye was one of my favourite books, I think it is a Judy Blume, but am not certain. This thread has made me want to re-read a TON of my childhood favourites!

SnowWoman · 23/12/2010 20:10

Cynthia Voigt!! yes Homecoming and all the Tillerman books, A Solitary Blue is one I paticularly liked, but my favourite would be The Runner. I remember going to see her at Heffers Children's Book Shop in Cambridge when she was over from the States one time.

BlitzenAndCupidsSleighDodger · 23/12/2010 20:14

Loudlass, Tiger Eyes was definitely Judy Blume.

BellaBearisWideAwake · 23/12/2010 20:23

Deenie was lovely, about a girl whose mother wanted her to be a model, but she had scoliosis. Was that Judy Blume?

BellaBearisWideAwake · 23/12/2010 20:24

And which was the Judy Blume about the girl whose father was murdered and they went to live in the town in the US where the Nuclear Bomb was developed? Was that Tiger Eyes?

GodRestYeEllieMentalmen · 23/12/2010 20:32

oh FAB thread!

Anyone else read Flowers for Algernon? Sort of long short story about a sub-normal man who was given drugs in a scientific trial, along wioth a mouse to boost IQ...? so so sad...

Also a fab book called Your Friend, Rebecca by Linda someone (?)., about a quaker girl struggling with teen stuff? Loved that book,. read it again and again.

Ok, lost in time is a book which was definitely in a teen/mystery/horror/ghost range abiout a young girl called Laura (?)with witchy power who meets a young male witch called Sorenson,. They had sex! Shock

teddies · 23/12/2010 20:47

that's The Changeover by margaret Mahy

PrettyCandlesAndTinselToo · 23/12/2010 20:49

shineon! Shock Nobody else I've ever come across knows those books! (Just like Wangdoodle).

But have you re-read them as an adult? I was shocked at the casual sexism and racism, and how the apparently eco-friendly attitude just did not stand up to modern ideas of conservationism. I just hadn't noticed any if it as a child.

Still rollicking good yarns, though!

CommanderDrool · 23/12/2010 20:51

shineonam very Envy mine were all given away (sob)

Yes I remember Flowers for Algernon - doesn't the miracle drug work for him but then ge deteriorates again?

GoldenGreen · 23/12/2010 21:01

The Gemma books! Did she play Juliet on stage in one? And was that the series where one girl became a 70s popstar on tv and everything - song was called something like Rose tinted World?

Also loved the Streatfeild where a family move to California and the moody daughter gets cast as Mary in a film of Secret Garden - and they meet at least one Fossil sister.

I would have kept all my books shineon - my mum got rid of the lot. Never forgiven her.

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RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 21:05

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RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 21:06

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BlitzenAndCupidsSleighDodger · 23/12/2010 21:09

Envy @ first edition Mallory Towers.

RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 21:10

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RumourOfAHurricane · 23/12/2010 21:11

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tinselthechaffinch · 23/12/2010 21:14

I recently reread 'Cannibal Adventure' with Roger and Hal (vetting it to see if appropriate for ds) and tbh it wsn't as bad re: the racism and sexism as I feared.

The cannibals weren't completely one dimensional and one at least, was a worthy villain.

Kaggs was the least scary baddy ever tho!

Does anyone remeber 'Three Girls and a Baby' by Renee Guillot

is set in Paris in the 50s and stars 3 recently immigrated girls (from Spain) who end up secretly looking after an abandoned baby in a condemned apartment. Twas brillinat, I'd love to read it again but can't get hold of a copy, even after scouring the internet.

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