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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 · 07/01/2011 14:16

Cripes, just realised how behind I am. Sorry for taking so long. Can i just say:

  • Lois duncan: flipping brilliant. Especially The Eyes of Karen Connors. Must have read that a million times. About a psychic teenager who could find dead/kidnapped children. Fantastically creepy.
  • Ralph! On the fur rug. Chortle.
wearymum200 · 07/01/2011 23:01

I'm well behind too! Lots of favourites already mentioned. I also loved (read, but not necessarily written in the 80s)
Lark in the morning series
Charlotte sometimes
Wolves of willoughby chase
Wishing water gate
Anything by Geoffrey Trease
A book that someone can help me with the title of:
First world war, east anglia, girl called Elfie lives with stepmother and half brother, artie. POW camp, escaped soldier, instead of getting away tries to rescue artie from a fall
Fidra books are republishing some oldies. Topsy turvy childrens books also have regular catalogues (where I spend lots of my hard earned pennies!)

crispface · 09/01/2011 22:11

BeattieBow I've seen your name on here before and wondered if it were connected to the book! I loved that book, iirc it was abotu a girl who would suddenly find herself in the same street but in a different era and effectively ad 2 lives. Can't really remember much more about it than that though..

nickelbabysnatcher · 11/01/2011 13:44

I've got Z for Zachariah in the shop!
this thread inspired me to buy it in and it arrived yesterday.

and it's the same same author as Mrs Frisby!
I never realised, but they're both Robert K O'Brian. I didn't notice until I had to put it on the shelf. Blush

ReshapeWhileDamp · 15/01/2011 20:01

Came to this thread several weeks too late to say 'Knock and Wait'! Grin I think I've read and loved at least half the books on this thread. They'll all still be at my mum's house somewhere (under the piles of crap and hoarded stuff...). In fact, sometimes I get such an urge to re-read an old favourite that instead of braving her house and spending the odd four hours digging it out, I'll order an old copy off Amazon. Blush

Haven't read every last post here, but did anyone else have a thing for Robert Westall's books? I loved books about the home front (WWII) for some reason, couldn't get enough of them. The Machine Gunners and the sequel, Full Fathom Five, are fabulous. So are some of his other WWII (and other) books, though he didn't half release some substandard children's books towards the end of his life. Sad Anyone read The Exeter Blitz? (not Westall) Another good WWII one.

I loved all Rumer Godden's doll books, despite not being a very dolly girl. They were quite odd, though.

Two Thumb Thomas! Ahhhh. Smile

And not a children's book, but here's something I'm absolutely haunted by and nobody has ever, ever heard of it: Kindergarten by P.S.Rushforth. It mixes European children's tales with the Holocaust, which sounds grim, but it is incredible. Can't really describe it! Would love to hear of just one other person who'd read this.

hollygolightlyandcat · 16/01/2011 18:28

My favourates were the Green Knowe books and The Outsiders (I think by SE Hinton)

llareggub - I remember that book, the father hides a key inside a box of chocolates which he gives to the daughter (Alison?) as she is going to boarding school.

I also remember on about a girl who goes back in time and helps a little boy and girl- Moondial I think it was called.

madamehooch · 17/01/2011 18:54

For all Lois Duncan fans "I Know What you Did Last Summer", "Killing Mr Griffin" and "Don't Look Behind You" are being reprinted in March and later in the year look out for "Stranger with My Face", "Summer of Fear" and "Down in a Dark Hall". Apparently, Lois has had to change them slightly to make them current (no polyester pantsuits in the new versions(!) but, as she has done it herself they should still be good.

Colyngbourne · 18/01/2011 09:42

I liked Westall, but as much for Futuretrack 5 and for The Devil on the Road (one of the best YA books ever written), as for the wartime stories. The Windeye is rather good as well, and The Watchhouse (which was creepy but not as creepy as "The Devil on the Road").

themildmanneredjanitor · 18/01/2011 15:06

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GrimmaTheNome · 18/01/2011 15:30

Odd, for some reason I was thinking about 'Sue Barton, Student Nurse' recently - for the first time in about 35 years Grin

But she was never a District Nurse, being American she got to be a Neighborhood nurse (unless there was an Anglicized edition)

themildmanneredjanitor · 18/01/2011 17:44

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queenrollo · 18/01/2011 18:38

mildmannered I remember the Paul Zindel book, and also The Undertaker's Gone Bananas.

No-one mentioned Carrie's War yet?

themildmanneredjanitor · 18/01/2011 19:03

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stumpweasel · 18/01/2011 19:31

One of my favourite books, tho from the 1970's, is My Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks about a middle class girl who falls for a boy from a working class family; of course her family disapprove.

Have kept quite a few of my books - I wasn't exactly a girly girl - so am hoping my DS's will enjoy some of the books I loved. But I read everything, including the Sue Barton books my sister had. (Later found out my school nickname was Bookworm...)

Tried the DS's on Fattipuffs & Thinnifers which they loved. Also Green Smoke. Currently on the Narnia books (anything but the Dragon Quest books Hmm )

RustyBear · 18/01/2011 19:35

Reshape -the Exeter Blitz was by David Rees

HarrogateMum · 18/01/2011 19:58

Swish of the Curtain anyone? All about the Blue Door Theatre company, I read and reread and reread that book and wanted to have my own theatre company!

needanothacuppa · 18/01/2011 20:27

Yes yes I remember Little House on the Prairie I loved them all, have got the whole series still somewhere, probably at my mum and dads. They kept loads of our childrens books and I have been reading them to my two when we go and stay. Ah nostalgia! They dont write em like they used to!
Does anyone remember reading the Moomins? They were my faves. Also loved Professor Branestawn books too - whacky and funny with great Heath Robinson illustrations of his inventions.

LadyInPink · 18/01/2011 20:51

Ah wonderful trip down memory lane.

Loved the Moomins,
Trebizon series
Little House on the prarie series - am actually reading them to DD atm whilst alternating with 'naughtiest girl in the school'
Judy blume books were legendary in my school and i loved sneaking them home to read.
Have all the Sue Barton books somewhere and my sister has all the Chalet School Girl books too!
My darling, my hambuger rings a bell but i have no memories of the contents.
I remember my brother was mad on the Biggles series too.

Must look out some of these books for DD to try when shes older!

Libra · 18/01/2011 20:56

Oh My Darling Villain - I loved that book. I got embarrassed about taking it out of the school library so often and so used to take it out in my bag without a ticket (and returned it of course).

Loved the Swish of the Curtain, the Chalet school, the Malory Towers, but not so much St Claire's. Also loved See you Thursday.

Does anyone remember a book about a girl who was diabetic and had to inject insulin into her thigh? I think it was called Sugar Mouse?

themildmanneredjanitor · 18/01/2011 21:05

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tyzer2001 · 18/01/2011 23:16

Prinnie could your 'Little Witch be 'The Witch Family' by Eleanor Estes? They lived on a glass mountain...

LittleRedDragon Could your lost-boy-in-a-tree-trunk be 'My Side of the Mountain' by Jean George?

tyzer2001 · 18/01/2011 23:17

I loved Una and Grubstreet and still have a copy now..

CJCregg · 18/01/2011 23:36

BarbaraPym (what a fab name) - you've just reminded me: it was Emma, Emma's Island and Emma in Love. She went to live with brilliant Aunt Patsy in Edinburgh, and then they moved to a remote island and set up an art gallery. Loved those books.

Have only just found this thread so sorry if I'm repeating, but just want to revel in the wonderfulness of -

Come Back Lucy
Charlotte Sometimes
Tom's Midnight Garden
The Amazing Mr Blunden
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase/Midnight is a Place
The Lorna Hill Sadlers Wells books
Thursday's Child (and most Noel Streatfeild)

and everything by Antonia Forest.

CJCregg · 18/01/2011 23:37

PS Just re-read thread title ... sorry, quite a lot of mine are pre1980s!

malovitt · 18/01/2011 23:45

'My darling, my Hamburger' was in the 'teenage' section in our local library and I remember the librarian giving me a certain look when I took it to the counter!

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