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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:
Guacamohohohole · 21/12/2010 23:46

Z for Zachariah, well I never... That's just come flooding back.
I read a lot of Judy Blume pre teen although can't think of any titles except Are you there God, it's me Margaret.
As a teen I read a lot of Lois Duncan, my favourite was this one about a school where the kids were possessed by dead musicians, artists etc...

Balthasar · 21/12/2010 23:48

GoldenGreen I remember the detectives one - they wrote the H with a dot instead of a line across the middle? There was something in it about clowns that scared the crap out of me too. Off to search for it now!

SecretSquirrel193 · 21/12/2010 23:49

Hm I remembered the story slightly wrong www.goodreads.com/review/show/6921982

llareggub · 21/12/2010 23:49

My favourite Lois Duncan was Stranger with My Face, about twins who were separated at birth. One of them learned astral projection to find the other. V spooky.

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:49

Midnight Is a Place by Joan Aiken was one of my favourite books.

Guacamohohohole · 21/12/2010 23:50

We went through a Jackie Collins phase in boarding school we were only about 13, gosh how inappropriate!

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:51

Stranger with my Face really spooked me - the bit at the end where they'd burned her body because they thought she'd died and the heroine needed to be careful never to astral project (or whatever it was) again because her sister's spirit was out there waiting... [shudder]

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:53

I remember taking Princess Daisy by Judith Kranz to a Guide camp when I was about 13 and we took turns reading out the dirty bits Grin

whateverfloatsyourboat · 21/12/2010 23:53

Actually this was late seventies. Got it in the school book club when I was about 7, and loved it. Not sure anyone else has read it, but I just got shivers looking at the cover again after all this time!

mylor the most powerful horse in the world

suzikettles · 21/12/2010 23:55

Anyone remember The Borribles? It had baddies who were sort of evil Wombles in it.

I didn't realise it was a trilogy. Quite fancy reading the other two now.

KerryMumblesBahHumBug · 22/12/2010 00:01

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KerryMumblesBahHumBug · 22/12/2010 00:03

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FrustratedHippy · 22/12/2010 00:05

the trouble with donovan croft?

TheBrandyButterflyEffect · 22/12/2010 00:06

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AngryPixie · 22/12/2010 00:20

topsmart was it 'The Family at One End Street'?

I loved those books.

MoreCrackThanHarlem · 22/12/2010 00:38

Brandy the Anastasia books are by Lois Lowry.
I read a few of hers- Summer to Die, and one about a girl whose sister dies- may be the same book, actually.

madamehooch · 22/12/2010 07:35

OK I have one that's been bugging me for years. It's a young teen book about a boy who likes a girl called Julie. She however likes a more sophisticated man called Steve. She cooks him fish and chips and burns the chips so has to go in to the chip shop to buy them and asks for the fish to be cooked in breadcrumbs instead of batter so she can pass it off as homemade. She also orders lots of things off club books. Can't remember anything else I'm afraid. Please please please put me out of my misery .....

NoahAndTheWhale · 22/12/2010 07:43

If you go to the abe website there is a forum where people are amazing at working out which books you are talking about. I had a reply (correct!) about a book that had been bugging me for years within about 20 minutes.

I loved Anastasia Krupnik :)

seeker · 22/12/2010 07:49

topsmart - possibly The Family from One End Street? It was measles, not chilblains thought!

DandyDan · 22/12/2010 08:33

blackletterday - I read Cry Vampire in the late seventies. It was by Terrance Dicks who wrote some of that decade's Dr Who stories too. It was unusual at that time for being a story about a vampire - you can't move for them now - he was called Ivo.

I read the Hal & Roger Willard Price adventure books in the seventies too, and my kids have read my copies. Some bits are culturally dated but they're sensible enough to be aware of these, and enjoy the books anyway.

TheParasiteofChristmasPast · 22/12/2010 08:38

topsmart - 'knock and wait' she was obsessed with death watch beetles

Prinnie · 22/12/2010 08:43

Not a teenage book, but I had an amazing book as a child (which was originally my grandma's so v old) called 'The Little Witch'. It was amazing but I can't even find a mention of it on the internet! I'm just hoping and praying it's in my Mum's attic with other old books!

TheParasiteofChristmasPast · 22/12/2010 08:45

i loved the children at green knowe

BertieBasset · 22/12/2010 08:56

Loved "A Proper Little Nooryeff" and another fan for Z for Zachariah.

When younger I loved The Far Away Tree series, and "The Mystery of ..."series by Enid Blyton with Fatty (how un PC) Pip, Larry and 2 girls whose names escape me now. Oh and there was a dog I think.

bruffin · 22/12/2010 09:04

I love a Proper Little Nooryeff. I think there was a sequal Boys don't wear tights or something like that.

I also liked an author William Corbin who wrote two books A Horse in the House and Smoke.

There were also some books about Silver Brumby set in Australia and the My Friend Flicka books.

Sounds like I was into horses but I wasn't really.