What are the boy equivalents of Little House on the Prairie/Anne of Green Gables/Malory Towers/Judy Blume>

[BellaBearisWideAwake]

You know, the books where you end up reminiscing about one night with friends and everyone has read them.

(I appreciate I am generalising heavily about boy and girl books, apologies. Just had a bit of a sad moment when I realised that having no girls I am less likely to pass these stories on to my children)

My brother loved The Hardy Boys books, which are similar to (the original) Nancy Drew books.

How about The Famous Five, Adventurous Four and Secret Seven - both my brother and I loved all of them!

the Fudge books are fabulous - although Fudge himself is quite small his brother is older, & it's aimed at that age group - they are v v funny.

& yyy to Michael Morpurgo

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Fourth-Grade-Nothing-Blume/dp/0330398172/ref=pd_sim_b_1\Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing} is the first of the Fudge books

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/Judy-Blumes-Fudge-Set-Blume/dp/0142409065/ref=pd_cp_b_1\Fudge box set}

(I haven't read them for sooo long I'm tempted to buy that myself )

What about:
Stuart Little
The Indian in the cupboard series

Yes! to Alan Garner... how could I have forgotten his books? I loved them so much...

Nameforaday, I can't help you with the name, but I remember the book too! Wasn't there a problem in that a bit of the scene was missing?

I thought Children of the new forest was civil war?

And The Dark is Rising has 5 books

Yy to swallows and amazons and that whole series, also just william, Jennings (I adored those!), lone pine and biggles.

Takver - that's right... There were six sections but only 5 in the shop or something like that? At least I know I'm not making it up.

Books seem to have gone backwards in the gender stereotyping stakes - I think probably half the books I loved growing up had male protagonists, where now the assumption seems to be girls only want to read about girls and boys about boys. Or maybe boys never read 'girls books', but girls read everything?

My brothers and I would interchange books, never really thought about them being boys/girls books. I hope that isn't what is happening as children will be missing out on some wonderful stories.

How about The Johnny Maxwell trilogy and the Diggers/Truckers/Carpet People
series by Terry Pratchett.

What about the Susan Cooper Dark is Rising series?

Or the Lloyd Alexander Taran series?

YY to the Alan Garner books too.

Yes, I certainly don't think there are books for just boys or just girls. But I do suspect very few boys read, say, the rainbow fairy books or whatever that nauseating series is called.

Shadowmancer also brilliant.

yes, I remember that cereal packet book ...but what was it?

DH and I both enjoyed reading John Wyndham growing up (Sci-fi).

Robert C o Brian is good for both genders 'The Silver Crown' and ''Mrs Frisby'

yy to Willard Price

I know what to do if grabbed underwater by a crocodile and I also know how to catch a bird of paradise alive.

(Cannibal Adventure)

Bumping in the hope that someone remembers the cereal box story- I Want to know the name of the book!

pink, what do you do if grabbed underwater by a croc????

Himalaya, I have been googling for you (am too old to have known it) but can't find anything

I loved the Just William books & I'm a girl too! Also E Nesbitt, Five children & It etc. Although they might (sadly) seem a bit dated to modern children.

Also one by Beverley Nicholls (who's a man) about going underwater in a stream & meeting all the creatures. Can't remember what it's called.

I really think that Elidor and The Owl Service are MUCH better books than the earlier two SevenAgainstThebes - he really gets into his stride with these.

Do agree with the EarthSea trilogy, I adore these books.

Himalaya, I started a separate thread here in the hope of someone spotting it - nothing as yet though.

Miranda, you're thinking of The Stream that Stood Still I think (there's also the Mountain that Moved and the Tree that Sat Down)