Look what's NOT back in print...

[forgottoremember]

I'm feeling v frustrated that so many books I loved in childhood AREN'T in print, and are only available for insane amounts of money second hand.

For eg
Tilly's House
books by Gunilla Wolde (Thomas bakes a cake etc. etc.)
Benjamin and Tulip

Why is this? Why aren't they republished?

What are your other longed-for books, that can't be got without (not quite) a second mortgage?

The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles by Julie Andrews

Used to be all the Antonia Forest books, but then a couple of people set up their own publishing company to republish. I think it was Girlsgoneby. It only helped if you knew about the publication dates though, as only a limited number of copies were made so you didn't get one of those, you were back looking at silly prices.

The Flying Postman by V.H. Drummond. I made my dad read it every night at bedtime for months and months. I would cry and cry when the postman lost his job and cheer when the strawberry ice cream was a success

I imagine its not in print any more because no bugger but us bought it. It was an appallingly bad story.

We have a very battered and scribbled 40 year old copy of "William the Dragon". I looked on Amazon, then eBay to replace it. 50p or something in 1972, £80 now!

Shirley Hughes' Lucy and Tom books - some of them are, some of them inexplicably aren't. They're all equally dated (and equally charming and timeless) so I don't get it. Lucy and Tom's Christmas comes up as a no. 1 MNs' favourite Christmas book, but you have to pay silly prices on Amazon for second hand copies.

(I did something very very bad - there was a dog-eared copy of it at a holiday cottage this summer, disregarded at the bottom of a pile of children's books. I half-inched it. I did leave a stack of my own paperbacks as payment though!)

The Beverly Nichols books - The Stream that Stood Still, the Mountain that Moved etc. Mind you I don't know if they would be terrible on reading now! Some books I've gone to great effort to track down and then realised that actually they just weren't that good (Children on the Oregon Trail was one of them).

Can't get the Shoe Shop Bears either...

Fullfridge - I bought The Last of the etc from Amazon (new) a year or two ago having been reminded of it by a MN thread. So if it's out of print now, it has been in print pretty recently.

Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles is definitely in print and available, though I found my copy in a library sale about fourteen years ago, so it has the old hardback illustrations I remember from my own childhood. It is one of my kids' favourite books from their own childhood too.

Beverley Nichols' books are also available (though not all in print) on Amazon marketplace. I have read them since I was young, and I would still rate The Tree That Sat Down and The Stream That Stood Still as the best of the four. And my children (all pretty much grown up now) would agree.

I've got all the B Nichols books, dd loved them! Mountain of Magic is a bit mental though.

when they reprinted Carbonel and The Kingdom of Carbonel they did not bother reprinting Carbonel and Calidor

Mr Rabbit and the Lovely present. My copy is almost 40yrs old and sellotaped together.

I found Lucy and Toms Christmas in a charity shop and bought it for 25p last Christmas. 4yo dd1 loved it as much as me.

'Tom got very excited and rather cross' - loved that book.

The Chalet School series.
You can still get some of them but they're fairly expensive. Would be rather out of date for today's kids but I loved them!

The When The War Began series. The first 3 have recently been republished but not the later ones. I managed to track some down from America but expensive.

The Drina Ballerina books. I tracked them all down very painstakingly in charity shops but some of them go for £££ online.
Also the Chalet school books and most of the Sadler's Wells series.
DH doesn't understand why I won't get rid of the books the children have grown out of but I want to be sure that they will be able to share them with their own children eventually.

Viva - I have all the When the War Began series - some of them did have to come from the US! I thought DD1 would like them but she won't read them.

They're fab books. I hope dd enjoys them when she's a bit older. Sadly she's never even touched any of my chalet school books. Reckons they look old fashioned and boring!

Strangely DD1 and 2 loved the Drina and Sadler's Wells books and also Malory Towers, Angela Brazil and Antonia Forest, but wouldn't read the Chalet School at all.

Me and my brother loved the Whatamess' books in the 80's. I have been looking out for those at boot sales and charity shops without success, they are no longer in print

I loved the Flying Postman and the What a mess books when I was little. Luckily my mum kept them and so I can now read them to my son. Bit of a tangent but this shows how Richard Scarry books have been changed when re-published.

Whatamess is out of print? Gah. They were great. Did anyone ever read Sherlock Hound?

Rebecca's World - the one with the Larry Learmonth illustrations. Going for around £150 on Abe Books

Most of Noel Streatfeild's books are out of print. I have bought some on Amazon but I think children would still love them today. She was definitely my favourite writer as a child.
I also used to love a series of books about a girl called Jill who was pony mad. They were really witty and I'd love to re read them.
I also remember a brilliant story called 'Charlotte Sometimes' about a girl at an English boarding school who goes back in time and becomes a girl who attended the school years before her. I've tried to find it a few times in bookshops but it doesn't seem to be available.