Books you loved as a child and hope your children will love too.

[TheCortanaThatStoleChristmas]

Inspired by another thread.

I remember buying Dogger don't laugh at the title it's a lovely book! and All In One Piece before DS was born as I wanted to pass on the joy these books brought me.

He has recently read The Hobbit; Swallows and Amazons; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; Treasure Island and Charlotte's Web. Books that made my childhood.

I hope he will soon find and enjoy the LOTR books, Hitchhikers Guide, Little Women, and Goodnight Mr Tom.

I feel real excitement at the thought of my DS reading lovely books and enjoying them the way I did. Got me wondering what I might have missed though, are there other books that are wonderful for children and deserve to go on a "Books Every Child Should Read" list?

What were your favorite childhood books, and will you buy/pass them on for your children?

Love this thread! I love books (but rarely get time to read now, gone are the days when me and a bottle of wine and a book would spend the evening together)

Does anyone remember Bobby Brewster, the ordinary boy to whom magical things happened? I loved those books and remember crying when I realised I'd read the entire series in our local library. They were ancient even then, so I suspect they're not even in print now

Robinson Crusoe
Children of the New Forest

Apologies if any of these have been mentioned before and I've missed them!

Bogwoppit
The Ogre Downstairs
Stig Of The Dump
The Machine Gunners + Devil On The Road (maybe for slightly older children)
Any of the James Herriot books
Ditto Gerald Durrell
The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. I wouldn't personally recommend the regular Discworld ones for kids, unless you want to spend time explaining what a "seamstress" (hem, hem) is.
The Three Investigators ones written by Alfred Hitchcock

fishjam glad you read ogre downstairs too - wasnt sure if it was popular or not but i LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Little Princess - yes thank you kitchen!

So many books here I'd forgotten all about but now I'm going to have to dig them out or buy them again!
The little white horse
Five children and it
The Phoenix and the carpet
The sword in the stone T H White version
Mistress Mashems repose
Totty the story of a dolls house - cant believe I forgot that, we even had a gerbil called Totty!

One I don't think has been mentioned for really small children: Each Peach Pear Plum. I discovered recently I can still recite it

Wind in the Willows was my absolute favourite. Loved lots of the books already ementioned and The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler.

Dollybird was the dragon book 'The Dragon's Quest', in the same series as Green Smoke? He worked in King Arthur's kitchen.

The Phantom Tollbooth
My Friend Mr Leakey
Winnie-the-Pooh (have introduced ds age 4 to this)
Willard Price, some Enid Blyton, Little Grey Rabbit, Diana Wynne Jones, Flat Stanley... I read everything!
I have a couple books from when my grandmother was a child, an ABC with short stories, and an Illustrated Dictionary, which I loved once I was deemed old enough to handle them - and confounded my English teachers by using words like inglenook, fairy-cycle and quadcar...

NotYou, I read most of Bobby Brewster and have a couple of the books still.

Does anyone remember 'Help I'm a prisoner in a toothpaste factory'?- I loved that. Remember it being on jackanory. Jackanory was brilliant- introduced me to all sorts of things. Bernard Cribbins reading 'Arabella's raven'- very funny indeed.

I think this is officially my fav thread ever.

I'm with everyone who's mentioned LM Montgomery or LM Alcott (she's the reason my dd is Louisa!).

Thrilled to see Bogwoppit - I loved it as a child, and often call my dcs Bogwoppits Hurrah for Bottersnikes and Gumbles too, can't believe it is out of print. Have read that to several classes - always gone down well, as has Olga da Polga which I've just bought for my Goddaughter.

How about
Follow that Bus! Pat Hutchinson - so funny!
Children on the Oregon Trail - I so wanted to be in that family so I could prove how brave I was
Island of Blue Dolphins - really moving

Enid blytons
Drina series
Gemma series
Back home by Michelle Magorian
A girl named Francesca

I have a library in the office full of books to hand down to the DCs

marking place as I'll add a contribution later! (good thread...)

I love reading so I hope DS loves to read when he's older too!

One of my favourites was 'The BFG' by Roald Dahl. I made my DM read this over and over again for my bedtime story :o

Ah yes, we3, I enjoyed Help I'm a prisoner in a Toothpaste Factory. In a bonding moment, I found that DH had liked it too. We also both liked Joan Aiken books, but that seemed less surprising, they are a bit better known.

Very Hungry Caterpillar - check (both DCs obsessed with it)
Dear Zoo was a hit too, as was On The Way Home.

Another favourite I want to get hold of is Willoughby Wallaby :o

When they are a bit older - Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Swallows and Amazons, Worst Witch and any of Enid Blyton's adventure/mystery stuff.

Totty the story of a dolls house - cant believe I forgot that, we even had a gerbil called Totty!

omg never read book byt LOVED THE TV series

Where The Wild Things Are - both the pics and words are perfection.

I passed my old Asterix books onto my ds and had great satisfaction when he literally fell off the bed laughing!

Does anyone remember an American teen book, where the girl got pregnant and there were lots of Edgar Allan Poe references? Incredibly moving, I'd love to track it down again, for me not the kids.

"The Children of Green Knowe" by Lucy M. Boston. I love more than any other book I have ever read. DS is only 18m, so I have a while to go before I can inflict read it to him, but I am so looking forward to sharing it with him!

The children of green knowe was amazing. Do you remember the tv adaptation?

I remember so many of these. I didn't like 'Mary Plain' I'm afraid, and we had several of the books, but I liked Mistress Masham's Repose. Loved 'The Family from One End Street'. Loved 'Dear Daddy Long Legs' and we had a follow up, called (I think) 'Dear Enemy' but that wasn't as good.

Anybody remember 'Mary Mary' whose brothers and sisters were called Miriam, Martyn, Mervyn and Meg?
'Dear Teddy Robinson'
'My Naughty Little Sister' stories
'Grimble'
Arabel's Raven
The Marlow series by Antonia Forest
Lizzie Dripping
'Smith' by Leon Garfield and 'The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris'
'Louie's Lot' by E W Hildick
'The Cherry's' series by Will Scott
'The Secret World of Polly Flint'

We also had the books of Richard Carpenter's TV series', 'The Ghosts of Motley Hall', 'Dick Turpin', 'Smuggler' 'Catweazel' and 'Robin of Sherwood'. I loved all of these.

We also had a whole set of children's hardback classics which I read - Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Lorna Doone, Little Women, The Children of the New Forest' 'Ivanhoe' and goodness knows what else. Anyone else read 'Little Men' - which I much preferred to 'Little Women', and also 'Jo's Boys'.

Finally, (long post!) does anyone else remember 'Marigold in Godmother's House' which was by the author of Milly Molly Mandy. That was my mother's favourite book as a child and she used to read it to us. Our copy must have been published in the 1930s and is still much loved today.

Did anyone read books by Ruth M Arthur. I devoured all her books when i was eleven . They were quite ghostly and atmospheric and had to be read all in one sitting.

Oh Crypes - I was just looking at 'A Candle in her Room' and remembering how good it was. I might re-read it tonight . I think that was the only one of hers we had though.

Love this thread!

Lots of my favourites have been mentioned over and over so I'll just add my votes to:

Nina Bawden - The Peppermint Pig, Carrie's War
Frances Hodgson Burnett - especially A Little Princess and The Secret Garden
Ruth Mabel Arthur, especially A Candle In Her Room, but actually pretty much all her books, and the illustrations were wonderful too.

BegoniaBampot are you thinking of A Candle in Her Room? It follows the lives of four women, the fourth, Nina is asked about her mother Edie dancing, and she tells whoever asked her - her aunt Judith maybe - that Edie couldn't dance, the Nazis burnt her feet. It's set in Pembrokeshire, I can't remember the name Posie from it though.

Ladybird books - they had a couple of series of science and factual books which aren't in print any more.

Puffin books, and the Puffin club that used to send out a list of twelve books four times a year, and I wanted to read at least three of each selection. Where are they now? Who are the good authors now?

Ive just googled the 'Ghost in her room' and it looks bloody scary. I dont think my DD would get past the front cover.