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?

Little House on the Prairie
Famous Five, Secret Seven, Magic Faraway tree, the wishing chair
Roald Dahl books
Secret Garden
Little Women
Sophie's World
Nancy Drew
Black Beauty
Rats of Nimh

Oooh, Gerald Durrell. I love Gerald Durrell.

I loved Secret Seven - in my childhood head i was the 8th member!! Also loved Folk of the Faraway Tree and all the other Faraway Tree books. The suspense of whether she'd make it down the tree before the worlds changed at the top!! And the crazy Saucepan man...what was his name?? My DS's would baulk at the idea of reading them tho...they read Anthony Horowitz. Enid Blyton wasn't as much into dismemberment if i remember rightly

I remember my mum reading me & my brother the magic faraway tree books and it was so amazing. I read these books to my now 13 yr old dd when she was 6-7 and it was really nice. Noticed when last at my brothers house he is now reading these books to my 6 yr old nephew they have made names more pc, the children were called dick & fanny

Most of my favourites have been mentioned esp by Sarah Stratton I also loved Monica Edwards,Antonia Forest,Angela Brazil[not for today's dc maybe-2 books at least have a character named Lesbia!]
E.Nesbit is a keeper especially 5 Children and It and The Treasure Seekers
My much loved Abbey books and The Chalet School series.
My dd shared many of these when she was a child [she is 38 now] especially the horse/pony books.
If I had to choose an all time favourite it would be The Wind in The Willows closely followed by Winnie the Pooh.

The Narnia books, obviously.
Charlotte Sometimes
The Dolphin Crossing
The Silver Sword
Marianne Dreams
Anne of Green Gables
What Katy Did
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
The Starlight Barking
Chalet school books
Jill pony books
Little Women
Ballet Shoes
White Skates

Anything by Shirley Hughes for younger kids. For those slightly older, The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis; the precursor of the Narnia books. Just reading it to my daughters, it is fantastic.

Ramona the Pest
what Katy did
Mildly Molly Mandy
The Chalet School Books
Mallory Towers
St Clares
Little Grey Rabbit
Beatrix Potter
Winnie the Pooh
Tilly and Tessa

I also liked the Drina stories,
A Little Princess, although I loathed Little Lord Fauntleroy

Grinny totally freaked me out.

Magic Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Tom's Midnight Garden, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, Malory Towers and St Clare's.

Anne of Green Gables

Moomins all the way. Dh read them to Dd when she was tiny, then she read them herself, then she asked him to read them to her again.

Ones I have successfully introduced to the DCs:
Paddington books
My Naughty Little Sister series
Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf series

Ones I have tried and (so far) failed with:
Green Knowe books
Watership Down
Phantom Tollbooth
My Family and other Animals
All the Diana Wynne-Jones books
Joan Aiken
E Nesbit

I will try DD (10) with some of those again, but DS is 14 and has graduated from children's books. Strangely, I am having more like getting him interested in the adult books I liked as a teenager: he is currently reading Kafka...

Recently read Rebecca's World by Terry Nation to dd. Very relieved that she loved it as much as I did. Not so with King of the Copper Mountain.

All Noel Streatfield's, especially the 'Shoes' books
The Lorna Hill Sadler's Wells Ballet books
Charlotte Sometimes
Rebecca's World
Five Children and it
The Enchanted Garden
The Lost Prince
The Little Princess
The Tree That Sat Down
The Stream That Stood Still
The Mountain of Magic
The Whispering Knights
All Terry Pratchett's

Willard Price adventures
Four Storey Mistake
Harriet the Spy
Dicey Tillerman Series
A Sound of Chariots by Molly Hunter
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry
Stig of the Dump
Jennings (although I sadly think they may be too dated? All those Latin references, but so funny, even as an adult)
Plus most of those everyone else has mentioned

Great thread.

For me, many of the classics already mentioned:

Anne of Green Gables
Little Women
Heidi
Narnia
Also Pollyanna

His Dark Materials and Harry Potter
(read them as an adult but still can't wait to share them!)

And another very random one which DD1 already enjoys- The Blob Books. Anyone remember them? They were all different colours e.g Primrose Yellow, Poppy Red, Fizzy Orange. They all lived in Paintboxland, there were about 12 books in total but I've never found anyone outside my family that remembers them!

beatricequimby I had forgotten Willard Price and Dicey Tillerman. I loved both those series, thanks for the reminder!

Moondial
Tom's Midnight Garden
The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe
and
The Famous Five, which, unlike the Enchanted Wood books, is still happily full of Dick and Fanny

Love this thread!
I've just finished reading The Magic Faraway Tree to my DD and it was my original copy, so Dick and Fanny ... I have bought her The Enchanted Wood for Christmas ... I'll be gutted if Dick and Fanny have morphed into Rick and Franny :-( in fact my 5yo didn't bat an eyelid at the names i giggled like a child everytime I read them

Many of those already mentioned plus
The velveteen rabbit or how toys become real
Carrie's War
Stig of the dump

TallulahTinsel, strangely, I went to school with the star of the TV adaptation of, The Children of Green Knowe...

For me, it has to be:

Little Miss Pepperpot
Milly Molly Mandy
Six dinner Sid
The bear under the stairs

I have two DSs, so: The Chronicles of Narnia, Watership Down, Roald Dahl (particularly James & the Giant Peach, The Twits and Charlie & the Choc Factory), The Hobbit, The LoTR, Swallows & Amazons, Harry Potter, The Box of Delights....

Pozzled, we had a few of those books. Infact, I'm sure my mum still has some in the loft.