Tell us what books you read with your Grandparents to WIN a full set of The Owl and the Pussy-cat picture edition books

[ChrissieMumsnet]

To coincide with National Grandparents Day on Sunday 5 October we’re giving away ten sets of the treasured children’s bedtime story book, The Owl and the Pussy-cat as well as the follow-up title, The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussy-cat, which has a companion CD.

The new picture edition of Edward Lear’s classic poem features illustrations by Charlotte Voake while The Further Adventures of The Owl and the Pussy-cat creates a wonderful new story penned by The Gruffalo author, Julie Donaldson.

To enter our competition, we’d like to hear about the stories you read once upon a time with your grandparents. Whether old literary favourites or less well-known gems, we want to know the books that help generations of families unite. Share your stories on this thread before 10am Thursday 9 October. The publication of The Owl and the Pussy-cat and The Further Adventures of The Owl and the Pussy-cat is 2 October 2014.

This competition is sponsored by Puffin Books.

My Nana had a box of books and toys at her house, the ones I remember are Beaky the Greedy Duck and Ginger's Adventures, both Ladybird books. I think there were also my uncle's old cowboy annuals but I wasn't that interested in them!

My Granny read from a huge (it seemed to me) copy of Grimms Fairy Tales. We cuddled in on the couch in front of the fire before bedtime.

I don't remember my grandparents reading any books to me but they used to tell us poems that they knew off by heart and this was one of my Grandma's favourites. We would get into her bed in the mornings and cuddle up and she'd recite it for us. I recite it for my children now

The Little Doll
~Charles Kingsley

I once had a sweet little doll, dears,
The prettiest doll in the world;
Her cheeks were so red and so white; dears,
And her hair was so charmingly curled.

But I lost my poor little doll, dears,
As I played in the heath one day;
And I cried for her more than a week, dears;
But I never could find where she lay.

I found my poor little doll, dears,
As I played in the heath one day:
Folks say she is terrible changed, dears,
For her paint is all washed away,
And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears,
And her hair not the least bit curled:
Yet for old sakes' sake she is still, dears,
The prettiest doll in the world.

I remember 'Hare in a Hurry' and the 'Untidy Hedgehog' by Molly Brett being read over and over again to by my mother and grandfather. (It is only recently that I have acquired another copy of the former. The first one fell to bits and was then put in a scrapbook.)

Mostly, my grandfather used to tell me lots of oral stories about pit ponies.

Probably not exactly what you meant, but I remember reading sewing books with my Grandma when I went to stay with her as a child. We chose a soft toy or doll clothes pattern out of them and she'd help me to make it.

My Grandma was fantastic at sewing and taught me lots of skills that I still use today. As a child I made a teddy bear that my Dad still cherishes and I made dolls clothes that spent time stored in the loft and have just recently been passed down for my daughter to enjoy.

Errrr. We saw our grandparents (who lived 100s of miles away) a couple of times a year and as we never stayed with them we didn't ever read stories.

What fanciful alternative reality is this halcyon view of extended family life based on????

Struwwelpeter. Well. It stopped me sucking my thumb.

When I was little it was the ladybird fairy tales and bunnykins, when I got a little older, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden and What Katy Did, because my Grandad bought them me when I was 7. He had a liking for nonsense rhymes and tales too, and limericks, which weren't always suitable

Love this thread! It was Enid Blyton all the way with my grandma. She had a big hardback book of short stories that included Mr Pinkwhistle and "The Girl who was left behind". I really loved the line drawings in them and used to trace them with Grandma's grease proof paper. Our copy was given by a neighbour of my grandma's who'd written on the cover " If this book should ever roam, smack it's bum and and send it home" My brother and I were in fits of laughter every time we read that. Great memories - do keep them coming (and pictures are added bonus).

Children of the New Forest with Granny.

It was the original language all with thee and thine and words like that. So beautiful. Was most disappointed when I got a copy for dd2 and found they'd updated it.

Whatever books we were reading anyway. I also grew up 100s of miles away from my grandparents and didn't have "special" books with them. We read together, but our normal books.

I didn't have grandparents around as a child as they had passed away. But I was an avid reader with my mum. My favourites were Enid Blyton - I loved the Faraway Tree series, Famous Five and Secret Seven. And The Secret Garden, Little Princess and White Boots....

My all time favourite when I was very small (and I still have it in my loft) was "The Foal that forgot to be frightened" which I bought from the school book sale.

Mr Men books.

My nana and grandad had a large selection of children's readers digest books. I particularly remember reading Swallows and Amazons together.

My nana once gave me an audio book of The Secret Seven. Unfortunately she thought it was a two pack and I got cassette one and some poor unsuspecting neighbour of theirs got cassette two! Worse, I could never track down the book copy so I remain in suspense. apart from the fact I now can't even remember which mystery it was...

My mum's parents weren't ones for reading - Grandma couldn't read and Grandpa only went to school for a few years. Taught me lots of card games and baking, though, and had stashes of Highlights magazine for kids and lots of children's books.
My dad's parents never read with me - Grandad taught me gardening - but I did end up reading Jane Eyre there once out of sheer boredom when I was about 10.

My grandfather used to read me anything from the Mr Men series as he and I both liked them.
My grandmother would make me read the Ladybird series reading books to her. She liked to teach me as she read.

My nan always read us the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We then acted it out when we went over a bridge near town and we were genuinely scared in a hysterical giggly way!

I don't remember my grandparents ever reading stories to me although I spent a lot of time at their house. They had a little bookshelf which held a couple of Catherine Cooksons from the library and an ancient hardback called Sixty Famous Trials!

They had a few of my dads old books around we used to look at. I cant remember what they were. Little black sambo was one but they didn't read it with me so much as explain how inappropriate it was!! Loved reading the poems with them in Ts elliots Cats.

Traditional Fairy Tales, usually Ladybird books. I still remember a terrifying picture of the troll in the Three Billygoats Gruff, and one of Hansel putting a bone through the bars of his cage to trick the wicked witch.

I remember reading Beatrix Potter's Tale of two bad mice too.

My granny was completely deaf, she had been deafened as a young bride by a bomb blast in WW2. So our relationship was never built on talking to each other in a conventional sense.

She could feel music though, so we used to sing together, often hymns. But our favourite thing to do was for her to read to me, we read all sorts of things, but the ones I remember most vividly were Kidnapped, Treasure Island and Swiss Family Robinson. I wasn't particularly a tom-boy but I absolutely adored these adventure stories, she brought the stories alive.

Many years later, when she was dying I would read to her, she used to say she liked to watch my face when I read.

Milly Molly Mandy
The Water Babies
Rupert the Bear annuals But also a couple of oddities, there was a very old,bound in white leather, edition of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and I loved grandad reading about "the Nightmare Life in Death" while I looked at the pictures. There was also a complete set of Dickens which he would read from sometimes. I learned to read before I was three and put my life long love of books down tomy dgp and my dp who recited poetry instead of reading bedtime stories to me. My favourites were Leigh Hunt's Abu Ben Adam and Blake's The Lamb.

Unfortunately, I have no memory of reading with my grandparents. They always lived a long way away, and we visited quite rarely and didn't have a particularly close relationship. It is such a shame, especially now that I see how much my little girl (11 months) loves looking at books with her nana and granny, and going to the library with them when they look after her.

I'm dyslexic and struggled with reading to start with. My Nan would sit for hours and hours with me looking at letter land books while mum was working with grandad in the family business. I loved reading my school books to her when I mastered it.

My grandad was a printer and a man with an amazing imagination. He'd print and bind his own books for me, 'mad tales', 'adventures of the strange' and 'unbelieveable'! Sadly the only one that survived childhood, siblings and several moves was 'rock and rocye's big adventure' about his life as an evacuee.

My grandma didn't like moden children's books, so didn't read with me until I was older. Old bear stoires and poems by a a mill were some of the first she shared with me, millie molly mandy, the secret garden, the railway children, indian in the cupboard are still fondly remembered. I loved wind in the willows most. We shared books back and forth from when I was a teenager, enjoying autobiographies and historical fiction.

Grandpa didn't ever read to me. But would buy each of the grandchildren a book at easter instead of an easter egg. So much better than chocolate because I still have them and can now enjoy them again with dd. She likes threadbear at the moment.

Dd loves books and likes to look at the paper with my dad. My mum reads whatever dd wants her to even if it the offers from lidl! They still have loads of books from my childhood and are starting to collect the little miss and mr men books. Dd takes them straight to the books when they go in a charity shop.