Forgotten Classics

[beatricequimby]

Any recommendations for an 8 year old girl? I am a bit of a children's book hoarder so we have all the obvious ones - Katy books, E Nesbits, Frances Hodgson Burnetts, Little Women, Noel Streatfeilds etc.

Recently discovered Nancy and Plum by Betty MacDonald which I had never heard of. It's lovely and perfect for an 8 year old.

So has anyone got any forgotten classic recommendations? The

Slow I think it was Hollow Tree House, although I remember them as being just a brother & sister who lived in the tree house but maybe it's an EB series?

www.amazon.co.uk/Hollow-Tree-House-Rewards-Blyton/dp/0416186203

Ohhhh thanks Petallic!!! Hollow tree house rings a definite bell!!!
(My memory is very shaky so very likely only a brother and sister!!)

Daddy Long Legs (maybe 8 is a little young for this?)
Children on the Oregon Trail
Tom's Midnight Garden
The Silver Sword

Not "forgotten" but The Secret Garden is one of my favorites (I was going to mention Tom's Midnight Garden too, but Dilys beat me to it!)

The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban

The Otterbury Incident by C Day-Lewis

Alan Garner books - The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath, Elidor

The Olga da Polga books by Michael Bond (Paddington author). I think I had every one there was.

And I loved - and now and then still remember random bits of - a very silly book called Witches in Stitches, by Kay Umanski. Found it side splittingly funny aged 8.

The Voyage of QV66 by Penelope Lively. Brilliant, funny and thought-provoking - you just have to read it out loud in the accents. (The country is recovering from a huge flood, all the people have departed and a group of animals set out to find out what type one of them, Stanley, is, travelling on a canal barge).

Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh. I'm just reading it to DS age 8. I suspect he could read it himself but its one of my childhood favourites so on our rules I get to read it to him. Its still fantastic. Even DH is enjoying it when he reads it once a week. Just done When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit on the same rules. Another family hit. Again he could have read it himself but got more out of it as we were able to discuss it.

I loved Penelope Lively books at that age - The Ghost of Thomas Kempe and The Revenge of Samuel Stokes especially.
The Borrowers series - my favourite was The Borrowers Aloft.
Colin Dann books might appeal - The Animals of Farthing Wood and all its sequels. Though my favourite was one about a boy and his dog called Just Nuffin.

Charlotte's Web and Pippi Longstocking were two of my favourites.

The Worst Witch series

Silver Snaffles if she likes horses. I was convinced I could ride on the basis of reading this book.

Spiderweb for Two - an great book in which two children solve a series of puzzles as they get used to their older siblings leaving home.

Joan Aitken
Diana Wynne Jones

Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley

The Dolls House, also Rumer Godden.

I second Eva Ibbotson - she has written a number of children's books.

I also love The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley - it is a sequel to the Aladdin story, and is absolutely hilarious. It has a flying back garden, villains called Rub Dub Ben Thud and Tin Tack Ping Foo, a magician who has accidentally turned himself into a button-nosed tortoise, and can't change himself back, and a donkey who sits on a pin.

Moorland Mousie and Older Mousie by Golden Gorse.

My favourite book aged 8 was Eric Linklater's The Wind on the Moon, tales of two girls and their adventures with animals, plus very funny.

The Witch Family Eleanor Estes
Lassie Come Home Eric Knight
The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsey
Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce
Tottie: the Story of a Doll's House Rumer Godden
The Chesterfield Gold Roger Pilkington
Bambi Felix Salten
Friday's Tunnel John Verney
The Log of theArk Kenneth Walker & Geoffrey Boumphrey
The Nine Lives of Island Mackenzie Ursula Moray Williams

Does anyone else remember Five Dolls in a House by Helen Clare? It was about a girl who could turn small and visit her dolls in their dollshouse. I loved that book when I was young and read it over and over again.

I also loved Secret Island by Enid Blyton about four children who ran away from home (cruel aunt) and lived on an island (obviously).

I was obsessed with pony stories: Wish For a Pony was one of my favourite books ever.

SDTG - I love the bit about the donkey

"like an arrow from a bow, like a homing swallow, like a comet in the sky - like a donkey that had just sat down on a pin - he sped down the street"

You do have to make sure you get the full (1966) version though, which is nearly 2000 pages long - the 1975 version is 75 pages shorts and has lost a lot of the original jokes.

That should be 200 pages long, not 2000!

Does anyone remember 'Charlotte Sometimes'? about a girl at boarding school who goes back in time and swaps with a girl called Clare who was at the school in world wat one. I Loved it

I'd love to recommend the Mr Twink books by Freda Hurt, about a black half-Siamese cat who was a detective, but sadly I've never been able to find a copy anywhere for less than £50.

Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh. Its about a witch's cat. Was my mother's favourite book and she gave it to me when I was little. I loved it too.