Obscure children's books that you used to love

[LadyPlumpington]

Mine is 'The Island of the Skog' by Steven Kellogg. The DC love it too :)

What are your old obscure favourites?

Haunted House. Pop up book by Jan Pienowski, hours of fun. Bought it for kids a few years back and they love it too.

The Jinny and Shantah (spelling not right) stories
The Cuckoo Clock by Mrs Molesworth still read it regularly

I adored Five Dolls in a House, I really wish I still had all my books.

Lots of my favourites mentioned here already but does anyone else remember Taking the Woffle to Pebblecombe-on-Sea?

I'm ridiculously pleased the other people know The Overland Launch :)
I have my 1970s and 80s copies of Mrs Pepperpot, Cynthia Harnett books and One End Street.
I also loved Loyd Alexander's books starting with Taran the Wanderer.

Did you know that the original Mr Men books were written by an 8 year-old? I found this out at age 10 and thought 'Well that's my youngest-ever-author award up the spout'

I remember Bottersnikes and Gumbles!

Loved Olga da Polga too.

My Dr loved my copy of Mrs Pepperpot. I had a copy of what Katy did next on the cover but the book was what Katy did.

I loved the girl with a lantern and the other girl with a... books.

I remember reading a series of books in junior school about a witch with a black cat. I can't remember the name though.

I also liked the three investigators introduced by Alfred Hitchcock.

I had The Giant Under the Snow by John Gordon, really creepy and excitingly teenage. I found it again recently and it was still good.

Yes I'd totally forgotten about the Silver Brumbies but I really loved those too.

The Spider's Palace was a brilliantly bizarre one.

The Stars Are Upside Down by Gabriel Alington

About Octavia (Tavy) the London kitchen maid who spends her last five shillings to start a new life in Australia. Loved this.

Page My best friend and I played nothing but Silver Brumbies for years, spent whole summers cantering around, neighing at each other. She was Thowra and I was Baringa.

She died a couple of years ago. I'm welling up now just remembering.

I thought that was the Garden Gang books LadyPlumpington which were written by Jayne Fisher when she was about 9.

I think I remember Giant under the Snow.... this thread is blowing the cobwebs off my inner bookshelves!

Tilly's House - about a wooden doll who escapes her doll's house to find her own place to live, discovering drip dry cotton in the process. I managed to find a second hand copy on amazon and now my daughter loves it too.

I beg your pardon HarryLime, you are quite correct.

Ignore me, I am old and forgetful.

So many of these books we remember were creepy. Do creepy ( sinister, mysterious, atmospheric) books still get written for children I wonder? I don't have much contact with modern older children's books, DS is seven and his choices at the moment tend to the cows in space/ dinosaurs in space/ cakes in space end of the market.

A trip down memory lane!

I still have my hardback copy of Rebecca's World
I also loved Phoebe and the hot water bottles.
A book called The Hobbyers (sp?)
The Great Granny Robbery
The Giant Jam Sandwich
The Worst Witch series

I also used to love the A5 ish size comic books with extended stories from comics at the time like Bunty I think. Things like the 4 Marys

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My ten year old loves Grimble and Grimble at Christmas that I found in a second hand bookshop

Oh my goodness. Behind the attic wall - does anybody know it? Splendidly creepy story about a girl who befriends dolls who are alive and hiding in the attic.....

Oh I loved The Worst Witch. I need to read those again!

Oh, but creepy books are the best!

I do think the 70s was a really good time for children's lit (I'm an 80s child but our books were often second-hand so we got the good stuff).

What about 'The Satanic Mill'. Now, that is properly creepy. There was a copy in my primary school, and I waited for years to buy it as an adult because it kept being on Amazon for stupidly huge amounts. Great, though.

Zipity - the 4 Marys was definitely Bunty

I remember the 4 Marys!

I must go to bed. I look forward to the list of books that will have been generated by the morning

Interesting. I read Elidor by Alan Garner - aimed at around 10 year olds I should think - recently which was really quite scary. And has the children all going off on their own for hours, even at night. Such different expectations of what children can cope with.