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?

Knock three times by Marion St. John wood. Haunting. Great novel for children

Oh - The Silver Crown. I found it flesh-crawling in the same way as the child-catcher when the king says: "people are so careless with children".

As a negative, since my dd read it, she's insisted on jam and peanut butter sandwiches. Yuck.

This thread is making me so happy. And probably a good deal poorer when I search out old books on Amazon.

I loved Treasures of the Snow. I'm sure if I read it now, the bible bashing bits would overwhelm the story. But I cried and cried over it when I first read it at about 8.

I think I've read the Silver Crown - it's ringing a (muted) bell in my brain.

Not sure I liked it much....

The Silver Crown has a hugely shocking opening (which I had completely forgotten until I reread it recently).
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh is also by Robert O'Brien and is also very thought provoking and vivid.

I have lots of different ones, one of my favorites is "You are Special" by Max Lucado. The book is religious and I am defiantly not, but it has such a beautiful message that is important to kids, especially today. The pictures are lovely, but if you are interested in reading it, here is the pdf www.aikentdc.org/You_Are_Special.pdf

A less serious and more funny book is "Strega Nona".

The Children of Green Knowe is one of my all time favourite books - I managed to track down a copy of the BBC tv adaptation a few years ago as well.

Yes to Elizabeth Goudge - I re-read The Little White Horse regularly (it's one of my two comfort books - it and Cold Comfort Farm). I loved Linnets and Valerians as well.

And what about A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley?

If they don't have to be properly 'obscure', I loved Elizabeth Goudge's 'The Little White Horse' and 'Linnets and Valerians'. Also loved the very famous 'The Secret Garden' and the even more famous 'Heidi'.

I have memories of getting a Puffin Annual for christmas a couple of times. Full of poems, stories and puffin cartoons - obviously pushing the Puffin publishers, but a really good read for a young bookworm. Does anyone else remember these?

I remember there was a book I loved when I was 8 or so about a girl that turned into a bear when she ate honey (or something like that!) Ring any bells for anyone?

I loved the Phantom Tollbooth and also the Wolves of Willoughby Chase though I suppose it isn't that obscure.

Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh..

There's another one I read about the same time, about some sort of contest for witches. They all had to do evil tests like making rats eat each other, but one (the heroine, blond and beautiful, natch) was a good witch who just kept doing good spells.

I'm sure I've read The Silver Chair, The Silver Crown, And The Silver Sword. Can't remember much about them, except sinister black paths or something.

Oh yes, the Family from One End Street and 2 follow ups! Loved those stories too, I can still remember the pictures, the names of the children, so much!

Wasn't one of the Family from One End Street named after "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose"?

I think the Silver Chair is a Narnia story.

Silver Crown - creepy black roads
Silver Chair - er, a silver chair (and yes, it's Narnia)
Silver Sword - a paper knife!

Lily Rose, yes, named after Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (and they spelt his name "wrong" because her uncle or someone was a police sergeant so she knew how it should be spelt!)
Then there was Kate after Joe's mother; then the twins James and John, then Joe (after his dad), Margaret (Peg) and Sweet William, the baby.

I have always loved The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively. It's about a teenage girl living with her great-aunts in their rambling Victorian house full of 19th-century furniture and artefacts (including great-grandmother's lilac silk evening gown - I was wow at that one) and she finds a tamburan from a Polynesian tribe which plays on her mind.

It doesn't quite count as creepy because you always sort of know it's in her head. But I still love the historic descriptive detail and the 1970's period feel. (And I want to Google number 40 Norham Gardens to see if it actually exists).

The Silver Chair is part of the Narnia series, a thumping good story that stands on its own, in essence a quest for a lost prince. Not really obscure.

How's this for an obscure one? The Girls of the Rose Dormitory by Joy Francis. It was probably one of my mother's books, and it's a very, very old-fashioned girls' boarding school story. The main character is Gabrielle and she does things like winning the gym contest when she's suffering with a scalded shoulder, unjustly gets her conduct girdle taken from her when it gets stolen and hung on the town's statues as a prank by someone...that kind of stuff. Total hokum but I lapped it up and re-read it I don't know how many times. And Joy Francis is going on my Pointless list of children's authors.

Also Amelia Anne and the Green Umbrella. There are lots of Amelia books but this is the best one. Pre war vintage I think.

Somewhere in my box of pony books in the attic I have a story whose title/author I forget, about a couple of children who are on an island (I think) inhabited by wild horses. They each tame one; I can't remember the girl's but I think the boy calls his Manta after the ray, because the pony is black with a pale belly like a ray. There is a really wild stallion too that they can't get near for ages; I think he might be white but I'm not sure.

Another one I used to get out of the library was Snow Cloud, Stallion by Gerald Raftery; I can't remember a huge amount about the details of the plot now but I can remember thinking it was very 'Western' in feel and had similarities to the Mary O'Hara Flicka trilogy mentioned earlier - boy called Ken tames wild white stallion.

Micah I think the witch one was Which Witch? The heroine is Belladonna, the hero is Arriman the Great - she can't help making begonias and fluffy bunnies appear because she is so good, but he is a dark wizard and thinks he ought to marry a very evil witch, hence the competition. A very odd book I always thought! I still have a copy.

PrivatePike Yes to Scottish (or "Scotch" Susan and her well-meaning shenanigans! I read them when I was far too young to understand them really, they were mum's old copies, but they seemed very glam to me.

We had Susan Rushes In, with the dreadfully bohemian next door neighbours and Midge getting a prize in a writing competition, and another one which I can only remember vaguely about a Folding Letter (?? whatever that was), a girl in disguise called Belle, and an old lady having to sell their house when they didn't want to - although come to think of it that last might have been in Susan Rushes In. And I recently bought Susan Interferes from a charity shop, haven't read it yet but they seem to be on a ski trip or something.