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?

The quanglewangle's hat.

Yes we've got the Astrid Lindgren Lotta book where she runs away ...to next door's playhouse I think.

Also love Quanglewangle's Hat - with the Helen Oxenbury illustrations. My username on here was Quangle previously, in tribute!

Really pre! I love finding out that other people remember those books! Thank you also to the poster who mentioned Lotta's author upthread

I have one I can't find! It was about a teenage girl ( her name was Sylvia?!?) and she lived near a factory which spilled chemicals in a lake. People went swimming there and were taken away by mysterious men to die horribly. The brother of the girl who was taken away comes to investigate, falls in love with Sylvia much to her previous boyfriends disgust. Both current and ex boyfriend die horribly at the end because they have discovered the secret of the chemicals. Any clues as to the title?

I remember reading some very obscure books in the 70s and 80s - I'd inherited my mother's collection of 1950s pony books, and my older sisters' books too.

Does anyone remember My Horse Says - where a horse tells a little girl what to do in her dreams at night, all connected with a house that needs renovating?

There was Smoky, Snow Cloud Stallion, Brumby, Come Home Brumby too. And the Boundary Riders - bunch of Australian kids setting off to ride the boundary line, then getting lost in the bush. All at the age of 11 or so.

There were a couple of American books I'd love to read again too

One was about a girl whose mother was in hospital and expected to die, and her father was preoccupied and ignored her mostly. She really wanted a bicycle and didn't get one, but the bit that sticks in my mind was that she ate a caterpillar on a leaf for a dare, which made everyone at school think she was odd. The book was full of references to American sweets like tootsy rolls, which sounded so exotic!

The other book was a library book I read a lot in the 70s and would love to re-read now. It was set around 1880 I would guess, about a young man who left "civilisation" and joined an Indian tribe, possibly the Blackfeet? He had a flintlock rifle and a great big Newfoundland dog, and there are vivid descriptions of a buffalo hunt, where thousands of buffalo are driven over a cliff to die. Would love to read this as an adult.

I had a book about the trail called, I think, Antelope Singer, about a family left behind after ? Pa is bitten by a snake and the Native American boy with the withered arm saves them and they restore him to the tribe.

I loved Orlando. And my friend Flicka. Brilliant description if ASD child.

Rumer Godden's Holly and Ivy, sentimental but sweet, and not sentimental The Diddakoi. ( made into Kizzy? )

One of my faves, The 12 Days if Christmas, brilliant and funny.

As a result of thus thread just bought and reread The Warden's Niece. Didn't grow on me on first rereading but now, oh yes. Lovely book. Must read more Avery.

Masha. Costs a fortune.

T h white, the once and future king, mistress masham's repose, the v scary the master.

Loved Miss Bianca. Just read the first again.

Elizabeth Goudge, not all obscure. I see they have retitled Linnets and Valerians The Runaways. Loved it. The little white horse.

Ponies' plot by , I think, Parkinson of Parkinson's law. About ponies.

I can jump puddles. Australian. Yes to the Brumbies. Also Victorian Australian, cuddlepot and snugglepie and the wonderful The Magic Pudding. Such an ornery pudden.

The Phantom Tolbooth. Brilliant introduction to concepts...the idea of a boy who might be 2/3 and growing downwards. Or eating your words, and division dumplings with multiplication stew. And a castle in the air. And a number mine. And an orchestra creating colour.

Susannah and The Mounties.

Eleanor Farjeon. My favourite was the one about Griselda and the book by Dekker.

I hated William Mayne. Wasn't at all surprised when revelations came out about him. Whilst t h white was obv into cruelty it wasn't directed against children. Mayne was creepy.

The Dolphin crossing about Dunkirk.

Jolly Postman was a huge seller. When I worked in a bookshop it was our number one children's book every xmas. And then the Jolly Christmas Postman!

Just bought the jolly postman for my godchildren!

Each peach pear plum, anyone ?

Really obscure one here: Riddleton Roundabout.

It was dm's about some children evacuated during the war and sort of normal.village life. They pick blackberries for jam, eat a cake that had been saved for with rations, watch an enemy bomber drop one bomb in a field, put on a play in aid of the war effort.

Sort of nothing happens but it's quite interesting in a funny way.