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?

Does anyone else remember Ludo and the Starhorse and the Little Brromstick by Mary Stewart?
Also the Winter of Enchantment, and a school story I loved and read regularly was At School With the Roundheads.

I hope the Lorna Hills Sadlers Wells books are still in my loft, along with When Marnie Was There and Fattypuffs and Thinnifers and more

Love this thread! Remembering so many books I'd forgotten, I practically lived in my local library as a child.

Have been inspired by this to google a book I've often thought of but couldn't recall the name. It's The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren and I'm off to order a copy

I used to have a book called " run rabbit run" !! It had real photos of a rabbit running through streets and through a market maybe?? Does anyone remember this ??

How could I have forgotten!
The Land of Far Beyond - I think it's Pilgrims Progress lite - by Enid Blyton.

This tends to fetch lots on eBay, but I've still got my old dog eared copy. Fascinating book, great illustrations too.

Did anyone else read the Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High or Choose Your Own Adventure stories, or was it just me? classy

Come Back Lucy, about a girl going to live with her cousins, and a ghost who wants her to live with her

I remember Eloise Deva.

She used to skidaddle all the way down the stairs, then skidaddle all the way up again

I read all of those LadyPlumpington. All my friends were into them as well and we used to swap them between us.

The Adventures of Hummy and Dummy by Aunt Bee.

Was my favourite book for as long as I can remember, never met anyone else you has read it. It got lost in a move but would love to own it again!

Also A letter for Benny (I think!) was by Leila Burg, she came to my primary school and would sign the book you bought, it was the only one I had enough money for. Didn't love the story but I was so proud of the book!

thumbcat I used to have the Tottie book too, it came with others in a little box.

I love Eloise.

Also -
The Family from One End Street
Boggart Sandwich (it was on Jackanory)
All the Ramona Quimby books
Simon and the Witch
A spooky short story collection by Jan Mark - can't remember the name of it but Nule, the one about the haunted staircase post, caused me sleepless nights.
I also had millions of those Fighting Fantasy books (choose your own adventure ones). I never used dice though and cheated like a fiend. House of Hell was my favourite!

purpledaisies excellent

Ramona Quimby series, anyone? I felt a bit sorry for Beezus with that nickname.

Ooh YES, the Ramona books; when she drew the Qs as little cats.

prepperpig did you know there was a sequel to Marianne Dreams called Marianne and Mark? She's a teenager in it and it's wonderful in my opinion.

I also remember lots of these very fondly, especially The Ordinary Princess, Plague 99 (and sequels! Guess where my name is from), Not Now Bernard, Trebizon I reread on kindle recently, Jeremy James, Tripods (all of John Christopher is worth it), When marnie was there is being made into a film soon!

I came here to add - Emily Culpepper. An old lady who made the tradesmen of the village small and kept them in jars. It was a picture book! And also Phoebe and the hot water bottles, sadly condemned by the fire service to stay out of print.

So pleased to see that other people have loved Children on the Oregon Trail - I've never known anyone else who's read it before.

Another one we had read to us lots of times at bedtime was Enid Blyton's Shadow the Sheepdog. I loved it mostly but was scared about the chapter with the eagles

This thread is going to do nothing to help my resolve to buy a few less books. And guess where I'm going later this summer - Hay-on-Wye. Oh dear.

Loved lots on here, especially 'The House at World's End' and 'Miss Happiness and Miss Flower'.

I read Green Smoke to DD1 not long ago and she loved it. Very keen to go to Cornwall now! And she's just got Olga de Polga out of the library.

Not obscure but I loved The Pigman by Paul Zindel as a teenager. When I was younger I also loved Haki The Shetland Pony (by Kathleen Fidler who also wrote 'The Boy with the Bronze Axe').

Just remembered 'The Growing Summer' - never really got that one.

Carrie's War - I didn't realise how good it was until much later.

I have (or rather, I hope my parents still have!) all the Drina books, I had those in the 90s and loved them (although they weren't a patch on Saddler's Wells).

Ah, The Land of Far Beyond - I rather liked Mr Scornful or whatever his name was - made it to the gates of Heaven but then thought hope was more important than love so wasn't allowed in. Or was it faith?

DS has all my Fighting Fantasy books now. He loves the stats and dice rolling whereas I like MrsS often didn't bother with them - it was about the story and exploration for me! My favourite was Khare: Cityport of Traps. It did annoy me you always had to be a hero - I think there might have been one book you could choose to be a girl instead.

For reading to dd, 'The Tea Party of Miss Moon'.

My own - The Mermaid's Daughter and Amberwell.

At school - 'Shag the Caribou'. I kid you not.

Yy to Fattipuffs and Thinifers.

The High House by Honor Arundel- a brother and sister get orphaned and parcelled off to different aunts. The girl goes to her boho aunt in Edinburgh. Brilliant.

There was also a book set in Amsterdam during the war from the point of view of the young daughter of a Nazi officer. Anyone read that?

cocobean my DS' nursery had Not Now Bernard as a theme one half term. Goodness knows why, it's a horrible book DS enjoyed it though and we have a copy.

I also really enjoyed the Trebizon books but the last two in the series are only available for £££ on Amazon so I've never read them. They're on my treat list for when I'm very rich.

'Carrie's War' is an absolute classic, can't wait until DD1 is old enough to appreciate it.

Anyone remember the Kevin and Sadie books by Joan Lingard?

A question for posters mentioning The Thief of Always by Clive Barker, what age would you recommend this for please?

Thinking of reading it to my Dcs, 7 and 9 years old, but worried it might be a bit scary? I haven't read it myself but if Clive Barker's adult fiction is anything to go by, which I do read I suspect it could be?

Shag the Caribou?!

I'd say that the Thief of Always is probably a little complex for a 7yo, so a 9yo might find it easier. I found it scary now though, and I'm 33.....

We're trying to read DS1 'The Little Prince' but he is unconvinced so far.

I remember the Giant Jam Sandwich and DD (10) has Olga the Polga.

You can get Flossie Teacake's Fur Coat as an audio book on Audible - I got it for DD a couple of years ago .

I used to love a book called Crocodile Medicine, which we regularly got out of the library, and the Woodland Adventure stories by Lucy and Eric Kincaid about a pair of badgers called Basil & Dewy and their little mole friend, Willy.

I had hundreds of Sweet Valley High books as a teen - I remember someone selling a huge box of them for a fiver in our local paper and Mum taking me round to get them.

Did anyone else read The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler?