What really stands out when you think of your childhood books?

[invisiblegorilla]

For me:

The Chalet School series. The early ones, when Jo was still a pupil! I brought them second hand. Eustacia, Elisaveta and so on. I remember when Jo and co. were given their prefect rooms in the new building and being in love with the descriptions/idea of it all.

Nancy Drew. Can't remember which ones, it's just a lot of investigations and stories blended it together in my memory.

The Chronicles of Narnia. I found the last book a little strange, but I read the first three over and over again.

And anything by Roald Dahl. There's a lot more (anything to do with boarding schools and midnight feasts had me obsessed) but I'm curious about what books other people remember the most.

White Boots by Noel Streatfeild and then "Ballet Shoes" etc (I read them out of order!)

"The Fox Cub Bold" and then "The Animals of Farthing Wood" etc by Colin Dann (read out of order, again...)

"Milly Molly Mandy"

"Clever Polly & the Stupid Wolf"

Enid Blyton - esp St Clare's, Mallory Towers & Five Find-Outers & Dog series

I am ancient.

Harry the Dirty Dog
My Naughty Little Sister
Teddy Robinson

The Famous Five
The Secret Seven
Swallow and Amazons

And I was in the Puffin Club. Anyone else?

Read avidly. Earliest i remember is loads of Enid Blyton. The stuff that i really loved was:

Little Women books
Little House On The Prairie series
Chalet School
What Katy Did books
Anne of Green Gables
The Gemma books by Noel Streatfield
Sadlers Wells series
Masha books - about a Russian ballerina

Tripod Trilogy - John Christopher
The Awakening Water - J R Kesteven
Anything by Paul Zindell

Oh yes, Milly Molly Mandy and Cleveland Polly

Cleveland Polly??? Clever Polly!

Yes What Katy Did and the Gemma series

IT was my very first and last Steven King book.....

Oh Teddy Robinson bigTillyMint I think I still have that somewhere

Watership Down! It's the best.
I also liked Jennings, Just William, those Jill books about ponies, pretty much all of the Enid Blyton offering. Oh, and Colin Dann, Animals of Farthing Wood - bloody loved those.

Oh, and Mary Stewart's Arthurian books - loved them.

kraggle think the book you are talking about is private keep out by gwen grant. another vote here for animals of farthing wood seies, willard price, the hardy boys and the three investigators. also loved the jackon and Livingstone cyoa books . more inportantly you can get the children of green knowe on dvd heading to amazon right now!

Anything by

Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons etc
Noel Streatfield - Ballet shoes etc and all the later ones

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series - thrilling but not too scary!

My friend Flicka and sequels, by Mary O'Hara - deal with some quite philosophical questions and lovely lyrical descriptions.

bigTilly we were in the Puffin Club. In fact I was a founder member of the Fat Puffin Club (for younger readers) .

The Gemma books! I can really picture the covers of those. I refused to have anything to go with My Naughty Little Sister as my big sister said they were all about naughty me. But I've been reading them to DD, they're lively.

Roald Dahl, Narnia, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Fighting Fantasy Game Books.

RiverTam I'd love to find When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit for my DD.

I was in the puffin club and I still have the magazines. We were a very reading kind of household. I loved Ballet Shoes and The Swish of the Curtain. Milly Milly Mandy was probably my favourite though. I also loved The Phantom Tollbooth.

zwellers that's the one thank you!

I forgot about goosebumps books, I loved them all. The ventriloquist dummy one is the on that sticks with me.

This thread has reminded me that I won a Puffin Club competition once! It involved writing a short story based on the Trebizon books. I won a Puffin bag and my story was printed in the magazine. It remains one of my proudest moments preens

The Saddle Club
Babysitters Club
And My Naughty Little Sister, I bought the collection for my daughter and love be reading them now

What Katy Did - my very favorite book as a child
Little Women
Enid Blyton - all of them, but especially Malory Towers
Narnia
Ballet Shoes
Animorphs
Spellbinder
Matilda
Strange Orbit by Margaret Simpson, which isn't well-known but I loved.
My Children's Bible
A little 'Lives of the Saints' book, which in retrospect was a bit gory. I'm agnostic now but was very religious as a small child.

I also read books like Dune and Tess of the d'Urbervilles much younger than I probably should have! I read practically anything we had in the house and found when rereading later, in my teens, that lots of things went right over my head on the first read.

The Beatrix Potters, Mrs Tiggywinkle, the Tailor of Gloucester, Peter Rabbit.
Pooh
Milly Molly Mandy
Carbonel
The Magic pudding , wonderful anarchic Australian book
Cuddlepot and Snugglepie, Edwardian Australian book
My naughty little sister
Paddington
The Little House series
The little wooden horse
Gobbolino
The wind in the willows
Alice
Pollyanna
Anne of GG et al
Swallows and Amazons, loved Winter Holiday and Pigeon Post
Tales of the Norsemen, Lancelyn Green, also his King Arthur and his tales if Greece and Rome
Goudge, The little a White Horse and A city if bells, linnets and Valerians just retitled The Runaways
Sutcliff, the Rider of the White Horse and the Roman Britain series, the Eagle of the 9 th etc,
Ponies' plot
Just William
Noel Streatfeild
Narnia
Black Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Cuckoo Clock
Green Knowe
The Hobbit
Pippi Longstocking
Professor Branestawm
Dr Dolittle
The little Prince
Ferdinand
Hildebrand
Little Women etc
My friend Flicka etc
Wolves if Willoughby Chase
Secret Garden and a little princess.
Antelope singer
The good master, the singing tree, the open gate. Wonderful Seredy
Erik Kastner, emil and the Detectives, lotte and Lisa
Ian Serailler, the silver sword
Jill piston Walsh the dolphin Crossing
Cynthia Harnett historical ones
The witch if blackbird pond and the bronze bow
The 39 steps

And more...still got lots of them.

Big Tilly, I so wanted to be but we kept moving and it wasn't practical

Well done, experienced- how exciting!

And of course the phantom Tolbooth. Still think one of the cleverest books around.

OMG animorphs!!

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