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.

Shadows Are these the ones you mean?

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=jesse+harris+the+power&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ajesse+harris+the+power

TenTiny That's why I did lit for my degree too. Bloody loved it when we got to the children's lit module and chose children's literature as the basis for my dissertation.

Anyone old enough to remember the Josephyn Pullein-Thompson story books about a group of late teens who ran a pack of Fox hounds ? Written in the 1950s. Probably banned now.....

And yes to Flambards, which at 13 I found so romantic......

Travelledtheworld, without looking it up I think they were We Hunted Hounds, I Carried The Horn and Goodbye To Hounds, and the pack they ran was the Chill Valley hounds (they discounted the name Long Chill in case followers thought they were in for a lot of cold days!)

Magic Faraway Tree although I found some of the places at the top of the tree a bit scary! Brilliant books.

Oh, and the Sue Barton nurse books.

And the Trebizon series.

I miss them.

Any books about horses - the Pullein-Thomsons, Black Beauty, Jill etc. Flambards.

Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I still have my collection of Hardy Boys books.

Arthur Ransome, The Noel Streatfeild books, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Enid Blyton. The Chalet School, Little House, Narnia, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess.

I had a serious of books called 'Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators' which I loved, although they were highly improbable! That was in the 70s.

I read voraciously and there were many of the books on this thread that I read way back when.

I loved most of the books on this thread (except the ones like Sweet Valley High that I'm way too old to have read as a child). Thank goodness I kept most of my books. I gave away a lot of toddler books and some of my ladybird books (which I bitterly regret) but have all the paperbacks and still reread them.

One of my real favourites, that hasn't been mentioned yet, is The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden. I read that over and over again. There used to be lots of great adaptations of children's books on the BBC back in the 70s (this was in the olden days when children's tv was just for a couple of hours before the news) and it was broadcast as Kizzy. I think I fell in love with the series and came to the book later.

I don't think Leon Garfield has been mentioned yet either. I loved historical books and his always seemed very exciting.

The Ghosts by Antonia Barber

Cariadlet
Oh yes love Rumer Godden I had The Doll's House when I was seven. I lived in a flat in a beautiful, old house and had my own doll's house and used to play out some of the scenes.
I found The Diddakoi when I was an adult. What a powerful book it made me cry. I was working with traveller children at the time and it led to an art project. One of the children's mum was very touched when she saw the final work on the board and I think it raised the child's self - esteem. I gave the book to her to read afterwards.
Another good author I have enjoyed as an adult is Betsy Byers i hadn't read any of her books before but I have borrowed them from school and she writes on a variety of topics with great insight.

Hadn't realised The Diddakoi was Rumer Godden. Sadly it's not really as if having the absolute shit beaten out of you by classmates never happens today

One I haven't heard yet is Lloyd Alexander and the Taran Wanderer books. Gurgi and his crunchings and munchings.

Susannah of the Mounties and Susannah of the Yukon, ThemodernUriahHeep - so pleased to see your mention! I bought a copy of SOTM a few years ago on Abebooks. And I did read quite a few of the moralistic, Christian tomes such as A Peep behind the Curtain. Anyone else read Teddy's Button?
I absolutely loved, and still enjoy, Betsy by Dorothy Canfield. The US title is Understood Betsy and you can read the whole novel online.

Bloody, I loved them all ! Can never tell a Mounties joke without a sense of betrayal!

The Diddakoi deals with so many complex themes. Excellent book, IMV.

Agree re The Diddakoi. Lots of Rumer Godden's books are terrific - The River, The Greengage Summer and The Peacock Spring for older children ...

Enid Blyton books
Harry Potter
My Secret Unicorn
The Faraway Tree
And I can't remember what they were called but there was a series about a girl who discovered she was a fairy and her and her fairy friends had different seasonal powers and looked after their forest/environment which wasn't as crappy as that description made it sound

Oh and the chronicles of Narnia
And a tonne of others I don't remember the titles of

Any North American readers might remember Edward Eager's books. 'Half Magic' was my absolute best friend. (Francesca Simon loves him too - whenever Horrid Henry says 'it was the work of a moment' it is a direct lift from Eager's books)
And yes to New Patches For Old. I keep my copy in the car and I re-read bits when I'm waiting to pick up kids.

Bloody, just read it. Entrancing. Thank you. But hideous to think it was being written just as WW1 was breaking out, and life changed completely.

Have you read The Open Gate by Kate Seredy?

Merrylegs I'm in the UK but did read a couple of Edward Eager books: Half Magic, Magic by the Lake and The Time Garden. I wasn't so keen on the last one, but thought that the first 2 were great.

I remember being deliciously terrified by a story that was set in the dead of winter and involved a family staying (i think) in a strange old house that had a picture hanging on the wall, of a night-time snowy scene with figures trudging through a blizzard towards the house. And the figures keep getting closer. Terrifying. I wish I could find it again.

Wow, lost, that rings a bell for me!

Faraway Tree, Brer Rabbit, Famous Five etc. Mallory towers, St Claires etc.

Black Beauty

I read and enjoyed lots of these. Ones I was really passionate about included:

• Antonia Forest (though the non-school ones were out of print and very hard to come by when I was young, so I didn't read those until later).
• Arthur Ransome - and also the book about him by Christina Hardyment called "Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk".
• Enid Blyton: I blush about this now as they're such derivative, formulaic trash, but the Five Find-Outers series was really what made me a reader.
• I also read lots of random Christian evangelistic fiction, most of which was of questionable artistic integrity, but I remember Patricia St John ("The Tanglewoods' Secret"; "Where the River Begins") with fondness.
• Even though I was totally non-horsy, I read lots of horsy novels, and enjoyed the meta quality of Joanna Cannan's "I Wrote a Pony Book".
• "Sugar Mouse" by John Branfield, which I was glad to see someone else mention upthread: just really excellent characterization.
• Unusually for me, because I've never been into fantasy: "The Dark is Rising" series (though my favourite bits were the scenes with Will's many siblings).
• Again unusually for me, all the "Green Knowe" books.
• Several time-travel ones that were naturalistic enough not to seem fantastic: "Charlotte Sometimes"; "Tom's Midnight Garden"; "Moondial" etc.
• Lots by Anne Fine; my favourite was "A Pack of Liars".
• For purely bubblegum reasons: Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Sweet Valley, the Babysitters' Club. My mum had a rule that I could only have one Enid Blyton at a time from the library, but otherwise I'm glad she never censored my reading or discouraged me from re-reading "unchallenging" books millions of times.