What did kids read in the 70s and 80s?

[KnitMeAUnicorn]

Just that, really! It feels like all I can see in the shops these days is the constant Tom Gates/Harry Potter/David Walliams/Wimpy Kid stuff. DC have read loads of that and I want something a bit more 'classic for their Xmas. (12yo DS & 10yo DD). Any thoughts/ memories of what you liked reading back then? Ta

[Witchend]

When I was a child in the 80s I read among others:

Enid Blyton
Malcolm Saville
Arthur Ransome
Noel Streatfield
Monica Edwards
Geoffrey Trease
Biggles
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys
Joan Aiken
Judy Blume
Little House
Elizabeth Goudge.

To compare my dc are 16, 13 and 9yo and authors they've read in the last few years include:
Enid Blyton
Malcolm Saville
Arthur Ransome
Noel Streatfield
Monica Edwards
Geoffrey Trease
Biggles
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys
Joan Aiken
Judy Blume
Little House
Elizabeth Goudge.

[EBearhug]

My favourite series was Trebizon (by Anne Digby & set in a boarding school in Cornwall)

My best friend and I were given permission to have the afternoon off school because Anne Digby was going to be at a book fair. All my copies (which had been published at that point) are signed.

[Perfectlypurple]

As a child I read all the Enid Blyton books, such as he faraway tree. As I got older I moved onto the famous five and secret seven. Then as very early teen I read the sweet valley high books.

[SmilingButClueless]

Not children's books, but at your DD's age I was slightly obsessed with Anne McCaffrey's books about brainships(The Ship Who Sang etc)

[ErrolTheDragon]

The things I remember reading when I was about 12 were Jane Eyre, my DM's womans weekly romantic fiction collection and my older DB's Alistair McCleans. possibly a bit atypical?

I'd already done the Swallows&Amazons, Anne of Green gables etc).

I read Dickens etc during/after BBC classic serial adaptations - they weren't adapted by Andrew Davies in those days ... I'm puzzling now if I've misremembered reading War and Peace at the same time as the serial aired (the one with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre, of course...) - I'd have been 11/12.

[SunnySomer]

He's already been fleetingly mentioned, but Leon Garfield is fantastic if they enjoy historical fiction. I'm just reading Smith to my DS. Normally an able reader, but he finds the sentence structure too complex to be able to read at the speed he's become used to. But the story is great, lots of cliffhangers and great characters - and I'm really enjoying being allowed to read aloud again!

[BratFarrarsPony]

Smith was brilliant!
Have you got to the scene where he strips for the bath!? unforgettable!
The sound of Coaches is brilliant too.

[Sgtmajormummy]

One for the night that's in it...
Hobberdy Dick by K.M.Briggs, an expert in English folklore.

It's about the old English traditions being lost in Jacobean times.
Dick is a domestic spirit, tied to a country house, helping and hindering in equal measures until he's given his freedom. Emotional and thought-provoking, I wouldn't give it to a kid under 10, but it's definitely the inspiration for JKR's Dobby the House Elf.

[Sgtmajormummy]

I'm getting DD (10) the Snow Spider books by Jenny Nimmo for Christmas. I've only read a short extract from them, but it seems like a fascinating mixture of modern woes healed by ancient craft...

I loved the Weirdstone of Brisingamen (Alan Garner?) at that age, too.

[Sadik]

"It takes a 21st C child time to aquire the reading skills and persistence that we did. They don't cope as easily with flowery texts and slow moving plot"

Not convinced by this one - dd happily read her way through Noel Streatfield, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess et al.

I actually think a lot of 70s/80s fantasy in particular is quite short & simple in comparison to some of the currently popular books - I think Harry Potter and the Northern Lights series between them showed publishers that longer books will sell well.

I'd also suggest that - just for example - any 12 year old reading Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland series would find many of the classics a walk in the park by comparison!!! (And OP, if your DC haven't read Frances Hardinge, her books are amazing - A Face Like Glass is another fabulous read and probably more accessible to a 10 y/o as well.)

[Twoevils]

Just remembered the Greene Knowe series, which were firm favourites. DD 9 had started enjoying them too.

Anne McCaffrey is a good shout too, if for slightly older ages. I loved the Tower and Prime series

[scaryclown]

The Coral Island, Robinson Crusoe, Anne of Green Gables etc , That series about king arthur and that in Cornwall. .dark is rising maybe? and enid blyton. Tried to read Wizard of Oz, under the grewnwood tree and little women but struggled to understand the themes at age 7

[Sodabread]

Anastasia plus judy Blume.

[pinkchampagne1]

I used to love the My Naughty Little Sister books when I was a child.

As a teen I loved reading Judy Bloom.

[Soupswoop]

I do agree about the style of older books being different. I have 2 suggestions of books that I read that my children did enjoy. One is the Adventure series by Willard Price - Amazon Adventure, Arctic Adventure etc. Might be a bit young for your DS now but they are good 'boyish' fun. Also you might like to try My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

[Soupswoop]

Forgot to say, don't be downhearted about the swathes of Tom Gates etc, there is still loads of good new stuff out there - second the Frances Hardinge recommendation!

[ErrolTheDragon]

"It takes a 21st C child time to aquire the reading skills and persistence that we did. They don't cope as easily with flowery texts and slow moving plot"

They're not a different species, you know. Some of our old favourites may have dated but the real 'classics' don't. And the 21st C child has the enormous advantage of being able to google if there's some term they dont understand - especially in some of the 19th/early 20th C American/Canadian fiction. I really enjoyed reading some of my old favourites to DD and being able to check up on terms which had once baffled me!

[EwanWhosearmy]

In addition to the others mentioned a favourite of mine was the Kingdom of Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh (about a cat).

Also The Changes Trilogy.

[reader77]

The Alanna books by Tamara Pierce

[Peppardew]

Slightly off topic and this may be old news, but had anyone heard about this? www.sevenstories.org.uk I'm not in the right part of the country, but what a lovely idea.

[TroysMammy]

Ladybird books, Topsy and Tim, Enid Blyton, Paddington, What Katy Did, Ramona the Pest (still got it). Always had an Annual at Christmas.

[TroysMammy]

Stig of the Dump, Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Thomas Kemp, Heidi.

[SmilingButClueless]

hesterton you've just reminded me about the trainee geography teacher we had in y7 who very earnestly recommended "Perfume" to a class of 11/12 year olds

I don't think any of us were permanently traumatised...

[Boeufsurletoit]

The Worst Witch, Ramona, Chronicles of Narnia, The Box of Delights, The Owl Service, Hounds of the Morrigan, Enid Blyton, Redwall, The Animals of Farthing Wood... I need to get all of these for my kids when they're a bit older!