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

This has brought back some memories. I was a child in the '70s and '80s.
Apart from most of the books mentioned,

The Silver Brumby series (Australian, about horses) by Elyne Mitchell

John Wyndham sci-fi - Midwich Cuckoos, The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids, etc. His short story collection Seeds of Time would be a good introduction.

I tried to get my DC into the Narnia books, which I loved as a child, but they weren't interested.

The Little House on the Prairie series I think is often underrated. They're very well written. I still read these now as a bit of a comfort read...

You can still get Kizzy on YouTube. I watched it quite recently.

If the dolls house book had one of the dolls catching fire in a rather traumatic way, it was the Rumer Godden one!

In the 80s I read lots of not particularly good stuff like Enid Blyton, etc.
It sounds like you've looked in WHSmith or somewhere that only sells the real bestsellers. There are so many great books for kids being published now - if you can get to an independent bookshop or a Waterstones you would find loads of choice, e.g. books by Katherine Rundell, Abi Elphinstone, Peter Bunzl

Enid Blyton school books
Drina ballet books (I LOVED those)
Anything by Mara Kay
Noel Streatfield
Then when I was into my early teens
SVH
The Sweet Dreams romance books (I remember PS I love you )
Brothers in the land by Robert Swindell - the 80's child Cold War books about nuclear war TERRIFIED me!)
Catherine Cookson (loved her trash)
Catcher in the rye (great teenager book)
Diary of Anne Frank and a book about her I picked up in a charity shop

Sweet Dreams yes!! I used to have a sheet of titles and tick then off when read

A Dolls House book I remember there were burglars in the real house and the dolls house people used cherry bombs to scare them away. I never knew what cherry bombs are but I have my own grown up dolls house now and the little people don't cause me any trouble and the keep their home really clean and tidy.