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Children's books

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Original poster

Which of your favourites from childhood have you re-read recently?

59 replies

5Foot5 · 20/09/2009 16:54

I am lucky in that my DD is a voracious reader and often willing to try books I remember enjoying when I was a kid. This gives me the excuse to have them around the house and enjoy an indulgent re-read occasionally.

All the Malory Towers books have long been favourites, along with Secret Island, The Children Who Lived in a Barn and several Jennings books.

But most recently the old friend I rediscovered was Jill.

We had an old copy of "Jill and the Perfect Pony" and after reading it DD asked me if their were any other books about her. Well I could remember one or two others from when I was a kid but I did the research and found the full list (only 9 in total) and we were able to pick up secondhand copies of all of them fairly cheaply over Amazon Marketplace.

We are both having a bit of a Jill-fest at the moment and I am remembering how much I adored these years ago. I never had a pony or riding lessons but used to turn our back lawn in to an imaginary gymkhana with little jumps and pretend to be Jill!!

What childish delights do others like to read when noone much is looking?

OP posts:
EachPeachPearMum · 21/09/2009 23:05

Milly Molly Mandy (dd is 3.5) - it was lovely, and took me back to being small. Mary Plain went completely over her head though... times have just changed too much.
I also re-read all the Malory Towers earlier this year (think it was when I was pg and ill...)
Still have all my Arthur Ransomes (Swallowdale is the best!), Moomins, Chalet School, and Alan Garner books... I loved Ramona Quimby, but never owned any

mwff · 21/09/2009 23:20

pigeon post is the best s&a imho, although i'm surprised how much i enjoyed (and remembered of) peter duck. a touch gory for sensitive 6yo dd though. we're doing them in order, so not got to "wdmtgts" but i remember it as a good un.

EachPeachPearMum · 21/09/2009 23:43

Oh yes- pigeon post is fab... I love D&D... and all the prospecting stuff...

MadBadandCoveredinSequins · 21/09/2009 23:53

Emil and The Detectives.

bronze · 21/09/2009 23:59

I'm a huge Monica Edwards and Aurhur Ransome fan but recently I've been re reading one of the series by Elinor Lyon.
During my recent sorting I found my embarrassing attempt at finishing coots in the north. I so wish he had finished it himself. Fil has a beautiful dinghy called Swallow complete with red/brown sails but I was most to find out she had a centreboard

doubleexpresso · 22/09/2009 13:35

One of my favourites was / and still is 'The Family from One End Street' by Eve Garnett. Bought it for DD (6) but she's too young. So I read it again!

hotchachachaingbunny · 24/09/2009 10:28

Just found this thread again So many lovely, lovely books. I'm going to save this thread for when Dd(6) wants to try something new and my mind goes blank! She really enjoyed the film of Pollyanna, so I'm guessing Anne of Green Gables might go down well...

Do you think there are so many quality children's books now? Dd is hooked on the Rainbow Fairies books ATM, which fill me with dread every time she asks for one for a bedtime story. I would love recommendations of current children's books we should look out for. Pref. not glittery Tiara type tat!

Englishpatient I would love more pony book suggestions please! BTW, The Silver Sword was every bit as great as I remembered!

MissM · 24/09/2009 19:51

So many old favourites on here - I was obsessed with the Jill books as a teenager, plus Monica Dickens - all the Follyfoot and HOuse at World's End series. Anything with horses in it basically. 'We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea' is my favourite Arthur Ransome too, but the ones I find myself re-reading every now and again are the Flambards books. In my head I absolutely was Christina, although I never fancied Mark, only Will (sob).

neversaydie · 26/09/2009 14:53

DS and I have enjoyed the Swallows and Amazons books, and the Elinor Lyon ones about Iain and Sovra which Fidra have republished recently.

The Moomins went down well, and were among the first DS took over to read to himself rather than making me do all the work. He liked the Narnia stories, but I found that for me they hadn't aged as well - I found the religious message much more heavy handed as an adult.

I, too, loved pony books as a child, but haven't tried them on DS.

Now, he is reading to himself and I don't always vet them first either. I miss it!

lavenderkate · 28/09/2009 22:22

Hotcha, what about My friend Flicka and the green grass of Wyoming.
Loved those.

GrimmaTheNome · 28/09/2009 22:34

DD likes me to read the 'classics' to her so I've happily revisited loads - Narnia (leaving out The Last Battle), A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Swallows and Amazons (not finished yet, Picts and Martyrs next), Treasure Island, Peter Pan, all of the Little Women series (dreadful to read aloud, crying through the sad bits!), Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea (will get more in due course). Recently finished The Water Babies which is a bit of an oddity in some ways. Currently on What Katy Did.

KathH · 02/10/2009 20:24

I pinched dd's Ballet Shoes the other week. I used to love it but for some reason she was not impressed!

Original poster
5Foot5 · 03/10/2009 15:41

Oh yes Ballet Shoes! I loved this as a child and still do. So does DD.

Another Noel Streatfield that I always liked and finally managed to get second hand is The Circus Is Coming.

I don't think it has quite the same lasting appeal as Ballet Shoes but it is still entertaining.

OP posts:
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 04/10/2009 18:05

White Boots is another of my favourite Streatfeilds. And Apple Bough. Now probably called Fiddle Shoes or something. It really irks me the way they have retitled so many of her books to fit the shoes theme.

KathH · 04/10/2009 21:19

I also used to like some books called Tim & Tobias which I read at school. I looked on ebay today out of interest & just one of the books had bids on at about 22 pounds!

cory · 07/10/2009 08:37

We're reading Jules Verne atm, very much a blast from the past. I am having to revamp the author as ds shouts at him every time he refers to the natives as "savages" or talks about "civilisation". But we are both enjoying it and ds is really thinking about the story. Dh just reads them Jennings and has them in stitches.

JeffVadar · 09/10/2009 10:31

The 'Uncle' books by J.P. Martin.

They've been out of print for ages (too middle class apparently) and sell for huge amounts of money on ebay.

Some US publisher has just started re-issuing them though.

tattycoram · 09/10/2009 21:43

The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss. It is a very older child book though. God it is sad.

I can't wait to read Black Hearts in Battersea and all the other Joan Aitken books to DS. I do like Paddington too - I've tricked DS out in a duffel coat and trained him to like mardemalade.

nutsnraisins · 21/10/2009 21:52

The Hundred and One Dalmations by Dodie Smith. Still so good after all this time.

careergirl · 22/10/2009 23:38

I throughly enjoyed the Fell Farm series myself thought they were very charming especially Fell Farm for Christmas. Albeit they are dated but would highly recommend them.

mumzy · 01/11/2009 08:20

The Trebizon series by Anne Digby is still fab like a modern 80's version of Malory Towers

YorkshireTeaDrinker · 05/12/2009 16:27

Am currently working my way through the Anne of Green Gables series. Just got to Anne and Gilbert's 'House of Dreams'. My DH is lovely, but he'll never make up of the disappointment of not being Gilbert Blythe.

Other perenial favourites include the Chalet School, the 'Wells' series, I Capture the Castle, Little White Horse. Haven't read the Laura Ingalls Wilder series for a while. They were lost in a dramatic cull of my childrens' books about a decade ago, but I might need to start re-aquiring...

stubbornstains · 05/12/2009 16:41

Awwwww! I thought I was the only child/adult in the world ever to have read and adored "The Little White Horse"! I recently heard they've made a film of it, though, called "Moonacre"- has anyone seen it? Is it any good?

If my baby was a girl I was going to call her Loveday....

I would vote "We didn't mean to go to sea" as narrowly the best Arthur Ransome.

If my baby was a girl I was going to call her Nancy...

I've just been re-reading my Narnia books.

My baby is a boy and his middle name will be Caspian!

HohohoBumperlicious · 05/12/2009 17:06

Today I bought 10 Sweet Valley High books from a Christmas fete

I have also been collecting the Drina Ballerina series, half of them are out of print and go for quite a lot on amazon. No one else has ever heard of them. I love them. Looking forward to reading stories with DD, like the Little House books.

I used to read the Ramona one too, I also loved Judy Bloom and Paula Danziger.

reikizen · 05/12/2009 17:14

It's more of a teenager's book than a kid's but 'I am the Cheese' by Robert Cormier and it was as good as I had remembered it!