Favourite children's books if you were born circa 1979

[recklessgran]

I've come up with the idea of giving one of my DD's a bundle of her favourite childhood books as part of her Christmas present so that she can read them again with her 3 year old over the coming years. I know this will mean a lot to her. The problem is that I'm struggling to think of enough of them. So far I've got the Velveteen Rabbit, Grandfather Gregory and the Brambly Hedge seasons books. I would really appreciate any help as I am struggling to remember which of the books we had belonged to which era given that I had 5 DD's spread out over 16 years. TIA

Mr Magnolia (Quentin Blake)
Dogger (Shirley Hughes)
Meg and Mog (Jan Pienkowski)
Peepo (Ahlberg)
Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)
Also lover the Brambly Hedge one where they go exploring the palace

Older (chapter books)
The Worst Witch
Ramona Quimby
The owl that was afraid of the dark
Secret Seven/ Famous Five
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
most of these were probably around for your older children too though

Gobbolino the witch’s cat.

The King Under The Mountain

The Snow Spider.

My Naughty Little Sister

Oh it’s The King of the Copper Mountains, I’d misremembered.

The jolly Christmas postman

A necklace of raindrops (Joan Atkin I think)

The gift from Winchelsea

The Magic Faraway Tree
The Children of Cherry Tree Farm

Kizzy (Rumer Godden)

The dolls house (also Rumer Godden)

I can’t remember anything from as early as 3 but as an older child I loved all the Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books plus Worst Witch, Mallory Towers and St Clares.

Children of Green Knowe, Moondial?!

Burglar Bill
Topsy and Tim
Anything at all by the Ahlbergs
Mog

The Tiger Who Came to Tea?

Me Galliano's Circus

Hairy Maclary
Not now Bernard
Peace at last

Gobbolino the witches cat
Mrs pepperpot
Famous 5
Secret 7
Mallory towers
Funny bones

Definitely Not now Bernard, the worst witch and Meg and Mog. I also love the witches by Roald Dahl but 3 might be too young for that!

Also the night before Christmas too.

Old Bear.
I nearly cried when DD1 got given it on her first Christmas, MIL had no idea it had been one of my favourites.

It's a lovely idea... I've just bought some of old favourites for my now 9yo DD. (Second hand as they are out of print)

Love this idea.

Tis the night before Christmas
The hungry caterpillar
Each peach pear Blum
Peace at last
Ladybird books
Anything by Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter or Roald Dahl.

Stig of the dump.

The elephant and the bad baby
Dinosaurs and all that rubbish

Pippi Longstocking

This is a great idea!

Such a lovely idea. I'm a little bit younger (1985), but here are some books I had growing up that I've read with DS (almost 3):

Shirley Hughes books (absolutely love Dogger - and got to meet Shirley Hughes so have a very battered signed copy - but also Lucy and Tom, and Alfie and Annie Rose)
Where the Wild Things Are
The Elephant and the Bad Baby
Judith Kerr books (The Tiger Who Came to Tea, various Mog books)
The Snowman
Not Now Bernard
Hairy Maclary books
Jill Murphy books (Five Minutes Peace, Peace at Last)
Janet and Allan Ahlberg books (Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo, looking through The Baby Catalogue)
Mr Gumpy's Outing
Over in the Meadow

My Mum found one that we had called Cat's Cake, although I don't think it was easy to get hold of - one of those books I remembered really well (lots of animals trying to improve cat's cake by sneaking in extra ingredients, spoiler: it doesn't end well). Currently one of DS's favourites.

Agree with a lot of the ones for older children (definitely The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Worst Witch and lots of Roald Dahl), and also One Hundred and One Dalmatians - I have very fond memories of reading this when I was about 6.

Also your daughter might like Lucy Mangan's Bookworm - I think she's about the same age and it's a lovely journey through her childhood reading.

Ah thank you so much. You lot are great - plenty here I'd forgotten about!
I feel a bit excited now as I think she's going to love this.

The jolly postman

Oh wow you should include Morris' Disappearing Bag. This was my favourite when I was little. And it's a Christmas story too!

Teddy Robinson
Milly Molly Mandy
Dogger (of course!)
Annie Rose books
Enid Blyton Tales of Toyland (lilac cover) and Tales of Fairyland (green cover)