What was you favourite book when you were a child?

[Dropinthe]

Mine was The Faraway Tree series.

Oh and recently took DS age 2 to library and sat reading Milly Molly Mandy book while he totally trashed the bottom shelves. I did clear up afterwards though Milly kept making money by growing cress and sewing hankerchiefs or something. It was like being 8 again. Don't suppose the librarian thought so.

Faraway Tree series for me too
Which is why I am always in the Yurt or some other imaginative equivalent!

and Maurice Sendak´s "Where the wild things are"

Once I learned to read (pretty late at 6 and a half as I lived in Holland before that) I positively devoured books.
Started with the Faraway Tree books, moved on to Malory Towers and then at 10 discovered the Chronicles of Narnia. I also LOVED the books that aloha mentions little princess, secret garden ... all the Noel Streatfield books ... Ballet Shoes was a particular favourite.
One of my absolute favourite was a book about a cat called Jenny ... and for some reason the name of the author escapes me. He wrote some other books too The Snow Goose and a wonderful story about a girl in Paris who ends up working with puppets ... bit adult I think, for the 10 year old I was at the time! Can anyone remind me of that author??? Can't believe I can't remember.
In my preteen years I fell in love with Historical fiction ... I read all the Henry Treece and Geoffery Trease books, Rosemary Sutcliffe too ... Fab adventures.

anyone remember the willard price cooks - tiger adventure, lion adventure, elephant adventure etc?
also, the hardy brothers? more for boys perhaps...I used to borrow my brother's copies

Ooh, yes, Under the Enchanter was wonderful. And Grimble!

My Friend Mr. Leakey? Another out of print marvel.

Ooh, My Friend Mr Leakey is back in print, I just looked on Amazon. Please could everyone buy it so I have somebody else to talk to about how wonderful it is...?

scotlou

I am still a massive Chalet School fan. There's a whole world of chalet on the web including transcripts of some of the books. I'm going to try to CAT you with details but as I've never done that before it may not work lol so feel free to CAT me

ghosty, was it paul gallico?

ooh we have a dramatisation of Ballet Shoes on tape for the car. it's marvellous

teeavee - I used to borrow my brother's copies too. I was rather attracted to the elder brother, Hal? My best one was Cannibal Adventure.

Anyone read The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald? It had fantastic illustrations by Arthur Hughes. I read that over and over again.

My fav was Brambley Hedge by Jill Barklem dose anyone remember them ? i have just spent 3 months waiting for them to arrive from amazon so that i can start reading then to my daughter even though she's only 8 months old !!

Did anyone else read Jane's Adventures in and out of the Book by Johnathan Gathorne-Hardy? I loved it. there were a couple of others too. got terribly exctied when I became friends with the author's nephew/grand-nephew (can't remember which) at university.
And Chonky yes, Fattypuffs and Thinifers! As I recall I was a Fattypuff and you were a Thinifer, doubt much has changed! Sorry haven't emailed for ages, will do soon.

Anything at all by Robert Westall, but especially The Scarecrows

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler (wasn't it just great when you discovered she was a girl ?)

Enid Blyton- anything

Roald Dahl- anything

The Chronicles of Narnia

I Want My Potty

Judi Blume and Paula Danziger

Tolkien

Diana Wynne Jones- especially Archer's Goon (did anybody see the BBC children's adaptation?)

As a child I read and read and read, to the point where my parents worried about me. Got up, read, went to school, read during break and lunch, finished school, went to library, read, went home, read, ate, read, went to bed, read... Currently doing a PhD in Literature. Still reading. Tastes have changed a bit though!

what's your current fave then, kleggie?!

Anything a bit Gothic. Love The Monk and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. Anything by Henry James or Ian McEwan. Oh and Lord of the Flies. Cold Comfort Farm, George Orwell, Ann Radcliffe.

Oh God don't open this can of worms. I like them all!

Cold Comfort Farm is great
will check out yellow wallpaper

is your phd sthing to do with women/feminist lit?

Charlotte's Web, of course.

Also A Wrinkle in Time, Tom's Midnight Garden, The Secret Garden and Narnia books.

willard price was one of my favourites too. also, cant believe that nobody has mentioned my all time favourite childrens author yet: Capt W E Johns.

I had a reading from Cold Comfort Farm at my wedding. The bit at the end where she says 'Oh Charles, you have heavenly teeth' as they fly off to their honeymoon.

lol!

The cat in the hat and all the other Dr Suess ones - Green eggs and ham! Always got a new one when we went on holiday!

Magic Farwaway Tree - I loved Moonface (?) and the Wishing chair and loads of other Enid Blyton ones that I cant remember the names of - Famous Five, Secret Seven , Brer Rabbit and some with Gollywogs in!

Then as I got older I read Judy Blume and Stig of the dump and anything by Roald Dahl!

Wow. I'm printing this out and taking it to the library.

Marianne Dreams was filmed as Paper House, hence the two titles. The film wasn't bad IMO but the spookiness inside your head is very hard to reproduce visually i think. There is a sequel called something else and I regret to report i thought it was utterly and totally rubbish - completely different and v snobbish.

Ping the duck - oh yes! can still remember the cormorants with tied necks and the boats with eyes

I still haven't managed to read 'Lavender Laughs at the Chalet School' - does that actually exist or was it a metafiction??

All Noel Streatfeild fabulous. Gemma? Apple Bough? Curtain Up? A Vicarage Family? Ja danke.

Joan Aitken's books of stories - A necklace of raindrops, plus loads of others

Blue Peter annuals, endlessly, plus ancient school friend annuals etc. my mum made me throw them out when I was 16. why oh why?