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Original poster

favourite books from your childhood...

99 replies

treacletart · 02/12/2003 22:17

Wish my parents had kept all or any of my old books.

Dh got a copy of "the Story of Ferdinand" from his parents for ds (only 5months) the other week and spent ages gasping "WOW!" at every illustration. I woke at the weekend with a sudden and quite desperate need for "The Mole and the Rocket". I'm also really looking forward to reading Clement Freud's "Grimble" to ds when he's old enough.

Which books would you really like to find again and share with your own kids?

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 02/12/2003 22:20

treacletart have you tried www.abebooks.com - I have found old faves on there, particularly Lost at the Fair and Are you my mother and Mary Plain. Lovely to see them again after all these years

tamum · 02/12/2003 22:23

Or here
I have tracked down lots of old childhood favourites like this. Nurse Matilda books, all the old Teddy Robinson ones that are out of print, Five Dolls in a House, you name it! My parents presented me with all my old Blue Peter annuals this week, but it's just not the same....

miggy · 02/12/2003 22:28

Do you ever find them disappointing though. Tried "the wheel on the school" as a bedtime story and even I was falling asleep. Am currently reading "king of the copper mountain" (of which I had really fond memories) to ds2. He seems to like it but not as good as I remembered and if DH has to read a chapter, he comes down looking bemused. Am also trying "the children who lived in a barn" with DD, I loved it years ago but v.hard going now. On the other hand milly molly mandy was a great success.
Would love to find a book about a guinea pig that travelled in a gypsy caravan but cant remember the title, any ideas?

Original poster
treacletart · 02/12/2003 22:39

OOooH! - are you my mother?! - that was a dr seuss with a purpleish cover wasnt it? egg rolls away and starts talking to bulldozers? I'm sorely tempted to buy a copy of the mole and the rocket online but I guess I'm hoping one will turn up at my local oxfam for 50p - not sure I can justify 25 quid just yet..

OP posts:
janh · 02/12/2003 22:42

miggy, I loved the children who lived in a barn! (parents disappeared in plane crash? cooking in a haybox? "those who wash on Monday have all the week to dry"?) Don't tell me it isn't the same any more?

The only guinea pig book I know is Olga da Polga but it can't be that.

Beccarollo · 02/12/2003 22:46

Does anyone remember Flossie Teacakes Fur Coat?

miggy · 02/12/2003 22:48

janh- glad you liked it too, have remembered that Hay box all my life and wanted to try it. I think the book is still lovely to read to oneself but to longwinded for todays children. Mine cant comprehend the parents going off, whereas I had no problems with that! Very dated language and expressions too. Thanks but yes not Olga Da Polga, it was a beatrix potter type guinea pig and she travelled all over.

tamum · 02/12/2003 22:52

I can't believe I've found a website apparently devoted to guinea-pig books, but it seems I have. It's here . There's a book called the Fairy Caravan by Beatrix Potter, I don't suppose it's that one is it?

tamum · 02/12/2003 22:53

Oh, just seen you last mesage, so I think that must be the one, miggy!

tamum · 02/12/2003 22:53

Oh, just seen your last message, so I think that must be the one, miggy!

Original poster
treacletart · 02/12/2003 22:55

Miggy its not "The Fairy Caravan" is it? found this (soz cant get link to work!)

I got some Beatrix Potter board books last week and I'd quite forgotten just how brutal Jemima Puddle Duck is at the end. I'd remembered all the nice feathers in the barn but none of the savage egg eating stuff

OP posts:
miggy · 02/12/2003 22:56

Tamum-thank you. I dont think it is (the g pig wore clothes in mine, this looks more naturalistic!) but may have to buy it to make sure! This book has been niggling me for years. Will let you know! Hope I can get it from Amazon though, DH may be suprised to see a credit card slip from "the winking cavy" sounds obscene

janh · 02/12/2003 22:56

I can't believe it either, tamum

tamum · 02/12/2003 22:57

Sad but true, janh, but not sure whether them or me....

janh · 02/12/2003 22:58

miggy, there can't be two guinea-pig-touring-caravan books - can there?

Original poster
treacletart · 02/12/2003 22:58

woops - spent so long working link thing out didnt realise youd found it!

OP posts:
tamum · 02/12/2003 22:59

Blimey, two of us found the guinea pig book site then treacletart!

Original poster
treacletart · 02/12/2003 23:01

between us all we might of have doubled their monthly hits in the last five minutes

OP posts:
miggy · 02/12/2003 23:08

Thanks all- have just snapped up last copy from Amazon-so anyone else wanting travelling guinea pig book is too late! Thanks again

Original poster
treacletart · 02/12/2003 23:19

Oh I have to add "Bottersnikes & Gumbles" to my wishlist too

OP posts:
bobthebaby · 03/12/2003 02:56

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was a top book when I was a kid and still is.

batey · 03/12/2003 06:52

Harry The Dirty Dog....still have my old copy, and still have my Mr Greedy book,when there were only 5 Mr Men!!

roscoe · 03/12/2003 07:50

Did anybody else have that incredibly un-PC/racist book about Sambo the black doll? None of the other toys liked him because he was 'different' so he ran away. He got caught in the rain and all of his black paint washed off. He went back home and all the other toys loved him because he was now pink!!!!! I don't know where it came from (it wasn't a new book) but it just amazes me that until fairly recently this was acceptable reading material for small children.

Welshmum · 03/12/2003 08:25

I've got a few of my old Ladybird fairytale books ready for reading with DD. Cinderella was always my favorite because she got to wear 3 different ball gowns in my version. Some of the books have been written in - my sister and I have written our names in crayon next to the characters we wanted to be - very sweet to see them now.

Janstar · 03/12/2003 08:30

Wow, Roscoe, sometimes I think our kids don't understand racism cos they can't see anyone being treated differently - especially in certain areas, but that sort of thing wasn't so long ago, was it?

I used to love any books about kids who had a stream at the bottom of the garden, like 'The House at Red-Roofs' by Enid Blyton, or parents who didn't scream and shout and slap their children about, but were kind and sweet unlike my mother

I loved Brendon Chase, where the kids run away and live in a hollow tree in the forest - that certainly fulfilled my fantasies!!

My favourite was a book called 'A friend for Frances' about a little girl who always wanted a horse, and at the end of the book, she gets it.

Bet it would be utter s*e now if I read it