favourite books from your childhood...

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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?

all Laura Ingalls Wilder books, all Enid Blyton school books, all Malcolm Saville books, all the Narnia books, The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis, all the Anne of Green Gables books...too many others to mention. I am still an avid reader!!!

Who said Sweet Valley High? Popsycal - how funny! Loved 'em!

They were great weren't they, Thomcat!

Oh - the best!

I also loved that book Flowers in the Attic - did you read that?

yes!!!
my mum once got that series out of the library and i 'stole' them!!

yes ks - both of those!!

Anne of Green Gables - although my mum used to tell me that if I ever tried to dye my (then bright red) hair, it would go green like Anne Shirley's hair did. Also loved Enid Blyton's Famous Five, Mallory Towers, St Claire's books. Oh for those days of innocence when you could see names like Dick and Fanny and not wet yourself laughing. The tomboy in me loved The Hardy Boys books too.

Bobsey Twins? Sue Barton Student Nurse?

Oh, and the Fell Farm books - they were twins too. (Twins v exotic and interesting!)

And Monica Edwards - the Punchbowl books and the Romney (?) Marsh ones. They are only available as expensive 2nd hand ones now.

I'm going now!

Bron, I loved Miss Happiness and Miss Flower too. It was one of the books my parents did keep, so I read it quite recently to my ds (then 8) and dd (then 4). They loved it, it was a huge success. I mostly remembered the dolls and the plan for the house, I had forgotten quite how much stuff there is about Nina being lonely and Belinda being jealous. Fab book. I tracked down a copy of Little Plum (the sequel) too, but we haven't read that yet.

Poppyknot, I loved The Family from One End Street too, another one I'll have to try again!

Nice thread, I saw all sorts of old friends mentioned...janh, I loved Fell Farm too, although it's years since I heard anyone in Cumbria say "gradely"! And as for Sue Barton...what an incredibly enjoyable and un-PC series. Best moment - when a callous nurse whacks a NEWBORN baby on the nappy for crying and it shuts up, thereby teaching softy Sue that you have to be firm with manipulative infants. Never forgotten that!
I can't recommend Abebooks highly enough for tracking down those old school library friends. I've bought The Lark in the Morn and The Lark on the Wing (plucky orphan becomes famous singer), The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which is still a fab read, and The Gentle Falcon by Hilda Lewis.
DH and MIL being total clutterhounds he still has ALL his old books - ds will even be able to read dad's A Level French vocab book if he really wants to , but there are some wonderful vintage Ladybird titles too. I'm looking forward to sharing Laura Ingalls Wilder, L M Montgomery and Noel Streatfeild with dd.

What about Chicken Licken and Janet and John? I remeber these in Infants.

Later on absolutely loved Charlotte Sometimes, Pippi Longstocking, Milly Molly Mandy (Encouraged by my mum who also read them in her childhood and shes now 72!) Secret Seven passed on to me by elder brother.

Remember the teacher reading us - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach also The City of Gold and Lead.

furball i mentioned chicken licken earlier!!
it was a great story wasn't it!
did anyone ever read rufty tufty runs away by someone ainsworth? not very pc but my godmother once gave me a signed copied by the author ans as a result i though that it was amazing!

Well I msu be very sad because I kept a whole boxful of my children's books. But they are now being read again by dd (7) so it really was worth it. My favourite was Mary O'Hara - My Friend Flicka (horsey book). I've also kept lots of Noel Streatfield, Dr. Dolittle series, Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, Wizard of Earthsea series, Tom's Midnight Garden, Bambi, Heidi series, 101 Dalmations, Paddington etc. Must have been very PC at the time as I didn't keep any Enid Blyton. And Malcolm Saville - why did I throw him away? Great thread.

mine were " Amelia Jane" ones by Enid Blyton!
I loved the sweet Valley High ones and the ones about a boarding school by Enid Blyton too......what were they called?...........

Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

Got it for my 6th birthday, loved it throughout childhood and my teens (excellent for teenage angst and PMT) then lost it down the back of a built in book shelf at university during a horrible terrible no good very bad day.

My parents found me a new copy 10 years later!

Angeliz- the amelia jane books have just been republished. the book people had a set of four v. cheap. DD loved them, we have just finished the last one. Great for bedtime story as each chapter is a story and just the right length. Made the mistake in the first story of giving amelia a voice like Queenie from Blackadder-v.hard to keep up by book four They have been modernised and there is the odd anachronism ie "He jumped 12cm" but great fun.

Oh miggy, I'm always doing that, coming up with imaginative voices that I get sick of doing. Teddy Robinson gives me a sore throat now, he's always been very growly

I read and still have lots of Enid blyton books.
Amelia Jane,
the wishing Chair adventure series
The Famous Five
the Faraway tree
Mr Galliano's circus, actually lost this one but bought another off Ebay and read it to my dd.
Mallory Towers Series.
Haven't read them all to dd yet but will do eventually or she can read them herself when she gets older.
I also read nearly all the Roald Dahl books and still have them.
Milly Molly Mandy, loved her
My naughty little sister
Also read the secret Garden and A little princess, loved that book. and I'm now reading it to my dd a chapter a night before bed.

When I was older I read all the Judy Blume books and the Paula Danzigar ones, don't see them very often now. and When I was a teenager my friends and I would go to the library every week and get Sweet Dream books, trashy teenage romances I suppose they would be, don't see them now either.

The family from one end street rings a bell, is that the one where they are all named after flowers and the baby is called William but they call him Sweet William or something? I'm sure I've read that will have to rake through my huge box of books to check.
Oh and we have loads of Ladybird books, that my dh wants to throw out and I say no as the price on them is 60p and tell him that they'd cost a fortune now to replace, lol I also have the Ladybird cinderella book with the three different dresses in it.

linnet i think i had that cinderella book

oh thanks miggy thats great i have one that i bought in this liitle bookshop near me and i intended to get the series for dd, then it closed! will definately have a look at that! I loved them! I did love the Mallory towers too........all golly gosh and midnight feasts

I'm sure you're right about Sweet William, that definitely rings a bell, and one of the girls is called Lily Rose, so maybe they were all named after flowers.
Also a big My Naughty Little Sister fan, and Milly Molly Mandy (like everyone else here by the sounds of it!). I'm looking forward to reading A Little Princess to dd, but she's so soft hearted I'm not sure she'll be able to cope.