Which children's books do you STILL read and enjoy?

[Swizzler]

Am re-reading Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence and yes, it is still good

So which children's books did you enjoy as a child and still read - read for your own pleasure, that is, not read to your DCs.

This thread has just made me go into the loft - me who's scared of spiders and ladders! I knew that DS1 was given a boz set of books when he was born , from MIL, and A Little Princess and the The Railway Children and The Secret Garden are amongst the books in it so I went and hunted it out.

I also loved

Little Women
What Katy Did and the others in the series
Narnia
all the Enid Blyton books, I had all the secret 7 and Famous 5 books.
I aslo used to read books about a young detective, nancy something, it's really going to bug me, I can't remeber her name or who wrote them.

DS2 has all the Roald Dahl book and i enjoy reading them with him

I've just been re-reading Paddington (inspired by the free audio CDs that came with the Telegraph recently)

Enid Blyton - Malory Towers, Magic Faraway Tree series

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Goodnight Mister Tom

and my all time favourite (at the risk of shattering my MN anonymity to those who know me well in RL), Clement Freud's Grimble. Can't believe it is out of print these days.

waswondering - can;t beleive someone else read the Sue Barton books - she wasperfect and her dishy perfect doctor husband

Was just re-reading the thread and I came across Aloha's and Swizzler's mentions of the "buns" episode in A Little Princess.

How odd - I haven't read the book for years but I remember that bit very vividly and sometimes think about it - it must be very powerfully written to have stuck in my mind like that - and now I see I'm not the only one.

Muffin, come out of that Grimble closet at once!

Badelaide and I can be seen exchanging Grimble in-jokes further down this thread...

This has made my day! I've never come across anyone else who has ever heard of Grimble before, let alone read and enjoyed it.

I named a dog after him, and people were always saying 'where on earth did you get that name from', and wouldn't belive me when I told them.

Saltire - was it Nancy Drew? I read a few of those and they were OK.

Oh Nancy Drew Iused to love them ,but I got a few off readitswapit recently and was so disappointed

Until a couple of years ago I thought I was the only person to have read Grimble (well, me and my sisters).

It's a bit like a secret society

Does anyone remember a book series called 'Josie Smith'?

lordy I really didn;t focus on the maternity bit - must reread with new eyes!

though now you mention it - the spanking bit does ring a bell...

Does anyone remember a book series called 'Josie Smith'? She had a friend named Eillean.

ooohh love this thread!
My re-reads are:
Noel Stretfield
Rosemary Sutcliffe - she brings history alive!
Elidor
Susan Cooper
Joan Aiken - esp Wolves of Willoby Chase and Is
Chalet School
Malory Towers
Trebizon
Charlotte's Web
Litte Women
Goodnight Mister Tom - still makes me cry
What Katy Did trilogy
Anne of Green Gables all the way to Rilla of Ingleside
Narnia - find so much more in these now I'm older!

Books were big in my parents house, we didn't do television at all!

mummyhill, Nancy drew, that's it! I had spent days wondering what she was called

Come Back Lucy
The Magic Faraway Tree - who wouldn't have given their right arm for one of Silky's 'Pop biscuits' (or was it Moonface who made them?)
The Secret Seven - strangely I always had a yen for chocolate buns and home made lemonade, and was always on the lookout (unsuccessfully, I may add) for chocolate buns in the bakers.
(I'm beginning to notice a pattern here!)
Tom's midnight Garden
All the Pullein-Thompson sisters books
The Phoenix and the Carpet
Little Women

I devoured books as a child, and find I am very hard to please as an adult. I am forever starting books and finding myself bitterly disappointed with them by halfway. Luckily I have 2 DDs who, like it or not, will read all of these (actually DD1 has read almost everything I read as a child)

Welliemum, I thought it was just me, my sis and you!

Oh Muffin, I've just read your post.
You are another proper fan.

I love it that you named your dog after him. Ds1's middle name is Clement, wasn't quite brave enough in those days to go for it as his first name. Nowadays I'd just go for it and call him Grimble
Must go, I've just chipped the paint on the skirting board when I kicked a coconut. Might try sticking it back on with the stuff from the inside of a banana skin, what d'you reckon?

"Does anyone remember a kind of pre teen fiction book about a girl with an eagle necklace and her twin (that she didn't know about) it was to do with out of body experiences etc and turned out her twin was in a hospital and was trying to steal her body?"

i remember this story - not the title though. it was really supernatural and i remember it was the first in which i heard about out of body experiences. and i tried!

my favourite books from when i was a child:

malory towers, famous five (way better than secret seven and they had a dog!), nancy drew (some stories were awful), asimov, etc

i've been reading hubby's old childhood books and loving:
dunstan wood
lord of the rings - how come i never knew this book existed when i was a child?
swallows and amazon

children's books that i love reading now:
the northern lights series
inkspell series
roal dhal (sp?)
apple tree farm (not my choice!)
Harry potter (given!)

children's books i hate:
any of the unexpected events series - so depressing!

That wasn't Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan was it? That was all about astral projection, but dont remember the eagle necklace.

I can match your Sue Barton and top with Cherry Ames - anyone read these?

another joan aiken fan here.
and eric linklater the wind on the moon ooh i cried and cried. was a favourite of my mum's she got it for me.

Books i would love to read agin if I could remember what they were called or who they were by.....

One about a town that broke off from the coast and floated around being a new island (a bit PAsport-to-Pimlico-ish)

One about two children who survive a plane crash and wander through the countryside with their baby brother to look after. . It was a transation from the French. It sounds gloomy but was a great story which my mum read to me. She can't remember the tilte either!)

Clover Coverdale

Did anyone read a book by Rumer Godden about a dolls house (may well have been called A Dolls House) ? Was there a boy doll called Apple ? Anyway, I loved that book.