Can I start a thread about nostalgic Young Adult/Children's books we used to read in the 80s/90s?

[guineaholic11]

I love going to second hand bookshops or charity shops and browsing the children's sections to see if I can spot any books I used to love reading then?

I used to love anything by Jean Ure, (anyone remember the Peter High school series she wrote?) Anne Digby's Trebizon series, Noel Streatfield, Antonia Forrest's school books with the Marlowes, and endless pony books by Patricia Leitch (anyone remember Jinny and her Arab horse Shantih?) Also went through a serious Sweet Valley phase...goodness knows why, looking back those books were full of fat shaming and bitchiness!

This thread is proving that I was uncool even for a bookish child! I used to read Monica Edwards and Malcolm Saville. And the horsey stuff, mostly Ruby Ferguson and Elyne Mitchell. And Jane Austen!

What a fab thread. I loved Noel Streatfeild and read her books over and over. I collect them now if I ever see them in charity shops.

I also adored Ramona and have just bought one of the books for my son as I think he'll enjoy it.

And then when I was older I devoured Sweet Dreams and SVH. I remember PS I Love You too, and the one where the girl started a new school and it all went wrong so she pretended to be her own twin. And the one where she started a band.

But my top fave was Judy Blume. I actually met her a couple of years ago and just gushed at her without letting her speak. I'm a writer myself now and I think it's because I read Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself when I was 10!

Ooh also, the Joan Lingard ones about the couple in NI.

Oh my goodness, my kindred spirits!

Gillian Cross' YA fiction, the Changeover by Margaret Mahy, Robert Westall, so many Caroline B. Cooneys, Malcolm Saviles, Noel Streatfeild, Joan Lingard, Patricia Leitch (Jinny and Shantih and other pony novels)...

Anyone else remember the Pullein-Thompson sisters' pony books? Or Helen Cresswell's Bagthorpe sagas?

@TippetyTapwriter You were never uncool. I read Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books over and over, and I remember being so excited (and then disappointed) by the broadcast of the cartoon version. ITV, I think?

Does anyone remember the earlier Jacqueline Wilsons? Like before Tracy Beaker and illustrations which showed you if a character was happy :) or sad :(, and you always got a happy ending?

Amber, Waiting For The Sky to Fall, This Girl, and lots more - they were great. Then she discovered her first-person formula and went all lazy in the early 90s.

Oh - Tim Kennemore. Quite Antonia Forest-esque. The Middle of the Sandwich, and The Writing on the Wall.

Yes! Glubbslyme and so on. Her later books really aren't as good.

I used to love Lois Duncan, Betsy Byars and Judy Blume

Anyone remember the Alfred Hitchcock series The Three Investigators? Jupiter Jones was one of the main characters. I obsessively read and re-read the one about the haunted mirror.

Books were my world growing up. I loved:

The Belgariad & The Mallorean by David Eddings.

The Horse Lord trilogy by Peter Moorwood

All the Dragons of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey

The Earthsea trilogy by Ursula Le Quin

The Dragon Prince books by Melanie Dawn

Daphne's Book by Mary Downing Hahn was my favourite for years (just had to google the author mind you!), I also loved the Robin Jarvis books, Judy Blume (we passed Forever around the class aged about 11 ), Point Horror, Christopher Pike, Berlie Doherty, Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, The Borrowers series and The Animals of Farthing Wood (found this in a charity shop recently and can't wait to reread).
I don't suppose anybody else read a book with a girl called Amaryllis who was very resentful of having to move to a bleak northern mining town and changed her name to Ril so she seemed less posh? It was very cliched with her not understanding accents etc but I loved it as a child and am having no success on Google!