Enjoying children's classics

[Rayn22]

Rereading all my old favourites. Love getting cozy under a blanket with a cup of tea and a hob nob!
Just read;
5 children and it.
The railway children
Whole Narnia series

Just about to start Peter Pan.
Was an eighties child and having difficulty remembering what else I read.
Not the famous five as done them to death.

Any others you can recommend?

@pollyhemlock Hear! hear!

The odd one has gone missing over the years but in the main I have clung to my old childrens’ books through various house moves. When I saw the price Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation now fetches I was so glad I had my battered 1970s paperback for my DC to read.

I would recommend Rebecca’s World for the list but it seems it’s only to be bought for silly money these days.

I do cull books (84 Charing Cross Road gave me permission!) otherwise my family and I would be living in the garden, but we are now at the stage where everything that has already survived the culls really can’t be parted with. And the DC hoard books too.

Last time we moved the removal firm begged us to leave it at least 10 years before moving again because of all the books.

@TragicMuse I loved Seven Little Australians but oh, how it made me howl!

"It's getting very dark Pip"...

HOWWWWWL 😭

Jane of Lantern Hill

I can’t remember the title of another one, about two sisters, one called Halcyon.

I re-read Coot Club while on a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads recently, highly recommended. followed by The Big Six when I got home.
It was interesting to see what had, and hadn't, changed!

I used to read tons of books as a child and I don't know half of these 😮

I think it was Alice in Wonderland
Jungle Book
Secret Seven
Shep the Sheepdog (read that one repeatedly)
All Enid Blyton short stories
Plus some already mentioned

But I think I veered towards short stories which ended up as mainly by Issac Asimov and other fantasy sci fi writers
which lead me to a series by Stephen Donaldson (American version of Lord of the rings, but very good)
Anne Mccaffry and her dragon series, then later her other books. She's almost as prolific as Terry Prachett.

Oh, and Gerald Durrell and James Herriot. Loved those

The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy.
The Bewitching of Alison Allbright.
Thursday' Child.

Love this thread!

Placemarking! I recently spent a very enjoyable afternoon lying on my bed and reading The Railway Children. Felt very decadent- my 15 year old self would be horrified!

Great thread. Adding:

• Stig of the Dump - a classic! I think there may have been sequels as well
• I Am David (Anne Holm) - so moving, I plan to read again this winter

Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater

Lois Duncan - Killing Mr Griffin, Stranger with my face, Daughters of Eve, Down a Dark Hall

Lois Lowry - Number the stars, a summer to die

Joan Lingard - across the barricades

My favourite Enid Blytons were Hollow Tree House and The Secret Island.
Plus the Adventure series - Island of Adventure, River of Adventure, Valley of Adventure, Sea of Adventure . . .

The Drina and Ballet Family books by Jean Estoril. The Ballet Family always had such exotic names and Drina’s clothes always sounded beautiful and not like anything I ever had .
i also enjoyed a series along the lines of The Quantocks Quartet each book was about a different sister and they were set during WW1 . My favourite is probably Charlotte Sometimes though I always feel that books like a sort of eerie dream so atmospheric .

I loved The Ballet Family and Drina. Did you also read The Ballet Twins @SylviasMotherSaid ? I think that's what it was called.

I'm enjoying this thread!

My contribution is Moonfleet by J Meade Faulkner.
I read a lot of Enid Blyton as a child (Mr Galliano's Circus then Famous Five then Malory Towers)
All the Pullein-Thompson books.

Now I have a wish list longer than my arm!

What a great thread!

@StellaAndCrow I was going to mention Lois Duncan! Wonderfully creepy. What was the one where they never aged? I also loved I Know What You Did Last Summer, well, all of them to be honest.

I'll add Follyfoot by Monica Dickens.
The Mary Plain books
The Sheep Pig, Olga da Polga and The Foxbusters (HOW has Aardman Animations not made this into a film?)

There was a great young adult book that I loved about a girl and her mother who was a groupie in the seventies (?), the title had Amber in it but I'm buggered if I can remember the proper title. Anyone else read it?

Also, Changing Times by Tim Kennemore is excellent.

Oh, and The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden. Wonderful!

If you like "I captured the castle" you will love "The lost art of Keeping secrets"

Has anyone said Madeline L ‘Engle’s books yet? Mainly, A wrinkle In Time.

May I say a great big thank you for this thread. I’ve been lurking and enjoying it immensely. It’s really cheered me up during some stressful times.

You’ve mentioned some favourites, such as the Antonia Forest books.

Does anyone else here 'hoard' children's books? I have been organising mine this afternoon. I have acquired most of my family's children's books including v old hardbacks plus ones I have subsequently collected. Lots mentioned but many not, from either not knowing about them at the time, or getting them from the library. I now need more shelves!

I think that was probably Amber by Jacqueline Wilson @Needhelp101 - the description sounds the same.

It’s one of the YA books she wrote in the 80s (before she became more well-known for the Tracy Beaker books), and they all seem to be forgotten about and are out of print. They were all quite grim and gritty, from what I recall.

The Lois Duncan book where they don’t age is Locked in Time.

@EllieQ , thank you, twice over!