Help me identify Liverpool set children's book

[Owlbookend]

It is a long shot, but if anyone could help me identify this series of Liverpool set children's books I would be forever grateful. I have tried numerous internet searches & haven't come up with any author or titles. What i remember:

*They were real life stories following a group of working class friends who lived in a block of flats in Liverpool.
*A key character was a younger sister who wanted to be involved with the older ones. When they move on to the new secondary she is desperate to join them. I think she somehow acquires a uniform even though she is officially too young to start.
*In another story they go away on a school camping trip.
*Im pretty sure there was more than one book, with each one focusing on the same group of characters.
*I read them at primary so they would have been published in the 80s or earlier.
*In a later story i think they discuss that they can no longer all hang out together as they are older now and will be seen as a gang not a group of friends.

Any ideas? It is really bugging me & im starting to think i imagined them.

Could this be the series by Sylvia Sherry that begins with A Pair of Jesus Boots? Published 1969 but was still in print in the 80s/90s. Main character is a boy and there is a younger sister. https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2022-09-25/a-pair-of-jesus-boots

Thanks for the suggestion @TheBookShelf , but i dont't think it is this series. In my fuzzy memory they were more everyday tales with less emphasis on crime. Perhaps aimed at a younger audience.

Could it have been 'How Green You Are' by Berlie Doherty?

Another possibility is the Wood Street series by Mabel Esther Allan.

Thanks @Sethera , but it isn't 'How green you are'.

@TheBookShelf i am forever grateful 🙂- im.pretty sure they were by Mabel Esther Allan. The Pine Street series rather than Wood Street. The covers and synopses on good reads look right. I'd never have tracked them down without your suggestion. Was starting to think i imagined them. Think i might buy a 2nd hand copy to satisfy my curiosity and see if they are as i remember them.

ah you pipped me to the post!

So pleased they have been tracked down! Nothing like rereading a childhood favourite :)

As soon as I read it I thought Wood Street! Lovely to see some other MEA readers here.

I'm so happy to have stumbled onto this post!

We visited Liverpool in summer and seeing the Adelphi hotel reignited my love for the Wood Street Gang and Mary Ellen. (This book is the reason why my kitchen is painted a cheery yellow!)

Since our visit I've been collecting the whole series again but really stumped on finding the last two of the series. I wonder if MEA fans have any tips?

What are they called? I'm in a facebook group for MEA readers and the books sometimes come up, and some sellers have good stocks of her books.

Have you tried Gill Bilski books? She specialises in children’s books from 1920 onwards and has some MEA titles www.gillbilski.com

Oh wow! Thank you - what a great site!

I would also recommend Gill Bilski's site. I know Gill and have bought books from her for many years. She's extremely knowledgeable and knows a lot of people in the world of collectable children's books.

There are other specialist sellers but Gill is one of the best and most longstanding.

They dont have all of them, but ive gound quitw a few on Abe books.
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/