What books did your parents read to you?

[OneUmberJoker]

Mr men books

None.
I can’t remember now why I loved reading. Maybe it was those book ordering things we got from school. Mrs pepperpot was the first one I got. That and the library.

My dad read to me. I particularly remember Mr Men, Winnie the Pooh and the Just William series. My granny read Alice in Wonderland to me. Good thing as I struggled to learn to read myself.

Loving all these reminiscences! Think I’ll save this thread and re-read some books. I hadn’t ever thought about it, but nobody read to me. Maybe that’s why my middle sister and I used to play old scratchy storytelling records so much? Two stories I really remember - one about stone soup and one we thought was “ewongelema” but I’ve just googled and it’s The Awongalema Tree. I made up stories for my youngest sister every night, mostly she loved them but when I was running out of ideas she’d say “that wasn’t very good” 😂
Same as @Pinkfluffypencilcase I loved it when the new delivery of books arrived! I ended up on the art side of publishing by trade.

That’s amazing. I wonder if the absence of reading then the wow of having them first time made it so wonderful.

I too used to make up stories for my sister at bed time.

Dinah's tea party.
I don't know what else when I was little but I had aunties and a grandad to read to me as well as parents and I have been told that if they thought they could get away with missing a page out I would tell them that they'd missed a bit. I always wanted to be sung to again or to have another plasticine duck made again so I think I wanted stories 'again'.
I am the woman who has sometimes been more than once to see a new film. "I like that. Let's have it again!"

By the time I was about seven Mum read to me before bed time but we had 'Shadow the Sheepdog' and I was frightened of, I think, a mention of wolves, so I didn't want her to read to me any more. I'm not sure if I ever explained that to her.

The Lord of the Rings - made dad read it to me in an effort to get him to engage with me a bit.

I think my DM may have read the Beatrix Potter stories and Winnie the Pooh, maybe Wind in the Willows, Jungle Book and Baba the Elephant as I still have the old editions of all those, but I don't really remember her reading to me very much. I do also recall Chicken Licken (and the sky falling in), which seemed to go out of fashion for years before I discovered it again as an older adult - nobody I knew seemed to have heard of it.

I leaned to read quite young (being stuck at home due to long-term illness) and I read Famous Five, Secret Seven and all the other books I could find by Enid Blyton. I also read Mrs Pepperpot (I had forgotten that until a pp mentioned it). We had to learn the Song of Hiawatha at senior school so that takes me back!

We belonged to the local library and I completely exhausted the children's section long before reaching the age of being allowed an adult ticket (age 11 to tie in with the change in schools) so they made special allowances so my DM could take me in to choose suitable books and have extra tickets.

None. Thank God for libraries

Ha, my DD was traumatised by Shadow The Sheepdog! Not for the sensitive....

None

My Little Island by Frane Lessac (looved the pics, and my DS loves it too)
The Pink Parrot by Gill McBarnet
Dr Seuss
Roald Dahl

@FalseSpring omg I had forgotten about Chicken Licken I loved that!

My mum always read “the Famous Five”books to me. But she always skipped the bits where Anne stayed behind at home and did dull stuff or cook while the others were off on their adventures!

None.

My family warre very working class. Both my parents left school at 15, neither were readers, and books were just not a thing in our house. They cost money that we didn’t have and were seen as being for posh people. My parents watched telly or went to the pub instead of reading, as did everyone else they knew.

I joined the local library as soon as I could and borrowed loads of books. When I was old enough to make my way home from school I would often stop off there & just read until they chucked me out. The staff knew me by name & would order books in specially for me. Looking back, I owe them a lot and I wish I had thanked them when I got my A level results & university acceptance letter.

I don't think my mum read to me as a child, though she was enthusiastic about reading. I can remember my dad, who has never been a reader of fiction on his own behalf, reading me the Rupert the Bear annuals, pieces from anthologies of children's short stories and poems, and, if I requested, articles from encyclopedias or from his gardening magazines. I went on enjoying listening to him reading bedtime stories to my younger sisters long after I'd learned to read for myself.

I will never forget my dear grandmother reading The Wind in the Willows to me.

Oliver Twist, Sense and Sensibility, Moby Dick, Andrew Lang's tales of Greece and Troy, Alice in Wonderland. Also Edward Lear poetry.
I mostly read to myself, easy chapter books like Famous Five, from about 5 years old.

Oooh I love this thread! My mum read me Beatrix Potter, classic fairy tales, Babar the Elephant, Ant and Bee, then when I was a bit older Heidi and Mallory Towers. My memories of being cuddled up in bed with her reading to me, even when I was old enough to read on my own, are so comforting

I loved Treasure Island, my lovely dad used to read it to me every night.

Thanks for this thread! I loved that my mum read to me. I think she did it until I was about 11 or 12. She read things she liked so no Enid Blyton but books like Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass, Treasure Island, Lorna Doone and I really remember her reading me Three Men in a Boat (which is probably my favourite book because of these memories).
I read to my children until they were about 15 and we read things like Catcher in the Rye and 1984 that I wanted them to read and was scared they wouldn’t. My young adult children don’t really read at the moment but I do hope they might come back to it.

I honestly can't really remember, beyond Just William books, but they both read to us a lot, and my dad used to make up stories all the time as well. My dad carried on reading to me and my brother for years - one of the last books he read to us was Catch 22, when we were around 11/12 😂

I remember laughing so hard my tummy hurt and my cheeks ached when my dm was reading Well Really Mr Twiddle

The Hobbit
Watership Down
The 101 Dalmatians
Treasure Island

So many others, but these were some of my favourites.

I don’t remember being read to but I’m assuming I must’ve been. Certainly there were always tons of books and comics and things like that around the house and my parents were voracious readers. I was reading tons as soon as I could. My favourites were things like Roald Dahl then books like the Hobbit.