What books did your parents read to you?

[OneUmberJoker]

Mr men books

The Faraway Tree series and Puddle Lane….. so much so I bought the whole puddle lane collection when pregnant as my Dad really regretted selling it when I was down with it!!

It’s odd , because I always read ti my children, but I can only vaguely remember been read to.
I remember learning ti read , well before starting school so was an avid reader from a very early age.
My grandma had been a teacher so got me reading at every opportunity.
But i do remember my mum reading one book (a lot).
It was J M Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Children’s bible
babes in the wood
hansel and gretal
rapunzel
rumpelstiltskin
sleeping beauty
burglar bill
I also had a nursery rhyme book

Burglar Bill
Peepo
The Velveteen Rabbit
Peter Rabbit
Where’s Spot

The one that sticks in my mind is Mrs Pepperpot read by my dad. We often swap and share books now as we like to read a lot of the same stuff

No books. Lucky I learnt to read by myself at 6!

Noddy for me
Rupert the Bear for my older brother
We had Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale book as well.
We could read before we started school, soon belonged to the local library and chose our own books, Famous Five and Secret Seven or any Enid Blyton were favourites for me.

My mum gave is that excuse when we were little too. Turns out she actually hates reading aloud and never had time to do it anyway. Nobody ever red to me and I find that quite sad.

I read to my daughter long before she was able to read, and continued to read to her long after she could. The act of reading a book to her, telling her a story, chatting about it, enjoying it together was way more than just a functional task. I read novels to her from the age of about 3, Enid Blyton’s faraway tree and the like. She couldn’t have read them to me. By the time she was about 7 I was reading Pratchett to her and at that point she was reading parts of them to me. She is an avid reader and an excellent writer, she just got 99% in her Nat 5 English exam. Me reading to her didn’t hinder her ability to learn to read at all.

Gerry the Giraffe
Mervin Mouse
Famous Five
the Faraway Tree
Milly Molly Mandy
The Worst Witch

I don’t know how old you are, but when I was in Primary School in the early 80s, we did loads of projects about Hiawatha. I remember reading that poem as part of it. It must have been a “thing” at the time because I’ve hardly heard the name since.

I read Faraway Tree, Twins at St Claire’s and Mallory Towers to my daughter. I did it because I loved them, they are fabulous to read as an adult.

My mum read to me loads and continued to read me more complicated things for years after I could read independently, usually snuggled in her bed on a Saturday morning. It’s one of my best memories of time with her. Many many books but the ones I remember her reading Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales, Leon Garfield’s tales from Shakespeare, kids abridged versions of King Solomon’s Mines, Kidnapped, Canterbury tales (the one illustrated by Victor Ambrus), the Iliad and Odyssey, Charles Dickens stories, the water babies, the foundling. We would chat about the content and also the style and particularly nice turns of phrase. Nothing better than sharing a book.

The one I really remember, because it was for many happy months, was my mum reading us LoTR, and doing the voices. I mean, we both read on ahead to find out what was happening, but insisted my mum still read it to us. Happy memory, thanks.

Mr Men
Richard Scarry
The Faraway Tree

But I was an impatient child who taught herself to read very early, so I mostly read to myself. My DC were both also early readers (hyperlexia, probably) but still enjoy being read to as well as reading by themselves.

That's so interesting!

I'm about 20 years older than you. I have no idea why my mum read it to me. Maybe it was just a book that was lying around for some reason. I remember her guessing the pronunciation of some of the names!

The Wishing Chair and the Faraway Tree. Made for magical dreams 🥰

Was Chicken Licken in one of the primary reading schemes?

Janet and John were, I think.

There is a poem by Wendy Cope, called 'Reading Scheme'. It might be on line. It will be from the 'See Fluff run' era. It's funny.

narnia and Enid bottom

I remember my nan reading The Faraway Tree/The Wishing Chair/Mr Twiddle to me when I was little and I certainly read them to my children (along with Famous Five). I think my mum didn’t read Enid Blyton to me when I was a bit older as I was reading every one of them I could get hold of by myself. I absolutely loved them!

I know I would have been read to, it was probably Ladybird books, but I learned to read at 3, same time as my next oldest brother who was not quite 5, I was the highly competitive one, whatever he did I had to do too, and better. After that I read to my younger brother. We went to the library each week and were allowed 3 books, invariably I'd read them after a couple of days.

I don't really remember being read to - my sister read me Heidi when I was 3 and by half-way through I was reading it myself.

I remember my younger sister had a poetry book my mum would read from. The Jumblies, and The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies, and possibly Up the Airy Mountain, and things like that.

Either my brother or my little cousin had a book called the Churkendoose (they found an egg and all took turns incubating it).

We did have a set of cassettes of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which we all enjoyed when I was about 15. No idea who was reading them - google throws up both Alan Bennett and Lionel Jeffries at approximately the right time, but neither shows the image I remember.

To be honest, I don't really remember a time when I couldn't read whatever books I wanted.
But I do remember my dad telling me amazing, made up bedtime stories about fairies and elves (some of whom were me and my sisters).

Terry and his gang...1960s

Dr Seuss various
Miffy
Mr Gumpy's Outing

My mum always read to me - I really loved it. When I was very little she read meg & mog and the Roald Dahl stories for younger kids like the Enormous Crocodile. A little later she read Roald Dahl, The Little Princess (her favourite!) The Secret Garden, and Little Women.