Marianne Dreams

[Beachtastic]

Did anyone else love this book as a child?

For some reason I've been thinking about it the past couple of days and will read it again (paperback on order!).

Such a clever and interesting plot. Not to mention scary!

annabookbel.net/revisiting-childrens-classic-1958-marianne-dreams-catherine-storr/

Oh, and Peter Dickinson's books on The Changes too

What a lovely thread down memory lane.
Are modern children's books this spooky?
I've been wracking my brains trying to remember the name of a book I read probably in the mid '70s, hoping someone can help with not much to go on.
A girl meets a boy (maybe at school), I think he's sort of "wrong side of town/ scarey / got a bad reputation), she goes to hang out with him, he lives in a mobile home, there's (maybe) an electric pylon nearby.
At some point she goes to meet him, and he's involved in some sort of ritual, wearing the scull of a stag.
That's about all I remember (and tbh it could just be a weird dream I remembered).

It's not Stag Boy, unless I'm mixing parts of separate books up.

I was gifted this book for my birthday one year and absolutely loved it. It was from my godmother who was a classroom assistant and she always gifted the best books. I re-read it earlier this year and was not disappointed.

@CherryogDog It’s not The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy by Penelope Lively is it?

@pollyhemlock the summary doesn't ring any bells, but thanks for the suggestion!

My son is reading (my copy of) Goodnight Mr Tom now because they are doing it at school for WWII in year 6.

Kids books now seem to be a lot simpler eg David Walliams etc. Then big adventure series like Percy Jackson. There are some good ones but they seem maybe less subtle and don't give much time for build up - straight into the action which maybe is understandable considering competition from screens.

I read A Wizard of Earthsea to my son when he was 9, and have just started reading Northern Lights, not sure how that will go.

I recommend The Nowhere Emporium for something modern.

The book I half remember from childhood was about a girl who moves with her family from a normal house to a big kind of spooky house. There's a pottery studio in the house and sinister things happen... I can't remember much more so it's not a lot to go on! I mainly remember details like a postcard of a giraffe in her room and someone dipping all the pots into glazes.

Ooh, that sound fund! Was it How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
by Sarah Nickerson? (I haven't read it, just got sucked into a Google rabbithole!)

That would definitely appeal to me as a child. But I think my favourite fantasy was Pippi Longstocking. The idea of having no parents around (sorry mum and dad, no offence!! -- just wonderful to have that freedom), so many gold coins that you can buy all the sweets in the shop, and the strength to lift a horse.

I just found out that "the inspiration for her father, Captain Ephraim Longstocking, came from the real life Carl Emil Pettersson, a Swedish sailor who became king of Tabar Island in Papua New Guinea after he was shipwrecked in 1904. He married the local king's daughter, and they had nine children."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Emil_Pettersson

Thanks for the suggestion but no, it was published later and I would have read this in the 90s.
The Pippi audiobooks are on repeat in this house. Never knew the backstory!

I meant to say it sounds fun, not it sound fund 🤓

I hope you manage to track it down. Rediscovering much-loved childhood books is quite an eye-opener, especially now that we can use the internet to find out more about them.

For example, I just read:
When discussing Pippi, Astrid Lindgren explained that "Pippi represents my own childish longing for a person who has power but does not abuse it."

I can see why that would have appealed to me, too.

I totally agree, @Beachtastic . Re-reading childhood favourites as an adult is a joy and it's great to catch up with others' recommendations. I'm another Penelope Lively fan, both of her children's books and her writing for adults. I'd add Nina Bawden and 'Carrie's War' - not explicitly a magical/supernatural book but the way in which the skull in the pond and the fire haunts Carrie for years puts it in a similar category IMO.

A book I think is underrated is 'A Dog So Small', by Phillipa Pearce. It's often overlooked because of 'Tom's Midnight Garden' being so good, but it's also a book involving a child's imagination and I remember it being v different to TMG but just as enjoyable. Weirdly, I never got on with Joan Aiken as a child, even though I loved all the Alan Garner books. Maybe I'll try again. Does anyone else remember the book/TV series 'The Moon Stallion'? Lots of Arthurian & Celtic references.

Wonderful author!

Loved so many of these!

I read The High Hose by Honor Arundel many times as a child too. It was about a faitlrly straight laced girl whose parents died suddenly and she sent to live with a bohemian aunt in Edinbugh whereas her arty brother was sent to some very square relatives elsewhere. It was dated even then, in the 90s, but I loved it. I've never met anyone else who has read it, even though the internet tells me its not obscure. There were a couple of sequels but they weren't as good.

Loved so many of these!

I read The High Hose by Honor Arundel many times as a child too. It was about a faitlrly straight laced girl whose parents died suddenly and she sent to live with a bohemian aunt in Edinbugh whereas her arty brother was sent to some very square relatives elsewhere. It was dated even then, in the 90s, but I loved it. I've never met anyone else who has read it, even though the internet tells me its not obscure. There were a couple of sequels but they weren't as good.

So many favourites here and new authors to look up too.

One author who hasn't been mentioned but is one of my favourites is Nina Beachcroft. She wrote some genuinely scary books (Under the Enchanter was really sinister) but the one I loved most was Cold Christmas, which is a beautifully atmospheric ghost story.

I’ve just been making a Yoto card for DD1 with this novel!

It might not be obscure, but it's £259 on Amazon... at least, for the hardcover. I've ordered the cheapskate used paperback!

Loving the recommendations on this thread, although it will probably take me the rest of my life to catch up on all this reading...!

@TonstantWeader I loved A Dog So Small, too! In fact, when my friends got a chihuahua, I gave them a copy.

I read the whole thing as a child thinking that the dog breed was pronounced "Chi-hewa-hewa" 🤡

Oh my goodness! I'd forgotten all about this book but it really comes back to me now. The scary stones!! The crossed out windows!! What a brilliant book. I think my two would both still find it too scary but I'm looking forward to sharing it with them when they're a bit older. Thanks for reminding me of it, OP!

I loved the Green Knowe books, and still reread them from time to time. Did you know you can visit the house, which is exactly as it is in the books? It is full of the objects - Toby's mouse, the patchworks, carvings and just like stepping into the stories. The gardens are beautiful too. It is in a village called Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire.

Gosh that series looks amazing! And another one with expensive hardcovers on Amazon, so presumably not in print any more. It's a pity as I'd have loved to give the whole series to a friend.

Wiki says that the house is where the author lived, and in the books it's "inhabited by the spirits of people who lived there in ages past." Years ago, a BF and I were driving past his old childhood home and he stopped the car to take a closer look. It was a beautiful old house and he said he'd often seen a child's ghost in the upper floors. He was a bit nutty, so I took this with a pinch of salt.

The house had been converted into a nursing home, and he dared to ring the bell and talk to one of the care staff who came to the door. She mentioned the ghost, too - apparently many staff and guests were aware of it!

Yeah I did and still have my copy, I remember watching the film that was made of it as well called Paperhouse.

I loved it but it terrified me too. Even seeing the thread title made me feel unsettled 😅

@RobinTheCavewoman, me too