Children's books you still love..

[SereneGoose]

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series...

It's still as magical and relevant today, 50 years later..

What's yours?

Ahhh! So glad to have posted...any Antonia Forest fans? Autumn Term etcetera...?

Brandon Chase
The Enid Blyton Adventure series
Dawn Treader
Stig of the Dump

There was a short book I read as a child, may have been part of a series of germanic folk tales. I've never come across it since.

I re-read the Anne of Green Gables books - the first one especially is just a great novel.

I've re-read the What Katy Did books too. Little Women too. Also Wind in the Willows.

I tried to read 101 Dalmations to my children but I found I was editing/explaining far too much as I went along so gave up. But I Capture the Castle is still completely readable.

I couldn't re-read Black Beauty. I'm still traumatised from the first time (and we read it in school - the whole class was openly crying).

My favourite book as a child was The Island of the Blue Dolphins. Dh's was The Phantom Tollbooth - the author gave a reading at my children's school years ago and dh was completely starstruck.

Bambi
and its sequel

Heidi and then Heidi grows up and Heidi’s children also

I’ve got tickets for the one with Anton Du Beke. Is that the same thing?

Yes it is - I was slightly worried they would ruin it (it was described as 'modernised') but it is an absolute delight.

Woohoo 🙌

The. Chronicles of Narnia.

Fifteen by Beverley Cleary A lboy meets girl story from simpler times
The Wool Pack by Cynthia Harnett.

Moomin Troll books - Tove Jansson
Alive in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carol
The Children of Captain Grant - Jules Verne

These were pure magic to me as a kid, so will always have a special place in my heart!

@EmptyCan Oh - I thought it was only me that traces my acute claustrophobia to the Weirdstone of Brisingamen!

I'm exactly like you; it's one of my favourite re-reads but I can't bear to read about Colin getting stuck. I'm convinced that is what has given me a lifelong terror of small spaces. Too well written!

Lots and lots of favourites here. YES to Antonia Forest. I've got them all apart from The Thuggery Affair which I've never read. Periodically I check for it, but the current cheapest price I can find is on Amazon at £51.30 for a Girls Gone By reprint, and I'm not paying that!

Yes to Lorna Hill, particularly Dancing Peel which was the first one I ever read. Yes to Jill's pony books, but also a shout out to the Pullein-Thompsons.

Also Green Knowe. Robert Westall books anyone? The Watch House was terrifying. Also John Gordon was terrifying particularly The House on the Brink. For a sensitive and imaginative child I read some absolutely horrific things - a sort of morbid fascination I think. The House with a Clock in its Walls was another one.

Who wrote Caldicott Place? Because I remember loving it...

I have the Thuggery Affair. But I cant sell it

Yes to Robert Westall, but The Scarecrows is my favourite. Amused there’s someone else who is permanently scarred by Colin getting stuck! And the horrible bit where they have to crawl along a flooded tunnel without knowing how long they have to hold their breath for!

Ooh, The Scarecrows - I'd forgotten that. @SereneGoose I'm envious! Was Caldicott Place Noel Streatfeild? I remember reading it.

Occasionally I have come across things like The Nutty Putty cave and been horrified and regretted it...

(Don't, would be my recommendation) I don't know why I do these things to myself.

I still enjoy multiple Enid Blyton books - FF, The Secret Series, etc.

'A Wrinkle in Time' and its sequels.

Albion's Dream by Roger Norman. A remarkable book and barely known.

it's one of my favourite re-reads but I can't bear to read about Colin getting stuck.

I've never re-read it! I always skip over anything involving narrow dark passages now.

The Very hungry Caterpillar. I've got a copy in French: "La chenille qui fait des trous"

So many!

Anne of Green Gables is a forever fave
A Traveller in Time
Carrie's War
The House in Norham Gardens
Deborah's Secret Quest
Tom's Midnight Garden
Dimsie Goes to School
Are you there, God, it's me Margaret
A Little Princess (for any fans of this Hilary McKay wrote a great sequel called Wishing for Tomorrow)
The Big Six

I’ve never met anyone outside my family who has even heard of Albion’s Dream let alone read it. It’s an extraordinary book in my opinion.

When Hitler stole pink rabbit
heidi
wgat Katy did

Secret garden
Black Beauty

@pollyhemlock

Glad to find someone who knows of it! When did you first read it?

A few years back I corresponded with the author (he very sadly died in 2022, so I only got to message/email with him for just over a year.) We talked a lot about spirituality and mysticism and occultism, because I very much got the sense from Albion's Dream that he was a believer in the spiritual, and he confirmed that he was. Me being into spirituality and the occult, well, we got talking about that, amidst the mystical, pagan, occult influences that were in Albion's Dream.

It might interest you to know that he published two other novels, which are prequels - Red Die and Shadowborne. I've read Red Die (set during WWI) which I enjoyed, though I wouldn't rate it as highly as Albion's Dream. I asked Roger if he had ever thought about writing a sequel, as I would have loved to have seen more of the boys' adventures (and Doctor Death could easily have returned.) He said he had considered it over the years - by the time I got to know him he was already terminally ill and bedridden.

He was a lovely man, extremely thoughtful and intelligent. I only got to know him over the internet and for a very brief time, but I cherish the messages and emails we exchanged.

Love Antonia Forest. Often re-read Peter’s Room or Run Away Home at Christmas.
And also love The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. One of the first days out with my now-husband was to go to Alderley Edge as I’d read the book so many times.