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?

Mr Pink whistle
The Peggy plot
The pin balls
The Jolly Postman
Each, peach, pear, plum
5 minutes peace
My absolutely favourite is fix it duck

Tom’s Midnight Garden. I still dream of that happening to me and I’m 50 ☺️

@SorcererGaheris How interesting! Sad to hear that Roger Norman has died. He sounds such a fascinating man. I have read Red Die, which as you say is Ok but not a patch on Albion. I have also got Shadowborne which I started but it just didn’t work for me. Might have another go . AD is a real one off. The whole concept of the game is extraordinary particularly as he ( rightly) never exactly spells out how it is played. I first read it as an adult when it first came out as I was working in children’s books at the time. DD1 read it aged about 11/12 and loved it as much as I did.

@pollyhemlock

I came across it in the local library, aged 12, and loved it from the get-go. A while later the library put it on sale and I bought it - I've owned it ever since.

Parts of its appeal to me was some of the Arthurian mythos in the game (I'd got interested in Arthurian legends a couple of years earlier) and the entire story was just magical and fascinating and beautifully written. I want to visit Dorset and see the locations that Roger wrote of - I managed to identify the Giant's Grave location.

AD is definitely something special. I think Roger himself described the writing of it as having had something of the magical about it.

Here's an interview with Roger from around 2010 - it might give you a bit of a feel for the man.

I might have to find Roger Norman books, having grown up in Dorset. Not heard of them before.

I have also never encountered anyone outside my family who knows Albion’s Dream (and @pollyhemlock is in my family so she doesn’t count )! It’s such a haunting book, and bits of it stuck with me since I first read it. The game is described well enough to be understandable, but he leaves enough to your imagination to make it magical as well.

I am so glad others love these books. The whole series is wonderful. I inherited them from my Mum, they are my most treasured possession and I regularly re-read them. My user name refers to one of the characters (IYKYK).

@SorcererGaheris thanks for the interview which I shall look at later. It is indeed possible to identify many of the locations in the book. The ending is perhaps a little unsatisfactory but maybe he was right to leave it to the imagination. Interestingly a passage from AD was used in the KS2 SATs reading comprehension paper a few years back, presumably in the expectation that no one would have read the book!

No ! Thank you x

Also has anybody read' Too many babies 'i think it's by rose impey I gave it to my husband to read he was mortally offended. It's just so hilarious

Sting of the dump

Forever by Judy Blume. I wish I was a teen again, the hope and expectation before life hits you in the face with reality

All the Narnia books
All of Rosemary Sutcliffes books
Harry Potter
All the Dark is rising books
Little Women
The Once and Future King

I'm currently revisiting Thursdays Child. Hoping to do the Kevin and Sadie books too.

Noel Streatfeild - as so many other great books...
https://noelstreatfeild.storymole.com/books/Caldicott%20Place

probably one of my favourite authors...

Six Dinner Sid - Inga Moore. Has done 2 generations of our family.

The Wheel of Surya - Jamila Gavin.

Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangerembga.

Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpungo.

All fab books.

@pollyhemlock

There had to be some closure to the story, but it did seem a little rushed in comparison to the rest of the book. Generally, I liked how it was done, though - and it was definitely left open for sequels. The Doctor could easily have recovered and got up to his old tricks, and the boys had retrieved the game. I always felt sad that the original one had been burnt, but obviously the inner powers worked just as well through the copy that was made, so clearly it didn't matter which version was used.

@EBearhug

Roger described the Dorset countryside beautifully, especially in Albion's Dream. You can clearly take the boy out of the West Country (I think he was living in Greece at the time he wrote it) but you can't take the West Country out of the boy.

It all depends on personal taste, but I think Albion's Dream is an absolute cracker of a novel, and one of those children's books that adults can enjoy as much or if not more - it's written in a very adult, mature style.

You can find some reviews of the book on Amazon - Albion's Dream: Amazon.co.uk: Norman, Roger: 9780571154258: Books - I'll quote the review by Nigel Jackson below, because I think it really gives a feel for the book's inner scope and power

'Albion's Dream' by Roger Norman is a special novel: it is an old-fashioned British school story on one level, but the game and the eerie mysteries which surround it cast a strange and mystical atmosphere over the whole story - I found the playing of the game so beguilingly described and in such convincing detail that I half-wondered whether such a thing hadn't really existed. The magical game seemed much more than just a fancy but seemed to take on an awful and potent life of its own, whose designs and dooms unfold inexorably throughout the narrative, altering the lives of the protagonists. This is a wonderful and strange tale, a school thriller shot through with curious elements of old folklore, ancient magic, Blakean resonances and many touches of disquieting terror. Most of all it is a really absorbing tale of the supernatural and the resurgance of old powers from the dawn of time which you will want to return to and re-read again from time to time. I first read it back in the early 90s and I'm a bit surprised it's not better known as it's definitely something of a classic - and really well written with a lyrical feel for the English countryside and its imaginal and mythic landscapes. Well I guess sometimes these things remain a secret known to a few, rather like the carefully secreted game of 'Albion's Dream' itself, and those of us who have read Roger Norman's curious and unique novel are all the more enriched thereby. A treasure of a book, there's nothing quite like it.

I can't believe I forgot When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. It's such a well written book as well as a wonderful, true story of a child refugee.
I am going to add When Marnie Was There by Joan G Robinson which was also made into an excellent animation film by Studio Ghibli. It was thanks to the film that the book came back into print and I was able to buy a copy. I didn't actually own many books growing up (though I have made up for it since!) but I had a wonderful local library.

Black Beauty
The Jill books by Ruby Ferguson
Jinny books by Patricia Leitch
Dream of Fair Horses, also Patricia Leitch
Watership Down
The Time of The Ghost- can't remember who wrote it off the top of my head.

@SorcererGaheris thanks so much for the interview and review . Both fascinating. I’m glad there is someone else out there besides myself and @bookworm14 who love this book. I would add my DB, an English teacher for many years, who used to recommend it to his pupils. I think I will revisit Red Die after listening to the interview.

Tom’s Midnight Garden!

The Kingscote school stories about the Marlow sisters are truly wonderful, complex and totally believable. The characters really stay with you.
Malory Towers really captured the spirit of the time it was written in I think. Those girls certainly didn't do much whining! Interesting that Enid Blyton included mental illness as plotlines, I guess we tend to think of mental disorders as modern.
The Narnia books as well are just so strong. Plenty of killing and so forth! Ritual blood sacrifice and xenocide, not to mention children being expected to fight in actual battles. Edmund only tried to stop Prince Corrin participating in the battle for Anvard because his death would have messed up Narnia's alliance with Archenland. CS Lewis told it like it was! Also Puddleglum is one of the great creations of fiction. " Got to start by finding the lost city of the giants? Can't start by looking for it I suppose? " Makes me laugh every time.
Dark is Rising, genuinely creepy, especially the front cover of the edition by aunt gave 10 year old me.
Harry Potter of course but not written until I was an adult. Wonderful, so much fun and so little Health and Safety at school. As a teacher I have to say surprisingly realistic the way teachers and kids behave.

Dogger. Makes me cry every time

Tom's Midnight Garden. Still the best child ren's book I've ever read.

The Time of The Ghost- can't remember who wrote it off the top of my head. Diana Wynne Jones.