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?

Thank you! I lost my copy ages ago. I should try to get another.

The Antonia Forrest school stories about the Marlowe sisters at Kingscote. I re-read them every few years.

Anything by Diane Wynn Jones. Chrestomanci is one I recall.

I've just ordered Albion's Dream from abebooks - encouraged by the love here!

I'd never heard of it, but happy to give it a go.

I would recommend Knock Three Times, by Marion St John Webb.

I've never found anyone else who has ever read it, but it's one of my all time favourites. Published in 1917 about two children who follow a mysterious pumpkin through a tree and into a magical land.

It was exciting and terrifying. I tried to get my own offspring to read it and apparently traumatised them. Both girls gave up on it aged about 12 saying it was too scary.

I had that, but it was at my grandparents. I always thought it was a bit of a ballet shoes copycat, but I did enjoy it!

Jane’s Country Year by Malcolm Saville.

I have the Girls of Chequertrees by Marion St John Webb, but I don't think I've ever actually read it...
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I too adored Tom's Midnight Garden. I visited the garden where one of the film adaptations was made (Chenies Manor, Buckinghamshire).

There were also the "Roundy and Squary" books by Roger Hargreaves. These were nowhere near as well-known as the Mr Men books, but they were very funny, contained a lot of human truth, and probably summed up Mumsnet. Here are some lines from them (they can be found on Youtube):
"Roundies love to play in the grass. Squaries think grass is a nuisance." (Picture of squary with lawn mower)
"Roundies whistle while they work. Squaries are far too busy working."
"Roundies love to play in the rain. Squaries hate getting their feet wet."
"Roundies can laugh at themselves. Squaries can only laugh at other people."
"Roundies understand squaries. Squaries don't even understand other squaries."
"Roundies go out for long walks. Squaries go in for long faces."

Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles: now extremely rare and out of print. It was a beautiful book, and unusually for the time, featured a child with a single father; but it was discredited for the idea of giving children puppies as presents, and trying to put out a fire by yourself.

Also, one of the less well-known Roald Dahl books: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. In the same book was the brutal short story "The Swan", which I loved at the age of eight, in spite of its nastiness, in which two ruffian boys terrorise a younger middle-class boy, which makes for very uncomfortable reading now, and indeed, some parents tried to get the book banned. (Sorry to derail a lovely thread with that.)

And... Puddle Lane, with characters such as Mrs Pitter-Patter, the Magician, the cats Tim and Tessa. I've almost got the complete collection.

If I woke in the night as a child I would stand on the stool in the bathroom and lean out the bathroom window (my parents would have had a fit if they knew) I used to wish before I opened the window that there would be something other than our regular garden there but there never was.
Now as an adult I like to research local history so I can know what stood where my house is now and imagine who lived there and what it was like. Always been a daydreamer 😁

I love those books. Had them for my DDs and they are now safely at the top of my wardrobe for if DDs ever have kids! Also have a lovely edition of the Night Before Christmas.

Love this thread. Narnia, Famous five, Secret Garden, Ballet shoes, magic Faraway tree, White Fang, Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, little house on the prairie, and so many more. I read so much as a child and then to my children. Honestly prefer children's literature.

I loved reading so many of the ‘classic’ children’s books to DD.
The series I’ve recently been reminded of is Brambly Hedge - we had a few days down in Dorset and for some reason the Abbotsbury swannery had a couple of the books with their wonderful detailed drawings displayed along the paths. Took me right back… the
last time we’d been there was when DD was about 2 or 3 so when I’d have been reading these to her. I don’t suppose she remembers them though!

armadillo….
I think the S&A books were my favourite series of all.

Anything by Alan Garner

@scalt I actually have a copy of Phoebe and the Hot Water Bottles though it is very battered and unlikely to be worth anything. It’s such a sweet story about Phoebe and her (very elderly) single Dad. I think the main reason it was banned was because you shouldn’t encourage children to put water on a fire when it may be electrical. Bit of a stretch really.

I was lucky as a child to live near a library, and also at the time when Puffin, guided by the great Kaye Webb, was publishing so many really good books, and I still go back to many of them, including lots already listed here.

I loved some of the classics - the Alice books, the Wind in the Willows, Pooh, lots of E Nesbit. I liked the Katy books, never really got on with Little Women.

Things not mentioned as much here - the One End Street books, Jennings, the Fell Farm books with all those immensely long walks.

One of my regular winter re-reads is a book called Castaway Christmas - on one level simple and predictable, but it resonated for me, and judging by the comments here I'm not totally alone.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/6811925-castaway-christmas

Re-reading brings a new awareness of things too - with Ballet Shoes, the poverty was oppressive for me as an adult, whereas child-me saw the big house and the fancy school and the servants, and missed Sylvia not having enough to eat. Well observed.

I’ve just remembered Beatrix Potter, I don’t think she’s been mentioned yet? I read less of her as a child as I mainly only read pony books, but I admire her vision to protect the Lake District and her commitment to doing so. I first moved here at 17, and now at 60+ so many places are just the same due to restrictive covenants on development baked in by her legacies.

I hope you enjoy it! If you do, maybe consider reporting back?

All books by Antonia Forest.

Yes, I'm a great fan! Kingscote is so realistic, and very like the grammar school I attended as a child.

National Velvet by Enid Bagnold.

Oh, no - this is a disappointing standard 'schoolgirl' read (I've got it too). I bought it because Knock Three Times was so fabulous, but it's not worth reading.