Why is this appearing on the Competition page now, when it closed in July?????

I read voraciously as a child. Anything by Enid Blyton or classic stories like The Children of the New Forest but my favourite story was 'Mother's Warm Shawl'. The book was given to me by an elderly lady and had been published in the 1880s. It was about a girl of 13 who was going into service. Her mother had been given a list of clothing and things she needed to take with her. Although the family were poor they managed everything except a coat to wear to church. On the day the girl was to leave her mother gave her a coat which she'd made out of her own shawl...the only thing she had to keep warm in winter. The girl was overcome and promised that when she got her first wages she would replace the shawl so that her mother would never have to be cold again. Needless to say it didn't work out that way. The girl worked and was happy but when payday came around at the end of the year she was bewitched by the ribbons and fripperies that the travelling trader brought and before she knew it she had spent all her money. When Boxing Day arrived she was allowed the day off to visit her family. Sadly she remembered her promise but it was too late, her money was gone. She cried when she saw her mother and said how silly she'd been. Her mother understood and held her close saying the best gift she'd had that Christmas was seeing her child.

The next year on Boxing Day the girl visited again but this time she gave her mother a beautify tartan shawl.

It was Victorian sentimentality at it's best and I loved it.

I loved the Anne of Green Gables books

Oops! Forgot Munro Leaf's Ferdinand the Bull... another huge favourite!!

As a young child I was also an Enid Blyton fan from Noddy to The Mystery of...' books and all the boarding school stories too. However I also loved traditional fairy stories The Tinderbox was a particular favourite. Another was the notorious Little black Sambo. I loved the lyrical language 'purple shoes with crimson linings'! I was given a child's version of Tales fro the Arabian Nights which I found magical and The Golden Treasury of Poetry which I still read today! So many to choose from! Then as a teacher and mother a whole new generation of writers to add to my own beloved list: A Dog So Small by Philippa Pearce got us through one wet camping holiday along with Charlotte's Web! My house is full of children's books that are mine from childhood, that I used as a teacher or I have bought for my DGCs! Can't part with them!

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton - can't wait until my grand daughter is old enough to enjoy them

I read and reread Little Women and What Katy Did and still reread them now from time to time.

I loved Alan Garner books, especially The Weirdstone of Brisingaman.

I absolutely loved Milly Molly Mandy and My Naughty Little Sister books. I found a Naughty Little Sister book in a charity shop the other day. It will be treasured.

The Abbey girl series?

And me! I wanted to be Jo.
I think parents bought them so I'd like the idea of boarding school!
I hated it! The most horrible 5 years of my life!

Oh The Chalet School Series. Took me completely away from the ordinary council estate where I lived and introduced me to another world, bit out of date of course. But I realised recently they were some of the few books around then where girls were the main characters and strong heroic role models.

I loved Little Women. I admired Jo, thought Beth was lovely, strongly disliked Amy, and was annoyed by Meg. In good wives I thought Jo should have married Laurie not the professor.

I must have been about 10 when I discovered books by Malcolm Saville in the bookcase at the back of the classroom.
I read several of them and looked on the internet today to see if I could find the titles. I think Mystery at Witchend must have been one of them.
I never realised until today that they were set in Shropshire. I think I might have another look!

Mine was Hedi and Black beauty

My all time favourite was little women followed by good,wives, little men and joes boys. I read them over and over again and still watch little women when ever it comes on the telly

My very first favourite was a Noddy story that had the ' very rude words Noddy bare body' so I guess that was the first Noddy book when he appeared naked. The first book that actually purchased myself was 'The Fortunes of Jackie' I can't remember the authors name. The feeling of power I had from choosing my own book was marvellous. I think I read it many many times, curled up in a corner savouring every page.

Any book of fairy tales

The Silver Sword by Ian Serreliier . Read it when I was 8 and it left me with such a haunting impression that stays with me to this very day.
Celeste

The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber.I am 56 and still have my copy from junior school days.Have read it to my four children,and three of my four grandchildren.It is an unusual book full of deliciously made up words that made my imagination run riot.it has a kind of naughty feel about it and you dare not think to long as to why.It has strange people and creatures,a princess,a villain that kind of thrilled me.He was wickedly thrilling with his mouth watering descriptive way of talking.Cant wait untill my grandaughter is older to read it again.Read it if you dare,but beware "Time lies frozen there,its never then,its allways now."

I loved Black Beauty because I was desperate to learn to ride. My parents couldn't afford lessons so I had a make believe horse instead, and I spent hours on the concrete staircase into our yard, pretending the washing line was a set of reins and I was flying through the countryside.
Oh, the power of imagination!

I must have read every Enid Blyton book and loved them, followed by the Chalet School series, but my all time favourite was Anne of Green Gables.
What Katy did was a close second. My second home was the library. In my childhood, you weren't allowed to join the library until you were seven! After my first visit, I ran home, read the book and ran back to exchange it, only to be told that you couldn't do that on the same day! Oh the disappointment!

Enid Blyton was my favourite author and I always went straight to the B section of the library in the hope of finding one of her books there. The two series of her books which I really enjoyed were The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.

Any Enid Blyton book except the Secret Seven series. The first book I remember was Shadow the Sheepdog, Enid Blyton, of course. Firm favourites were also the Chalet School Books by Elinor Brent Dyer, and the Cherry Ames, series about a nurse. I was and am still an avid reader and loved Christmas which would bring my favourite annuals - School Friend, Girls Crystal, Girl and Bunty. I could go on and on!!!

My favourite book was always Little Women by Louis May Alcott which I read a number of times and later on I love watching the film. Also What Katy Did and What Katy did Next. We didn't have that number of books but could always use the library.