Do you still read children's books?

GillyB The Summer of the Great Secret is one of Monica Edwards' titles. Did Mollie Chappell write one with the same name? How wonderful to come across such a hoard of books. Most of my childhood ones are long gone and I have had to collect my favourites again as an adult.

I hope this link doesn't disappear until I copy some of the titles down. Noone has mentioned the Abbey Girls series- they all seemed to have red hair and be called Rosalind /Rosamund and they did a lot of country dancing-I don't know if it was Elinor Brent Dyer but they seemed to be very similar.I doubt if they would stand the test of time .

Moomintroll!

oh just to expand this is not a sub-type of "troll" as in disruptive and disingenuous poster on forum.
Delightful Finnish fantasy. Any other fans?

I enjoyed the Abbey Girls books. The author was Elsie Oxenham and you're right - they had a lot in common with the Chalet School in that they followed characters into adulthood.

I've just finished reading Michael Morpurgo's 'Warhorse'. I knew it was about the first world war, and I was afraid that I wouldn't cope with the emotions of going to see the stage play. I can get very emotional ! Black Beauty at age 8 had me sobbing for weeks!

So glad I read it - beautiful book and a good way of dealing with WW1 for teenagers. Now I know I can cope with the stage version, so long as I have a pocket full of tissues.

On a similar sober note - The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, and a beautiful picture book called Rose Blanche, were the most wonderful way of dealing with the holocaust when I was teaching Year Six.

JessM I love Moomintroll as well! One of my daughters, her husband and their three kids are all fans too.

I love the bit where they are all hibernating and Moomintroll wakes up to a snowy world.

MrsJamJam - you'll love War Horse. The puppets and their body language is quite amazing. The end of the stage show is slightly different to the book but you've done the right thing reading the book first. I'm glad I did it that way round. After War Horse I started reading some of his other books and thoroughly enjoyed them.
I remember the Adventure books (written by Enid Blyton I think) - The Island of Adventure, The Castle of Adventure etc. And of course, The Secret Seven, Famous Five also by her.
Milly Molly Mandy was another favourite and also the Mallory Towers books. I went to boarding school and I think that it was the Mallory Towers books that made me look forward to going!

Oh yes Mrs Jamjam, Warhorse has to be seen. It's amazing and after 5 minutes you really believe the 'puppets' are real. I've seen it 2x and would go again if I could. I saw it during Armistice week which gave it a very special meaning - all the cast were out after the show selling Poppies

I know I'm repeating myself, but I've been raving about this play since I saw it, and this is the only forum where I've found other people that have seen it. At the beginning when Joey comes on as a newly weaned foal, puts his head down to the grass, jerks his head slightly then puts his off fore out slightly so that he can then eat he became a 'real horse'. That's when I started crying and I didn't stop for the whole production. But it wasn't 'sad' crying; it was sheer joy and wonderment and there were tears of laughter as well [the goose!]. I so want to see it again. I'll see the film in the meantime and hope that Spielberg hasn't 'Spielberged it'.

I adore the Moomintrolls too. My family were all extremely fond of them when I was young, and I know we used a lot of the phrases from the books in every day life, like talking about Moominmama's bag having poor fittle lockets. Those books certainly stand re-reading, as do BBs Little Grey Men and Down the Bright Stream which I have recently finished for the nth time. Absolute bliss.
I went and looked on my book shelves yesterday after reading some of this thread and was very pleased to find I do still have many of the books mentioned. The ones I don't have will go on the Amazon wish list.

My son went to Moomin Land but it was closed. How sad is that [wrong time of year]. Always found them rather scary but, now that I'm growed up and into all things Scandinavian [well, not all things] I'm going to check them out again. Sometimes wish utube had never been invented; I could be there a long time .

I would love to read a book called Mr Gimmee and Mr Give to my GC. My father gave it to me when I was about 7 and it made an impression. It disappeared when I left home. Has anyone else heard of it? I think a similar book today would be one of the Mr Men series.

raggygranny - you are quite right, of course. The funny thing is that until I actually saw the books again I was quite happy for them to be sent to a charity shop - now I can't bear the idea. My lovely daughter said, "you keep them, Mum" - we were hoping to get rid of a lot of stuff in the loft to make it easier in the future for us (and the children) if we had to move.

I knew that there were some children's toys up there, too, but had no idea that we had kept so much: all our Fisher Price toys, but also small things like stacking sets, barrels, etc., which have now disappeared to my daughter's house for my 5 month old grandson. One thing is certain, we will have lots of things to keep him occupied in the future.

My stepgrandson said I should read "Mr Gumm and the Dancing Bear" because he knows I have a silly sense of humour. I loved it and couldn't stop laughing.

Is that Billy and his barrels you have Gillie? I've got that along with the stacking beakers [which I think are much better than the ones they make now]. goldengirl; have you tried doing a book search for that book? I found a book form my childhood on a booksearch site.

Children of the New Forest by Capt Maryatt is brilliant & taught me a lot about the Civil War. I went on to read his other titles like Midshipman Easy.
I won Malcolm Saville's Seven White Gates in a colouring competition as a child and found it a bit scary at the time so re-read it a few years ago and loved it and by him (some copies are now quite valuable). I want to get hold of Cynthia Harnett's books to read again. My rather limited book collection as a child were mostly by Enid Blyton so I've re-read her stories to see how they influenced my moral up-bringing! - the phrase 'Matilda - she stamped her foot' has been used many times in our family. I'm sure I chose the college I went to because it reminded me of Malory Towers and I used to envy girls who went to Boarding School.
I also get a lot from factual Ladybird books - they explain things so well - 'simplicity from the far side of complexity.'

Billy and his barrels - oh I remember them, they were great

If anyone is trying to get hold of long-out-of-print favourites, a website to try is www.ggbp.co.uk Girls Gone By Publishers are re-issuing titles by authors such as Monica Edwards, Malcolm Saville, Elinor Brent-Dyer, Violet Needham and many others. Worth a look, and much cheaper than bidding for them on e-Bay!

I loved reading to my children then grandchildren. I can't wait to revisit the Little House on the Prairie books, the Hobbit, Wind in the Willows, The Borrowers books, William Mayne's and Alan Garner's books, Ballet shoes, Little Grey Rabbit, Beatrix Potter, Come Hither (poetry), Mog and so many more.
I'm reading The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time at the moment

My children call me Moomin as I have a passing likeness to Moominmama & carried a bag like hers for many years.

Baggy you've done it again. Coming from my background I adored the Ruggles from One End Street (Eve Garnett). (Though they were considerably posher than we were! )
Why has no-one mentioned Orlando the Marmalade Cat?

GA I loved Orlando, though I was disappointed that my DSs never took to him. I called one of my marmalade cats Orlando and if I'd had a daughter, would have liked to call her Grace!

PS. The Orlando books are among the best illustrated of all children's books.