We're giving away more than a THOUSAND pounds worth of children's books!

The Secret Garden

I still have a copy of The Silver Sword, by Ian Serralier. It's about 3 children escaping alone from war-torn Germany, and ending up in a Pezzalozzi village in Switzerland. it made a great impression on me as a child in the 50s

Morris's Disappearing Bag. My children loved this.

When I was a child, it was wartime and there weren't many books, those that were around were old and well worn.

I discovered 'Each Peach Pear Plum' with my daughter, and now my young grandson loves it, so that would be my first choice. lt is fun, has loads of cultural references to spark other remembered stories and nursery rhymes, has lovely detailed drawings and a wonderful rhythm to the words, learned by heart by generations. Woe betide a grandparent who misreads a single word!

Winnie The Pooh every time. I loved the gentle humour. I loved all four books & can still recite a lot of the poetry.
Sadly none of my grandchildren yet have 'got it'. I still have 2 little ones to go! I think they were spoiled by the rubbish Disney versions which ruined the lovely stories.

Mind you I liked The Hobbit & the Lord of the Rings trilogy too & I read them to my 2 boys when they were very young so those were much loved too. My younger son still says I should have done the voice of Gollum for the films as I was soooo scarey!

I loved the Romany Books by Bramwell Evans, who was also on the Radio, or the wireless in those days.
The simple way he brought the countryside to life and wrote about things that made you look with new eyes was amazing.
I think that children nowadays would also love them.

My favourite book from my own childhood was Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright. My memory of it now, is that all my childhood summers were like the one in the book, long and hot, which they probably weren't really.

"Miskoo the Lucky" by Mary Fairclough. It is about a little eskimo boy. Years ago I lent it to my neice, and it came back to me a couple of years ago, and I have an eskimo doll that stands next to it on the shelf. The book jacket has long gone, but the illustrations are beautiful. Just love it.

The Cat in The Hat. Still love to read it to my grandson. My all time favourite.

The Magic Faraway Tree was always a favourite with my children

Little Women

The Secret Island by Enid Blyton.

I learnt to read using the Janet and John books, but my best memory is of Heidi, I can't remeber who wrote it but I love the story.

I always loved The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and so did my daughter

My book that I read and re-read, was Charlotte's Web.

I was enthralled by the relationship between Charlotte and Wilbur. Obviously it was sad when Charlotte died, but that is the circle of life.

I have loved the way the film portrayed the book, it was changed a bit, but that happens with a lot when books are made into films.

Mallory Towers.
My mum bought me the books one at a time and I can remember reading each one with great enjoyment and then waiting excitedly for mum to bring my next one home. After my mum died my sister bought me them again and now I read them with my granddaughters, reliving Darrell's adventures once again. ��

What a treat, coming to this thread with 13 pp of delightful memories - thanks everyone! I'm spoilt for choice but am tempted to select one that had a later impact on my life. Swallows & Amazons and Treasure Island led to me to sailing in later years, but the much-adored The Swish of the Curtain (Pamela Brown) must have influenced my thirty-year career in theatre and, better still, persuaded me towards Shakespeare!

Hungry caterpillar

'Ballet Shoes' by Noel Streatfield - I adored all the characters and would love to have had Garnie & the Doctors in our house. I loved the variety of the sisters (and I too had two sisters). I could never decide which ofm them I wanted to be most!

I loved Naughty Amelia Jane by Enid blyton.

ahlberg

Ronald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. Hilariously subversive.

The twits - it was the first book that made me laugh out loud :-) RD is a genius

The Magic Faraway Tree read to the class one chapter each day by Miss Jones in Infants school. This is the book that more than any other made me want to read for myself. Can't wait to introduce my grand daughter to these books.

What a dilemma, so many books that I enjoyed when I was a little girl.
Black beauty made me cry it was so sad when ginger died, but just pipping it at the post has to be the lion the witch and the wardrobe, again I cried my eyes out when Aslan died then I was so happy when he came back, I re-read those two many times. Happy days.