I'm trying to recall the names of some of the books I used to read as a child. Many I only have vague memories about which is frustrating! My mother used to buy my books for me: I'd come home from school and there would be another lovely book to devour, waiting for me on my bed.
I recall obvious books such as Anne of Green Gables, The Children Who Lived in a Barn, The Good Master, Carbonel, Marianne Dreams, the Rumer Godden books, Ballet Shoes, The Phantom Tollboth, The Little Princess and so many more...but there are plenty of others I can't really recall that well.
One was about a wild young girl who might have been a gypsy or lived on a houseboat, who was finally 'civilised' and ended up dressing like a 'lady' - I loved it at the time but now it sounds cringeworthy! I wish I could recall the name!
Another was about a family who went on holiday by train to Switzerland, but again I can't recall the title.
I recently found online 'For the Leg of a Chicken' which I loved as a child and would like to buy again, but it's more espensive than I'm prepared to pay!
Several were specifically girls' books. Anyone else recall what they used to read as children or in their teens?
I loved Enid Blyton books, The Faraway tree series, Cherry Tree Cottage, Famous 5 etc also Black Beauty, Snowball the Pony, as a child I always had my nose in a book, for me quite often it was escapism
I could read before I went to school at five thanks to an older sister, I loved all Enid Blyton especially the Faraway tree. When I was eleven I received a book as a prize from my church called The Lamplighter by Maria Cummins I think I was a bit young it had some harrowing scenes but the lamplighter was called True and I have never come across this name again. It was a really good read. Now I get through at least four books a week and on holiday one a day. Reading is my greatest pleasure. My Stepson says it's an obsession!
I wondered if the Bobsey twins would pop up! Also lesser known perhaps, The Happy Hollisters, another American family. All Enid Blyton storis from Noddy to St Clare's and Mallory Towers including along the way Ring O' Bells mystery and others in that series. Galliano's circus series another. Completely forgotten about the ice skating - loved that. Jill and the pony books. So many lovely memories. The one that escaped me and only read about a year ago To kill a Mocking Bird. How did that pass me by?! A true classic.
Heidi, The Silver Sword, Wind in the Willows, etc.
I love this thread and it's brought back so many memories. I have always been an avid reader, but never owned many as a child. We used the library, and later, a book exchange, and I used to take out or borrow the maximum 4 books a week. Regrets, I have a few... I got into superhero comics at age 12 and bought (and took back to the exchange) very early ones that would have funded my retirement now. And I've mentioned before the first edition William books bought for my dad (Will, of course) and sent to a jumble sale by my mother.
The only books I loved that haven't already been mentioned are a long series about famous people all called The Young ...... And A Girl's Book of Heroines. I managed to buy a copy of that one on ebay and it brought back some memories.
After Janet and John there was no stopping me. The Hobbit, The Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows, Famous Five and Secret Seven. But my absolute favourite Jill and her Pony series of books. I longed for a pony and for many a happy hour I was Jill.
lolarabbit, were you thinking of 'Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates' by Mary Mapes Dodge?
Fairy stories were my first love.Then, when I was 8, one of my favourite teachers, Mr MacDonald, introduced the class to THe Hobbit during afternoon story time. I was captivated by this new fantasy world. The same teacher brought other great books to life for his class - including Pippi Longstocking & The Borrowers.
My father gave me a copy of one of his favourite books around this time - The Eagle of the Ninth. I have reread this book so many times - I read it again recently, and once again rediscovered this great story. (Film was rubbish). When I first read it, aged 8 or 9, I didn't understand everything in it, so it has been a voyage of discovery going back to it as an adult. Books are my constant companion.
My first books and most memorable are The Magic Faraway books. Also loved by my 3 daughters and now Grandchildren, I loved lots of Enid Blyton ..Mallory Towers etc.
I also really loved The Bobbsey Twins and read every one of those books.
Later in my childhood I loved Heidi, Little Women...then moved on to Dickens, Bronte, Austen......and anything I could get my hands on...including all the condensed Readers Digest condensed books of my fathers.
Sometimes I can't believe the number of 'classics' I read as a teenager.
Another favourite from Enid Blyton was the Mr Twiddle series.
Has anyone mentioned the Narnia books? I loved them. The Borrowers (not so great), Five Children and It series, Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmatians.
I read lots of old fashioned boarding school books from the library. There was one where all the houses were named after flowers. One was Wisteria, I had no idea what wisteria was. Another had an episode where the girls changed the destination sign on the back of the bus. It's funny what you remember!
The strangest was the Abbey Girls. Twin girls, their mother was a widow and looked after a ruined abbey as a live in job, they only had enough money to send one if the twins to school so the other stayed at home. The school girls did country dancing, they each picked the name of a wild flower and had a dress made in the flower's colour.the strangest plot was a mother who had somehow become estranged from her daughter (illegitimate?) who was at the school, and posed as a schoolgirl to be close to her daughter. She was discovered after visiting the doctor to have a boil (on the bum?) lanced and he noticed her birthmark. I'm not sure now how that worked.
Another series about two girls called Tamsin and Clarissa who lived on Romney marshes and got involved with smugglers.
Another series about children who did sleuthing to discover historical artefacts and visited an antiquarian (again, I had no idea what that was).
Emil and the Detectives.
I had a great book called Snail and the Pennithornes which my parents bought me on the recommendation of a teacher. Two children spent the summer with their aunt in her caravan, they travelled round the coast if the British mainland, stopping at interesting places on the way.
There wad a series of ballet books, when the heroine got older she had a crush on a male dancer called Sebastian who took her to Scotland gave her porridge made with water and salt.
And a series about horse riding.
I devoured these, having otherwise no interest in ballet or riding.
Stig of the Dump.
The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley. Very non Pc, based on the story of Aladdin and full of puns.
I loved the Sword in the Stone, the king Arthur story on which the very inferior Disney film was based
The first book I read to myself for pleasure was Blyton's Five on a Treasure Island. We had a wonderful teacher who read us Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons, Secret Garden, HG Wells First Men in Moon, She , etc at an early age and gave me a lifelong love of books. My all time favourite was an old volume of my father's Cosy Corner or how they kept a farm and of course Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia (pre-War edition)!
My parents wouldn't have thought to buy me a book: nevertheless I was an avid reader and spent many hours in the library. Famous Five, Secret Seven - this was in the 50's. My children were born in 1987 and 1988 and they were also raised on the same books (with the addition of Famous Five videos). I received Little Women as a Xmas present in 1958 and read and reread it - absolutely love it! I also read The Diary of Anna Frank when I was around 11 years old and it deeply affected me.
Rosina Copper, Black Beauty, Little Women, The Family from One End Street, The New Forest Pony, Silver Skates, Hans Christian Andersen, Coral Island, Coconut Island, Nevil Shute, Howard Spring, Lorna Doone, THe Katy Books, Noel Streatfeild, Mazo de la Roche, Our Island Story, Enid Blyton's Nature Books and Adventure series, Mallory Towers, Angela Brazil, The Picture Frame. Oh and, of course, The Railway Children. I'll post this now, but bet more books will come to mind throughout the day!
As a complete contrast and proving that I had wide-ranging interests:
Ballet Shoes, Noelle Streatfield
Biggles books, Captain WE Johns
I looked at buying the Chalet school books recently and they were so expensive. I liked Famous Five, not so keen on Secret Seven, along with Malory Towers (just bought again) and St Clares. Also a set about Jill, and her horsy life.
I have always read voraciously, our house was always full of books and as 16 year old I got the dream of a Saturday job working in our local library ! I can still remember the pleasure of pasting the in the stamping pages and making up little tickets( no computer then! ) and the smell of a new book . As most people, I read Blyton - can anyone remember a farm series she wrote? I can't remember the titles but they were lovely. As a young teenager I loved Neville Shute and Gerald Durrell's expedition books, they were as hilarious as My Family and Other Animals . Never liked Dickens though or historical novels .
Jean becomes a nurse - self explanatory.
Greyboy - about a pit pony used by a young girl in a wheelchair to get about.
Heidi
Read and retread them over and over again.
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, I loved them, and still do! For my fiftieth birthday DH, DS and my mum bought me first editions of all seven books, they couldn't have chosen anything better for me!
The first 'adult' book I read was 'Singing in the Shrouds', Ngaio Marsh, and that was it, I was hooked on crime novels, at the age of seven! I was what would these days be called a 'gifted reader', but in our family everyone was, so it was normal to me! Mum thought I'd have nightmares, but I could always tell the difference between fiction and reality, so I was never bothered by 'gruesome' tales!
I love Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, I could read Jane Eyre every day and still enjoy every word!
I read Shakespeare for fun, weird I know, but...........
Is it any wonder that I worked as a Saturday and holiday assistant in libraries from the age of sixteen, then qualified as a librarian and spent the rest of my working life surrounded by books, it was glorious!
Two books I was presented with at school were what Katy did and What Katy did next how proud of thesesbooks I was! My mum threw them out and sadly I would of loved to pass these on to my first granddaughter can anyone tell me the author please? Enid bouton was my favourite author and the famous five!!
Sorry Enid Boston!
Sorry I pad playing up not my spelling ha ha blyton!
Virtually all of the above and Malcolm Saville (Lone Piners), still have The Secret of the Gorge oh and also Children of the New Forest by Captain Marryat set in the time of the Civil War. I'm sure lots more but memory dims.....
I could remember how much I enjoyed reading Patricia Lynch's books which were in my primary school's library. I thought I'd love to re-read them now I'm retired but found they were long out of print. To my joy, however, I managed to pick up two of her books - 'The Turf Cutter's Donkey' and 'The Bookshop on the Quay' - from Abe books. It was truly delightful to read them again after so many years and the stories were as lovely as I'd remembered them.
goose my earliest book memories are of Ginger, also Pen and Gwen. 'It was the first day of the holidays, Pen and Gwen were sleeping late. Mother penguin came and called them, Hurry! breakfast cannot wait!' It's well over 60 years since they were read to me and I later read them to my sister, but those opening lines have been etched into my memory.
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