The children’s book you remember best

I remembered there was a thread about this years ago, so I googled for my own response - and here it is, copied and pasted, from 2016!

"Oh, memories!! When I was tiny: the Tommy the Tugboat series by Marjory Beresford and the Little Grey Rabbit series by Alison Uttley; then The Ship that Flew; all the "Jill" pony books, and the pony books by the 3 Pullein-Thomson sisters; The Three Jays series by showjumper Pat Smythe; all my brother's Biggles books - and I never found them racist, which they're accused of being today! - Black Beauty .... Monica Dickens' books about Tamsin, Rissa and their ponies, then when I was about 12 my Mum introduced me to Georgette Heyer's wonderful Regency romances."

Back to today - if I had to choose just one, it'd be Tommy the Tugboat, whose author I got completely wrong in 2016; it was Dora Thatcher who wrote him.

Grandmajean
How lovely that you enjoyed 'Susan Pulls the Strings'. There were a series of 'Susan' books and I loved them all. I used to save up my pocket money to buy them from a local shop. Would be very dated now though I fear. Another favourite book was 'The Children Who Lived in a Barn' by Eleanor Graham, about children whose parents disappear and are evicted so go to live in a Barn and have to fend for themselves. Does anyone else remember it? I was a proper bookworm as a child and loved Ballet Shoes, Little Women, What Katy Did and just about everything else. My daughter loved the Dick King Smith books and I enjoyed reading them to her.

FannyCornforth

Oh that’s lovely.
Have you seen the film?
It makes DH cry.
So many children’s books…
I’ll be back with pictures Maw

Milly molly Mandy was a special favourite for me and when I was about 9 or 10 it was little woman.

All the Arthur Ransome stories - Pigeon Post and Winter Holiday are my favourites. They should be my Mastermind subject as I inherited my Mum's set and still read them at 60 plus.

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. I'd taken The Cat in the Hat out from the library the previous week, loved it and was beside myself with excitement to find another by the same author, which turned out to be even better.
Also loved the Sue Barton series about a nurse working her way up the ranks from student to top cat.

Green eggs and ham!
I'd forgotten that!

Pony books, Monica Edwards and all Pullein-Thompson books. Memories, I still have lots of them. Loved them all.

I too loved the Arthur Ransome books, " They didn't mean to go to sea" being my favourite- the excitement of the children ending up at sea is so vivid still. However, my absolute favourite book was Stig of the Dump and I was so pleased to introduce ot to my grandson recently. My children were never readers but my love of books has thankfully skipped a generation as DGS loves reading as much as I did at his age - 8.

Zoejory, I too absolutely loved Struwwelpeter. Also found at my grandmother's house, it was one of my favourite books because it was so scary. Especially the boy who had his fingers cut off with the shears! I found a copy in a book shop and gave it to my granddaughter. Her mother didn't approve because it wasn't PC enough!

The Narnia series by CS Lewis
The lone pine series by Malcolm Saville
Anne of green gables
Heidi

Always Little Women for me and close second Mallory Tower

For me there were a few, In particular What Katy did by Susan Coolidge and Heidi by Johanna Spyri...these were read cover to cover many times over.
When I was really little I liked the Topsy and Tim books, and I also remember Mrs Pepper Pot, Milly Molly Mandy and Bobby Brewster. I can still remember the thrill of being in the library and the librarian putting the card out of the book into the little brown envelope that had my name on. Wonderful memories. I still have a massive love of reading.

I never read little grey rabbit as a child but a relative bought a book and tape when first child was around a year old. We put toddler to bed with the tape on very night and I was transfixed, so lovely and soothing. We played it so much the tape stretched and eventually had to bin it - I was more upset than anyone else in family!
I read all the Greek myths (Dad big fan), Swallows and Amazons and the subsequent books, any pony book even though no chance of me ever getting a pony in our city environment. Got 6 books out of library every week and even read the encyclopaedia if nothing else around…..if only I’d had Google ?

Heidi and Pollyanna, I used the phrase be thankful Pollyanna to both my boys and they still use it today and say that's a Pollyanna moment! It's surprising what sticks in the mind!
Also The Famous Five for me and I read to them The Magic Faraway tree over and over, and then progressed to Harry Potter.

I loved the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe I loved all the books in the series and read them all so many times

Mine was Birds of our Garden by Enid Blyton started me on a life long love of local birds and wildlife.

My favourite was Brer Rabbit, but as I got older , any of the Enid Blyton books.
This set me up as an avid reader.

A neighbour gave me her adult daughter’s childhood books when I was little. A lot of them were school stories which I loved, I had already started collecting Mallory Towers and St Clare’s books. I still have most of them, some have been mentioned on here, and I have been known to dip into them as an adult! A previous poster mentioned Kandy the Koala Bear, I have one of those books as well. I remember borrowing a book from the library but can’t remember the title. It was about some children who were playing in sand dunes and found a wooden door. I’m almost sure the door was part of a house buried by the sand and they managed to get into it. I can’t remember any more but I know I really enjoyed reading it at the time

This was my favourite book also Teddy Robinson, bought a new copy to read to my GS

Always been a keen reader and many loved books but the one that my granny gave me was called Girl from the Limberlost and told the story of a girl who wanted to go to school or college and her mother was very taciturn and unhelpful (today you would say she had mental problems ) But she collects butterflys and moths and sells them to get the money for her course. She gets one to fulfill a set and her mother wrecks it and then she has to start again etc. Very non p.c.. in these days but I loved it , all the self sufficiency and the wildness etc and definitely saw myself in the role. Loved many different books but again childrens classics like children of the new forest and little women etc etc and yes arthur ransome et c etc.

The book I remember most of all from my childhood was Child of China by Maria Gleit which I read at about 9 or 10. It was about a terrible flood and famine. I can’t remember now how it ended but I do recall how the children came across a rotten watermelon which they ate. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Witzend, I will never forget borrowing the William books from Dovecot library near us in Liverpool. It was war time and my mother never had the time, energy or money to buy me books as the war was on when I was only 5, so I went to the library with my sister. I loved the Jane books by Evadne Price too. When I went to a new school when I was 11, my mother filled a school satchel with books by Charles Dickens, but I did not take an interest then. As I was not in the Woke era I read avidly but Enid Blyton took me into an exciting world and I read all the famous 5 books. Interestingly, I had also read Charlotte’s Web and the Borrowers but that was when I was studying for my Australian Librarians Association qualification as I was in charge of School Libraries in Papua. That was in the 70s so we have quite a large spread of members here.

Can I say thank you to the OP for starting this thread. I love sharing childhood memories!

ah so many! and many already mentioned but I will chip in with "The little wooden horse" by Ursula Moray Williams
and "The Silver Sword" by Ian Serraillier

Heidi. It was magical. I still have my hard cover copy and it is in pristine condition 70 years on !!
I intend to give it to my granddaughter.

The Silver Sword by Ian Serrallier. It affected me very deeply when I read it only 20 years after the war.