The children’s book you remember best

As a horse mad 6 year old I was given Black Beauty as a Christmas present. I read it so many times the spine fell off and then the front and back covers. Still remember it and love it.

The tree that sat down
Beverly Nichols

It was the William books for me by Richmal Crompton

Just so Stories. I actually purchased a (used) copy of this about 4 or 5 months ago.

Loved all the oldies, Heidi, what Katy did ,black beauty etc
but my favourite was All because of Gina . About a girl and a dog . I liked it so much that now I've grown up I bought it again .

Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingles Wilder and the Little Grey Rabbit Especially Christmas at the Rose and Crown.
At school Epopemandas and his mother and Pippi Longstocking.

Probably "Ballet Shoes" by Noel Steatfield (sp?). We had very few book and no access to a library - this was a life saver. I probably knew it almost by heart...
Then I had the T. Triby book in French as I am bilingual.

I remember loving Enid Blyton books. Was rather upset when I started at my grammar school and my Eng Lit teacher sneered at Blyton and said she hoped we didn't read them. OK they're hardly top literature but they really got the imagination going and were wonderfully absorbing stories.
Other than that, I loved Ruby Ferguson's Jill books - I think I imagined I was a pony girl at heart.

Just remembered (thanks to granMattie) the book I read over and over was White Boots, Noel Streafeild. I may not have been a pony girl but I certainly was a skater.

Cinderella, Ladybird edition. Madeline. Tales From Many Lands.

The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton, specifically the Magic Faraway Tree. I can remember wondering if I might find it in a local wood. I was a very imaginative child!

Pookie and the Gypsies, first published in 1953.
It was a prize I won in a writing competition when I was at Primary School (around 1960).

Ten Tall Oak Trees by Richard Edwards. Not my childhood book but one that I read to my son when he was young. It still resonates with me today, especially living in an area devastated by HS2
My younger daughter, now in her fifties remembers me reading The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway to her and her sister at bathtime. Of all the books I read to them this is the one that sticks in her mind.
My own favourites, The Famous Five, everybody’s favourite but there are dozens of others.

As a tomboy bookworm, my favourite books were the "Adventure" series by John Pudney; Monday Adventure, Tuesday... and when he'd finished the days of the week, Spring, Summer etc. Can't remember huge amounts about them now (Fred? Uncle George? Fort X?) but I loved them! Was also very found of Willard Price's Worldwide Adventures, and Jennings. I did read more girl-centred stuff too; Jill and her ponies particularly. I had the run of the library and my mother must have persuaded TPTB to allow me six tickets and to be able to use the adult section from about age eleven. Mum and I had six books each a week, my sister had four, and I'd read all of them (unless Mum's were really boring) by next week, some twice.

There were so many, I would bore you all sick if I listed them.

I learned to read when I was five, "Thank you, Mrs. Hamilton, you were the world's best teacher of Primary 1. Hope you are enjoying Heaven."

She must be there by now, as she was the mother of a 20 something year old son, when I was five, 65 years ago, so even if she was only just 40 and not the ancient lady I thought her then, I would definitely have heard about it if she were still in the land of the living.

I have literally read everything I could get my hands on as a child, but if I have to name one book above all others then I think it must be Winnie-the-Pooh.

Wow! I've never seen such a long thread!
I'll just add mine:

'The Children Who Lived in a Barn'
'Little Women'
What Katy Did' series
'Ballet Shoes'
'Swallows & Amazons'
The 'Famous Five' Books

It was a book about doing experiments like boiling water in a paper bag over a candle. Very stimulating of curiosity. Alas, I can't remember the title or author but it probably set me on a path of finding out and thinking independently.

I used to collect variously illustrated versions of 'The Water Babies' by Charles Kingsley I loved it so much.....but from 11 onwards - a terrible time in my childhood - I loved the Sam Pig Stories by Alison Uttley...

All the Winnie the Pooh stories of course. Still love listening to the audio books read by Alan Bennett. Perfection.

Has to be The Secret Garden first.
Then, several Elizabeth Goudge books and later on anything about horses - the Pullein-Thompson sisters come to mind.

William books

Little Women

Alison333

Wow! I've never seen such a long thread!
I'll just add mine:

'The Children Who Lived in a Barn'
'Little Women'
What Katy Did' series
'Ballet Shoes'
'Swallows & Amazons'
The 'Famous Five' Books

That just about covers mine as well Alison333 as an only child I was a voracious reader and haunted the library and Woolworth's children's classics when I had birthday and Christmas money.

Hattiehelga

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 other day, on one of our many well-packed bookshelves, I found an old hardback copy of Heidi - I didn’t even know we had it! Full colour pictures on every page. Must have come from a 2nd hand or charity shop, since 5p is written large, in red, inside.
GDd1 was entranced with the look of it and took it home to read.

Enid Blyton all the way for me ….The faraway tree series Then all the various school stories St Clare’s etc etc and secret seven famous five I have most of them still upstairs I read many other authors but always came back to Enid I know she went out of fashion and got lambasted but she’s was the reason I read so much as a kid
Without Enid Blyton I would never have got into the excitement of imaging a story Loved you how ever much the classical readers hated you

Molly Molly Mandy and as a 13 year old Little Women