The children’s book you remember best

Anyone else a fan of William? I still have some really old ones that belonged to my father - so funny. We used to have cassettes of William, read by Kenneth Williams - would play them in the car for much younger dds - hilarious.

Lucca

I loved this book (it didn’t look this then,.just plain dark blue!)

Anyone else read it ?

Yes Lucca. I loved Pamela Brown’s books.

Nobody's mentioned the "Wells" stories by Lorna Hill . I absolutely loved them and my DIL ( also a fan of the stories) gave me a set of paperbacks one birthday. I still read them occasionally - sort of a comfort blanket from childhood

I loved this book (it didn’t look this then,.just plain dark blue!)

Anyone else read it ?

Oh yes! Are you there God? It’s me. Margaret. Famous for the chant and actions, ‘I must, I must, I must increase my bust!’??

Little Women, Heidi and What Katy did. I read them, over and over. My first day at Grammar school, aged 11. I discovered libraries. Sadly, I hadn’t known of their existence till then. I soon made up for lost time.

As a 12 year old I devoured these.
These exact books with these covers.
Judy Blume. The woman is a genius.
Her books were quite risqué, but she has a unique talent to remember being an angst ridden, hormonal teenage girl.

A few years ago she wrote her first book for adults

So many to choose from and so hard to pick just one. As a young child l loved The Magic Faraway Tree and Peter Pan. As I grew older, Noel Streatfeild was my favourite author and, if forced to pick just one of these, it would be The Circus is Coming. I was and am a bookworm, though. Perhaps the one that influenced me most and was the most influential to me was She Shall Have Music by Kitty Barne.

Magic wishing chair from EB was my first.

Thought of some more, The Mallory Towers series, National Velvet, Follyfoot Farm. Anything to do with Boarding Schools or Horses…

Until I was 13 I lived opposite a library it was my quiet escape (parents were publicans so we lived in/above a very large pub /restaurant)

I loved 'Heidi', I got so caught up in her longing for the mountains, and feeling trapped in the big town house.
It makes me realise how powerless we are as children.
I also loved the Famous Five, but couldn't get on with Ransome.
If you want a trip down memory lane, Lucy Mangan's book 'A Memoir of Childhood Reading' is fabulous.

CS Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia, I know it’s silly but I do get cross when people say The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the first book when it’s actually The Magicians Nephew.

I also loved The Shoe series by Noel Streatfield

Oh my goodness I loved so many, among the stand outs though were Charles Kingsley and The Water Babies and Anna Sewell with Black Beauty.
I loved the Cs Lewis books. Enid Blyton when I was younger, Malcolm Saville Arthur Ransome ………I was probably a bit of a bookworm.

I loved The Borrowers and probably blamed them for all sorts of things. An avid library user from a young age as I am now.

So, so many. I loved ‘Little Women’ and have reread this as an adult. I also loved a series called Flambards, which was historical fiction but had a great heroine.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202203/medium-2889-92a3c0e5-1853-4466-a3aa-46a9d8c937ff.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202203/medium-744695-bfb770c6-bf71-42c1-a3e8-634b0a65c957.jpeg

Sorry, forgot a picture.

So many, and many of them mentioned on here. Little Grey Rabbit was a favourite and many of Enid Blyton’s books. I loved Theras an Athenian Boy and Annabel and Bryony. My favourite teen book was Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian.
Best surprise though because of writing this post, I looked up Annabel and Bryony, it’s now available on Kindle!!!

When I was 4 or 5, I had one book. It was still wartime...just...and everything was in short supply.
I had a book called...the Adventures of Polly Peppermint, which was in rhyming couplets and I learned by heart..a very unconventional girl.
About ten years ago, I had trouble sleeping, and tried to see how much I could remember. I did then track down a copy of this book, and found I was quite close.
Anyone else remember this one?

wolves not wives!

Joseph E Chipperfield books about wives and wild mustangs. It took me years to find a copy of my favourite, Ghost Horse. At the time ( in the fifties) they were going to protect the mustang herds but recently they’ve started to round them up by helicopter and send them to kill pens. There are several sanctuaries trying to find family groups and reunite them. The government say it’s for the well being of the horses but it’s because they want their land

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.
At the end of each schoolday, our teacher used to read part of a book to us and I remember her saying that she had chosen it as it was based in Yorkshire, which was where she had grown up.
Many years later when I was at work and she had retired, she was really surprised that I remembered it.
I also was really disappointed when they made a film - nothing like i expected it to be!
Oh I know that the subject is "a book" but I still would like to add The House at Green Knowe by Lucy Boston

That sounds vaguely familiar...

I was a precocious reader and read loads from a young age. I enjoyed the famous five and the five find outers. But the novel which stands out was 'When Marnie was there' by Joan Robinson. It was the first slightly spooky book I read and I was enthralled.

What Katy did (next, and at school, too)
The secret garden.
The famous 5 books.
The wickedest witch in the world.
Anything by Enid Blyton.
Books about Brer Rabbit and co.
Also a book about 3 children in Sweden who lived on a farm; Lars, Olaf, and Pip.

Down the Bright Stream, The Secret Garden, Royal Chase by Joan Selby Lowndes, The Great House by Cynthia Harnett. Still have them all. Never managed to interest my DDs in any of them.