The children’s book you remember best

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. I was always horse mad. Did make me cry though!

Adrisco mentioned Elizabeth Enright. I loved her book ‘Thimble Summer’ about a girl living on a farm in Wisconsin during a terrible drought. The girl, whose name was Garnet, found a silver thimble and then it rained and her family’s luck turned. Although the author was American it was published by Puffin in the 1950s as it won the Newberry Medal for childrens fiction. I was given it as a present. My original book is long gone but I was able to buy a copy a few years ago. Wonderful!

All the books mentioned by the Gransnetters were the favourites of my children.
Mine was Sunday Sunshine a book of very moral stories. Grimes Fairy Tales and Hans Anderse Tales. I still have those books. I could read when I was four . Ninety five years ago.

Just read, up thread, and I'd forgotten about The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I loved that series too. I was an avid reader and still am.

Probably my No.1 favourite was The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater. After that, Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting. I was allowed to walk to the public library by myself aged about 9 years. We lived in Sutton Coldfield. I also loved the Famous Five and Secret Seven by Enid Blyton. None of them would be considered PC nowadays.

Too many to list as I was an avid reader from before I started school at 4years old! I would have to say the Katy books, Little Women and Heidi plus every Enid Blyton book I could get my hands on!

Being brought up in a non reading household where the only book was entitled”Public Speaking for Clergymen” it was my favourite until the age of 6. Then a new teacher started and told me I was a throw back to the Victorians as I could quote Euclid but had never heard of Thomas the Tank Engine. Funny the comments of adults one recalls 70 years later!!

The Borrowers. I won it at school for being the best all rounder. It meant the world to me to be chosen for a prize.

The Children of The New Forest by Captain Marryat.
Read this when I was 9-10 years old. Found a couple of parts scary.
I had no idea how to pronounce Phoebe so had a think now and then as to what she was called. Never found out until I was in my late teens/early twenties! I never thought to 'ask a grownup'!
I also loved The Wind in the Willows, The Waterbabies and Alice in Wonderland among many more!
I'm still an avid reader and regularly read at least 4-6 books a week.
I wouldn't be without my Kindle. A couple of friends told me to get one after I had an accident which affected my arms, hands and neck as well as my mobility, which is still compromised over 12 years later! Books are too heavy to hold and turning pages is painful. I put my Kindle on my 'Bookseat' (from Amazon) and life's a dream after that. I first bought the 'keyboard Kindle' but I now use my Kindle Oasis which is brilliant. Being able to read keeps me from feeling low as I'm unable to garden now although I do a lot of planning regarding the garden.

I remember so fondly a book where a little child is given a black poodle puppy. I loved it and have never been able to find the title as I have got older. If anyone has an idea of what it was, please let me know!

The sea of adventure and the valley of adventure series.

For all young children today The Gruffalo and all Julia Donaldson books.

Monica Edwards, and all by the Pullein-Thompson sisters.

Alice in Wonderland and The Faraway Tree - hard to choose the better of the two!

So many books that I loved are mentioned here. All E. Nesbit especially Railway Children and of course Tom’s Midnight Garden.
I did love Heidi too, but mine was a Woolworths Regent Classics edition which must have been heavily edited. Read the full version recently and it was full of heavy sermonising ?‍?

Probably I’ve mentioned this before but E. Blyton was not liked by many children’s lit professionals because she wrote so many books, 200+. This meant a child could go through childhood reading no other authors. From Noddy with its now acknowledged racism through to the Tree of Adventure etc for older children.

The Faraway Tree I loved it so much! Bought the book and dvd for dgd and she still talks about it - she’s now a 24 year old nurse! We watched the dvd so much with her I could recite the words ?!

Milly Molly Mandy! Darned predictive text!

Molly Molly Mandy and as a 13 year old Little Women

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

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.

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.

William books

Little Women

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.

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

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...