Your fav author from childhood

Enid Blyton opened the door to reading for pleasure. From their I loved Noel Streatfield and Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Two of my favourite authors growing up that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet are Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables series and Pamela Brown who wrote The Swish of the Curtain and it's sequels.

Heidi (joanna Spryi?) Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys - LM Alcott - Enid Blyton - Secret Seven and Famous Five - Thomas the Tank Engine (etc) Mallory Towers (oh how I envied those lucky lucky girls) - onwards and upwards to older subjects ie Jean Plaidy, Catherine Cookson, and (memory failing here so may be wrong) Margaret Campbell Barnes - historical novels with a whiff of sexual excitement - for me as a 14/15 year old. May be time to re-read some of them

So ...from Wiki ....
“ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a short story in the 1894 anthology The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling about the adventures of a valiant young Indian mongoose. It has often been anthologised, and has been published several times as a short book.”

I don’t recall anything short about it.
?

I wasn't a little middle class girl, Grandma70s but always had plenty of books and was obsessed with ponies. I thought all lucky middle class girls had their own ponies and could take them to boarding school with them!

Also DoraMarr poster above has reminded me of Joyce Lankester Bristley. I could not get enough of MillyMolly Mandy

Sorry.
Grandma70

Oh do go on Granny70 it’s wonderful. We didn’t own many books as children. We were taken to the library and told to choose quietly now.

I recall at junior school being read to by the teacher. Riki Tikki Tavi. ? Is that Rudyard Kipling. I must check. I thought it was a bit boring anyway to be honest.

Do junior children still get read a ‘classic’ by their teachers, a chapter at a time?

Tove Janson and the Borrowers author,

Also Noel Streatfield.

Really disliked Enid Blyton.

Although I happily read any book placed in front of me as a child, one of my favourites was ‘Pyewacket’ by Rosemary Weir.

Another book I loved was ‘The Incredible Journey’ by Sheila Burnford.

There might be a theme developing here but another I enjoyed was ‘Lassie Come Home’ by Eric Knight.

The first autobiographical book I remember reading was ‘Come Into My World’ by Buster Lloyd-Jones.

I could keep listing books and authors but my first love was, and still is, anything related to animals.

Enid Blyton, I think I read every book.

Hopefully my granddaughter will enjoy them as much.

Enid Blyton when I was very young but I also enjoyed many other authors

I loved Lorna Hill books, too, M0nica.
Susan Coolidge, Monica Edwards, Jane Shaw (the Susan books, I did empathise with Susan who was always so clumsy!), Joanna Spyri, Elinor Brent Dyer, Malcolm Saville (wonderful).

Thank goodness I came to my senses when my DD was born

That just had me giggling May7!

I’d forgotten Milly Molly Mandy!

For a younger age group, but I loved the Teddy Robinson books. By Joan Robinson, I think? Also Blackberry Farm, when I first started reading.

After Arthur Ransome, many of the authors you mention, Grandma70s The 'Katy did' series, also, very similar 'Little Women', then Noel Streatfield, Lorna Hill, The Pullein-Thompson sisters. I too loved poetry, still do.

By 11 I was into John Buchan, DK Broster, Georgette Heyer and others that bridge the gap between childhood and adult.

Noel Streatfield. Ballet Shoes, etc

Elinor M.Brent-Dyer. Chalet School books.

Also the book " The Wide, Wide World", but can't remember the author.

I also loved all the Greek Myths and Legends.

Mazo de la Roche

Loved The Chalet School, and Mallory Towers. Always wanted to be like Daryl .

I only liked Enid Blyton’s non-fiction stuff. She did a very good book on birds, and good natural history books.

I loved the Katy books, and anything by Noel Streatfeild. The children in those books were real, living characters, as was Just William. My problem with Arthur Ransome (my brother’s favourite) was that I thought the children characterless and boring. Lorna Hill’s books managed to combine ballet and ponies, which I thought was very clever. Every middle-class little girl seemed to be obsessed with one or the other, or both.

We had Alice in Wonderland (dramatised) on a series of 78 rpm records, and I knew those before I read the books.

Milly Molly Mandy was read to us at school. I loved it, but never owned the books. When we were older, about nine or ten, a book about Marco Polo was read to us. I have no idea who wrote it and have never been able to trace it, but we all adored it. This was about 1950.

I liked Mary Plain, the Swiss bear, but can’t remember the author. Also, of course, Winnie the Pooh. I can’t bear the Disneyfication of Pooh.

I always read a lot of poetry. My mother gave me two children’s anthologies, which I still have, and I was always reading the Poetry sections of Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia. Anything from nursery rhymes to Shakespeare - I wasn’t fussy.

I could go on....
.

Enid Blyton for me. I’ve still got several Famous Five and River/Island/Circus etc of Adventure books, not to mention the wonderful Faraway Tree stories. Whenever DD comes to stay she rereads the lot!

Heidi for me by Joanna Spyri. I ached for her loss when she was removed from the mountains and her grandfather. Such a sad tale upsets me now even to think of it.
Yes and What Katy did series was wonderful. Always thought if I had a daughter I would call her Clover
Thank goodness I came to my senses when my DD was born

Any Enid Blyton book but the 5 Find Outers were my favourites, the Chalet School books, the Hardy Boys series the Bobbsey Twins series, the Andrew Lang books of Fairy Tales (some of these were quite dark and scary), the William books. Loved them all!

Mary O'Hara, My Friend Flicka; Ruby Ferguson, Jill's Gymkhana and the rest of the Jill books; the Pullein Thompson sisters ; Henry Williamson, Greatheart and other animal stories ; Primrose Cummings, Silver Snaffles and other pony stories.

Aw dorramarr that was the two books I won for my English efforts. What Katy did and what Katy did next. I recently turned 60 and I bought this book as treat and a walk down memory lane! I did love Enid blyton though. All those adventures!,

Thank you Nottooold I’d forgotten Malcolm Saville, loved the Lone Pine books.

I liked Hans Christian Anderson and Brothers Grimm.