• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Favourite Children's books

The Dark is Rising and the Chronicles of Narnia. But mainly as a child, I was absorbed by the Hollow Tree books, three brilliant and regretably out of print books about a raccoon, possum, and crow who lived together in a giant hollow tree.
 
Jules Verne - just about everything I could get.
Tom Sawyer (over and over)
Rick Brant series
Childhood of Famous Americans series
 
Some great choices there ladies and gentlemen( Much safer than messing about with them apostrophes when Gravy is around).Enid Blyton's 5 and 7 series were read until they were dog-eared, although my favourite Blyton book was, "The Boy Next Door". I also used to love "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and anything to do with King Arthur( might be a British thing?)!
 
Oh oh oh. Also, The Boy Who Reversed Himself. And the Oz books.

Does anybody else here remember the Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark books? The stories weren't much, but the illustrations terrified me as a child.
 
A couple of more obscure ones that I loved as a pre-teen:

I Am David by Anne Holm. I think it was originally written in Danish. It's about a boy who escapes from a concentration camp he's been in for as long as he can remember. The descriptions of his experiences, as he sees things he's never seen before, like an orange, are moving and beautiful.

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill. Very amusing and subversive story of pushcart owners in New York who bring the city to a halt with peashooters and pins.
 
Five Children and It

Story of the Amulet

Phoenix and the Carpet

House of Arden

Enchanted Castle

Wet Magic

All by E. Nesbit
 
I'd like to add to my list:

The Green Knowe books
It's Like This, Cat
The Blue Cat of Castletown
Cherry Ames, Student Nurse
 
Jon. said:
A couple of more obscure ones that I loved as a pre-teen:

I Am David by Anne Holm. I think it was originally written in Danish. It's about a boy who escapes from a concentration camp he's been in for as long as he can remember. The descriptions of his experiences, as he sees things he's never seen before, like an orange, are moving and beautiful.

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill. Very amusing and subversive story of pushcart owners in New York who bring the city to a halt with peashooters and pins.
Click to expand...

I listed I Am David in my favourites earlier. Nice to meet another fan. :) I read it several times while I was growing up, and again just recently. My admiration for it has not diminished. It is a powerful tale of a boy fending for himself (similar in that way to My Side of the Mountain), and his insights into things we take for granted are very moving and deep. The ending always brings a tear to my eye.
 
Grim brothers Fairy tales, Narnia and Hans Andersons Fairy tales are among my all time favourties.

Black Beauty, Treasure Island, gave me pirate ideas all those years ago,The Secret Garden being another and What Katy did next.

There were so many I loved reading as a child and although I went through a period of not reading I am now re-introducing my love of literature to myself.
 
The Secret Garden! Thanks for reminding me, CC. I loved it, and read it several times. Also A Little Princess.

I was an avid reader (still am). While my sisters were riding horses and going to shows and gymkhanas, I was reading (and drawing).
 
I have just finished reading "The Jungle Book*" to my kids, My wife has just finished Arthur Ransome's "Secret Water"


*surprisingly not wince-inducing, given its era (try getting past the worldview in H Rider Haggard's "King Soloman's Mines", ouch).

The previous book, that the kids enjoyed my reading was Diana Wynne Jones "Power of Three", I was really pleased to find that at a secondhand bookshop, as I clearly remembered that from childhood. I am wondering if they are too young for "Archer's Goon" This was also the cause of one of the best radio Times listings, "Archer's Goon is in the kitchen demanding his £2000, but who is Archer?" Just before the Jeffery Archer libel trial where he was accused of paying a prostitute £2000...

I saw some reviews of the Uncle stories I mentioned in the OP (Has anyone else come across them?)

Many people seem to have missed the subversive streak in J P Martin's descriptions. Fawningly stating that Uncle is wonderful, whilst the behaviour is obviously of a pompous and vain "boaster", whilst one of his allies (Dr Lyre, real name "A. Liar") is a liar, for example.

I think a subversive streak is good in children's literature, the "Agaton Sax" series by Nils Olof Franzen was good for this. And it makes it more fun for the adults to read.


Thanks Gregory for reminding me of The Dark is Rising, one of the first fantasy series that I read.
 
"How the Leopard Got His Spots" gives the Ethopian a line that modern parents wouldn't read aloud to their kids, but other than that, Kipling kept his nose remarkably clean.

"And Baviaan winked. He knew."
 
I loved:

Alexander and the Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
The World of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

I remember reading The Value Tales to some of the kids I babysat, and those were cool.

As an adult, I love Harry Potter.

-A
 
Last edited:
The Cat From Telegraph Hill by Edith Thacher
The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright
The War of the Worlds by HG Well (illustrated by Edward Gorey)
 
"The Librarian and the Robbers" by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by (yup) Quentin Blake

Just read this to my kids
As soon as the robbers' ransome note was received by the City Council there was a lot of discussion. Everyone was anxious that things should be done in the right way.

'What is it when our librarian is kidnapped?' asked a councillor. 'Is it staff expenditure or does it come out of the cultural fund?'

'The cultural committee meets in a fortnight,' said the Mayor. 'I propose we let them make a decision on this.'
Click to expand...

Utterly insane, but supreme internal logic...

Later on the robber chief gets shelved (alphabetically) on the library as a way of avoiding capture by the policeman, he doesn't have a library card, so can't take the robber out of the library...
 
When I was really little, Noisy Nora.
The Frog and the Toad books
Anything by Shel Silverstein
Anything by Dr Suess
Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass
The Chronicles Of Narnia
A Wrinkle In Time
The Hardy Boys series
The Ramona books
Anything by Judy Blume
Some series of books about a vampire bunny that I cannot recall the name of now.
a lot of Piers Anthony novels, the Xanth novels, the Incarnations of Immortality and a series of Sci-Fi/Fantasy cross-overs that he did as well.
 
All of a Kind Family. How could I forget All of a Kind Family!

The family is Jewish and there's a wonderful librarian!
 
Another quote from "Uncle Cleans Up", which I was reading to my kids, a couple of nights ago...

[Uncle and entourage are visiting "The Fish Frying Academy" run by Professor Gandleweaver" which (from context) is a con, as it takes two years of theory before being allowed near a fish, one student, who brought a crab in, saying it "Just needed turning out of its shell" is now being made to write out a thousand times, "Crab cooking is difficult, and it takes months of careful study before one can even begin to understand it".]
...stood Professor gandleweaver. He was a short stout man with shifty eyes, and he did not look very learned. Yet he must have been, for he had all sorts of diplomas pinned up on the wall behind the range.
Click to expand...


" Yet he must have been, for he had all sorts of diplomas pinned up on the wall behind the range."

[later on, we find that Profesor Gandleweaver always burns the fish, and uses stale batter. Also (one of his employees has been working for nothing, because he had ben promised a partnership, which makes me think about the MLM thread in business skepticism.]

See why I think it is amusingly subversive, and good for encouraging sceptical thinking?
 
Grimble and Grimble at Christmas by Clement Freud.

Beautifully written and very strange. At least they were for me when I was 12.

They are available on the net but sadly I am not experienced enough here to post the link.
 
This far and no mention of Roald Dahl... Charlie and the chocolate factory is definately worth it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom