Favourite Childhood Books.

[TIGGYWINKLE]

Out of all the books I read as a child, these are the ones I loved best.My first favourite was The Little Red Hen. Then the Heidi Trilogy, What Katy Did, What Katy did next,Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, Little Women,Little men, Joe's boys, Good Wives,The Wind in the Willows,Charlotte web, Beatrix Potter,The Velveteen Rabbit, Old Tom's Cabin, Malory Towers, Ballet Shoes, and The Secret Garden.It was great reading them to my children, and now I have the joy of reading them to my grand-children. What were your favourites?

[franbee]

I loved the 3 Heidi books, What Katy did etc, Little women etc, The circus is coming by Noel Streatfield. I've still got some of them. I read all the Nancy Drew mysteries. Robin Hood, King Arthur, Ivanhoe.

[jazzactivist]

My first joys were books called Where is Mouse? and The Night Before Christmas. Later on I loved horse books: Come Home Brumby and Jill Rides Again etc. Also, the Famous Five, Mallory Towers and Nancy Drew, with a particular passion for the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingles Wilder which I know started off my interest in gardening and eco living.

[eleanor2]

my very very favorite were the famous five.i read and re read them over and over.some times now if i want to regress into a bit of old fashoined innocence in live i will read a famous five book.

[Oola]

I adored a book called Devon Venture, that I still get out and read even now! It's written and set in the 1950s, and is about two girls from Devon who had to move to London and hated it. They then get a chance to move back and live in a little cottage on a farm. I think that's where it all started for me...

I also used to read a lot of Nancy Drew books at school, and the whole Trebizon series, which I bought in paperwork and now have almost every one of. Judy Blume books were also popular when I was fairly young, as they covered some more adult themes like boys and sex, but in a really good way.

When I was about 12 or 13 I started getting into Maeve Binchy and I loved Circle of Friends. I longed for my own Jack!

From really early childhood I also used to read Strawberry Shortcake, and last year I went as far as to buy one of my absolute fave children's books - Strawberry Shortcake and the Crazy Pie Baking Contest. My sister had a lot of Winnie the Pooh poem books hanging around, and I remember this verse from one of the poems in "Now We Are Six":

Binker

Binker-what I call him-is a secret of my own,
And Binker is the reason why I never feel alone.
Playing in the nursery, sitting on the stair,
Whatever I am busy at, Binker will be there.

Oh, Daddy is clever, he's a clever sort of man,
And Mummy is the best since the world began,
And Nanny is Nanny, and I call her Nan-

But they can't See Binker.

Binker's always talking, 'cos I'm teaching him to speak
He sometimes likes to do it in a funny sort of squeak,
And he sometimes likes to do it in a hoodling sort of roar...
And I have to do it for him COs his throat is rather sore.

Oh, Daddy is clever, he's a clever sort of man,
And Mummy knows all that anybody can,
And Nanny is Nanny, and I call her Nan-

But they don't Know Binker.

Binker's brave as lions when we're running in the park;
Binker's brave as tigers when we're lying in the dark;
Binker's brave as elephants. He never, never cries...
Except (like other people) when the soap gets in his eyes.

Oh, Daddy is Daddy, he's a Daddy sort of man,
And Mummy is as Mummy as anybody can,
And Nanny is Nanny,and I call her Nan...

But they're not Like Binker.

Binker isn't greedy, but he does like things to eat,
So I have to say to people when they're giving me a sweet,
"Oh, Binker wants a chocolate, so could you give me two?"
And then I eat it for him, COs his teeth are rather new.

Well, I'm very fond of Daddy, but he hasn't time to play,
And I'm very fond of Mummy, but she sometimes goes away,
And I'm often cross with Nanny when she wants to brush my hair...

But Binker's always Binker, and is certain to be there.

[dinger]

I loved the Amelia Jane series and also Enid Blytons stories . I have picked up a very very old one of hers called The chrismas Story . Still as old as I am like to read them .As I got a little older about 12 I liked books by a lady I believe her name was Marjorie Keene similar to the famous five mysteries .Funny when we look back as even today books we loved still are by this generation.

[Katelb]

Dinger,I have got that book of Enid Blyton's'The Christmas Story' I still read it today.I expect you can guess where that will end up!!

[dinger]

Yes Kate someone begining with the letter E it is a sweet little book is'nt it.

[littlemiss]

i still have all my old books, the earliest being the classic 'peepo' then all the enid blyton books such as the faraway tree, the treasure seekers and all the famous five, i also loved the nancy drew mysteries, mallory towers, chimneys of green knowe, later on i read one of my all time favourites called 'thornyhold' i loved this book so much i decided to name our house thornyhold when it gets built, does anyone think kids today read as much as any of us did when we were their age or not?

[Crocus]

I actually had more Afrikaans Children's books, as Afrikaans is my home language. I had a lot of English friends, even before going to school, and did have some English Children's books like Noddy, some of Enid Blyton's books, Anne of Green Gables. xx

[jazzactivist]

I really liked Anne of Green Gables too, crocus, and actually our family house was called "Green Gables"! I also remember a series of books called "Sally Baxter - girl reporter", and took to carrying around a notebook and pen and wearing dark sunglasses all the time. For Afrikaans books I really liked "Rooikop Nellie" which we read at school. Do you remember it? I started reading adult books at the age of 9, as I had read every book in our local children's library and was given permission to change to the adult section. At that time I culdn't wait to get my hands on the historical romance books by Anya Seaton and Frank Yearby. That was my first taste of high romance and it seemed very exotic.

[JacquiMcR]

I deperately wanted to be Jo in Little Women. I wanted to go to Mallory Towers and have amazing adventures just like the Famous Five.

[Rustic Pumpkin]

I deperately wanted to be Jo in Little Women. I wanted to go to Mallory Towers and have amazing adventures just like the Famous Five.

Oh and me too! I think Mallory Towers has a great bearing on my current love for Harry Potter books!

As far as reading as a child goes, well, Little Women, Jo's Boys, Little Men and Good Wives. Also, Anne of Green Gables, A Candle in Her Room, Heidi series, Raggedy Anne and Andy, Milly Molly Mandy, Famous Five, Mallory Towers, What Katie Did, What Katie Did Next, and one I really enjoyed about a young girl in Chicago, I think, who loved the ballet. I think her name was Michelle, or Maxine, and she was obsessed by ballet. If anyone can fill in this title, I will be most grateful.

I always could be found hidden away in a corner of the house, in a bay window and behind a curtain reading a poetry book! I loved A Child's Garden of Verse.

What a delightful thread. I think I am going to have to revisit my childhood now!

[eleanor2]

you know i am so chuffed.the other week i sorted out all my childhod books.put them on a bookshelf in grandsons room.even tho he is only 4 he keeps getting them down and looking through them.telling himself tales.i hope this means he is going to enjoy reading as he grows up.

[souter girl]

Happy memories evoked by all your favourite childhood books! I too loved school stories - Malory Towers and St Clare's being my favourite oh and the Chalet School books I loved those, but I can also still remember the bliss of early primary school on a Friday afternoon when we were read to from the Enid Blyton "Adventure" series - Castle of Adventure etc. It laid the foundations for enjoying books on the radio - A Book at Bedtime, being a favourite, but how often did I fall asleep during the final instalment!! I also remember a book called I think Thirteen Thirteens - about 13 girls at the same (tiny) boarding school all called Margaret and the diminutive forms? Has anybody ever read that? Quite weird really, but my best friend at the time was called Margaret and I thought it the best name in the world!!!!!
I also have a friend who has written down the title of every book she has read since, I think her early adult years/late teens, plus occasional comments. She is now in her late 70'S - how long would that list be for you?

[sandybay]

What a lovely trip back to childhood hearing all the titles.

My faves were Heidi, Ballet shoes, The Chronicles of Narnia, any Enid Blyton.

My dad bought me two lovely books that made me feel so grown up, one and anthology of Greek myths and legends, the other was tales of Hans Christian Anderson.
Read 'em back to front and front to back many, many times.

Do you remember Janet and John. No doubt frowned upon nowadays as too 'middle class, with the parents being heterosexual, married and dad went out to work !

Hi, Souter Girl, nice to hear from you. What a wonderful thing your friend has done. My list would be enormous - always been an avid reader.

[Oola]

I've recently devoured 3 and a half Harry Potter books in the space of one week, and I have to say I am hooked. I love them so much! To the extent that I've been dreaming about the world of Harry Potter!!!! I wish I had read them sooner, I never really had anything as fantastic as them when I was at school.

[TIGGYWINKLE]

I reckon I have read about 5,000 books since I was 6 years old. That does not include all the books I read for the numerous things I studied.I have to admit I have not read a Harry Potter book- don't know why. It amazing how some many of us wanted to be Jo in Little women. I also had Katy and Pollyanna as role models. I have just remembered another series I loved as a child.The little books were narrow,and long with three pictures on each page,published by Brockenhurst Press.I had all The Mary Mouse Books. I found one in an antique book shop, and I am ashamed to say I paid £10 for it, but I wanted it to read to my little grand daughter who adores books and being read to. Any one remember these little books. My old collection would be worth a lot. My mother got rid of a lot of my books when I lived in England - no wonder I am a horder!