Original Desmond

Had lots of classic Enid Blyton books which i just loved


Three Golliwogs, i don't think that is in print nowadays!

Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Mystery series, all the school series (st Clares etc), Amelia Jane and heaps of others

huffster

I know what you mean, I'm trying to find those first few books/series of books that I first read for pleasure back when I was 8 or so. Tom Swift, The Three Investigators, Encylopedia Brown, The Phyllis A. Whitney's series of mystery books. If I only knew how much they would impact me, I'd like to think I would have keep them around. But no, only after years have past do I realize their overall effect and importance.

BoatDrinks

I can remember falling alseep while my father read me One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

benedict

I too read the St Claire books; largely at the instigation of my mum! But, more to the point, I also read Blyton's Famous Five books, the Adventurous Four series and one or two others the names of which elude me just now. I didn't read the Secret Seven series as, even at eight or nine years old, I decided that she was taking things a little too far; milking it somewhat! Those Blyton books really marked the barrier between my childhood and my adult reading. Although, that said, I worked with a guy in his forties who said that he re-read the main series most years during the summer as a kind of enjoyable ritual!

I think I already mentioned, in one of last weekend's (in)famous Lost Threads, that I had kept a large number of my childhood novels in a bookshelf at my mum's house. Two or three years ago she decided to send a huge proportion of her belongings, including many books, to the charity shops just before selling the house. Sadly many of my books went at that time. I was not best pleased when I found out, I can tell you!

I've just looked through the boxes that were saved that are now at my place. Perhaps I'll catalogue the best of them and post a nostalgic list on the weekend. The funny thing is that I've noticed a set of Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons books: I didn't ever read that series so why they are present I cannot say! Ho hum....

[Edited by benedict on 04-26-01 at 11:27 AM]

Alien Redrum

Boy I loved Encyclopedia Brown. I also loved The Brain series.

Not to mention Choose Your Own Adventure and, although the weren't really "books", I loved Mad Libs.

-Steve

JMLEWIS1

I'm a notoriously senitmental pack rat and loved my books so much I did keep them. Most of them are The Golden Books and Ramona books, but there are a couple of cute classic (the Ms Nelson books about the teacher who teaches her kids a lesson by dressing up as a mean teacher), Freckle Juice, 101 Ways to Eat Fired Worms are a couple that spring to mind.

Original Desmond

after posting this i went in search of a good Enid Blyton site

this is the best one i found

http://www.blyton.net/

got details of all her books and series

Darren Garrison

If you want them back, get them back. http://www.auctionwatch.com, http://www.abebooks.com, http://www.bibliofind.com. You'll find them.

corsairp47

I've been slowly but surely re-acquiring my lost childhood favorites, thanks to the internet. If I ever have children, I want them to read these books. Recently picked up:

The Mouse and his Child. One of the most bizarre yet uplifting books I've ever read. This would make a great Gilliam movie, although I think someone already animated it. Somehow, the key to existence really is the last visible dog.

101 Dalmations. Probably the roots of my Anglophilia begin here. Now if I can get hold of the really strange sequel, The Starlight Barking.

Original Desmond

luckily because of her popularity most Enid Blyton books are available in new reprints from

http://www.amazon.co.uk

only 3.50 pounds each

I am gonna start buying some of them, probably in batches of 10.

smokedragon

I don't suppose anyone read the Bobby Brewster series?I can't remember the authors name, but I remember Bobby Brewster And The Magic Torch(that's flashlight in American).
Loved that series when I was a young 'un.

Juri

I loved the Susan Cooper books also when I was younger, as well as several stories by E. Nesbit (the phoenix one, and the psammydad or however it was spelled) as well as Madeline L'engle's books.

Juri

Was this the story about the toys -- the wind-up mouse and the son and the lady seal? I remember a story by that name. I even have it on tape somewhere I recorded over ten years ago...wonder if it even works anymore, heh.

Scarecrow

Anybody remember The Boxcar Children series?

redeyery

i absolutely loved the Boxcar Children Series!!! I remember reading theses a couple of different times!

Some of other favorites:
The Narnia Chronicles.
A Wrinkle in Time

thecrazydude

Does anyone remember a series called "The Happy Hollisters". It was about a family with 5 or 6 kids. They went on vacation alot and always got involved in solving a crime?

Linoge

I've been wanting for several years now to go back and read those Madeleine L'Engle again to see if they're as good as I remember. I'm also a little scared to do that for the same reason. I think there was 4 in the series when I read them. I think the first was A Wrinkle in Time?

Alien Redrum

Man, I remember reading those. I also remember thinking they were sooo good. I can definitely appreciate your fear of re-reading them.

Here are the titles (I think):
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters

-Steve

benedict

Alien Redrum and Linoge, until re-reading this thread I'd not twigged that there were sequels to L'Engles WIT book which I read and enjoyed years ago.

This weekend I'll be looking for something for my niece and will have to see if they remain in print over here: I bet I've left it to late to order aas her birthday is this coming Thursday.

Another author I have my eye on for her is Philip Pullman: two interviews.

Harry Potter books aside - she already read them - does anyone else have any wideranging recommendations: if possible, bear in mind that I am in the UK! Any ideas appreciated especially where background info can be supplied! Thanks.

Alien Redrum

After seeing The Mighty I checked out the book from the library. Although it's a young adult novel, I enjoyed it. There is even a part 2 called Max The Mighty.
Freak the Mighty
and
Max The Mighty

I have yet to read Max The Mighty, so I cannot comment on it.

The links have not been DVDTalk linkafied.

Good luck.

-Steve

benedict

Alien Redrum, thanks for the recommendation! I've noted it down and may well order those later for my nephew!

(When checking out the L'Engle WiT books I found that the one-volume quartet was significantly cheaper at B&N as compared to Amazon. Not sure about international postage though!)

There was a huge variety in my local Waterstones when I visited this afternoon: it makes me wish I had time to read through what is on offer on the teenage shelves but, as I'm still about 40 books behind in my own reading, I guess that is out!

In the end I settled for a series of books by Diana Wynne Jones; the Dalemark Quartet. If she likes them DWJ has penned one or two other series so I (or another family member) can think about getting those next year.

<small>As I've already got her a CD and some "girly" make-up (a female friend's suggestion) I'll probably give her the first two books now and the final two as part of her Christmas present.</small>

Merin

You might also try Robin McKinley; not all her books are for children, but when I was a kid I LOVED The Hero and the Crown. The Blue Sword was a sequel set some several hundred years after TH&TC and is pretty good also. Other books I loved by her included Beauty and Rosemary, Genetion and Juniper (I think that's the title).

tasha1

Oh my god! Are we related? My parents pulled that kind of stuff too. Did they take you to operas and Shakespeare plays long before you had any idea what they were about? I also had a 4th grade teacher who made me read The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder which totally baffled me at that age, even though I had a high vocab. What was she thinking?


Books I did like at various ages were:

Where the Wild Things Are (my favorite little kid book)
The Phantom Tollbooth
the whole Wrinkle in Time series
Encyclopedia Brown series
Dune
Anne McAffrey dragon books
Narnia books

tasha

dolphinboy

Thank you. Maybe we went to the same middle school.

I went to Amazon and I saw the Gold Newberry Medal on the hardcover just as I remembered it from like 7th grade.

Has the book been largely forgotten, do you know? Do younger kids still read it? Has it ever been adapted for film?

I'm gonna try and find it locally, I don't even want to wait for it to come in the mail. I wonder if it will still make me cry.

benedict

Just reading the description on Amazon choked me up!

After learning here for the first time that L'engle's "Wrinkle in Time" books were a series, remembering how much I enjoyed the first book, I later bought the set for my niece and nephew.

They are now aged 13 and 11 and I'm wondering what they would make of this one! Still, as I plan to get my niece Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy I guess this would be an apt gift also.

Almost inevitably, there is a dedicated Katherine Paterson website.