Forgotten children's book from your childhood.

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  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    I'm not sure if this thread will take off, but let's have a go.:)

    When you was a kid there were books you loved or were really popular but now you never hear of them or don't see them on the bookshelves, even in libraries.

    Some authors have carried on being popular over the years; Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carrol etc, but some have just disappeared.

    Which books did you like as a child or were popular at the time that are gone and almost forgotten.

    When I was growing up te teacher used to read the class stories. One we had read to us was Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Proysen.
    I can barely remember anything that happened in the book but I do remember really looking forward to the end of the day at scool when we would be read a bit more of the story for us.
    It's probably a load of old rubbish by today's standards.

    Whilst I was Googling the author I found out that this week on Radio 4 Extra has been doing a radio dramatization of the book. The final part is this week. So maybe not forgotten after all.

    I remember that! :D I think I remember one story where she went shopping to try to help her husband remember what to buy, but he couldnt hear what she was saying, being the size of a pepperpot I guess :D
    I also remember Odysseus, The Greatest Hero of them All by Tony Robinson (love those books he did) and one called Avalanche.
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    I remember that! I had Tales of Mr. Pink Whistle (which I think was two books in one volume) in the 80's but long gone now :(
    Anyone remember Mr. Browser and the Brain Sharpeners by Philip Curtis, about some aliens who kidnapped kids and made them really intelligent, or something?
    Loved the Mr. Majeika books by Humphrey Carpenter too :D
  • PixieGrayPixieGray Posts: 212
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    Wow, I'm remembering all the old Ladybird books I had as a little girl in the early seventies. There were the usual fairy tales - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc - and there were the more obscure tales such as The Magic Porridge Pot, The Big Pancake, The Old Woman and Her Pig, The Enormous Turnip and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

    I still have them all boxed away in the loft. Now I want to find them and look at them again....if only for the 1950's illustrations that somehow capture the magic and innocence of these wonderful tales.

    I feel so nostalgic now :o
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 8,145
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    I loved anything by dick king smith, and a bit older - the point horror books.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 613
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    I used to love The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was at school,which I borrowed from the library there,also the Magicians Nephew,these are the two books that actually started off my love for reading,and I have never stopped since.
  • Phoenix LazarusPhoenix Lazarus Posts: 17,305
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    PixieGray wrote: »
    Wow, I'm remembering all the old Ladybird books I had as a little girl in the early seventies. There were the usual fairy tales - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc - and there were the more obscure tales such as The Magic Porridge Pot, The Big Pancake, The Old Woman and Her Pig, The Enormous Turnip and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

    I still have them all boxed away in the loft. Now I want to find them and look at them again....if only for the 1950's illustrations that somehow capture the magic and innocence of these wonderful tales.

    I feel so nostalgic now :o

    Yes. Of the story books, I recall Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and Snow White and Rose Red, which was a variant on the more familiar Snow White story. The factual ones were great introductions to topics, and I loved the ones on dinosaurs and pirates.

    The more modern Ladybird Books took much less trouble over illustrations, but the older ones were beautifully drawn.
  • Mrs MackintoshMrs Mackintosh Posts: 1,870
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    Good news :)
    I know who wrote it....The Three Elizabeths is written by Jessie Margaret Page

    Good News 2 :)
    I found a hardback copy of it :)

    Bad news :cry:
    It costs £35

    http://www.abebooks.co.uk/Three-Elizabeths-Page-Cable-Lindsay-Illus/9227164556/bd

    Wee McGreegor....? Sure it's not Wee MacGregor by J.J. Bell?

    If it is I found it and a couple of his books, but they are in the US. They vary in price, most being under £10 but the postage whacks it up to £20+

    http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/wee-macgregor/author/bell/sortby/3/page-1/


    Wow! I can't thank you enough. I even started a thread on here about a year ago but had no luck regarding The Three Elizabeths. This is how J R Hartley must have felt when he finally found Fly Fishing.

    Thanks again. And yes, you're right it's Wee McGregor, I remember it as "McGreegor" for some reason.
  • LibrarywitchLibrarywitch Posts: 258
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    My favourites were the Topsy & Tim books, a book called Emil & the Detectives, Come Back Lucy by Pamela Sykes, My Best Fiend by Sheila Lavelle and then as a teenage I used to love the Sweet Dreams teen romances and things like My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel! I loved those books from my local library so much, I ended up working there when I grew up!!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 86
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    When very young I loved The Jolly Postman books and bought my youngest the Xmas one last year.
    A bit older I liked My Naughty (Little?) Sister I think my Mum still has that tucked away somewhere.
    When I hit my teen years I liked Point Horror (still kept some of my faves:o) and Sweet Valley Twins/High/University...gosh I was mad on them and I still have the full collections boxed up as I refuse to part with them lol.
  • alcockellalcockell Posts: 25,160
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    Botterstikes and Gumbles
    Fattypuffs and Thinnifers

    Both I read in the 1970s. I can't recall the authors of either.
    Wikipedia is your friend - SA Wakefield.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottersnikes_and_Gumbles

    Latter is by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Maurois
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fattypuffs_and_Thinifers
  • trinity2002trinity2002 Posts: 16,059
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    Can anyone remember Jayne Fisher's Garden Gang books about fruit and vegetable characters, from the late 70's and early 80's?

    She was only 9 when she first started writing and illustrating them. I used to have them all when I was younger, but it took Google years later to remember what they were called.
  • wuffleswuffles Posts: 45,734
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    Does anyone remember the Professor Braynestaum (sp) books by Norman Hunter?
  • Phoenix LazarusPhoenix Lazarus Posts: 17,305
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    wuffles wrote: »
    Does anyone remember the Professor Braynestaum (sp) books by Norman Hunter?

    Yes-the balding, multi-spectacle-wearing, white coated genius of Upper (Lower?) Pagewell, whose best friend was Colonel (General?) Dedshot (Bagshot), and whose long-suffering housekeeper was called Mrs Flittersnoop. His antics including a revolving above-ground restaurant with a panoramic view, whose speed got out of control, and a device that brought photos of himself at various different ages to life, filling the room with squabbling Branestawms.

    I believe the man who wrote them also wrote the Dribblesome Teapot and Other Stories, which were amusing children's stories. Norman Hunter was the author, wasn't it?
  • ChristopherJChristopherJ Posts: 976
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    Not sure if they're 'forgotten', but they're out of print now:

    What To Look For In Spring
    What To Look For In Summer
    What To Look For In Autumn
    What To Look For In Winter

    Four Ladybird nature books about the changing seasons, written by E.L. Grant-Watson and superbly illustrated by C.F. Tunnicliffe. I still have them and they are still an absolute delight.

    I realised only recently that because each illustration must show all of the info contained on the facing page, the scenes depicted are unnaturally crowded with different specimens of flora and fauna, and this has the strange effect of making each image seem to be bursting with life. It's a measure of how good an illustrator Tunnicliffe was that, generally, he managed to make this seem quite unforced and natural.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,440
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    Wow! I can't thank you enough. I even started a thread on here about a year ago but had no luck regarding The Three Elizabeths. This is how J R Hartley must have felt when he finally found Fly Fishing.

    Thanks again. And yes, you're right it's Wee McGregor, I remember it as "McGreegor" for some reason.

    You're very welcome :)

    Perhaps you had no luck with Wee Macgregor because it's Mac rather than Mc which is quite unusual.
  • wuffleswuffles Posts: 45,734
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    Yes-the balding, multi-spectacle-wearing, white coated genius of Upper (Lower?) Pagewell, whose best friend was Colonel (General?) Dedshot (Bagshot), and whose long-suffering housekeeper was called Mrs Flittersnoop. His antics including a revolving above-ground restaurant with a panoramic view, whose speed got out of control, and a device that brought photos of himself at various different ages to life, filling the room with squabbling Branestawms.

    I believe the man who wrote them also wrote the Dribblesome Teapot and Other Stories, which were amusing children's stories. Norman Hunter was the author, wasn't it?

    Yes, it was Norman Hunter. My favourite Braynestawm story was the one where he mislaid a library book and ended up having to borrow about fourteen copies of the same one from various Pagwell libraries cos he kept mislaying them.:D
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    Some of my favourite little-known nowadays childhood books were ones I borrowed from my local library in the late 70s & early 80s. They were hardbacks and possibly all a bit old then, and usually ones that weren't part of a series, and often ones that had also been read on Jackanory. Things like The Doll in the Wall (Lake District mystery with a doll called Sara Crewe, like the Little Princess), or Along Came a Dog (man makes rubber shoes for his pet chicken after her toes freeze off, and the dog becomes her best friend and protects her from nasty chickens), or The Multiplying Glass (girl finds big mirror that makes two alter-egos magically appear, one her naughty side, one her good side) or A Circling Star (19th century girl in ballet school in St Petersburg).... most of the ones I've remembered, I've managed to track down again as an adult, almost all in the right edition too, which makes me happy. :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 349
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    PixieGray wrote: »
    Wow, I'm remembering all the old Ladybird books I had as a little girl in the early seventies. There were the usual fairy tales - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc - and there were the more obscure tales such as The Magic Porridge Pot, The Big Pancake, The Old Woman and Her Pig, The Enormous Turnip and The Elves and the Shoemaker.

    I still have them all boxed away in the loft. Now I want to find them and look at them again....if only for the 1950's illustrations that somehow capture the magic and innocence of these wonderful tales.

    I feel so nostalgic now :o


    I love the ladybird books! The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Town Mouse & Country Mouse were my favourite although my favourite ever was 'Dame Trot and her Pig'.

    I'm 22 and still have a box of my favourite kids books. I don't think I'll ever be able to throw them away.
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    I've got a lot of my mother's books from the late 40s/early 50. There are a lot of Little Grey Rabbit books (I loved those, so fantastic) and some Barnaby Littlemouse books too. Very tatty now most of them, but lovely books.

    One set of books I really regret giving away were ones I had from probably the mid 70s, called Wonder Why. There was one about evolution of humans, one about dinosaurs and general evolution, and one (the dull one for me as a child) about the history of engineering & inventions. I would love to see the evolution ones again.
  • Phoenix LazarusPhoenix Lazarus Posts: 17,305
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    Elanor wrote: »

    One set of books I really regret giving away were ones I had from probably the mid 70s, called Wonder Why. There was one about evolution of humans, one about dinosaurs and general evolution, and one (the dull one for me as a child) about the history of engineering & inventions. I would love to see the evolution ones again.

    Do you mean the How and Why Wonder Books? If so, I had the one about dinosaurs, too-see link, below.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-how-wonder-book-dinosaurs/dp/B0007DR8X2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362855230&sr=8-1
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    Do you mean the How and Why Wonder Books? If so, I had the one about dinosaurs, too-see link, below.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-how-wonder-book-dinosaurs/dp/B0007DR8X2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362855230&sr=8-1

    No I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they were called Wonder Why, I only gave them away when I was in my 20s, so it's not been a huge long time since I last saw them. And that dinosaur cover is definitely not the cover I had.

    Edit: AHA! Scroll right down to the very bottom, the one labelled 'cheap imitation' - that's the series I had!
    http://members.optushome.com.au/intabits/HowAndWhy.htm
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    Does anyone remember a book called Mervyn Mouse (from the 70's/80's) written in verse? I'm sure I had an audio cassette of that.
    Also one called The Elephant and the Bad Baby (1969) about an annoying kid riding on an elephant who ate lots of food, or something :D
    PB Takes a Holiday is a classic for me too, about a polar bear who decides he wants a change of scenery, and goes somewhere warmer :D
  • misha06misha06 Posts: 3,378
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    A book called "One of the Gang" by a writer called Dean someone or other I think (name escapes me)

    Must be thirty years since I last read it.

    About a boys' home life and how he tries to fit in; joins various groups and gangs, with mixed sucess.

    Last chapter is about him as an adult.

    Pleasant book, very funny, but also moving, would probably seemed a bit dated now.

    I was also a big fan of the Jennings & Derbyshire books.
  • Phoenix LazarusPhoenix Lazarus Posts: 17,305
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    misha06 wrote: »

    I was also a big fan of the Jennings & Derbyshire books.

    Fossilised fishhooks! I remember them! Wasn't old Wilkie the teacher a clodpole, at times!? "Corrrrrrr-wumph!":D
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