Forgotten children's book from your childhood.

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  • Millie MuppetMillie Muppet Posts: 6,853
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    I'm in my mid-thirties so anyone who was an avid child reader in the 80s may remember (or not)

    - Brambly Hedge

    - The 12 Dancing Princesses, The Snow Queen, and other Errol Le Cain illustrated books.

    - La Corona and the Tin Frog

    - Paula Danziger (There's a Bat in Bunk 5, The Pistachio Prescription)

    - Francine Pascal (not only the Sweet Valley books but a wonderful novel called Hanging Out With Cici)

    - Enid Blyton; loved just about everything she did but particular faves were Mallory Towers, St Clares, and the '...of Adventure' series.

    Judy Blume- what thirty-something of today wasn't curious about the sexy bits in 'Forever'? :D But I loved her other books too, especially Tiger Eyes.
  • ElanorElanor Posts: 13,326
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    - Francine Pascal (not only the Sweet Valley books but a wonderful novel called Hanging Out With Cici)

    Judy Blume- what thirty-something of today wasn't curious about the sexy bits in 'Forever'? :D But I loved her other books too, especially Tiger Eyes.

    Hanging Out with Cici was fab! I recently looked for it and found it reissued under the rubbish title of My Mother Was Never a Kid. It's still a good book.

    I loved Judy Blume too. Was never keen on Forever, but I loved the younger ones, Sheila the Great, Sally J Friedman etc. Tiger Eyes is beautiful, and I really liked Deenie too. They're all quite dated now though, in terms of all the music/clothing references - although all the emotions are just as accurate.
  • tuppencehapennytuppencehapenny Posts: 4,239
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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.

    Yes, I remember them well. My children knew a Tim and his friend Oliver, both about 5 or 6, and called them Tim Tomato and Oliver Onion!
  • Millie MuppetMillie Muppet Posts: 6,853
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    Elanor wrote: »
    Hanging Out with Cici was fab! I recently looked for it and found it reissued under the rubbish title of My Mother Was Never a Kid. It's still a good book.

    I loved Judy Blume too. Was never keen on Forever, but I loved the younger ones, Sheila the Great, Sally J Friedman etc. Tiger Eyes is beautiful, and I really liked Deenie too. They're all quite dated now though, in terms of all the music/clothing references - although all the emotions are just as accurate.

    Pretty rubbish that none of these is available for Kindle either. :cry:
  • slappers r usslappers r us Posts: 56,131
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    Dr Snuggles books

    I was around 12 or 13 when I used to read them to my young cousin

    I used to love reading them to him and putting different voices to different characters
  • Smithy1204Smithy1204 Posts: 4,352
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    Beaver Towers. :o Loved them, mainly because of the baby beaver ("Baby B") and the way he called the main character "Flippip" instead of Philip. Good books. :D
  • TyeverasTyeveras Posts: 61
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    I remember being totally enthralled reading "The Ghosts" by Antonia Barber, which was later made into a film, "The Amazing Mr Blunden."

    Also "Tom's Midnight Garden" by Philippa Pearce which was made into a TV series (more than once).

    I am seized by an overwhelming urge to reread them!
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    Smithy1204 wrote: »
    Beaver Towers. :o Loved them, mainly because of the baby beaver ("Baby B") and the way he called the main character "Flippip" instead of Philip. Good books. :D

    :D
    I remember those books too - seemed quite dark in places but maybe its because I was young, they were good books and tapes! :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,440
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    Tyeveras wrote: »
    I remember being totally enthralled reading "The Ghosts" by Antonia Barber, which was later made into a film, "The Amazing Mr Blunden."

    Also "Tom's Midnight Garden" by Philippa Pearce which was made into a TV series (more than once).

    I am seized by an overwhelming urge to reread them!

    The Amazing Mr Blunden is one of my favourite films. one day I'll get around to reading the book.
  • MartinPickeringMartinPickering Posts: 3,711
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    I remember "The Great Book for Boys" around 1930, "There and Back Again" by Evelyn Davey-Collins and "Bunst and the Secret Six" (1951) by John_Lymington (writing as John Newton Chance).
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    Tom's Midnight Garden was an excellent book - good twist too :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,138
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    grimtales1 wrote: »
    Tom's Midnight Garden was an excellent book - good twist too :)

    I think this book is perfect; cannot be improved

    rather like The Hound of the Baskervilles, Treasure Island and The Wind in the Willows
  • DeltaBluesDeltaBlues Posts: 4,256
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    The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper is brilliant, I still re-read them now. (I refuse to acknowledge the existence of that abysmal American film adaptation of the second book in the series.)

    When I wanted something miserable :D I'd read the 'Kevin and Sadie' books by Joan Lingard.

    And of course, all those fabulous pony books by the Pullein-Thompson sisters, Patricia Leitch, Ruby Ferguson etc etc.
  • tigerowltigerowl Posts: 687
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    I'm in my mid-thirties so anyone who was an avid child reader in the 80s may remember (or not)

    - Brambly Hedge

    - The 12 Dancing Princesses, The Snow Queen, and other Errol Le Cain illustrated books.

    - La Corona and the Tin Frog

    - Paula Danziger (There's a Bat in Bunk 5, The Pistachio Prescription)

    - Francine Pascal (not only the Sweet Valley books but a wonderful novel called Hanging Out With Cici)

    - Enid Blyton; loved just about everything she did but particular faves were Mallory Towers, St Clares, and the '...of Adventure' series.

    Judy Blume- what thirty-something of today wasn't curious about the sexy bits in 'Forever'? :D But I loved her other books too, especially Tiger Eyes.

    We must be around the same age and had access to amazing libraries. I loved all these books especially Hanging Out With Cici.

    As a young teenager I also loved a series of books called 'Couples' which were set in American high schools. One of the character was called Phoebe and until Friends came along I had always thought it was pronounced Foe-be.

    Did anyone ever read two books called Easy Connections and Easy Freedom by Liz Berry? I was obsessed with them. Bought them from Amazon a few years ago. So dated now but god, I loved them then!
  • SmartTIIamSmartTIIam Posts: 453
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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 had so many of those and the "Read It Yourself" series.

    It may still be around but I used to love "The Worst Witch"

    I remember reading "Horses, Horses, Horses" I used to love the old horse stories. I also remember Jennings and Bobby Brewster. I must have read also many of the Enid Blyton books.

    The Laura Ingalls-Wilder books. Little House, etc.

    Adrian Mole books.
  • grimtales1grimtales1 Posts: 46,685
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    I remember Bobby Brewster in the Christmas story "Another Mince Pie" :D
  • trinity2002trinity2002 Posts: 16,059
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    tigerowl wrote: »
    We must be around the same age and had access to amazing libraries. I loved all these books especially Hanging Out With Cici.

    As a young teenager I also loved a series of books called 'Couples' which were set in American high schools. One of the character was called Phoebe and until Friends came along I had always thought it was pronounced Foe-be.

    Did anyone ever read two books called Easy Connections and Easy Freedom by Liz Berry? I was obsessed with them. Bought them from Amazon a few years ago. So dated now but god, I loved them then!

    Yes I did. The author and title had escaped my memories, but I'll always remember the part where her policeman brother wouldn't accept she'd been raped and went through a list of things that should have happened had she been.

    I never read the sequel though.
  • shmiskshmisk Posts: 7,963
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    The Ramona Quimby books were my ultimate favourite.

    Judy Blume books- especially "it's not the end of the world"

    Harriet The Spy
  • PANNAL1PANNAL1 Posts: 8,905
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    Moondial by Helen Creswell was a favourite and also Goodnight Mr Tom
  • LaVieEnRoseLaVieEnRose Posts: 12,836
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    The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown!

    To my delight I tracked down a copy on ebay a couple of years back - the original edition, not the more recent reprinted one which expunged anything mildly un-PC.
    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.

    They are gorgeous! I had them as a child, they were lost or given away over the years but I hunted down replacements. They make me hopelessly nostalgic for the world of my childhood though. :cry:
  • FearFactorFearFactor Posts: 2,547
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    Sorry I've just stolen bits willy-nilly from others' posts:

    Ramona
    Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
    The Olga da Polga books by Michael Bond (I remember the name but what were the stories)
    Mosca wrote: »
    A rag, a bone and a hank of hair, by Nicholas Fisk. I first read this book when I was about 11 in the early 80s. Absolutely loved it. The story stayed with me for ages. Think I'm going to have to find a copy and read it again.
    Didn't he also write Trillions? - one of my all-time favourites.

    Mr. Majeika
    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 especially remember the ones I've put in bold, they are in my parents' loft.

    point horror/point crime and also just the point series (kind of mysteries/alternative fiction)

    Topsy & Tim books from when I was REALLY little :)
    My Best Fiend by Sheila Lavelle - I remember the "fiend" (was her name Angela) pretending to poison someone with deadly nightshade as a trick on the narrator.
    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.

    Oh I had all of these, Roger Radish, Benny Broadbean, Sheila Shallot, Belinda Blackcurrant, Sally Strawberry.....fab.

    Also
    Monster Garden by Louisa Alcott
    The Brontosaurus Birthday Cake
    The Puddle Lane books
    The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr (I went to see the stage show of it in 2011 when I was pregnant, with my Mum. We were surrounded by 5 year olds :D:D)
    Each Peach Pear Plum (poss by Allan Alberg)
    The Owl who was afraid of the dark
    Comfort Herself by Geraldine Kaye (bits of it were also included in some primary school reading books - anyone know what these were (one also included a story about a girl making a tea-tray cloth at school and then climbing a hugh tree and tying it at the top!)
    The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
    Whatamess books by Frank Muir
    Meg & Mog



    I think I could go on all day - I was a real bookworm :)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10,555
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    Flossie Teacake and her fur-coat - a girl who had a magical fur coat that turned her into a teenager when she wore it.
    Point Horror books - though I only remember one about a school prom party now.
    Babysitters Club
    The Peppermint Pig - Found it at a carboot sale last year and bought it, just because I remebered how much I loved it.
    Anastasia Krupnik books
    The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase - Loved the book and the movie. Miss Slighcarp is terrifying and the workhouse scenes are so horrific but the book is even better, as usually is the case.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,304
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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 LOVED that story!

    When I was wee I loved Seven Little Rabbits, seemingly I had to get it read to me every night and if my parents tried to miss any out I'd go mad. :o

    When I was older I loved a series of books called Cheerleaders. God, they were rubbish!

    Does anyone remember a kids book that had a charcter called H G Wells in it? Funnily enough, he was a well!
  • elliecatelliecat Posts: 9,890
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    Richard Jarvis - The Whitby Witches series and the Deptford Mice series. I have recovered them from my parents house (all but the second Deptford Mice book as I couldn't find it) and I am going to re-read them at some point.
  • Cellar_DoorCellar_Door Posts: 2,275
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    I loved the St Clare's and Mallory Towers books by Enjd Blyton. I coerced my sister into midnight feasts and we got grounded as we'd eaten our dads bait for the next day. Not very public school what ho!!
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