What were your favourite books that you read when you were a kid?

I loved to read when I was a child but my favourite books were probably the Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton.
I would read them over and over and over and even though they are pretty out of date now I've read them all to my son, some more than once.

Read a lot of different stuff but I'd have to say Kipling. I re-read "Kim" a couple months ago, and there were big swathes of it I still had memorized, even though it's been forty years.

The earliest books I read were the same kinds of books I read today. I remember reading a biography on Mickey Mantle, one of Lou Holtz's first books (forget the name), a book on Babe Ruth, thrown in there was Jurassic Park and Hunt for Red October. I like biographies/memoirs and still do very much so.

The first book I really remember being truly engrossed in was "The Little White Horse"by Elizabeth Gouge. Does anyone remember it?
Noel Streatfield was a favourite (Ballet Shoes , White Boots etc). I adored Wind in the Willows, (still do).
I was not allowed Enid Blyton, my mother thought they were for children of limited intelligence(don't ask, although I do tend to think Noddie is a bit of a wally, to put it mildly. My daughter told her teacher :"My Mummy thinks Noddy is a cretin!")
I didn't tend to go for the ones adults liked and told me I would love. I think possible the worst thing to say is "Oh you must read it. I loved it."
I was brought up with Beatrix Potter, and I did love them really.
Another one that comes to mind is Epaminondas. So funny. I know I shall think of more.

I loved Enid Blyton, but I was more fond of the Famous Five than the Secret Seven. I read a few of her other series - Five Find-Outers, Adventure Series and the Faraway Tree. My parents were fine with me reading Blyton, although my grandma wasn't too fond of them.

Another Enid Blyton kid here too! The first books I remember were the Magic Faraway Tree series. Then I moved on to the Famous Five and Secret Seven. This relatively quickly morphed into Alistair MacLean and Hammond Innes, interspersed with Andre Norton. In between, I remember loving Roald Dahl.

'Cider with Rosie' - Laurie Lee
'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' - Thomas Hardy
'The Pearl' - John Steinbeck

Oh, and 'MAD' magazine/comic!

Eagle and Girl!

The Chalet School books - loved those. Not much Enid Blyton though, I never seemed to get into those. Kidnapped I remeber having as a prize for coming top of my class when I was about 10, I've still got it somewhere.

The Enid Blyton Adventure series - I got a set for my kids and it didn't interest them. When I re-read it I was appalled at how chauvinistic it was, but I never noticed at the time.

The Famous Five for me too! I loved the Naughtiest Girl in School too (because I wasn't!). I would read anything I could get my hands on though. Encyclopaediae, atlases, street directories are all part of my reading CV. I did stop at phone books though

I'll be showing my age when I say that my first series was Honey Bunch and then I moved onto The Bobbsey Twins followed by Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. One of my all time favorites was Girl of the Limberlost.

I had a couple of Bobbsey Twins books as well. Also loved What Katy Did and the others in the series. They're still up in the loft.

I read everything and anything that fell into my hands: Any Enid Blyton I could find (Mallory Towers, St Claire's, Famous five, Secret Seven, Five Find-outers, Famous Four, The 'secret' series ... the list goes on and on), The Chalet School series, the Saddler's Wells series, All Noel Streatfield books, the Mary Poppins series, CS Lewis, all the classics like Little Lord Faultneroy, Katy Did series, Swiss Family Robinson, Last of the Mohicans, Heidi series, The Secret Garden, the Water Babies, Coral Island, Jane Eyre, The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Little House on the Prairie series .... I even read Hemmingway and a little Tolkien by ten or eleven. If I were to list all my childhood loves I'd be here till tomorrow!

I read and re-read every and anything, and I still re-read with great pleasure some of the few that I actually owned and still have on my bookshelf. Most of my books were borrowed from the library, the school library, borrowed from my neighbours or my grandmother's neighbours ...

I too read anything I could lay my hands on (whether it was suitable for children or not). I remember reading many of the abovementioned books.

Some of my childhood books, which I still have, include the "Anne of Green Gables" series, "Born Free", "The Sword in the Stone", "Little Women" and "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie".

I had a lot of Enid Blyton books too and liked the "Naughtiest Girl" and "Famous Five" series best. I saved them for coolcat90 but she didn't like them at all. I guess she couldn't relate to them, or to that era or culture, whereas I could, since my mother's side of the family was English.

I had lots of animal and nature books that I spent hours poring over - "All About Dogs", "Marvels and Mysteries of our Animal World" and "The Amazing World of Nature". No wonder I majored in biology.

Years ago, I did a bookbinding course at night school. There were about a dozen ladies in the class and almost every one was rebinding their copies of "Anne of Green Gables", "Little Women" and "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie".

P.S. I was given a complete set of 7 Donna Parker books and some Trixie Beldon Books when I was young. Anyone remember those?

I lived on a farm and went to a tiny primary school that had no library. My reading material consisted of a few novels, lots of reference/almanac type books, the 'Weekly Times', a newspaper for farmers, and an ancient set of encyclopaedia, which I read from cover to cover- all 24 volumes!

When I went to high school, I was amazed to discover the library and consequently read several books a week- fiction, non-fiction, reference, anything.

The first books I fell in love with was The Boxcar Children. Then in 70 was a book Oliver based on the the movie, not Oliver Twist. Kon Tiki hits my memory next and then any and all books I could put my hands on

I loved the Donna Parker books! I read them over and over. I saw one in an op shop a while ago and I got all sentimental. Anyone remember the Three Investigators books? Three teenage boys investigate crimes with the aid of a limousine and chauffeur service they won. I loved them, read them many times and still have them somewhere along with all the Nancy Drew books. When I was in primary school I'd go shopping with my mother on Saturday mornings. We'd be done by about 10 am and we frequently stopped off at a large op shop near us to check out the books. I'd look for Enid Blyton, Donna Parker or the Three Investigators in particular while she checked out the Agatha Christies or anything else that took her fancy.

I read anything and everything. My mother used to complain that I never heard a thing when I was reading, and I soon found out what she meant when my own daughter (and now my grandchildren) did the same thing. One of my favourites, among many of those already mentioned, was Elsie J Oxenham, especially The Abbey series. Very dated, of course, but I still enjoy reading them. I've rebuilt my collection but some of them are impossible to find or at prices that even I balk at. My daughter is still updating her 'Chalet School' books and even visited the part of Austria where some are set, but I've never read them.

MotherGoose's response reminded me of the 'How and Why Wonder Books' my parents brought home for my brothers and I. They were read many times (especially the one on dinosaurs). Apparently this was to stem the constant barrage of 'why' questions from us kids. Now my own sons are exacting retribution with exactly the same style of questioning and my mum thinks its hilarious.

Along with many others, I also read voraciously and almost anything with words - I did draw the line at Anne of Green Gables. Not cool for a 9-10 year old boy!

Fortunately I grew up in a house full of books and my parents never actually forbade me to read anything except for one book. I vividly recall reading that book, a Dennis Wheatly, "The Devil Rides Out" under the covers with a torch at the age of about 9. It definitely gave me nightmares, but my parents never did find out (or if they did they never said) that it was that book that caused them.

All the Anne of Green Gables series of books and Emily of New Moon as well - anything by L.M.Montgomery in fact

The Naughtiest Girl in School

The Pollyanna Books

Encyclopedias (looking for naughty pictures along the way)

The Famous Five and Secret Seven and Secret Three

Piles of Comics

Then on to the Agatha Christie books

I forgot - the Katy books as well

"MotherGoose's response reminded me of the 'How and Why Wonder Books' my parents brought home for my brothers and I?



You know, I almost included them in my list. I had about a dozen or so of these books. I remember that I had the ones on Rocks and Minerals, Shells, Dinosaurs, Butterflies and Moths, Dogs, Wild Animals, Coins and Currency, Horses, and Insects.

"Then on to the Agatha Christie books"


I was introduced to these when I was in high school and have been reading them ever since. I have the complete set.

"lots of reference/almanac type books, the 'Weekly Times', a newspaper for farmers, and an ancient set of encyclopaedia, which I read from cover to cover- all 24 volumes!
"

No wonder you are so good at trivia.

Hah! This thread is like revisiting my childhood!!! I too read the Three investigators, and Polyanna, Naughtiest girl, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, medical dictionary even my grandfather's beloved (& enormous) bible with its canvas cover, wafer-thin tissue pages edged in gold leaf and a few magnificent colour pages ...

I still have my copies of "Pollyanna" and "Pollyanna Grows Up" - but I preferred "Anne of Green Gables". I have 17 books from that series.

"Swallows & Amazons"......"Dr. Doolittle"..........then I discovered "Hornblower" when around 12 years old!

I lived in the mountains and our tiny school had a very limited library, but the bookmobile would show up at the Post Office every two weeks and I would check out the maximum number of books allowed. Then when I was older, my mother would take me down the mountain to town to the large Public Library. I read so much but my favorites were/are: Laura Ingalls Wilder 'Little House' series, Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, The Boy Who Stole the Elephant by Julilly H. Kohler, The Wednesday Witch by Ruth Chew, The School Train (whose author escapes me), and all the horse books by Marguerite Henry.

ClaraSue, my daughter was a big Ruth Chew fan - I remember her once telling me she wanted to move to Brooklyn, so she could go to Prospect Park.

Sighhhhhhh! Such memories here!

I started off with the traditional fairy stories (Read it Yourself, and Well-Loved Tales) and the rhyming books (Smoke and Fluff, and The Runaway) And I can still recite some of the rhyming books after cough *35* cough years
The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr was always one of my favourites, and it is still quite popular with the boys even now :)The Mr Men and Topsy and Tim books were also read and read again.
I read every single Blyton book I could lay my hands on - short stories, series, it didn't matter. For some reason I always preferred The Famous Five over The Secret Seven. And got to admit, after all these years, I've been known to re-read Blyton! I was also a avid "Chalet School" fan, I collected all of them. A good friend gave me lots of Bobbsey Twins books and Nancy Drews.
I read most of the "Sweet Valley" series, and the "Babysitters Club" books. They were OK, but didn't make all that big impression on me. Unfortunately, nor did the "Narnia" series, or the "Lord of the Rings", although I am gradually beginning to appreciate this series more.
Then, when I was in the my early/late teens, I found Agatha Christie. I don't think there's been another mystery writer who'd made such an impression on me. Obviously, I have all the books, and the CDs too
The series what really got me reading again was the Harry Potter series. I found the series when I was quite old, but I really loved the series from the beginning.
Finally, although I am sure Mum read to me (I've been told that I could read before I could talk!) my main memories are of Dad reading me a bedtime story, or simply sitting on his knee, listening. He had the sort of voice that could carry you off into a new world, while reading

I've always been a reader and some that I can remember from sooooo long ago are, The Bobbsey Twins, the whole Wizard of Oz series, Kipling's Just So Stories with Rikki Tikki Tavi being my favorite. In middle school I found Agatha Christie and Stephen King! Other favorites are A Wrinkle In Time and Island of the Blue Dolphins.

I'm still a kid so I'll mention just a few out of the millions of books I've read:
The Borrowers
Henry Reed, Inc.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Gulliver's Travels
The Three Musketeers
Treasure Island
Ben-Hur
Maybe some of you have read any of these books?

Could you perhaps comment on some of these? The purpose of this thread is to discuss books , not to make lists of what we have read. I am sure most of our members have read those too, but would welcome your views!
Thanks

Treasure Island and Kidnapped by R.L Stevenson and loved the Tintin books ("Blistering Barnacles")

I read all of the Wizard of Oz books, also Island of the Blue Dolphin and a Wrinkle in Time. These are the titles that have stuck in my brains after 50plus years. I remember getting up earlier than I needed to for school just so I could have time to read! Now I get up earlier to play on Fun Trivia!

I see I've posted twice, sorry!

Not very PC these days, but I read most of Captain W E Johns' Biggles series and loved them. I wish I'd kept my copies, they're worth a few bob now!

I read a lot more as a kid than I do now. Some favourite series were The Babysitters Club and its spinoffs, all the Sweet Valley series, Nancy Drew (first the yellow-covered ones, then all the spinoffs of that as well), most of the blue-covered Hardy Boys. I could never get into Anne of Green Gables. A Little Princess was a favourite, but I never liked The Secret Garden.

Like another poster on the previous page, I LOVED the Boxcar Children. Another series that I can't quite remember who wrote... but the first in the series was something about a teacher being a vampire... I must go Google that.. Also liked Gordon Korman books, the Screech Owl series, and Judy Blume - it broke my heart a little when I gave my cousin a copy of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret for her 11th birthday and she didn't like it!

I also have two large volumes of three books each that I made sure were never given away to a charity book sale or packed up to be forgotten, and they're now on my "adult bookshelf" - Kit Pearson's Guests of War trilogy (liked her other books too, mostly) and Bernice Thurman Hunter's Booky trilogy.

gf, would that be the Bailey School Kids? Or maybe Bruce Coville's "My Teacher is an Alien" series.

I've enjoyed reading about what y'all have read. Since we're dating ourselves, my first reading included river rocks and tree bark. Then someone decided to carve mud. He came up with "Gilgamesh: The Epic!" It didn't suck.

I have loved books all of my life. "Where the Wild Things Are" was probably my favorite book over all of Dr. Seuss' books (though I loved each).

My first choice book (when I got to choose) was "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Since I know all of you have read it, I'll not elaborate on the content. Suffice it to say, as a young man, I joined the USN.

In high school, I discovered (much as Al Gore created the internet) Stephen King. But that's probably a different thread. . . .

Yes, Bailey School Kids! That was it, agony I read a ton of those, had my mother buying them every month when we got the Scholastic books flyer

I remember collecting all the Nancy Drew books as a child, and they probably fostered my love of mysteries that has endured to this day. Someone else mentioned the Boxcar Children series, and I still recall how, whenever I felt particularly unloved and the family misfit, those books fed my fantasy of actually belonging to another family.
I also went through genre obessions when I was very young (well under 10) and would read every book on mythology in the library, working my way through all the different cultures. I did the same thing with fairy tales, folk tales, and God knows what else. My absolute favorite childhood novels, though, were the two "Alice" books.
And does anyone remember reading an historical novel for children called "Escape From Warsaw?" (Alt. title was The Silver Sword.) I absolutely loved it, and I'm sure it had something to do with my lifelong interest in history, particularly WW II.

I didn't read "Escape from Warsaw" but see it all the time on lists of best remembered childhood books - you're not alone!

Schoolchildren still read and love "The Silver Sword".

I remember 'The Little White Horse' it was one of my favourites too.
I was brought up army, then was incarcerated in boarding school for three years. The upshot of which was I got to see very little tv, we either didn't have one or it wasn't in English. So I read a huge amount and still do.
I started with traditional fairy tales, plus Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows, Narnia and the Moomins. All completely unrelated to my real life situations and all the better for it. Lose yourself in a book was a real theme for me.
then went onto a lot of historical novels like Rosemary Sutcliff and Henry Treece. An American boy called Tim introduced me to Asterix when I was 7 and I'm still a fan.
One of the great things about moving around is that I link specific books and authors to people and places I met them for the first time, so when I re-read, I'm still connected to them.
I was reading LOTR, Mallory, Chaucer, Odyssey and Ovid's Metamorphoses by the time I was 11 and then I discovered sci fi.
Currently living with around 5,000 books and a kindle. I'm very good at making bookshelves.
Boy loves books, Nerdlet loves her computer and has only one shelf of literature.

I’ve always loved reading, but unfortunately couldn’t get my hands on new materials when I was a kid. For that reason, I don’t know that I have favorites from that time—although I read James Howe’s”Howliday Inn” at age ten (I still remember it, though it’s certainly not a favorite. Then again, it was a library book.) Not that there’s anything wrong with that—I’d just have liked to read at home, and did indeed (well, re-read was more like the word).

The first book I owned (I believe I got it in Transitional, so the year between kindergarten and first grade—not preschool, as I’d been there as well). After that, when I couldn’t find reading material it was the pocket dictionary (seven Braille volumes) or the encyclopedia I read (when bored, I’ve been known to read anything).

It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I read some popular series of the day—although I can remember a few titles from my teens that I ordered on tape (from the same library that sent me 28 Braille volumes, most of which went back unread as I simply didn’t have room for them. Besides, they either sent me books that were (a) too old for me, or (b) that I had no interest in, or even (c) that were at least seven volumes long—for one book!

Availability of Braille materials is easier for kids now then they used to be (though there’s still a wider selection of audiobooks).

I forgot to mention my first library book. When I had just learned to read, my
aunt took me to the wonderful Carnegie library in our town and got me a library card.
The first book I checked out was The Little Match Girl. As you can see, it was unforgettable.

I was a big Enid Blyton and C.S. Lewis fan as a child.

I had one book that I hid in my wardrobe so that nobody could borrow it. I read it over and over again. As I read I would pull tiny bits off of the page and eat them. Eventually the parts with print were all that remained. That book was "The Faraway Tree".

You and me both!*
My Faraway books are now held together with sellotape that is itself held together with sellotape that is itself held together with sellotape.



*Excepting the eating part.

My second grade teacher had a bookshelf in our classroom filled with age appropriate books which she let us "check out" and take home. I read every book on that shelf and developed a lifelong love of reading. Nancy Drew books were favorites about fifth grade. Haven't seen anyone mention Zane Grey's books, which I read as a young teen.
As a young adult I fell in love with Gothic novels and read everything Daphne du Maurier wrote. I enjoy historical novels, biographies, etc. For many years I have been a member of a book club in which we read and discuss non-fiction covering many categories. Now have a Kindle - love it! Have just finished reading Francine Rivers' trilogy: A Voice In The Wind, An Echo In The Darkness, and As Sure As The Dawn.