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I would read them over and over and over and even though they are pretty out of date now I've read them all to my son, some more than once.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.