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YOUR childhood defining books...


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Hello All

It's been a while and a bit of a mad year for me. At last a new job starting in September, nearer home, but illness since September. As yet undiagnosed!!! :ph34r:

However. summer holidays are now here and as my 16 year old was clearing out her room (again) she came across a collection of books that I think really define her childhood. So, that got me to thinking...

Which is the book/are the books that define YOUR childhood.

Mine have to be Ballet Shoes, The Children of Green Knowe and The Little White Horse. I sooooo wanted a room in a turret. Still haven't got one ^_^

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Anne of Green Gables, Children of Green Knowe, Chronicles of Narnia, Swallos and Amazons, the Laura Ingalls Books, Heidi, Alice in Wonderland, Beatrix Potter, What Katy did, Peter Pan... I have them all still.

 

I know how much they influenced me because my mum gave a story I'd written when I was 8 or 9. It was written in the first person and I was orphaned, living in a log cabin on a mountain, collecting flowers, feeding chickens and baking bread. I didn't have chapters but if there had been I suspect I'd have travelled around in a sailing boat and/or a covered wagon!!

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St Claires and Mallory Towers,

 

Also a pony club series - but I cant think of the name.

 

Briar Rabbit - my brother used to read them to me :1b (he also made me read/study and answer questions on the Observer book of Aircraft :huh: - not that I'm still annoyed about that after all these years.. hold a grudge..?? me, no-way xDxD :lol: )

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Oh what a brilliant thread :1b

 

Kate - really hope that you are feeling much better very soon x

 

So my faves - some already mentioned.......

 

Swallows and Amazons - I wanted to be having those adventures :D

Heidi

Black Beauty

The Borrowers - sure there were some in my house as a child :1b

Jennings - loved him and his pals

All the 'boarding school' type stories - thought I would really like to go to a Boarding School :D

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Oh yes Jennings! I'd quite forgotten Jennings and Darbyshire!

 

I loved all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and could happily read them now.

 

When I was very little, The Tiger Who Came to Tea was a big favourite and still very popular at nursery.

 

Also Mallory Towers and loads more.

 

(he also made me read/study and answer questions on the Observer book of Aircraft :huh: - not that I'm still annoyed about that after all these years.. hold a grudge..?? me, no-way xDxD :lol: )

 

Yes me too. I also had to learn, in order, the D-Day landing beaches. :D

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I've never heard of Jennings! I don't really remember books from when I was very little although apparently Topsy and Tim and Beatrix Potter were my favourites. My mum often says that one of the best bits of going in to hospital to have my little brother was not having to read Topsy and Tim to me!

 

She also says that my early (age 2ish) reading material was often a little 'advanced'. My sister was born with a cleft palate and so had to be fed with a teaspoon which (as you might imagine) literally took hours. Mum couldn't really move or play so much with me while doing that so she read to me and although I got my fair share of children's books she frequently used to read whatever she was reading at the time - I got everything from the newspaper to John Wyndham to assorted metallurgical publications!

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The Faraway Tree, series, secret seven and famous five...I made my shed into the secret seven den!
School stories - st claires and malory towers and magical characters like mr pinkwhistle...in fact anything by Enid blyton had me hooked.
Oh also loved Chalet school books - inspired a much later trip to Austria!!

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Anything that involved a boarding school for me too, especially the Chalet series - I so wanted to speak all those languages.

 

Froglet, you must get to know Jennings - brilliant stuff! I also read the Just William series, and love the Martin Jarvis readings of these now.

 

A little older and the Gerald Durrell books were always on the go.

 

Wind in the Willows continues to be my 'read again' book.

 

Thanks for stirring so many memories Kate, and hope you're on the mend soon.

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Hope they find out what is wrong and you begin to feel better soon. Not nice when it all comes back and no one knows why you are ill, been there... so has hubby, but excluding everything did help me worry less..

 

I was a prolific reader, always head in a book.. these ar a few, and I still have some of the books, with all the pages falling out because the glue has deteriorated .

 

What Katy Did and what Katy Did Next

Famous 5 and the Secret 7

Secret Garden

The Borrowers

Narnia series - Dawn Treader was always my favourite

Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner

Five Children and It, The Amulet , Phoenix and the Carpet, Enchanted Castle, The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit.. just loved those.

 

Plus many more like The Moomins, Worzel Gummage, The Wombles.. Paddington Bear to name a few..

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Thank you all for your good wishes. At the moment looking as though I MAY have a rare vascular disorder!?!???! :wacko: (personally I don't think they have a clue as it's 3 different diagnoses so far! Any one else like to have a go?)

 

I loved Alision Uttley and a book called Margaret Ellen that my first ever teacher read to me, The Rainbow Pavement by Shirley Hughes, Ameliaranne, Mary Mouse, Mary Kate, My Naughty Little Sister and Galldora.

Not to mention Beatrix Potter.

So many :1b

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I was and still am, a real bookworm. That's what I find hard with this job sometimes, finding time to read for pleasure. I loved My Naughty Little Sister books...... because I had one! I must have been a strange child, I really loved scaring myself and Grimm's Ghost Stories was regularly on my list!

I was lucky that my granddad worked at Longmans publishers in London so I got a lot of books free. My Mum says I used to "read" a newspaper upside down (the paper, not me!!) while in the pram.

Does anyone remember Mr Pinkwhistle books?

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I read anything and everything, I recall many of the books mentioned already...

 

What sticks in my mind the most though are the chronicles of Narnia!

 

It was such bliss going to the library two and three times a week!

 

Actually thinking about it now I'm surprised I wasn't a giant fat child with such a sedentary social life!

Ah but I did have to walk to the library and back perhaps that helped!!

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Does anyone remember Mr Pinkwhistle books?

I had one - can't remember what it was though.

 

.

:blink: No I don't.......

 

Milly Molly Mandy - another fave.......

 

I love this thread! :1b

Liked those too although I don't think I read many. I do remember getting quite excited when a friend's class had a Millie and a Molly in - I wished we were in a time when a Mandy was a possibility but no luck!

 

Little Women (and all the sequels). When I was little I just liked the stories. As I got older I became really interested in the philosophy behind them if that doesn't sound too pompous.

 

I remember reading some books set in the Lake District - I think a family of 4 who had adventures. A bit like Swallows and Amazons but with hiking instead of sailing! I have no idea what they were called or who the author was but I know I loved them - any ideas who or what they were I'd love to know.

 

Did anyone read The Saturdays or Spiderweb for Two or Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright? They were great.

 

Also from younger days a picture book called Miss Jaster's Garden about a hedgehog who accidentally gets seeds planted on his back. Also Phoebe Beeberbee and the hot water bottles.

 

I am slightly unnerved by having just googled Miss Jaster's Garden and discovered it on a blog about Vintage kids books! Am not vintage quite yet!!

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Ah, Mr Pinkwhistle. Oh yes I remember im and Miss Jaster's Garden. One book that I never got to hear the end of when I was nine and at school was Seven Day Magic. But I tracked it down and my husband bought me the very same copy (well same cover) as a Christmas pressie :) :) :).

 

Drina dances in Italy, another favourite.

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