The summer holidays are almost here so it's the perfect time to reflect on those books which meant so much to you in your childhood.
Which books speak to you of those long summer holidays? Maybe you even have treasured, if somewhat battered copies, still on your bookshelf at home somewhere?
What would you choose :
· Tom's Midnight Garden
· Treasure Island
· Anne of Green Gables or Winnie the Pooh?
· The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or the BFG?
This month's moderator: Val
54 comments:
Does anyone else remember The Foxwood Tales? I absolutely adored them when I was a child. My favourite was The Foxwood Treasure:
"Foxwood Village desperately needs a village hall but how can they raise the money to build one? After an afternoon in the library, Harvey Mouse, Rue Rabbit and Willy Hedgehog have the answer and embark on an adventure full of historical intrigue that takes them deep into Foxwood Village's rich past."
I wonder if Foxwood Treasure somehow encouraged me to become a librarian?!
And I've just remembered that The Foxwood Regatta closed with the line: 'Sticky buns and lemonade all round!' - what's more summery than that?!
Wot? No Hobbit?
Hi all
To answer Val's questions first:
Tom's Midnight Garden
The Famous Five
Anne of Green Gables
Neither.
I adore Tom's Midnight Garden - so full of magic. The ending gets to me every time. I'd rate it as one of the most perfect children's books - it has everything (and it's one I still re-read).
I enjoyed the Mary Poppins books. I remember borrowing them from the library. They weren't among my favourites, though.
I have to admit to not having read Treasure Island. I read loads of Enid Blyton but preferred The Secret Seven to The Famous Five. I loved the Adventure series most though (River of Adventure, etc).
I loved Anne of Green Gables - one of many appealing feisty heroines.
Winnie the Pooh and the CS Lewis series passed me by as a child and left me completely cold when I tried to read them to my children later.
And I was never a Roald Dahl fan - although my sister had a gorgeously illustrated copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which we read over and over.
What would everyone else choose out of Val's suggestions?
Dear all
Treasure Island or The Famous Five - neither, I would choose the Lone Pine Five books by Malcolm Saville - a great series of books featuring a gang of kids getting caught up in all sorts of adventures (of course), but the best bits were that with every book the gang were a year older and so their characters really developed. Years later, when I finally filled a long-held ambition to visit Rye, it was because of those books.
I wouldn't really say any of Val's other choices, so another of my favourites would be the Chalet School books, such a different world from the one I was growing up in. The trouble was I read them all out of order and so one minute Jo was a child, the next married with children of her own! I think that's why I like to read books in the right order now.
For me (sadly), long hot holiday reading meant just one thing – comic `Summer Specials`…The Dandy, The Beano maybe, or the `Shoot` bumper issue with those wonderful pullout and keep cardboard fixture cards (with moveable cardboard team names) for the season ahead. (No computerised stuff back then…see how easy we were to please!).
Or, if I was really, really lucky…THE VICTOR, maybe, or THE HORNET. Plus, of course, the little Playfair Cricket Annual (pocket edition), with player profiles, county histories (including, of course, minor counties and second elevens) AND test scorecards.
Bless me! I`m welling up at the mere recollection of them all….
AND ANOTHER THING!
Has anyone actually READ Mary Poppins? (The film, obviously, is an all time classic; Dick van Dyke tops my list of “greatest living Englishmen”…) But as for the book? I’ve never read anything quite like it…Weird, whacky, but certainly not wonderful: was LP Travers taking mind-bending drugs at the time?
Sorry…
Summer specials on the Isle of Wight - what memories...
But no Dandy or Beano for me. It was Bunty and Judy. Does anyone remember The Four Marys?
Yes, I read Mary Poppins - I preferred the books to the film perhaps because they were so much quirkier. Can't stand Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke's accent makes the film unwatchable!
My choices would be:
Mary Poppins, as I did not read Tom's Midnight Garden.
The Famous Five [Actually - I'm catching up on the Adventure series now!]
Winnie-the Pooh, as Anne of Green Gables also escaped me.
I also did not read the BFG and I refused to hear any more of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe when Aslan died - I did watch the TV series later on though.
I did love Malcom Saville - and it does make you interested in Rye.
Going back to when I was really young - I loved Milly, Molly, Mandy which reminded me of the stories my Mum told me about her childhood [Living in one house with an extended family, in a small village]
Well, this is all very odd…
I am AMAZED that you all seem to like the Mary Poppins book – what am I missing?
(And Sharon – shame on you! – I shan’t hear a word said against the saintly Julie Andrews…and what’s wrong with Dick van Dyke’s accent? Seems perfectly fine to me, in fact it’s just how I talk).
However…I do rather like the sound of ‘Bunty’: is it still published? Can I take out a subscription?
Saintly - see, there's the problem. I'm pretty sure Mary Poppins in the book wasn't saintly. But then again, I may be getting her confused with Nurse Matilda. Wasn't she wonderful?
Sadly, I think Bunty is long gone...
Rachel - I don't know The Foxwood Tales at all. I was never that keen on books with animals as the main characters but my boys loved them - things like Animals of Farthing Wood (until the hedgehog was killed crossing the road!).
Another favourite series with a feisty heroine - What Katy Did, What Katy Did Next, What Katy Did at School. Loved them.
On the subject of school stories, I liked the Trebizon series by Anne Digby. Does anyone else remember those?
I read the Trebizon series as an adult. I discovered them in a charity shop while looking for copies of the Chalet School series. I really enjoyed them - they were much better than Enid Blyton's school series, for example.
Like Janice, I loved the Chalet School series - they'd probably be top of my list of favourite children's books. I re-read them as an adult and loved them just as much. They seemed so exotic at the time - I had no idea how to pronounce some of the names.
The Hobbit, Wind in the Willows, early William books, Noel Streatfeild's 'Shoes' books.
Milly Molly Mandy - I'd forgotten those books... As for comics, I was a Judy reader too, my middle sister had Bunty and my youngest had Princess, so lots of reading every week. One year, my older cousins were having a clear out and I was given about a dozen Girl annuals - I was in seventh heaven!
By the time I was in my (early) teens it was Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ellery Queen and any other Crime novel I could get my hands on.
Oh, Noel Streatfeild - I loved her books. Ballet Shoes, Curtain Up, White Boots... so many happy memories. And they were always so beautifully illustrated too. You could always find someone to identify with - even though ice skating was a very distant dream back then.
I've got three sisters and we were all allowed one comic each (every week, every month? I can't remember), so we pretty much had all the girly stuff covered. Except my older sister read Roy of the Rovers, the Beano and the Dandy. So we had the boys' stuff covered too!
What a great collection of childhood treasures we've unearthed so far! Does any one else remember The Cricket in Times Square? or The adventures of Little Old Mrs Pepperpot? And another worth mentioning not just for the wonderfully quirky illustrations by Heath Robinson are the stories about the eccentric inventor Professor Branestawm, the archetypal absent-minded professor! I can still picture the covers of these books and remember the pleasure these stories gave. Oh and I've just remembered another favourite - The Borrowers!
As a child I loved animal stories. Does any one else remember reading My Friend Flicka? ( A story about a horse!) 101 Dalmatians was a real favourite, and of course Paddington Bear and Charlotte's Web were others that I read and re read. Doctor Dolittle was enjoyed for its unusual creatures - who remembers the push me pull you?! And I remember my head teacher at Infants school reading from Kipling's Just So Stories - The Cat Who Walked by Himself - wonderful! And of course Winnie the Pooh and Tarka the Otter - I keep remembering more! And the magic of Wind in the Willows - hard to equal!
I remember the push-me-pull-you - and the parrot and the giant snail as well. Doctor Dolittle was great fun - if only we could talk to animals and understand their replies.
I liked Professor Branestawm too. Has anyone read Margaret Mahy 'Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles' ? A similarly zany story of inventions.
Hi Jill Yes I love Margaret Mahy's books - my favourite being the Librarian and the Robbers! The robbers kidnap the Librarian to look after them when they catch the raging measles and she reads them all stories till they get better! Great fun!
Hi all,
Having spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book, there are hundreds of fond memories! But there are a couple of authors who stand out more than most. I loved all the Enid Blyton books, the adventure stories but also the school stories, and the fantasy ones like The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair. I loved reading about all the strange lands they travelled to, and how they got out of some sticky situations.
The other author I loved was Roald Dahl, Matilda being an especial favourite as well as Fantastic Mr Fox - Boggis, Bunce and Bean were so nasty, and it was great every time the animals got one over on them!
I also remember reading The Lord of the Rings in primary school, simply because it was the biggest book I had ever seen, and I couldn't resist the challenge! I do remember getting to the point where the ring gets dropped in to the mountain, seeing there were about a hundred pages left, and deciding that enough was enough.
Hi Val
I loved the Dr Dolittle books - I used to borrow them over and over from the library. They were so different and so interesting.
What about Noggin the Nog? I think the illustrations appealed more than the actual stories, but they were definitely favourites.
I loved The Secret Garden too - I think that's one of the reasons I love visiting National Trust houses now. I'm always hoping to visit a real secret garden. When I see a garden with a high wall around it, it always makes me think of the book.
My mum used to have a "talking book" called The enchanted wood, it had beautiful illustrations and a record (yes a record and it was a 78!) I can't remember who it was by but the lady reading the story had BBC English and when it was time we were told to "turn the page".
My brother and I loved it but we were only allowed to listen to it occasionally because it was so old, the book was about A4 size, hardback and it had separating paper between each page to preserve the paintings. I think my mum still has the book but she hasn't got the record player anymore unfortunately.
I was a big fan of The famous five and really enjoyed their adventures, Little women and The phoenix and the carpet were also favourites. As for comics I used to get Beryl the peril annuals for christmas, does anyone remember her? She wasn't as much fun as Dandy or Beano, my lucky brother used to get those.
I loved the Secret Garden too. Some years back I managed to visit the garden that inspired the story, Great Maytham Hall in Rolvenden, Kent, which is also where Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote the book, in a gazebo in the walled garden.
Here's a memory that has just surfaced from the dim and distant past - Mary Plain - who was 'a delightful but rather unusual bear'. I remember borrowing those from Bexleyheath library when it was near Lion Road!
Well we seem to have some agreement - Blyton and Dahl are firm favourites with many of you! Lisa I love your description of an early talking book with 78 record to accompany it! And Little Women - one of my favourites although it seems very old fashioned by today's standards somehow ! Jill I do remember Mary Plain books but more through seeing them in the libraries than as a child. Sharon - I loved the Noggin the Nog series on TV but not sure that I ever read the books as a child. Another couple to add to our list : Heidi and Little House on the Prairie . And two more modern classics that everyone should read : Michelle Magorian Goodnight Mr Tom and Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy .The more you ponder this topic the more you remember ! Val
Hi all
Really enjoying this month's chat. So many old favourites.
Jill - I didn't realise there was a real secret garden! I'll have to visit it.
Val - Little Women is probably still my all time favourite. When I re-read it, I still cry every time at Beth's death (I think that was actually in Good Wives?). I loved the Heidi books too.
Another big favourite - the Swallows and Amazons books. Like most of my favourites, they had gorgeous illustrations. Such exciting adventures, too - a world away from inner London!
Hi Sharon yes escapism does seem to be a big feature of why we remember books from childhood so fondly. I wonder how many of you have reread childhood favourties as adults and found them somehow changed? For me some stand the test of time like Wind in the Willows - I still love that story! However others like Little Women seem rather dated and although I remember the books fondly and still have my own treasured copies, I think that for many of today's young women the girls are too focused on marriage and being useful for it to capture their imaginations!It is certainly now " of its time" !
Hello everyone,
Lisa, your mention of the talking book telling you when to turn the page has just reminded me of the Winnie the Pooh book that my brother and I used to have. Whenever you were told to turn the page the tape played a lovely wind chimes noise. I also seem to remember that there were songs at the end of the tape too, 'A Rather Blustery Day' and 'April Showers' - I can still just about remember the words!
I seem to have completely by-passed most of the classics of childhood reading, as far as I remember I've never read Mary Poppins, Famous Five and only ever made it half way through Little Women before giving up! I did love the Amelia Jane stories by Enid Blyton though, one in particular inspired me to slide down the stairs on a tea tray when I was about six with my three year old brother clinging on behind!
Did anyone else read fairy tales? One of my earliest memories is of staying with my Nan and Aunt and discovering a cupboard full of books including the Andrew Lang Fairy books (all with different colours in the titles). They also had most of the original Flower Fairy books - I wonder what happened to those! I remember too reading some fairy stories illustrated by Arthur Rackham - I was too scared to go to sleep. I was probably very happy to go back to Professor Branestawm's adventures. And what is it about The Magic Faraway Tree? Put a group of people (of different ages) in a room and ask them about childhood favourites and someone will say 'Magic Faraway Tree' and everyone else will say 'oh yes....'!
I used to love fairy tales as a child in fact I still do. I had a couple of compendiums of Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Anderson (very traditional in my family!). I have read Little women and one of my other favourites The lion, the witch and the wardrobe as an adult and I still enjoyed them as much. I think The magic faraway tree has the same appeal as The lion, the witch and the wardrobe, the dream of another much more exciting world just through a door or a climb away, much more exciting than boring old school (or work as you read them again).
Anyone who would like to visit the Secret Garden at Great Maytham Hall will have to wait until next year's NGS Open Gardens, it has already had it's open day in June this year.
My favourite memory from Heidi is when Grandfather gives her a chunk of bread to eat with melted cheese and warm milk.
Books we still read as adults - well it's confession time - here are my Guilty Pleasures, to borrow a phrase.
I bought most of my Milly-Molly-Mandy books as an adult and use them for the ultimate escape!
I am catching up on Enid Blyton's Adventure series now, as I don't remember reading them as a child but I did love the Famous Five.
I'm not sure when I came to Just William - but every now and then I have to find one of his stories to read.
I've recently read a book called The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright because I discovered it was about a family I met in a book called 'The Four Storey mistake', which I probably read at primary school age.
That's some of the ones I read because of memories from childhood.
Have we mentioned The Borrowers yet? I loved the idea of little people who were the cause of things disappearing.
I'm sure no-one's mentioned The Moomins yet.
Jill
Flower fairies! Yes I had a book with those in, they were lovely. - beautiful pictures and a little poem about each fairy - actually I've probably still got it.
I've never read The Magic Faraway Tree - should I?
Jill
I have to confess I've never read The Magic Faraway Tree either! But the Borrowers - I devoured all those stories! I'm sure that even today I have Borrowers in my house as things still unexplicably go missing from time to time! And the Moomins - yes another favourite! Does anyone else remember Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit? A little boy loves his toy rabbit enough that it becomes real - hardly a dry eye in the house!
Val
I didn't read The Magic Faraway Tree either as a child, but my son loved it. He loved The Velveteen Rabbit too - we've still got a copy which I'm under orders never to throw away.
Other favourites from the days of reading with my children - Dogger, the Alfie & Annie Rose books, Frog in Love, Willoughby Wallaby, Winnie the Witch. I'm sure there are loads more - just need to remember them.
Just had a memory flash - Sue Barton, student nurse - I read all of those, even though I didn't want to be a nurse.
I've just finished reading Five Children and It by E.Nesbit because I hadn't read it as a child. Some of my colleagues spotted it and greeted it with delight as a book they loved, one in particular because "the sand fairy was well grumpy!".
I was intrigued by the variety of adventures the children had but also amazed by comments made by the author either to the children reading the book or commenting about children - very much a book of it's time. In the back of the volume I read there are things to think about and one of them is that "the author has some controversial opinions" which would have not have been unusual when she wrote the book but would not have been included had she written the book today.
Oh, yes…The Moomins! I remember them now…Big noses? Ample proportions? Swedish?...What were they all about, then?
And another thing…Can we bring memorable children’s TV into our discussions? The two series that will ALWAYS stay with me are:
1) Robinson Crusoe (I can still hum the music, you know)
2) The Singing Ringing Tree…absolutely terrifying!
Just remembered another big favourite - Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field.
Basically, Martin Pippin tells stories to a group of young girls in a daisy field. That's all I can remember about it - except I used to take it out of the library over and over.
Has anyone else read it?
Childhood classics for young chaps would have to be Tin-Tin and Biggles. Maybe not so politically correct now but as a product of their time thay had legions of young men spellbound.
Yes, now you mention it, I remember Professor Branestawm, too. (Didn’t he have wild, wild hair? Or was that someone else?)
What else do I remember, now you’ve got me thinking?...(An unusual event, I know). Emil and the Detectives? I used to think he was pretty good.
Oh, and Asterix, of course – fantastic people, fantastic pictures and fantastic puns! What more could a young boy want?
I can't believe that no one has mentioned The Very Hungry Caterpillar yet! Surely a classic for all children. My favourite bit (even now) is the page where the caterpillar eats his way through chocolate cake, cheese, cherry pie - and a whole host of other things - before developing a tummy ache. Such lovely pictures!
Hello, Rachel ~
Yes, you’re right about the very hungry caterpillar – it’s become a childhood favourite, even though I`m sure it was first published long after my own childhood. (When was it published?)
Also, can I bung in a few more suggestions? Rupert Bear still does it for me (must be those yellow tartan trousers?) – the Rupert Annual was always popular, even if some of his woodland friends (Nutwood? Edward Trunk?) were a bit odd…
And then there’s Kipling’s Just So Stories…smashing!...I can still recite bits from `How the elephant got his trunk` if asked…
Whoa there!
I'm a girl - and I liked TinTin and Asterix.
Emil and the Detectives brings back memories. We had a teacher at school who was made to teach us Geography for a while [not his subject] and at the end of each lesson he read us a chapter from it.
I've just found a very battered copy of another favourite book on the shelves at home - Iona and Peter Opie The Puffin Book of Nursery Rhymes -it had lots of less familiar rhymes in it.
Does any one else have fond memories of reading the Alfie & Annie Rose stories by Shirley Hughes to their children? Bonting -the pebble found and lost on a day to the beach was a favourite in our house! Also the Old Bear stories by Jane Hissey - wonderful !
Hello, Val.
Not sure what a 'Bonting` is? A pebble? Why?...
The book I remember reading aloud is Six Dinner Sid - wonderful! A happy story, with a good message, and lots of food.
Yes I used to read Alfie and Annie Rose stories to my sons and to be honest I'm not sure who enjoyed them more, the boys or me! We also used to enjoy Percy the park keeper and Old bear stories.
Hi Just William ,
"Bonting" is a stone that Alfie finds on the beach and names but then loses when it is time to go home! - frantic parents look for one stone among the thousands on the beach and of course the next morning Bonting turns up in the bottom of the bucket after all! Mum makes Bonting a some clothes so that next time he'll be easier to find!
Six Dinner Sid about the cat who lives in six different houses - another favourite!
Hi Lisa - Percy the Park Keeper - wonderful - I just loved the fold out pages at the end of some of the books too!
Val
Re Bonting...
Just a thought...
Couldn't Alfie just have chosen another stone instead?
Another favourite I've just remembered is Dogger. A classic for any child or parent of a child who had a much loved favourite toy. And then there's the Jill Murphy stories about the Large family ( elephants) . A Quiet Night In , where mum tries for some peace and quiet and A Piece of Cake ( where mum puts the family on a diet) are almost more fun for the adults than the children !
Val
Hi Val and Lisa
I read the Alfie and Annie Rose books to my sons too. I loved the illustrations. They were a real pleasure to read aloud (and there are lots of children's books that aren't!)
I'd forgotten about Bonting - we loved that one. My boys were always collecting odd things - bits of treasure to them, of course - which we'd then have to find space for.
We also loved The Tiger Who Came to Tea - we read that over and over. Such an appealing story.
I've still got all our old favourites in the loft - I'm not sure I'll ever be able to give them away. Too many memories attached to them.
Another stone??
But another stone wouldn't have been Bonting!
Dear Sharon and Just William
Just what I was going to say - of course he couldn't have chosen another stone.
Bonting had rapidly become like a favourite toy and we all know the trouble there is if children lose a favourite toy.
Another Bonting??? Unthinkable!
The Tiger who came to tea - I love the idea of buying a tin of tiger food from the supermarket! Two more modern classics : Going on a Bear Hunt and The Gruffalo.
As you say Sharon so many memories attached to childhood favourites.
I remember the series on the BBC a few years back about the Top 100 best books and many of those interviewed felt their love of books had come from their early exposure to books and reading.
Can reading an ebook with a child ever generate the same enthusiasm as curling up together to read a favourite picture book?
Hi Val
I'm not sure curling up with an e-book would be the same.
One of my earliest memories of reading - my mum got some books free after collecting tokens from cereal packets (new books were such a luxury) and she read them aloud to me and my three sisters. A huge treat - and I think one of them was Enid Blyton's River of Adventure.
How do e-books handle illustrations?
I'd never heard of Bonting before but he sounds lovely. You are right Sharon about all the lovely memories that go with the books we read to our children. Val, I don't even want to think about reading a story to a child from an e-reader it sounds incredibly cold, no pictures, no turning the page, urghh it makes me shudder!
Lisa
I imagine that ebooks must also have the pictures but I don't think anything can replace the whole experience of reading a picture book to a child.
I can imagine a time when I might be persuaded to want an e-reader - holidays, book shelf space at home , print size being just some of the most persuasive arguments I've heard in favour of e- readers but would they ever replace a picture book for me ? Never !!!!
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