favourite childhood book

Chinafoot

so what is the one book from your childhood that you loved the most?

mine is To Kill A Mocking Bird, i read it when i was 10 and loved it although i didnt fully understand the racism theme until i did it for my junior cert. its still one of my all-time favourites.

pork99

"War of the Worlds", "The Time Machine" and "Collected Short Stories" by H. G. Wells

I was fascinated by those books when I read them at about 9 or 10 years old. Might explain why I'm such a misfit weirdo freak now.

Trix

Originally posted by peachypants
mine is To Kill A Mocking Bird, i read it when i was 10 and loved it although i didnt fully understand the racism theme until i did it for my junior cert. its still one of my all-time favourites.

read that too when i was younger. really enjoyed it. atticus! what a crazy name.

marcowil

"The Silver Sword" by Ian Serraillier or "I am David" by Anne Holm

Kunst

when i was fairly young i really enjoyed the táin. had to reread it for classics recently too which was good.


but......

take my advice don't try to read cryptonomicon when you're 11!!!!

simu

I remember a kids' book called Fleá Bhricriu. Twas a Cúchulainn adventure and it had lots of violence and pictures of beheadings which I thought were cool. And, it was based on a real Irish story.

I was very inspired by Matilda as well.

tbh

Out of the shelter, by David Lodge or The Machine Gunners by Robert Weston (?)

Dr. Loon

I had a big book of all Oscar Wildes stories... loved it.
Also all the Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson fighting fantasy books.

fragile

The BFG by Roald Dahl & A tale of two cities by Dickens

Auburn

I used to love "The Secret Garden", "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe", anything by Enid Blyton, also the Nancy Drew books

Trix

oo or the witches by roald dahl. scary stuff.:(

FireFly

I used to read fairytales like the Grimms collection or Hans Christian Anderson, also lots of mythology Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse, if it had magic and a good story I read it:)

gogo

Watership down was my favourite when i was younger, still is one of my favourite now.
I still have my copies of 'To kill a Mockinbird' and 'I am David' - both brillant books.

Also I loved anything by Mildred D. Taylor , roll of thunder hear my cry, and let the circle be unbroken are excellent reads, recently found out that there were three more books to this series, and they are just as good as the first ones.
But i can't get the last book, 'The well, Davids story', so if anyone knows anything about it let me know. thanks


gogo

Trojan

I loved all of Dahls stuff - fantastic imagination.

The Hobbit is way up there on my list.

Wells, Clarke, Asimov (my dad was a big sf reader and heavily influenced me) when I got a little older.

hedgetrimmer

Originally posted by Dr. Loon
Also all the Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson fighting fantasy books.

I collected all of them...Still have them in fact. Brilliant books

I also loved Poe when I was younger, still do in fact

Squall

The Machine Gunners by Robert Weston

Ahhhh youve just reminded me of that. Excellent book. I remember not being able to put it down.

Karoma

The Twits - Roald Dahl

oduffy

Hi Guys,

My favourite book from my youth was 'The Moon is Down' by 'John Steinbeck',

Ollie.

Q_Elexra

I loved 'The Famous Five' and 'Secret Seven' books. As far as I remember I read all of them. Then there was 'The Hobbit' and and a thriller about a football team that I can't remember the name of.

Cheez

I remember gettin the twits and i wasnt able to put it down,it was the first time i recall staying up till about 6 in the morning reading. Any Dahl is great stuf

DapperGent

C.S. Lewis's Narnia books which were lovely. I'm jealous of kids these days though - they get to read Philip Pullman.

byte

Hmmm

When younger, I was a fan of Enid Blyton books such as Secret Seven, followed by Famous Five. Also I had a few Hardy Boys books.

Funky

Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl

That fox truly owned.

genie

Everything by Enid Blyton. Incredibly dated now, though!

gogo

As far as i know enid blyton is now banned from libraries and public schools for the racism used in her books, the Amelia Jane books in particular. She used dergoraty (sp?) names for the gollywog.
It's only right but i can't help feeling that a lot of kids are missing out on alot of good books.
Who didn't read the famous five/mallory towers, etc ,the list is endless. These are books that we all grew up on.

tuxy

anything by roald dahl i think i read all his books he had such a great imagination

Spacedog

Originally posted by Funky
Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl

That fox truly owned.

LOL, Cider drinking animals, COOL!

mine's 'The Terbulant Term of Tike Tyler'

'twas cool

LoneGunM@n

I used to devour books when I was a kid ... wish I had the time now

I loved to read:

all the Enid Blyton books [especially the Mystery Series]
all the Roald Dahl books [especially The Witches]
The Narnia Series [by CS Lewis]
The Bobsy Twins [by Laura Lee Hope]
The Borrowers [by Mary Norton]
Billy Bunter [by Frank Richards]
Alfred Hitchcok & The 3 Investigators [by Robert Arthur]
The Hardy Boys [by Franklin W. Dixon]

Saturday in Templeogue Library was the best time of the week

joolsveer

Just William by Richmal Crompton

RicardoSmith

Noddy to start with,...no seriously. Losts enid blyton books. All the ones about goblins and fantasy stuff. Then Famous five, Secret seven, all those books about school etc. There was one series eabout a magic tree with all these mad characters which was great.

Then Biggles. The Adventure series were great too.

ArthurG

Amazing... was reading this thread and 2 books I really enjoyed as a kid just popped into my mind. One was called 'The Bogwoppits', about some kid who went to live with her miserable old granny, and there were these little blue creatures living in the sewers below the house. I used to love it when i was about 8....

There was another one I really loved, can't remember what it was called - it was about this old granny who had a really smart cat, and the granny was a master thief. I'd love to know the name if it sounds familiar to anyone!!

Beatrix

I loved The Folk of the Faraway Tree... it gave me beautiful dreams!

I also liked the Narnia series from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

girldef

any of the garden gang books!!!

mayordenis

i cant remember the name properly but it was something like smelly bumsted it was very funny

Dancing duck

I was big into those Marita Conlon McKenna books. Under the Hawthorn Tree and other such melodramatic, period dramas.

Jacqueline Wilson and Philip Ridley both held my attention and humoured me in the process.

Of course Enid Blyton, Anne Fine, Paul Jennings and Roald Dahl were also high on the agenda. Just a little further down the ladder.

pork99

Originally posted by joolsveer
Just William by Richmal Crompton

Yes those books were the business. I thought they were f-ing hilarious when I was 9 or 10.

Enid Blyton books were gay, let's face it

Dr Bolouswki

'Where the Wild things are' = don't know who wrote it... Max in his wolf outfit, sailing away on his bed to the land where the wild things are... brilliant!

Cactus Col

The fantastic mr fox! . . class

there was a book about the adventures of some culchie kid in the country ... can't remember his name ... timolin or something (probably something a bit more irish) ... Pat Ingles read from it on the Den a few times I think ....

up until I read The Sum of all fears .... which has a special place in my heart

Frankie Smith

morgan llewelyn's brian boru for some strange reason, as well as lord of the rings (i hated the films), and jane eyre.

Envy

My first obsession was Roald Dahl. I loved The Witches, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach were my favourites.

Then I moved on to The Famous Five, and fell in love with that series. Looking back, though, the books seem so -- well -- gay.

edibility

Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass have to be my favourite childhood books...i still reread them regularly and find somehting new and funny int them everytime, they really are books for adults as much as children.

But also....
Anything by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Oscar Wildes childrens stories, the Narnia Chronicles, The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings trilogy, all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stuff....

Q_Elexra

I can't believe I forgot the Mr. Men books. I remember back in third class, there was only one copy of Mr. Skinny in the library and the rush to get it was amazing.

monkeyfudge

I used to read a series of books called 'The Bottersnikes and Gumbles'

It was about these big reptillian Bottersnikes that lived in junkyards and they were always trying to enslave the Gumbles, who were pudgy little white guys...

Also, a series of books called "The Bed that Went Whooosh!" about a magic bed that took a kid to different places every night...

Oh, and series of books called Tubby Tin. He was a little robot who flew around in a cool spaceship and went and met with some really strange aliens...

elivsvonchiaing

I read the Diceman when I was 16 - I really loved it. I would hate any kids of mine reading it before this age though.

Before that it was probably "Swiss family Robinson". (age 12 ish)

I didn't read "The Lord of the Rings" until I was 17 or 18 - had I read as a kid I think this would have been my favourite!

elivsvonchiaing

elivsvonchiaing wrote:

I read the Diceman when I was 16 - I really loved it.

On second thoughts - I would be unhappy if they read it before 18 - OK I'm a self confessed hypocryte!

lilo moo

Killah_B wrote:

'Where the Wild things are' = don't know who wrote it... Max in his wolf outfit, sailing away on his bed to the land where the wild things are... brilliant!

Maurice Sendak! such an amazing book. i liked another book of his too, about a little boy who fought a lion and went to see the queen... something like that, wish i could remember his name

also anything by dr.seuss. the lorax and the sneetchs are two of my favourite

CathyMoran

The Padington Bear books were my favorite when I was 3, I also loved The Billy Goats Gruff...when I was 7 I loved Dune and The Illustrated Man, then at 9 I loved Wuthering Heights...my brother is 6 and a half years older than me, so I ended up reading his books instead but I don't regret it. Chocky by John Wyndham and The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke are two science fiction books that span all ages.

PiE

Funky wrote:

Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl

That fox truly owned.

Seconded. Farmer Bean rocked.

luckat

The King of Ireland's Son and Irish Fairy Tales were my favourites.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486297225/qid=1092346493/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-8493923-4518044

and

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000996L4/qid=1092346689/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_10_5/026-8493923-4518044

(One had illustrations by Rackham, the other by Willy Pogani.)

I loved the Just William stories. Enid Blyton, in a McDonald's kind of a delicious empty calories way.

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford and My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

The Story of Ferdinand, Orlando the Marmalade Cat and The Little Engine that Could when I was little.

Later, The Owl Service by Alan Garner - very scary - then The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.

Oh, and the Bible, fabulous stories brilliantly told, blood and guts and language to tear your heart out.

And Damon Runyon. And PG Wodehouse.

luckat

Oh, and by the way, you know the kid next door in To Kill a Mockingbird (also a favourite book of mine - oh yeah, and I left out Les Miserables, my favourite book of all time, though I've only read it in English) - that kid was Truman Capote, a childhood friend of Harper Lee's.