Anyone remember their first 'big' kids book?

ally2

By first 'big' book,I mean the first time you remember reading a book with no pics, pure text, small font and getting hooked.

My first was a Famous Five. I can't remember the exact tale (apart from the picnics and ginger beer) but I remember how excited I was to get and read a book of my own that looked like an adult's book.

Anyone else remember their first 'big' kids book?

chenguin

I believe mine was one of the ''The Babysitters Club'' series from Ann Martin.
I loved those books. I remember there was like special editions that came out I used to get them as presents.
Those were good memories!!!

IvyTheTerrible

Mine was Robinson Crusoe. My aunt gave it to me as a present...I was only about 7 so it was way too advanced for me. I remember having to use the dictionary to look up words. In the end I didn't finish it (I did later). Looking back, I was lucky that didn't put me off reading!

gaf1983

Think mine was Enid Blyton's The Adventurous Four. Though I remember somewhat over-ambitiously borrowing both Jurassic Park and a biography of Nelson Mandela from the library when I was still in second class... don't think I made it past the first few pages in either of them - it was physically draining! The letters were so small!

MultiUmm

Hmm .. I think it was a book about racism in the deep south of America during the 1930's. Really good book, just wish I could remember the name of it.

I vaguely remember it having the word "burning" in the title.
Not that knowing one word is much good to me. :rolleyes:

pauline fayne

Mine was Heidi . I think i was about seven . I loved it and was shortly afterwards given Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson ,(neither of which i could finish !) by an uncle
.I remember they were all Dean Childrens Classic books . I was talking to a couple of friends about this recently and we wondered who was responsible for selecting the books in this series as some of them were practically unreadable for our age group .
I remember having nightmares after reading a few chapters of Wuthering Heights !

ally2

I remember trying to read Robinson Crusoe too and not finishing it. Again, think I was too young or maybe just didn't like it. I was given David Copperfield at the same time. It was a hardback copy and I struggled to read that too. I pretended I read the whole thing though, to impress my parents and make my little sister jealous!

missmatty

Furious Banana wrote: »

Hmm .. I think it was a book about racism in the deep south of America during the 1930's. Really good book, just wish I could remember the name of it.

I know you said 'burning' was in the title, but maybe it was 'Roll of Thunder hear my cry' or its sequel?

I used to read my mother's mother and baby magazines and started reading the Childcraft encyclopaedias when I was 4. I remember in one of the stories there was a boy who was 6 and I remember thinking he was so much older than me :pac:

raah!

I think mine was the iron giant.. or the iron man or something. It was in 2nd class anyway, and near the end the giant saved someplace or other from a dragon.

The giant said the dragon could breath fire on him if the dragon flew into the sun.. whoever could withstand it won the competition. The giant won. I'll look that up I guess.

There could have been others but they were probably too crap to remember

Ian C

Did "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" have pictures? I read that when I was 4, I think.

mkaobrih

[FONT=&quot]Nancy Drew 7 book box set – when I was 13 years old - at first I thought it was a crap present but when I started reading it - it was the best present ever.[/FONT]

not bakunin

"The Twits", that slice of infantile brilliance from the one and only Roald Dahl. I remember being ever so proud at reading it myself, and I distinctly remember the irrational fear which would grip me every time I put the book down. Would I ever find where i was again? This led to me carrying a small purple marker around with the book, and when i needed to stop, i would underline the exact word which i had stopped at. I then progressed onto the "Swallows and Amazons" series by Arthur Ransome, and I was away with it from there.....


Finishing reading in mid-sentence, good times, good times.

This_Years_Love

It was The Witches by Roald Dahl when I was in 2nd class so I was about 7 or 8.

Linguo

Famous five and the secret seven books and goosebumps books, there were brilliant!!

giddybootz

Roald Dahl books and Narnia

Still read them to this day!! They are my comfort food of the book world!

ally2

giddybootz wrote: »

Roald Dahl books and Narnia

Narnia is still amazing to read. I read it to my 4-year old and we are both hooked wondering what will happen next. I thought it would be too old for him but it's amazing how kids visualise exactly what is happening when you read to them.

giddybootz

Yeah I was very young when my Aunt first read them to me and I loved them...I think it was the talking animals that first sold them to me!! Even to this day I am waiting for a badger, beaver or lion to chat to me!!

BossArky

Mine was about a rabbit. Further detail has vanished into the fog of memory.

ally2

BossArky wrote: »

Mine was about a rabbit. Further detail has vanished into the fog of memory.

Watership Down? Peter Rabbit?

Anthem

I'm not sure. Remember reading Narnia in senior infants or so, then Harry Potter in first class

Very first might've been Nancy Drew or Babysitters Club though...

-Els-

I remember my first "chapter book" as I called it then was "the secret island" by enid blyton... loved it, can still remember most of it to this day!

sceptre

ally2 wrote: »

By first 'big' book,I mean the first time you remember reading a book with no pics, pure text, small font and getting hooked.

My first was a Famous Five.

Same here. Five on a treasure island, in 1980 at a guess (I would have been five, I half-doubt it would have been handed to me when I was four, although given that my parents always assumed I'd grow into shoes, they probably did that with books as well). It was the TV tie-in issue (series started in '78) but of course RTE being RTE, they didn't show the series till about 1984ish when I was finished all of the books, had tried some of the translated French ones and had sod-all interest in watching the series.

It was definitely bought in that little shop next to where the jaunting cars congregate on what used to be the way into Killarney, the one joined on to that little hotel that sold the most awful sausages. Doubt any of it is still there (I haven't been in Killarney in years) - it's exactly the kind of thing that would be swept away by the arrival of tourists with money and a modicum of taste.

Oddly enough these days I've little regard for Enid Blyton except for the Faraway Tree books (which my sister read, I used to nick them for half an hour). The PC cleansing they underwent in the 80s probably doesn't help. But when it comes down to it, fun and all as it was when I was little to find out what the little Kirrin kids were up to given that their preferred holidaying location of Polseath was full, even as a five or six year old, it struck me as odd that those kids spent 21 books on holidays. And they really weren't very well written, even if the first one taught me what an ingot was (incidentally, it's been 30 years and that's the first time I've needed to use the word "ingot"). Peter Rabbit on the other hand (lots of pictures, doesn't count), which I read before Blyton, now that I can still dig. Somewhere buried in my middle room I have a Peter Rabbit bowl, plate, eggcup and cup, must dig those out.

Ah, nostalgia, when I do it I always picture me doing it like this. Warning: not a book. These days you can pull videos from my cold dead hands.

edit: ooh, actually, thinking about it, I lie (to be fair, it's been 30 years and my memory genuinely isn't what it was last year). My aunt left a copy of The Valley of Adventure in the house. It was falling apart. I read that before being given the Famous Five one. Of the Adventure series books that I read, I probably liked it the least. Probably why I didn't finish the series, I only read the first four or five.

we'llallhavetea_old

Mine was 'the magic finger', in first class, so about seven years old. This kickstarted my roald dahl obsession, which i've passed on to my five year old! Its great, i get to read them all over again!

Fugly

Hmm. Love Roald Dahl but seeing as they're illustrated. I'll exclude them. I didn't really read children's lit when I was under 11. I was a marathon reader so only read "grown up" books, I judged on the thickness {more impressive, Yes I was that child}. So in my house that meant law books/politics/history/war. I adored reading about hitler, . There was an incident in a book store where I threw a tantrum as I wanted this super thick book on hitler (Alan Bullock). I distinctly remember my mother turning bright red dragging me out as I screamed "but I love Hitler" while she just kept repeating "no dear you're interested in Hitler"

Aw youth full ingnorance :rolleyes::o:o

My first book I remember reading fully was Jeffery Archer, As the crow flies. I was around eight stuck in my grandparents home. I still love this book.

-Els-

Came accross this the other day:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/how-to-ration-ginger-beer-and-other-essential-skills-foradventurers/2006/09/08/1157222326086.html
Any Enid Blyton veterans such as myself might enjoy it:)

ally2

even as a five or six year old, it struck me as odd that those kids spent 21 books on holidays. And they really weren't very well written, even if the first one taught me what an ingot was (incidentally, it's been 30 years and that's the first time I've needed to use the word "ingot").

I think there was a 'Blyton ban' in the 80s because it was felt her books weren't literary enough? Although I doubt I appreciated that much as a kid. I think she knew how to capture kids' imagination with stories about freedom and adventure. I read an article recently on the PC police altering her books - queer has been replaced with odd and gay has been replaced by happy. Apparently biscuits have been replaced by cookies to appeal to an American audience.

p to the e

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson when i was about seven. after that came the secret seven by Enid Blyton

holmyster

harry potter!!!!

TedB

Mine was a famous five story. I don't remember anything other than something to do with the 'gang' looking down an old well or something. Its like mist or something at this stage to me.

giddybootz

BossArky wrote: »

Mine was about a rabbit. Further detail has vanished into the fog of memory.

Was it The Velvatine Rabbit? My favourite kids story of all time..soooo good and sooo sad! It's the first story I rtemember being read as a little one!!

oncevotedff

ally2 wrote: »

Anyone else remember their first 'big' kids book?

One of the Secret Seven books.

Reg'stoy

Had to have been a Biggles or Alfred Hitchcock and the three investigators, I still remember the knot in the fence was the secret entrance to their club.

Hermy

Not the first book I ever read but a favourite back then was Ordinary Jack by Helen Cresswell.

MissRibena

My first 'proper' book was The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and I was 5 or 6 when I read it. I can remember a lot about it quite clearly; I can remember the revelation of sounding out 'cupboard' and asking my mother what a board for cups was. I can remember one of the characters was called Moonface and that they went into the tree (but she nicked that idea from the Tinderbox). I went crazy reading Enid Blyton books after that and there was serious competition for them in the library and a queue outside on Saturday mornings waiting for it to open. None of us owned very many books at all but now I love owning a copy of a book. I suppose it must just be a materialistic thing that has crept up on me.

Anyone else remember the mutliple choice endings in Nancy Drew books? At one point, we thought this was the going to be the big new thing.

I moved onto Roald Dahl and Judy Blume and the likes but never took to Narnia. Then a few of us read The Stand in sixth class almost as a dare because of the size of it and that was the end of any 'Young Adult' stuff. At different points in time, I've gone through phases of reading all kinds of stuff that really make me wonder now; including Sweet Valley High, Mills and Boons (as a young teenager to be fair), Virginia Andrews, crime stuff (Scott Turow, Lynda la Plante etc). Luckily I recovered

Roisinbunny

ally2 wrote: »

My first was a Famous Five. I can't remember the exact tale (apart from the picnics and ginger beer) but I remember how excited I was to get and read a book of my own that looked like an adult's book.

Same here - I was inducted into books with the famous 5 - still have it buried somewhere in my library with an inscription from my mam..

Does anyone remember "The Hounds of the Morrigan" ?- I absolutely loved it. Not sure would it be very babyish if I picked it up again to read - but I've great memories of reading it!

Jako8

George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

I can't remember what it's about but I remember something about a grandmother.

IvyTheTerrible

Roisinbunny wrote: »

Does anyone remember "The Hounds of the Morrigan" ?- I absolutely loved it. Not sure would it be very babyish if I picked it up again to read - but I've great memories of reading it!

I do!! I thought that was a great book at the time, so scary! Aparently though it is criticised for having lots of plot holes and Deus ex machina stuff in it. But I think a ten year won't care too much about that!

turgon

Id imagine it was the harry Potter series for me. That and Artemis Foul.

Jako8

turgon wrote: »

Id imagine it was the harry Potter series for me. That and Artemis Foul.

Wasn't Artemis Foul meant to be made into a movie?

Roisinbunny

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I do!! I thought that was a great book at the time, so scary! Aparently though it is criticised for having lots of plot holes and Deus ex machina stuff in it. But I think a ten year won't care too much about that!

I didn't care one bit about plot holes I'd say at the time! (it was prob the adults who were reading so much into the technicalities, like the adult Harry Potter fans of today). Even now I can remember how scared I was, but scared in a really good way - it was pure suspense! A really great childhood memory...I'm definitely going to have to track down a copy if ever I have kids, think it fostered some of the book worm in me!

VanishingLayla

Mine was definitely an Enid Blyton book. Can't remember which one, though.

lemon_sherbert

I can't remember exactly, though I remember reading the Roald Dahl books and quite a few by Enid Blyton. I also loved the Milly Molly Mandy books, and the Goosebumps series. And the Noel Streatfield (sp?) shoe books. Oh and Little Women, and the Little Princess, and the Marita Conlon McKenna series about the Famine, the name of which is eluding me right now. Ah, this thread is making me very nostalgic. I went through an Agatha Christie phase as well. Harry Potter too.

IvyTheTerrible

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

I can't remember exactly, though I remember reading the Roald Dahl books and quite a few by Enid Blyton. I also loved the Milly Molly Mandy books, and the Goosebumps series. And the Noel Streatfield (sp?) shoe books. Oh and Little Women, and the Little Princess, and the Marita Conlon McKenna series about the Famine, the name of which is eluding me right now. Ah, this thread is making me very nostalgic. I went through an Agatha Christie phase as well. Harry Potter too.

Under the Hawthorn Tree?

lemon_sherbert

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Under the Hawthorn Tree?

Yes, that's it, thanks! I remember acting it out with my friends in school and everything.

The Sparrow

The Battle Below Giltspur by Cormac MacRaois. Man I loved that book. It was basically about a irish legend and a scarecrow that comes alive and helps two kids defeat an evil force. There were two sequels as well. I would never think of reading it now in case it was terrible but it was by far my favourite book when I was a kid.

Also I remember reading the Tom McChaugren fox series. Run with the Wild or something.

God everyone else's books seem to be mostly Enid Blyton. How very British!!;)

IvyTheTerrible

The Sparrow wrote: »

The Battle Below Giltspur by Cormac MacRaois. Man I loved that book. It was basically about a irish legend and a scarecrow that comes alive and helps two kids defeat an evil force. There were two sequels as well. I would never think of reading it now in case it was terrible but it was by far my favourite book when I was a kid.

Also I remember reading the Tom McChaugren fox series. Run with the Wild or something.

God everyone else's books seem to be mostly Enid Blyton. How very British!!;)

I think the speaking English in Britain thing probably helps

Roisinbunny

The Sparrow wrote: »

The Battle Below Giltspur by Cormac MacRaois. Man I loved that book. It was basically about a irish legend and a scarecrow that comes alive and helps two kids defeat an evil force. There were two sequels as well. I would never think of reading it now in case it was terrible but it was by far my favourite book when I was a kid.

Also I remember reading the Tom McChaugren fox series. Run with the Wild or something.

Oh my God thanks for that - I totally forgot about them! The 2nd book was Lightning over Giltspur, can't remember the 3rd. But they were class..

I remember the Tom McCaughren books were really sad... Must have been kind of a Bambi theme going on there!:(

The Sparrow

Roisinbunny wrote: »

Oh my God thanks for that - I totally forgot about them! The 2nd book was Lightning over Giltspur, can't remember the 3rd. But they were class..

I had to google this as I barely remembered anything about the books other than I loved them as a kid. But the sequel was actually Dance of the Midnight Fire when their English cousin Ronan tagged along. And the third book was Lightning over Giltspur. And the scarecrow's name was Glasan:):D

It's great that someone else remembers them because nobody I have ever mentioned these books to has any idea about them.

Roisinbunny

The Sparrow wrote: »

I had to google this as I barely remembered anything about the books other than I loved them as a kid. But the sequel was actually Dance of the Midnight Fire when their English cousin Ronan tagged along. And the third book was Lightning over Giltspur. And the scarecrow's name was Glasan:):D

It's great that someone else remembers them because nobody I have ever mentioned these books to has any idea about them.

That's strange, there have to be more people out there that remember them! I actually think I have 2 of them buried somewhere in my home house.. One of the covers was a deep red with kind of Celtic Script and the other was purple-ey with then same type of script.. Must try to order them again, you never know, they could be just as good 2nd time round!

Glasán - I'm just blown away - can't believe I'd forgotten those! ( although it was prob 15 years ago for me!)Thanks so much for that blast from the past!!:D:D

emeraldstar

Not sure but I think it was Famous Five Go To Billycock Hill from Santa when I was five. I was so so excited when I saw it; a lilac-coloured hardback. Still have it on my bookshelf actually

Ann22

Furious Banana wrote: »

Hmm .. I think it was a book about racism in the deep south of America during the 1930's. Really good book, just wish I could remember the name of it.

I vaguely remember it having the word "burning" in the title.
Not that knowing one word is much good to me. :rolleyes:

Would it be 'Mississippi Burning'? Never read the book but saw the film. Was about racism alright.
My very earliest was a version of 'Snow White' with no pictures. It was bought for my friends birthday but I read it before giving it to her. It was a long time ago, maybe 1977 ish. The next ones were from the Secret Seven series, closely followed by the St Clare's, Mallory Towers then Famous Fives.