Favourite books from your childhood/teen years

emeraldstar

Posy wrote: »

So many many books!
When very young I loved 'The Magic Faraway Tree' and the 'Wishing Chair' books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl books like 'George's Marvellous Medicine', 'The Twits', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'..
Older, I read everything else by those two writers. Loved 'Mallory Towers', 'Famous Five', 'St. Clares', The 'Circus' books, The 'Adventure' series.. I devoured all Roald Dahl books then. Loved 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' and my favourite, 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.' I read 'Boy' and 'Going Solo' in my teens and loved the 'Anastasia' series of books.

My three all time favourites were 'Heidi', 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'What Katy Did.' I must have read 'Anne of Green Gables' about 20 times during my childhood.. and early adulthood!

Apart from Anne of Green Gables, I think you are me.

Posy

Haha, I love reading about everyone's favourite books- I'm sorely tempted to go and buy the complete 'Mallory Towers' series and read it all again! Purely for 'Boards' research purposes of course!

emeraldstar

Question: did you prefer St Clare's or Mallory Towers? I'd have to say St Clare's all the way

Rainbow_brite

Just read through this thread so many books here that I loved.
I also really liked a series called "choose your own adventure". You would read a few pages and then it would give you a choice, you might have to skip a few pages depending on your decision.

Some other random books that come to mind - Under the Hawthorn Tree and The Wildflower Girl (about the Irish Famine), The Secret Garden and A little Princess, sweet valley twins.

When I was very young I loved Beatrix Potter, Noddy and Ladybird books.

Posy

emeraldstar wrote: »

Question: did you prefer St Clare's or Mallory Towers? I'd have to say St Clare's all the way

I was a 'Mallory Towers' gal.

Rainbow_brite wrote: »

Some other random books that come to mind - Under the Hawthorn Tree and The Wildflower Girl (about the Irish Famine)

I'd forgotten those books! I loved 'Under the Hawthorn Tree'. So sad. A great book.

emeraldstar

Rainbow_brite wrote: »

Just read through this thread so many books here that I loved.
I also really liked a series called "choose your own adventure". You would read a few pages and then it would give you a choice, you might have to skip a few pages depending on your decision.

I LOVED those kind of books. Thought they were so exciting.

Some other random books that come to mind - Under the Hawthorn Tree and The Wildflower Girl (about the Irish Famine)

There was a third one too but I can't recall the name of it right now. These were great, I loved anything by Marita Conlon-McKenna.

Gosh, memories of primary school flooding back!

emeraldstar

Posy wrote: »

I was a 'Mallory Towers' gal.

But St Clare's had Mam'zelle! :eek:

Posy

emeraldstar wrote: »

But St Clare's had Mam'zelle! :eek:

Malory Towers had 2!

Was it St Clare's where they put beetles in mam'zelle's glasses case to frighten her but she thought she was going mad and having a hallucination?!
I wish I went to school in an Enid Blyton book. The midnight feasts and general tomfoolery would have been mighty.

emeraldstar

Lol, my bad!

My parents had me down to go to boarding school and I was totally up for it. But when the time came I had grown up enough to realise that St Clare's didn't actually reflect reality in terms of boarding school life, and refused to go.

Rainbow_brite

Posy wrote: »

Malory Towers had 2!

Was it St Clare's where they put beetles in mam'zelle's glasses case to frighten her but she thought she was going mad and having a hallucination?!
I wish I went to school in an Enid Blyton book. The midnight feasts and general tomfoolery would have been mighty.

You have a great memory... I have read all these books and trying to recall what happened in them at the moment is beyond me!

Getting there

I loved The Faraway Tree series. I still havent thrown out those books, I have them in hardback!

Not only did i get a kick out of characters calle Dick and Fanny (who i think have been changed- rick and franny i think??) but the stories were brilliant! It made up for my lack of an imagination.

optogirl

Loved all of LM Montgomery's stuff

Anne of Green Gables series & Emily of New Moon - was a little bit obsessed with them actually

Loved Roald Dahl and poetry books by Michael Rosen - some really funny stuff and great fun poems for kids. I was initially attracted to them because the illustrations were by Quentin Blake but the stuff is excellent in it's own right.

Loved all the classics aswell - still do

optogirl

emeraldstar wrote: »

I LOVED those kind of books. Thought they were so exciting.



There was a third one too but I can't recall the name of it right now. These were great, I loved anything by Marita Conlon-McKenna.

Gosh, memories of primary school flooding back!

Fields of home

Loved the Daisy Chain books aswell

vepyewwo

Reading this thread has brought back so many memories, seem to have read the same books as a lot of you- all of Enid Blyton (preferred Mallory Towers to St Clares!), Roald Dahl, Anne of green gables, Little Women, Heidi, Secret garden, Marita Conlon Mckenna, Jacqueline Wilson.

I also read Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, Point Horror, Nancy Drew.

Some random books I loved were Children of Bach by Eilis Dillon (probably my favourite book as a kid), Flight of the Doves by Walter Macken, Amelia by Siobhan Parkinson, I am David By Anne Holm, Bike Hunt and Horse thief by Hugh Galt.

Around 6th class I got into The Daisy Chain series By Joan ONeill and read a lot of Joan Lingard especailly the kevin/sadie books. I also read the Homecoming series by Cynthia Voight.

I was quite obsessed with boarding school books aswell and loved the Trebizon series by Anne Digby. My favourite was the Chalet School series by Elinor M brent Dyer which were mosty out of print and so hard to find. I used to put adds in the Buy and Sell looking for them. I remember randomly finding 2 I hadn't read in a second hand book shop in Spain when I was about 13 and being absolutely thrilled.

I still have most of these books on the bookshelf at home, I'm tempted to have a reread of Trebizon, it's been years, althoigh there's a couple I'm missing, these were quite hard to come by aswell.

When I was 15/16 i started reading Danielle Steel , these were the first "grown up" books I read, would never look at them now as generally hate those kind of books but read loads of them at the time!

claire*

Great Thread!

Loved The Babysitter's Club! Had nearly all of the books. Was so obsessed that I remember getting up at 6 am on Sunday Mornings (I was 6 or 7!) to watch it on Channel 4! Anyone else remember the tv series which was always on at crazy times!

Enid Blyton- The Secret Island, Mallory Towers, The Famous Five. Faraway Tree- still brillliant.

Marita Conlon McKenna- Under the Hawthorn Tree. Think I read it too young cos it traumatised me for awhile!!

Got my sex education from Point Romance!:o I think there was a J17 series as well that was quite graphic!

Posy

optogirl wrote: »

Loved all of LM Montgomery's stuff

Anne of Green Gables series & Emily of New Moon - was a little bit obsessed with them actually

I think I read Anne of Green Gables at least a dozen times during the years. It's just such a beautifully written book and I loved following Anne's journey from waiting with her little bag at the train station through to her teenage years. A lot of funny and sad things in one book.
I found this quote online somewhere and love how it's written.
"Anne always remembered the silvery, peaceful beauty and fragrant calm of that night. It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying touch has been laid upon it."
LM Montgomery's descriptions of Prince Edward Island make me want to visit there one day, it sounds so magical through Anne's eyes!

DonOcelot

Used to love Roald Dahl books, read them over and over.
Also loved Goosebumps, Tintin and Asterix.