Comments on: Favourite childhood reads: what brings you right back?

By: minxinparis

minxinparis — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:44:00 +0000

Great post. My all time fave was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Loved Joan Aiken, Noel Streatfield and Joan Lingard. Anyone else in The Puffin Club (I went to a founder members’ reunion in the early 80s and met the wonderful Kaye Webb). I bought Claudine at School by Colette when I was 12, a delicious discovery.

By: Country mouse

Country mouse — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 17:26:53 +0000

Damn it! So mad I missed this post! Reading was my obsession as a kid, Enid of course was always a staple, point horror and the babysitters club too, there was a book I loved called Jason Bodger and the Priory Ghost read it about 50 times, used to love in school when the teacher would let us order books from the Puffin catologue anyone remember that? Couldn’t sleep waiting for my books to arrive! Can’t understand why kids don’t read nowadays , their more willing to wait for the film versions to come out!

By: Denise

Denise — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:44:36 +0000

I had tons of Enid Blyton books when I was young, and sadly gave them away to the younger children that lived beside me. I remember being about twelve and thinking I’d grown up and didn’t need them anymore! Feeling sad about it now I’m reading comments were some of you kept all yours! I’ve two children now and would have been lovely to pass them on…

By: Choinim

Choinim — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:32:24 +0000

I love this post!

My faves during primary school were Roald Dahl, R.L.Stine (Goosebumps and Point Horror novels) and Jacqueline Wilson. I then got into the Babysitters Club series. Also loves classics which are books I always go back to even now like the What Katy did series, Little Women, Heidi etc. I just loved that the books seemed wholesome. A little preachy at times maybe but better than anything that was on MTV at the time.

The Night World series was the YA fiction of the 90s, I got into that quite young. Loved anything by L J Smith. Aldo Lois Duncan, Lois Lowry, Caroline B Cooney, Christopher Pike. All the Point horrors, Point Horror Unleashed, Point Crime etc.

By: Orlando

Orlando — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:04:29 +0000

SLH – might that have been one of the Willow Farm or Cherry Tree Farm books? They had Tammylan the Wild Man, and another similar hermit. Wonderful books.

Almost my entire childhood was spent reading. I’ve read every single one of the books mentioned, and loved each of them! Apart from, I must admit, La Reine Margot, Lady Chatterly, and The Iliad (which, after a degree and masters in English, is probably quite shocking!).

Reading has always been, and always will be, my absolute favourite pastime. It’s the closest thing to magic I’ve ever come across.

By: Breige

Breige — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 23:43:30 +0000

Rosie’s Quest was the first book in the Ann Carroll series, she goes back to her mother in the 50s there. In the second one she’s in Dublin with her grandmother as a child during the Black and Tans. There’s more as well, where she goes further back to other family members but I didn’t read them as much as the others. She was cool though, shaven head and Sinead O Connor were the main things I remember too!

I read Point Horror as well, which was funny as I never liked Goosebumps and they were kinda Goosebumps for teenagers.

Also loved Horrible Histories and Horrible Science books!!

By: Aoife

Aoife — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:08:36 +0000

You’ll be glad to know boarding school is very like in those books I always liked those weekly girls magazine/books that you’d get in the newsagents.

By: Gossipgal

Gossipgal — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:12:07 +0000

HaHa No lefrog they were thinking more along the lines of french vo/cab. No sex in Ireland back them. Might look up Comtesse de Ségur’s

By: ShellBelle

ShellBelle — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:50:38 +0000

I had forgotten all about Rosie’s Quest! That was a great book. Also loved all of Marita Conlon McKenna’s famine books, they were amazing, particularly loved Wildflower Girl. I went through a phase as a kid where I would only read Roald Dahl or Enid Blyton, I did always prefer Roald Dahl and my parents never really liked the fact that I read Blyton because of all the reasons mentioned above! Also loved The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, etc. Dr Seuss had a special place in my heart, I had a bit of insomnia as a kid and “The Sleep Book” by Dr Seuss never failed to send me off to the land of nod. There are some nights that I wish I still had a copy of it. I loved Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge were my favourites. I think there was another Fudge book too that I have forgotten the name of now.

By: thefrog

thefrog — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:09:20 +0000

Gossipgal: they’re no longer wildly read and probably still can shock a bit, but they fall under ‘roman d’initiation’, so they’re educational in a way, but that’s not the kind of initiation nuns would recommend I suppose.
In a slightly softer register, we have the Comtesse de Ségur’s books, there’s less sexual innuendo than in Colette’s books but they’re still rather harsh (children being beaten for misbehaving and the like).
We don’t really do cheerful children’s book, come to think of it….