"the adventure series" by Willard Price? the brother may have actually been Roger?

gosh theres so many i loved, im such an avid reader, always have been. loved jack londons call of the wild and white fang, black beauty, the water babies, watership down, the secret garden, to kill a mockingbird, enid blytons the famous five and the secret seven, the saddle club, anne of green gables, hound of the baskervilles, anything by james herriott, lord of the flies, anything by r dahl, midnight dancer about a wild pony, the railway cat, born free, of mice and men

theres also a few i cant remember the name of, one about a farming community in america that suffers a flood, all the families pack up and leave, and have to leave their young rough collie behind as hes away chasing sheep, when the flood comes however, he defends the flock from a puma, anyone any ideas? also a book about a young girl who travels through time to an old farmhouise in ww2, and has adventures there? its anooying me trying to remember the names!

i also have a list of childrens books which i never read and really want to, including little women, the truckers,  the velveteen rabbit,

wow - too many to mention!!

Of course Enid Blyton, and The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit (didn't get LOTR til much later)  Dodie Smith's Midnight Kittens as well as the Dalmatian books....

some obscure ones, a book called Casilda of the Rising Moon, Minnipins...there was a book, I think called "Jenny" about a boy who had an accident and dreamed he was a cat and met a female cat called Jenny, and their adventures, and then he woke up and was a boy again..

and I had started into My Grandma's collection of Agatha Christie by the time I was 10.....

I read nearly all of the books mentioned so far. I also liked Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and the follow on books. Monica Edwards was a favourite - Follyfoot. Jennings was around in the sixties I believe along with the Just William books. So many I could mention here :) My Little Sister, The Family from One End Street, all of Joy Packer's books, Shadow the Sheepdog are just a few that spring to mind. Ooh and The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase  was another favourite.

I read about 8 books a week - luckily we have a tiny library near to us and I also use the mobile library van. The books that were firm favourites with my children were Noisy Nora, This Is The Dog and Hairy McClary :)

My favourute books when I was young were:

1. Black Beauty ...cried every time I read it

2. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham - in fact any and all of JW's books but this is my favourite even today

3. I'm going to cheat because I loved:

The Jill (and Black Boy) books
All the Pullien-Thompson books
Malory Towers books
St Claires books
Drina books (ballet dancer)
Any and all of the Narnia books ...

Can you tell I was/am a reader? lol :-D

Cat in the hat
The Twits

and i can remember having the iron man read to us at junior school.

oh my god mine was puddle lane books, i had everyone, i never kept a single one, they probly would be worth something now, i mite look on ebay, thanks for that lol
sami

> does anyone remember a seris of books called sweet valley high?
>

and the tv series, lordy it was bad looking abck, loved it at the time though

At school I read the series about the couple in Ireland who fell in love despite the north / south divide.  Can't remember who wrote them, just that one of the novels was called Through The Barricades.

The Garden Gang :)
with the likes of
Rodger Radish
Willie Watermelon
Percy Parsnip
They were written by a teenager :)
Oh and
Molly Burkets An owl from pompeii and some of the others she wrote :) But this might be because she lives about 15 miles away from me and I have met her and her owls numerous times :)
Lea :)

Joan Lingard wrote them.  The main characters were called Kevin and Sadie and they were both from Belfast but opposite sides of the religious divide.  We had to read the books at school.

Karen wrote:

> ..shadbolts what is your opinion now, on children reading books that are deemed unsuitable by adults?

I think it is more difficult now than when I was younger, in  the late 70s when I was reading Catch 22 I think the books were a lot less explicit.  There is also the issue about the context, Catch 22 is trying to highlight the stupidity of war and how it affects those taking part and so the faily mild sex and violence is in context, I would have no concerns about my daughters reading it.  My 15 year old has just read Of Mice and Men for her GCSE which I suspect would have been deemed unsuitable when I did o-levels but I have no problem with her reading it as it is a serious book making a serious point.  On the other hand my eldest daughter has just read the Katie Price autobiography, I'm not sure I would be happy with the younger ones reading it.

Shadbolts - youre about my age ;) I read Catch 22 and The Lord of the Flies at school and I did Of Mice and Men for my o level ( all could be deemed unsuitable ) so it was around.!....congrats on becoming a grandad BTW  :-D

I think far worse and explicit content can be found on tv these days. Not all content is supervised by parents especially as most kids have a tv in their bedroom nowadays and can easily get round the 'lights off now' rule if they really wanted to watch something. We all know what late night tv on certain channels can reveal

I think children who enjoy reading, are avid readers and have a higher reading age can understand and cope better with more adult themes- they tend to have a far more mature attitude to these things too.

EDIT that doesn't mean I would be happy with children reading erotica either!!!!!

I remember the garden gang, they were quite small white books & each one was centered around one character I think!

Lion, witch & wardrobe was also my first big read, I loved it & loved the film version.  I remember the Sweet Valley High ones too.  I seem to remember reading a lot of Judy Blume books (have vague memories of reading all the copies our library owned), Adrian Mole too & the Point Horror books.  I think looking back I was a bit young to be reading them, didn't do me any harm though!

Reading was always a big thing with my mum & we would have regular trips to our library, from memory I seem to remember working my way through Catherine Cookson, Danielle Steel & Stephen King before I moved to uni.  Then got heavily into chick lit e.g. Marian Keyes, Jane Green & Sophie Kinsella!  I'll happily read my way through the R&J Book Club list, shortlist for Manbooker & any book that makes it to the finals of Costa/Orange prize now, my choice of reading is very diverse!

Dog books do make me cry Marley & Me especially.  I recently finished a new one called a Friend Like Henry - it's a true story wrote by the mother of a severely autistic boy, who have a golden retriever to help the boy develop! Superb book, highly recommended, I was reading it on the train home on Friday crying my eyes out!!!

oh! sorry just remembered, when i was really wee it was the magic house series! anyone else have them?

"once there was a magic house where everything was alive! the teapot and the kettle and the poots and the clock and the lamp and the bin and in the garden was a wighing well" they all started. the wishingwell was called H.G. Wells and was a magician, there was kittie kettle, sam salt and alfred he grate (on the fire) and many others. brilliant books.

awww shadow the sheepdog was my ultimate fave!!!!
trying to find it for reading with my son, but i cant find it!! loved lots of enid blyton books, faraway tree etc!
read a lot of jill has a pony, jill has 2 ponies etcetc, anyone else remember them??

Plenty available here. You could also try Amazon or some of the other online sellers. EBay perhaps?

I loved anything by Joyce Stranger, Enid Blyton, numerous horsey writers. But my actual favourite was The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S Lewis.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe for me too and The Secret Garden, still have my original copies too!

>I read Catch 22 and The Lord of the Flies at school and I did Of Mice and Men for my o level

I studied 'Lord of the Files' and 'Of Mice and Men' at school too during the early 90s :-)  I also did 'Sons and Lovers' (DH Lawrence) at A-Level which has some fairly explicit themes.

>I think children who enjoy reading, are avid readers and have a higher reading age can understand and cope better with more adult themes- they tend to have a far more mature attitude to these things too.

I agree.

Enid Blyton books for me and I think my favourite of all of them was The Faraway Tree.
I still love to read now - and am encouraging my nephew to read lots too

does no one rememer puddle lane, i was born in the 80s so.............. not trying to say anyone is old, just thought id give a clue

I loved Enid Blyton too, was totally addicted! Then I was sent a book caled Harriet the Spy which I loved and I bought a copy for my daughter and she loved it too. They made a movie of it and it was pretty dismal, just not how I remembered the book at all.
I also read a book by Julie Andrews called Last of the really great whangdoodles which was brilliant. Got that one for my daughter too and it was one of her favourites, 20-odd years later.

>does no one rememer puddle lane

Yes, I bought them for my middle son :-D :-D

Ah Freespirit - you beat me to it!  Cat in the hat.  I loved the Silver Brumby stories too!  My favourites were the books by Alan Garner, the Owl Service (still terrifies me) and Elidor and the Weirdstone of Brisingamen.  I loved the Narnia stories, and read everything by Tolkein, starting with the Hobbit.  I also liked Olga da Polga - a book about a guinea pig, and Moshie Cat.  I also had a book called Puppy Lost in Lapland that had pictures of a dog that looked a bit like an elkhound! One of our teachers used to read Sherlock Holmes to us, and I learned to love him at primary school.  Even today, I mostly read crime and fantasy books for pleasure.

Anyone else ever read the Little Grey Men series by 'BB'?

The very first books I ever read were Janet and John books in school. Then we had books in colour groups, red, orange, yellow etc up to indigo, silver and gold being the most difficult.

Has to be the Silver Brumby series followed by Enid Blyton

Oh I remember the Janet and John, think they were phazed out but I loved them, along with the colour groups. i was so proud because i got through the stages very quickly, I loved reading and had many books at home so was a fast learning reader.

>along with the colour groups. i was so proud because i got through the stages very quickly

Me too. I loved that scheme because it was a comprehension test, not a reading-out-loud test, which I was hopeless at because I had a bad speech impediment. But I could read and understand very well, so this scheme was a Godsend for me and I romped ahead of everyone in the class.

Puddle lane were good, I enjoyed them......for my small boy who is now 25....

Karen :)

> Puddle lane were good, I enjoyed them......for my small boy who is now 25....

lol Same as I said ...only my middle son will be 27 in August and recently became a daddy :) :)

The Green Green Grass of Wyoming, My friend Flicka, Thunderhead and all that series, loved them. I also remember Shadow the sheep dog, used to weep buckets over it...always came out if I was feeling low it was guaranteed to make me cry... LOL what some funny things we did as kids.

Ahhhh....Well it's good fun being old......There was a lady with pink and purple hair aged into her 70s++ on a telly programme.

I decided I want to be brave like her, so no mutton jobs, just fun and disgraceful!
To amuse my granchildren and irritate my children should they be stuffy.

Karen :)

I have had purple hair for the past 2 years :) :) Have only just started growing it all out to see the white and grey ..saw Valerie Singleton the other day on TV ..she has white hair but has had some black bits put in and it looks soooo cool so I may go for that eventually :-D

Well okay I will confess..........mine is shortish, dyed dark brown with red (as in Scarlet) and blue black bits.
It isn't that garish.....but I think I'd like to see it purple!

Karen  :)

Salt and pepper for me at moment but thinking about it.  Puddle lane I don't remember - thought I was well up on children's books being a parent in the 80s and a teacher too.  As for reading Catch 22 in school - I have to admit it is one of the books I could not get into and gave up on.  I even managed to read Salman Rushdie's book (it was so boring I can't even remember the name) but never finished Catch 22. Perhaps I had better try again! ?  My granddaughter loves books (3 years old) and her favourite when she stays here now is the Jolly Postman. 

Puddle Lane was a series made by Ladybird ceejay :)

You can find them via Google , it was a good reading scheme in the 80's

Oh I remember - sorry I hadn't thought of reading schemes as books!!!   Ladybird never really caught on in schools but it was popular at home - I certainly bought them for my children.  I liked the easy read fairy tales - but the one my son loved most was a Ladybird book of jokes!   I kept a lot of them and I am getting them out for my granddaughter now.  Didn't keep any Puddle Lane ones though.