gooner.girl Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 through to the Secret Seven Famous Five and the Five Find-Outers (I think that;'s what they were called - all their mysteries started with an 'R'), and on to the Mallory Towers books, and the St Clares books Ah yes i loved all them as well. Recently i have completed all the 'secret' series (island, mountain etc) adventure series (castle of... ship of... ) and the St Clares and mallory towers series books that i didn't have, cheap off ebay. I'd like to pretend that they were to read to the kids at work but really they're for my own personal reading and for any kids i have in the future! Does that make me a little bit sad?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Of course not!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 My sister and I are just the same - we've kept all our old books and bought dvds of all our old kids favourites (where available) ... just for our children when we have them you understand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Definitely not Helen! When you have kids it will save you endless time searching for decent stories to read to them instead of wading through loads of stilted stories and awful illustrations from the modern selection of childrens books! Don't get me wrong, there are some great modern books and stories, but it is hard to find them without wading through a lot of rubbish first. If you have any books or stories that you remember from your youth - HANG ONTO THEM! I'm currently trawling ebay for a 70s edition of A Childs Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson that I had as a child. It had the most beautiful and evocative illustrations (they must have been good for me to remember them so well now!) All the modern versions have awful illustrations. How are our children supposed to develop a love of reading and stories with some of the wishy washy stuff and poor grammer thats around these days. OK I'll get off my soapbox now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Yes get off Snowy - there are plenty of us keen to get up there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Sorry!!! And Dan, you've been reading too much Thomas the Tank Engine - Henry ran into the tunnel and wouldn't come out in case the rain spoiled his lovely green paint, and Duke got left in his shed up a mountain and got buried under a landslide. Can't you tell I have 3 sons all obsessed with Thomas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 What about Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys? Or was it the Nancy Boys??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 You have me there - I also like Philip Pullman's books! and there are some very good stories around for the older child I must admit (I have to fight my oldest for who gets to read them first!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Of course my boys love Thomas, but I really dislike the modern, Britt Allcroft stories - my Dad (the train fanatic) and I heckle the new videos very sad I know. I have a large volume of all the original Rev Awdry stories (referring to the Fat Director in some) that I read to the boys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 In defence of modern children's fiction I can't wait for Jules and Harry to be old enough to read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. .... Only found out about those books through BBC's The Big Read and Debs bought them me for Christmas - I devoured them. Absolutely fantastic. The Subtle Knife is a masterpiece! I agree Dan they are great books - for both children and adults. I first heard about the The Amber Spy Glass on Radio 4 book review - it was years ago - i remember standing in the kitchen of my old house and listening to every single reviewer saying how blown away they were with this fantastic book - at that stage it had been marketed in America as an adult fiction book. I immediately went out and bought it and couldn't put it down. At that stage the second book hadn't come out so I had to wait for the next istallment which I read immediately it came out. By then the trilogy was starting to become known. It's funny but I got that possessive thing about it (or am I the only one who gets this feeling ) where you want to keep it all to yourself and you resent the fact that other people have started to discover something you'd stumbled on long before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 That was probably me Dan with the kids and pushchair, but it's OK, I don't do offended! And my kids think every train we see is Spencer! But if it gets them interested and it helps to restore some of the old lines and engines, it's all worth it! (at least I don't have a 4x4, so am partly redeemed!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Not sure about Dust Dan - I know that they are making a TV version of the Ruby in the Smoke with Billy Piper taking the lead I think. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who does the possessive thing too - I'm terrible with that possessive thing - I do it with TV programmes and stuff - all the cool obscure comedies that no-one else at work has been watching when I mention it and then suddenly they're on BBC1 and EVERYONE is watching them; and music that I discover or tunes that I like that are covered and suddenly EVERYONE is singing MY song (and badly at that) (my latest one is Songbird which was lovely sung by Eva Cassidy and now there's a bunch or pefectly plastic kids singing this song with all the harmony but NO MEANING in the their voices cos they're too young to understand the depth of feeling in those lyrics ) ... then there are books that are MINE and films that ONLY I SHOULD BE ABLE TO WATCH Help me Dan! Save me! .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 I'm currently trawling ebay for a 70s edition of A Childs Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson that I had as a child. It had the most beautiful and evocative illustrations (they must have been good for me to remember them so well now!) My mum still has my copy of A Childs Garden of Verses at her house (70's edition!), and she reads it to my daughter, who loves it. The illustrations ARE stunning, just beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Wow! How this thread has moved on since I last looked! Rosie is a great reader like Jules, she has read all my old Secret Seven, Famous Five, St Clare's (of course...), Mallory Towers, Milly Molly Mandy, and Swallows & Amazons books and loved them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 It really has moved on. It is nice to see your children enjoying the same books that you did. I also read some of the books Jules gets from the library . Some of them are really good She had a phase of reading lots of Jacqueline Wilson books and some of them were very good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Rosie likes those too Debs, I bought her Candy Floss recently. She'd spend all day buried in a book if she could, and I was just like that at her age. Gina lent her a book called Adolphus Tips, which she loved and passed on to me; I fanally managed to get to read it and it was fab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Another fab (new) book i can recommend is INKHEART and INKSPELL by Cornelia Funke. They are Childrens books, a bit harry Potter ish, but very dark. Perhaps older kids? They are about a Man and his daughter who can 'read' people and things out of books. Sounds a bit strange i know but well worth reading. The 3rd and final book has not been released yet! Waiting patiently!! they are 3 for 2 in Ottakars and Waterstones at the mo Christian x x x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 That sounds like a really good read Clare (just put it into Amazon) I think Harry has dipped into it at school and he has definitely read 'Why the Whales Came' They are currently doing about WW2 He has gone on a trip to Cosford Air base today To see all the WW2 planes Any tips for good reads gratefully received, christmas soon and I always like to buy them a book or two. I have bought Harry the Guinness Book of World Records, as he loves to read facts about things He wanted to take it out the Library but they wouldn't let him as it was a reference book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Rosie loves all that stuff too Debs. I have bought her the Planet Earth book for Christmas, and my folks are getting her a subscription to the National Geographic childrens mag, although I think she'll only be getting it for one year before upgrading to the adult one. Isn't it fun feeding their minds? Perhaps we shoud start a children's book lending club on the forum.... would anyone be interested? All you'd have to do would be to pay the postage, and do a list like others have done for their books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Count us in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 My mum still has my copy of A Childs Garden of Verses at her house (70's edition!), and she reads it to my daughter, who loves it. The illustrations ARE stunning, just beautiful. I'm jealous! Chookie, could you tell me the name of the illustrator? If I knew that I could narrow my search more. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Tell you what Rosie loved (which was my fave too) - Flower Fairies, such pretty pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 They were so lovely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 My mum still has my copy of A Childs Garden of Verses at her house (70's edition!), and she reads it to my daughter, who loves it. The illustrations ARE stunning, just beautiful. I'm jealous! Chookie, could you tell me the name of the illustrator? If I knew that I could narrow my search more. Thanks. Will check on Monday, when I'm over for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Wonderful! Many thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
