Favourite books of your childhood

... I liked the Famous Five, Secret Seven and the "Adventure" series.

I also loved Alfred Hitchcock and the three investigators and the Willard Price  who also did an "Adventure" series.

The William and Jennings books were also firm favourites, but never really got in to Billy Bunter.

My all time favourites were the Denys Watkins-Pitchford books about Bill Badger and his friends, written under teh 'BB' nom de plume (plus his gnome books) 

Another great series of books were the Arthur Ransome ones, and I still yearn those lost days of innocence!

I missed Olga da Polga first time, but found it with my son second time round! 

No list can be complete without mention of Rudyard Kipling and the timeless classics such as Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Gulliver et al.

I do remember a book of my father's, "Myth's and Legends of Australia" full of old aborinal tales that I used to love ready too.

I never really like Dahl, and as a very young child was completely freaked out by Dr Seuss, but loved Richard Scary and spent hours looking for Lowly Worm!

You've got me thinking now, there was Emil and the Detectives, which I remeber as gripping but somewhat sinister, and a book I loved but had never found again, and thanks to the internet have just tracked down, called "The Yellow Aeroplane" by William Mayne.

I loved reading as a child!  Enid Blyton, my favourite being The Magic Faraway Tree - what an absolute delight of a story!

I also loved Roald Dahl, not sure of my favourite, perhaps Matilda, or The Twits.

And I cannot make this post without paying homage to the wonderful Beatrix Potter and her unfathomable imagination. She really ignited my love for reading and language, and encouraged me to explore the world around me in search of new things.  I was a bit of a day-dreamer when I was little, and her stories were right up my street!

Moving into my teens I discovered Stephen King.  The Dark Tower was amazing!

Black Beauty - Anna Sewell

White Fang - Jack London

The Diary of Anne Frank (author forgotten)

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe - C S Lewis

Alice in Wonderland

All of Gerald Durrells books

virtually all of the Grimms Fairy Tales

and I read lots more besides, but they don't particularly spring to mind as being favourites, eg. Merchant of Venice and many other books by Shakespeare.

I think Anne Frank wrote her own diary :)

Obviously Enid Blyton! From the Secret Seven & Famous Five (I think FF have the advantage) to the Malory Towers & St Clares ones, the Secret series (going to read The Secret Island again later - love that book!), the Adventures ones... the list is endless.

Roald Dahl's 'Danny Champion of the World' though I quite liked Charlie & TCF.

The Paddington books. And the Teddy Robinson books - can't remember who wrote them.

When I was younger than that it was The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr - a fabulous book that I still have and whenever I re-read it I'm instantly taken back to my childhood.

I'd pretty much read anything as a kid (slightly fussier these days but that's probably partly due to time) and my ideal Christmas was one where I got a stack of books (still is). There's something about a book for forgetting everything around you and losing yourself for a while.

That was the problem with secondary school - lousy set books and having to read round the class - I was always miles ahead and hated having to slow down to be able to work out where we were supposed to be. The only decent book we read was The Hobbit!

I loved Mrs Frisby! I can't remember the author either though. It was one the books we read in class in my 1st year in secondary school (I remember each person in the class had to take turns reading out loud so depending on who was reading, one chapter could take a whole lesson) and I enjoyed it so much that I'm ashamed to admit that rather than handing in my copy at the end of one lesson I 'borrowed' it so that I could finish it without having to wait for the slower readers! I also recall after we finished the book the teacher brought in a video of the animated film, which wasn't exactly great.

Another book I remember being set for us at school which I thoroughly enjoyed was 'The Otterbury Incident', though again I can't remember the author.

... how could I forget the CS Lewis series.

That reminded me of E E Nesbit, those were excellent books too.

Mrs Frisby ... was by Robert C O'Brien.

Joan Aitkin was another, with her Wolves of Willoughby Chase, but I loved the Arabel's Raven stories, but that was more through watching the TV cartoon series with my son.

And that has reminded me of Jackanory, always a high-light of the day, and the great and teh good who used to read the stories - there are some modern story telling programmes but they are pale imitations.

And now nostalgia is kicking in big time and I am thinking of all the great Oliver Postgate animated programmes, Noggin the Nog being, in my opinion, the jewel in the crown, with Ivor and The Clangers close behind. We have a dvd of his original "pingwins" which is wonderful

http://www.dragons-friendly-society.co.uk/pingdraft.htm

The Otterbury incident:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Otterbury_Incident

... Fatty, leader of the "originally" named Five Find-Outers with Buster the dog, life was so good pre PC! My Noddy books were the originals with those naughty dolls with stripey legs and fuzzy hair.

Anothe fan of the Three Investigators series here, though I also liked the Hardy Boy adventures.

Did no-one here read Girl's Own school stories when they were younger? I only found out about them in later life because my wife is a collector so we have shelves full of them. Elinor Brent Dyer, Elsie J Oxenham. Angela Brazil. These names are emblazoned into my head (so I can remember to look out for them if I'm in a second-hand bookshop without her).

Forgotten them - I had loads. My sister had Nancy Drew which I read as well but the Hardy Boys had better adventures...

... nearly forgot Biggles and chums, and of course the dastardly Von Stalhein.