What was your favourite book as a kid?

[Barry Admin]

Gotta be The Hobbit for me, I think, although I was very into the Dragonlance series as well. God I loved them, I guess that was a bit later on though, like early to mid teens.

I should revisit The Hobbit, haven't seen the film but I'm curious to see if I still find the book as exciting.  I guess I'd vaguely known of the story for some years, haven't played the text adventure on my Commodore 64, and I'd also watched that amazing, unfinished rotoscoped animation.

My abiding memory is of how compelling and exciting I found Bilbo's progression to becoming a hero. Similar to one of the Dragonlance novels actually, where Caramon stacks on loads of weight, but slowly finds his way back to peak physical condition while training and fighting as a gladiator (or something like that.)

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I liked Gollum in the Hobbit.  He got ripped off in Dr Who recently (the Norwegian/alternate reality-set one).

[Jockice]

The Pit by Reginald Maddock.

(There's a character in it called Skiff Morrison. I've met someone in the last few years - a friend of my niece -  who is nicknamed Skiff because his surname is Morrison and his class read it at junior school. He seemed quite surprised when I (someone two and a half decades older than him) told him that I knew why he was called that. Even my niece (who went to different schools) hadn't known. I don't know what his real name is. He's even on Facebook as Skiff Morrison.)

[Scarlet Intangible]

Probably the James Bond books, though idk if I had a favourite. The one that springs to mind is From Russia With Love; I remember I loved the descriptions of Istanbul and the meetings with the Turkish guy (Karim/Karem?) and how they would always be drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, and it was all impressively sophisticated to my young brain. I basically loved the sense of adventure in those books and that they were set all around the world.

I also loved To Kill A Mockingbird which we did in English in like the first or second year of high school. I haven't read it since then but some of it it still pretty clear to me, particularly the character of Boo Radley who I really liked. It's definitely in the vague list of things I want to (re)read.

I remember liking The Twits (Roald Dahl) and The Borrowers (Mary Norton), though I don't remember anything about them other than a sort of 'vibe'.

There was also this book I loved that I can't remember the name of; it was about 3 or 4 school-friends who find a WW1/2 medal or unexploded grenade or something or other (not much difference in the two, I know) in a field or forest, and then have some kind of adventure to do with that. I think I must have borrowed it from junior school because I remember reading it at home, but I didn't own it. If anyone knows what I'm on about I'd be interested to know.

[nugget]

I'm not sure how well they would hold up now but I remember enjoying the Deptford Mice series of books as a kid.

In the sewers of Deptford there lurks a dark presence that fills the tunnels with fear. The rats worship it in the blackness and name it Jupiter, Lord of All. Into this twilight realm wanders a small and frightened mouse. Far from family and friends he perishes, and in doing so is the unwitting trigger of a chain of events that hurls the Deptford Mice into a doom-laden world of terror and sorcery.

I can't remember a lot about the stories but I do remember them being surprisingly macabre and violent, with the poor mice often meeting horrific ends, such as being skinned alive. I don't think my mum was aware of that when she bought them for me.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The 'Asterix' books
The 'Tintin' books
The 'William' books
The 'Jennings' books
The 'Billy Bunter' books
The 70s Target Dr Who novelisations

[Endicott]

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Oddly I saw this for sale in the Lidl weird aisle yesterday.

Those Adventure series by Willard Price, about the two brothers catching animals.

Bloody Narnia.

And The Hobbit.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Those Adventure series by Willard Price, about the two brothers catching animals.

They had names like African Adventure, Indian Adventure, Gorilla Adventure.  The two brothers were Hal, who was eighteen, and his younger brother (I'm not sure of his name) who was fourteen.  They were accompanying their naturalist father to different places in the world.  I remember a couple of them included a psychopathic bald-headed villain who had once been training to be a clergyman and who could quote the Bible.  His name was Merlin Kaggs.

[Jockice]

The 'Asterix' books
The 'Tintin' books
The 'William' books
The 'Jennings' books
The 'Billy Bunter' books
The 70s Target Dr Who novelisations

A big yes to the William, Jennings and Bunter ones.

[Keebleman]

They had names like African Adventure, Indian Adventure, Gorilla Adventure.  The two brothers were Hal, who was eighteen, and his younger brother (I'm not sure of his name) who was fourteen.  They were accompanying their naturalist father to different places in the world.  I remember a couple of them included a psychopathic bald-headed villain who had once been training to be a clergyman and who could quote the Bible.  His name was Merlin Kaggs.

Roger was the younger.  Volcano Adventure was the first one I read, and I think my favourite.  Whale Adventure was really odd, as the whaler they sailed on seemed to be out of the nineteenth century, and the captain was as irredeemably nasty as a silent-movie villain.

Willard Price was well into his 60s when he began the series.  At first each book would end with a teaser of where Hal and Roger would go next, but by book eight or nine Price dropped those, realising that there was a good chance he might leave his readers permanently frustrated by the installment's non-appearance.

[gib]

Came here to say Hal & Roger. These must have been in every school library back in the day. Random recollections are that in Gorilla Adventure all the plants were giant versions of normal plants, and in one of the books someone was killed by the addition of chopped up leopard whiskers to their dinner.

[gib]

'ave summa that

[Phoenix Lazarus]

'ave summa that

I think that's the one that had a graphic depiction of a dead elephant being disembowelled.  Someone mentioned Whale Adventure, which had a similarly graphic description of a whale's planned or actual dismemberment after being caught by a whaling ship.

I think it was African Adventure that had a description of one character sleeping in a tribal hut with shelves of skulls and being really creeped-out, feeling as if the spirits that were in the skulls are burning into their heads through the eye sockets looking their way.

[bgmnts]

I think I quite liked The Indian in the Cupboard.

Any piece of fiction where a toy came to life I really liked.

[Kryton]

I remember being utterly terrified by a kids horror story book full of short stories, I think it was 'weird Christmas tales' or something. One in particular stood out about a VHS video that children got addicted to and became brainwashed watching a TV presenter whispering to them on repeat.

I also loved the fighting fantasy series.

Ditto The Hobbit, Dragon Lance, Forgotten Realms etc.

[Captain Crunch]

Any piece of fiction where a toy came to life I really liked.

Someone on here recommended The Velveteen Rabbit which is wonderful and you can read it for free.

I had this...



...and I never quite know if it's common or not.  It turns up a lot in charity shops and quite often you'll see stage productions but I don't know how many people would have grown up with it? 

It's online and well worth a look:

https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/54225

[Inspector Norse]

I think I quite liked The Indian in the Cupboard.

Yes, I was very fond of that too.

I was always a reader, from a very early age - parents both had degrees in English, dad was an English teacher, house was basically made out of books - but one book that stands out as a lasting favourite is Emil and the Detectives.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Superfudge, The Hobbit, Matilda. And then I got into Goosebumps. I got really, really into Goosebumps. I fucking loved Goosebumps. I think my favourite was my first, One Day at HorrorLand. Green cover with a goblin leering out of some slime. A family goes to a theme park where some monsters try to kill them. Couldn't believe what I was reading. As soon as I got into those books I started writing the most horrific macabre shit in class, and I still (unsuccessfully) write horror now. Goosebumps changed my life.

I also had this Sonic novel, Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension, which I loved. It was a fairly epic (to a seven year old) time travel story. I think he went back to the big bang and everything. That almost certainly had a big influence on my writing for a long time. I wonder if I still have it. Might reread it.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Another vote for the Jennings series.
The Professor Branestawm Books
The Phantom Tollbooth
Anthologies of Ghost Stories fro  the children's section, but I distinctly remember one of the child aimed books having a story by fucking HP Lovecraft in there, which proper shit me up when I read it.
Pick Of Punch anthologies, even though the librarians always said " these are for adults really , y'know whenever I took one of 'em out.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Anthologies of Ghost Stories fro  the children's section, but I distinctly remember one of the child aimed books having a story by fucking HP Lovecraft in there, which proper shit me up when I read it.

Wouldn't be one of the Armada Ghost Stories books, would it?  I remember I really liked one of their stories.  It was about a youth who goes to a boarding school, arriving in the evening.  He find the place deserted, except for three youths who start off a bit strange then end up attempting to sacrifice him to Satan.  After he escapes, he discovers they are long-dead ghosts of three pupils who were Satanists.

[checkoutgirl]

Roled Al.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Roled Al.

Chaz and the Choccer Factory with Willy Wanker was okay.  It was a bit nasty what happened to the kids on the tour.  Doesn't anyone else think none of them really deserved it apart from the obnoxious Veruca Salt?

[checkoutgirl]

Chaz and the Choccer Factory with Willy Wanker was okay.  It was a bit nasty what happened to the kids on the tour.  Doesn't anyone else think none of them really deserved it apart from the obnoxious Veruca Salt?

I liked World Champ Dan and the Sleepy Pheasants.

Lad was quite good too. His partially fictionalised autobiograph.

[Keebleman]

Wouldn't be one of the Armada Ghost Stories books, would it?  I remember I really liked one of their stories.  It was about a youth who goes to a boarding school, arriving in the evening.  He find the place deserted, except for three youths who start off a bit strange then end up attempting to sacrifice him to Satan.  After he escapes, he discovers they are long-dead ghosts of three pupils who were Satanists.

School For the Unspeakable by the magnificently named Manly Wade Wellman.  I think it was in volume 1.

[jobotic]

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler.

Brilliant book.

Kes.

There was a publisher called Frontline/Headline who did a lot of hard hitting stories about deprivation and bullying and stuff. Can't remember many of them but I liked them at the time. Someone had a fight in an old quarry.

And Asterix and Tintin.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

School For the Unspeakable by the magnificently named Manly Wade Wellman. 

Brilliant name!
It wasn't the Armada Anthology, but the H P Lovecraft story I read in my anthology was about some bloke being followed by his doppelganger. I remember reading it on a Saturday morning, and being really freaked out before I went to get that week's " Krazy " comic.
There was also a story I remember reading in a " Monsters" anthology book , called " It" ( nothing to do with Stephen King or Pulp), which was prefaced with a " Don't read this story if you're of a nervous disposition, kids, honest, we're not messing about" - type note from the publishers. That was pretty scary too, not as bad as the Lovecraft one, mind.

[Sin Agog]

Someone on here recommended The Velveteen Rabbit which is wonderful and you can read it for free.

I had this...



...and I never quite know if it%u2019s common or not.  It turns up a lot in charity shops and quite often you%u2019ll see stage productions but I don%u2019t know how many people would have grown up with it? 

It%u2019s online and well worth a look:

https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/54225

Read that (as a big boy grown up) when I was going through a German Romanticism phase, and there's no fucking way I'd let my non-existent wean read that thing.  Especially that thumb-decapitator story.  Some kids are thicker-skinned than others, but something like that can send the more imaginative ones into a tailspin that lasts for years.  Which was the author's intention, no doubt.

Mentioned it before, but after the knackered old out-of-commission ambulance my dad bought broke down outside a bookshop and twiddling my thumbs for what seemed like an eternity (the thumbs that Struwwelpeter never managed to snip off), I begged my mum to let me go into the shop and buy a book.  What I got was an illustrated kids version of Monkey/Journey to the West, which totally resonated with me.  Monkey was an irascible, id-driven creature who reached enlightenment without ever really being tamed.  Loved that little guy, even in his truncated form.

Does anyone know what this book might be?  It featured a boy finding a universal translator device called something like an 'omniglot'.  I liked it so much that I half-inched the plot for an English creative writing exam, although I didn't quite have enough time to reach the end.  The examiner clearly got into the story, as he wrote in red ink: 'Please, I really, really want to know what happened next!'

[timebug]

Any/all of the 'Just William' books for years; then 'Three men in a Boat' which still cracks me up in places, to this day! And some weird space shit by Angus MacVicar (I think), a series about travel to the 'Lost planet'.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Brilliant name!
It wasn't the Armada Anthology, but the H P Lovecraft story I read in my anthology was about some bloke being followed by his doppelganger.

There was a film from the late 60s or early 70s with that idea.  It starred Roger Moore.

There was also a story I remember reading in a " Monsters" anthology book , called " It" ( nothing to do with Stephen King or Pulp), which was prefaced with a " Don't read this story if you're of a nervous disposition, kids, honest, we're not messing about" - type note from the publishers. That was pretty scary too, not as bad as the Lovecraft one, mind.

Was that the one where a man fell in a marsh and rotted away, then a mass of vegetable matter built a new body on the skeleton and then emerged as a humanoid monster?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

^ I believe it was, actually.