Favorite books as a kid.

[albionfan37]

Boy was my absolute favourite book also liked whizzer and chips

 

[Jack Straw]

Now banned in some countries, "Little Black Sambo". Not so good without the pictures, but I was entranced by this in the late '50s when I was four years old.

The Story of Little Black Sambo
by helen bannerman

Once upon a time there was a little black boy, and his name was Little Black Sambo.
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And his mother was called Black Mumbo.
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And his father was called Black Jumbo.
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And Black Mumbo made him a beautiful little Red Coat, and a
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pair of beautiful little Blue Trousers.
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And Black Jumbo went to the Bazaar, and bought him a beautiful Green Umbrella, and a lovely little Pair of Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.
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And then wasn't Little Black Sambo grand?
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So he put on all his Fine Clothes, and went out for a walk in the Jungle. And by and by he met a Tiger. And the Tiger said to him, "Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!” And Little Black Sambo said, “Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give
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you my beautiful little Red Coat.” So the Tiger said, “Very well, I won't eat you this time, but you must give me your beautiful little Red Coat.”
So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Red Coat, and went away saying, “Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle.”
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And Little Black Sambo went on, and by and by he met another Tiger, and it said to him, “Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!”
And Little Black Sambo said, “Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give
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you my beautiful little BlueTrousers.” So the Tiger said, “Very well, I won't eat you this time, but you must give me your beautiful little Blue Trousers.” So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Blue Trousers, and went away saying, “Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle.”
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And Little Black Sambo went on, and by and by he met another Tiger, and it said to him, “Little Black Sambo, I'm going to eat you up!” And Little Black Sambo said, “Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful little Purple Shoes with
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Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings.”
But the Tiger said, “What use would your shoes be to me? I've got four feet, and you've got only two; you haven't enough shoes for me.”
But Little Black Sambo said, “You could wear them on your ears.”
“So I could," said the Tiger: “that's a very good idea. Give them to me, and I won't eat you this time."
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So the Tiger got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful little Purple Shoes with Crimson Soles and Crimson Linings, and went away saying, “Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle.”
And by and by Little Black Sambo met another Tiger, and it said
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to him, “Little Black Sambo,I'm [no space, sic] going to eat you up!”
And Little Black Sambo said, “Oh! Please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up, and I'll give you my beautiful Green Umbrella.” But the Tiger said, “How can I carry an umbrella, when I need all my paws for walking with?”
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“You could tie a knot on your tail and carry it that way,” said Little Black Sambo. “So I could,” said the Tiger. “Give it to me, and I won't eat you this time.” So he got poor Little Black Sambo's beautiful Green Umbrella, and went away saying, “Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle.”
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And poor Little Black Sambo went away crying, because the cruel Tigers had taken all his fine clothes.
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Presently he heard a horrible noise that sounded like “Gr-r-r-r-rrrrrr,” and it got louder and louder. “Oh! dear!” said Little Black Sambo, “there are all the Tigers coming back to eat me up! What shall I do?”
So he ran quickly to a palm-tree, and peeped round it to see what the matter was.
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And there he saw all the Tigers fighting, and disputing which of them was the grandest. And at last they all got so angry that they jumped up and took off all the fine clothes, and began to tear each other with their claws, and bite each other with their great big white teeth.
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And they came, rolling and tumbling right to the foot of the very tree where Little Black Sambo was hiding, but he jumped quickly in behind the umbrella. And the Tigers all caught hold of each other's tails, as they wrangled and scrambled, and so they found themselves in a ring round the tree.
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Then, when the Tigers were very wee and very far away, Little Black Sambo jumped up, and called out, “Oh! Tigers! why have you taken off all your nice clothes? Don't you want them any more?” But the Tigers only answered, “Gr-r-rrrr!”
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Then Little Black Sambo said, “If you want them, say so, or I'll take them away.” But the Tigers would not let go of each other's tails, and so they could only say “Gr-r-r-rrrrrr!” So Little Black Sambo put on all his fine clothes again and walked off.
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And the Tigers were very, very angry, but still they would not let go of each other's tails. And they were so angry, that they ran round the tree, trying to eat each other up, and they ran faster and faster, till they were whirling round so fast that you couldn't see their legs at all.
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And they still ran faster and faster and faster, till they all just melted away, and there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter (or “ghi,” as it is called in India,) [comma sic] round the foot of the tree.
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Now Black Jumbo was just coming home from his work, with a great big brass pot in his arms, and when he saw what was left of all the Tigers he said, “Oh! what lovely melted butter! I'll take that home to Black Mumbo for her to cook with.”
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So he put it all into the great big brass pot, and took it home to Black Mumbo to cook with. When Black Mumbo saw the melted butter, wasn't she pleased! “Now,” said she, “we'll all have pancakes for supper!”
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So she got flour and eggs and milk and sugar and butter, and she made a huge big plate of most lovely pancakes. And she fried them in the melted butter which the Tigers had made, and they were just as yellow and brown as littleTigers.
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And then they all sat down to supper. And Black Mumbo ate Twenty-seven pancakes, and Black Jumbo ate Fifty-five, but Little Black Sambo ate a Hundred and Sixty-nine, because he was so hungry.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Alfred Hitchcock wrote a series of books about amateur detectives (boys version of Nancy Drew I suppose), the 3 investigators I think, Jupiter Jones was the main character.

No he didn't - Robert Arthur wrote them and attributed them to Hitchcock to get more sales - like Tom Clancy in his later years and after his death. Had a few of these myself.

Was a big fan of Enid Blyton books - especially the Adventure series, Famous Five and Five Find Outers. And didn't turn out to be a racist either. When it is pointed out how many bad guys were "swarthy" or gypsies then you see it in hindsight but thought nothing of it then.

Also 101 Dalmations and Stig of The Dump. Also a complete rip off of Anne Frank called Storm Warning by Mara Kay.

 

[Merdalfthewizard]

No he didn't - Robert Arthur wrote them and attributed them to Hitchcock to get more sales - like Tom Clancy in his later years and after his death. Had a few of these myself.

Was a big fan of Enid Blyton books - especially the Adventure series, Famous Five and Five Find Outers. And didn't turn out to be a racist either. When it is pointed out how many bad guys were "swarthy" or gypsies then you see it in hindsight but thought nothing of it then.

Also 101 Dalmations and Stig of The Dump. Also a complete rip off of Anne Frank called Storm Warning by Mara Kay.

I sit corrected, don't suppose I was that bothered who wrote them when I was 7

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

Ant and Bee

 

[jakarta]

At the age of 6 I came across my Grandfather's War Book collection and I read The Narrow Margin by Wood & Dempster.

It was the book they based the Film Battle of Britain on and it has cursed my life as I have developed an obsession with the BoB and must have upwards of fifty books on it, aside from the hundreds of other military aviation books I own. It's not the best book on the BoB - that is Stephen Bungays The Most Dangerous Enemy but it started it all off.

Moving down from Cheshire to near Tangmere/Kenley/Biggin Hill/Hawkinge etc. has made the situation even worse, we don't have a very big house so I have to smuggle books in nowadays! :

 

[smeg]

the silmarillion, thus spake zarathustra, diary of a drug fiend & five go down to the sea

 

[Gwylan]

I had loads: I was very poorly as a child so I did a lot of reading. There were the Roger Lancelyn Green re-telling of Greek myths, the William books (which I still read, they're brilliantly written), Alan Garner's books and the Narnia series.

My two favourites though were Stig of the Dump and Erich Kästner's 35th of May. I wanted to read this to my son after he enjoyed Emil and the Detectives but discovered there's no longer an English translation. I've bought the German original to read and am enjoying reading it again. He was a wonderful kids writer - I'll have to find some more now

 

[studio150]

The famous five series

 

[Stat Brother]

Happy 50th birthday Adrian Mole

Tomorrow, Adrian Mole is 50. We can be precise about this. In the book that introduced him to the world, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾, Sue Townsend’s famous diarist noted in his entry for 2 April 1981, “I am fourteen today! Got a track suit and a football from my father. (He is completely insensitive to my needs.)”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...ownsend?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[OzMike]

Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. A must buy if your kids are about eight. Still love the book even now.

Finally, someone else in the human race that has read this !
I enjoyed this too and also the Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I read the Moomintroll books as well, when I was much younger.

 

[Me and my Monkey]

The Narnia books and Swallows and Amazons books. I wonder if anyone would even be allowed to write books like Swallows and Amazons anymore, with all the perilous activities the children used to indulge in, with no adult supervision, safety equipment or risk assessment forms completed. The Safeguarding Nazis would go nuts.

 

[Bodian]

The Narnia books and Swallows and Amazons books. I wonder if anyone would even be allowed to write books like Swallows and Amazons anymore, with all the perilous activities the children used to indulge in, with no adult supervision, safety equipment or risk assessment forms completed. The Safeguarding Nazis would go nuts.

Swallows and Amazons series for me too. And now I live and work in the Lake District! The thing with Ransome's books though is yes, the children did all that without supervision and the other points you make - but they were all 'within bounds' as such, and therefore so much more believable (the Lakes and Broads ones anyway) than the famous five, Narnia, and so on. The theme through the stories is that parental supervision and safety were always there just below the surface (a short boat row away) - so it was sort of a 'safe excitement'. A bit like Via Ferratas where you are clipped on, or Bungee Jumping - it feels dangerous, but in reality, you're pretty near as safe as houses. With early Ransome you could actually envisage the bare bones happening with children's imaginations blowing it up into exciting bits.

And I always liked Roland Pertwee's early books (Rough Water, The Islanders) for similar reason, along with Philip Turner's The Grange at High Force.

 

[skipper734]

Just William. I did my best to imitate him. I made many a girl say, " I'll scweem and scweem til i'm sick." We also had Dick Barton and Biggles on the light programme. The Beano, Dandy and The Eagle for reading material of sorts. I'm disappointed that the Mekon hasn't turned up in my lifetime.

 

[Bodian]

Just William. I did my best to imitate him. I made many a girl say, " I'll scweem and scweem til i'm sick." We also had Dick Barton and Biggles on the light programme. The Beano, Dandy and The Eagle for reading material of sorts. I'm disappointed that the Mekon hasn't turned up in my lifetime.

Yes - Biggles. I had dozens of these - and not long ago read quite a few of them. Not bad at all, very stiff upper lip along with the Sapper books and others of the era.

 

[Mayonaise]

Although did read books as well - I always headed for the Tintin & Asterix comic strip stories in my local library kiddies section.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Anything by Roald Dahl. The Redwall series. As an under 10 the secret seven/famous five and Narnia chronicles were pretty good. As previously mentioned The Machine Gunners is excellent. As is Goodnight Mr Tom. And any classic in children's form - treasure island, the secret garden, robin hood, king arthur etc.

 

[The Clamp]

All time favourite is Wind In The Willows. Still read it about once a year. I also liked Flat Stanley and the little known Kookaboro Creek books.

 

[pearl]

Razzle.

I used to read/look at my older brother's penthouse mags and his MAD magazines .... for years I thought an LSD Trip was some sort of pounds, shillings and pence package holiday .... odd little girl, favorite books were Alice in Wonderland (of course), Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and Little Women

 

[Me and my Monkey]

Swallows and Amazons series for me too. And now I live and work in the Lake District! The thing with Ransome's books though is yes, the children did all that without supervision and the other points you make - but they were all 'within bounds' as such, and therefore so much more believable (the Lakes and Broads ones anyway) than the famous five, Narnia, and so on. The theme through the stories is that parental supervision and safety were always there just below the surface (a short boat row away) - so it was sort of a 'safe excitement'. A bit like Via Ferratas where you are clipped on, or Bungee Jumping - it feels dangerous, but in reality, you're pretty near as safe as houses. With early Ransome you could actually envisage the bare bones happening with children's imaginations blowing it up into exciting bits.

And I always liked Roland Pertwee's early books (Rough Water, The Islanders) for similar reason, along with Philip Turner's The Grange at High Force.

I remember in one of the books, "We Didn't Mean to go to Sea", the children ended up on Holland, nearly getting ploughed down by a steamer ship on the way! How their parents would have justified that near catastrophic lack of parental supervision I cannot imagine! I read the books to my son as he was growing up, and remember feeling incredibly sad at the thought that that kind of adventure in today's world would be as out of his reach as walking through a wardrobe into Narnia.