Retro Reads discussion

I've just finished reading some of the Thornton W. Burgess animal books like this one The Adventures of Peter Cottontail to my grandchildren, and wondering why he ever fell out of favour. I know my own father loved these books when he was a kid. I'd be interested to know if other people have suggestions for older children's books.

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton are classics.

And E. Nesbit, although she's a bit older than Retro. And, of course, the Narnia books! One of my grandsons read the series this year, and we had so much fun discussing!

I love older children's books! I have a full (mini-sized) set of Beatrix Potter's books. A few recommendations for you:

My Father's Dragon (easy chapter book; there are also two sequels)
The Four-Story Mistake and Then There Were Five (middle grade chapter books from the 40s)
Here's an obscure one for you: The Hoogles and Alexander - One of my mother's childhood books that I swiped from her, and loved.
Mouse Soup and Mouse Tales - delightful, timeless tales, even if not "older books" per se.
Ditto for David Wiesner's books, especially Tuesday.
The Good Master by Kate Seredy. I wore out my copy of this book when I was a kid.
I went through most of L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books as a tween/young teen.
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1920s?)
The Trumpet of the Swan and other E.B. White books.
For a horse-loving girl: books by Dorothy Lyons, like Dark Sunshine, Walter Farley, or Marguerite Henry. (I loved horses and went through ALL of the books by these authors)
Other older authors of animal stories: Albert Payson Terhune (Lad: A Dog and many other dog books) and Jim Kjelgaard (Big Red and many others)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
I haven't read the Betsy-Tacy stories but have heard good things about them.

The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury: Celebrated Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud is a wonderful collection of over 40 picture books, old stories and new. A great way to sample some classic stories, though the pictures are smaller. I recommend it highly! My kids loved this book.

I could keep going but I'd better stop. :)

I second E. Nesbit! And are there any sailors out there? The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome is wonderful, set in the Lake District in England.

And today is E. Nesbit's birthday, in case anyone wants to bake a cake.

Oh! Great, I will have cake.

Abigail wrote: "I second E. Nesbit! And are there any sailors out there? The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome is wonderful, set in the Lake District in England."

Yes and yes

All great suggestions, thank you.

I just read a Facebook post from a friend who refuses to read the Little House series to her kids because of their attitude toward native Americans. In my opinion, this should be dealt with in the form of a "teaching moment" to explain how people thought differently in those days, rather than censorship. What do you think?

I definitely agree, Elinor. With any books, but particularly older ones, you're sometimes going to run into racism and sexism. I do think it's important to take note of those moments and not let them pass unquestioned, but (as in Huckleberry Finn) I think we would be doing ourselves a disservice to refuse to read books that don't match up with our views now. As you said, good teaching moments.

Personally I draw the line at truly hateful books (e.g., Mein Kampf), but I do know people who will read even those because they think it's important to understand those mindsets.

Also George Macdonald books! The Princess and the Goblin and more.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "I definitely agree, Elinor. With any books, particularly older ones, you're going to run into racism and sexism. I do think it's important to take note of those moments and not let them pass unques..."

Yup, I'm intending to read Mein Kampf at some point. While there are themes I'm uncomfortable with, really the only books I won't read are by authors who have stalked or physically attacked readers - even though I'm a sizeable swim from most of them!

Back to the subject. I'm still trying to get hold of my favourite book as a child - Miss Happiness & Miss Flower by Rumer Godden. I'm now at the point where I will accept the more modern cover! I read The fairy Doll last year (also by Godden) and that was absolutely charming.

I'm not a fan of Blyton normally but I have this one. Goodreads playing up for me so I can't add the link - The Story of Our Queen. Turned up in really bad condition at my work. Couldn't sell it, so my boss gave it to me. Charming illustrations. The illustrator is F Stocks May.

I love retro children's books! Some additional suggestions include pretty much anything by Edward Eager, who is similar to Edith Nesbit. I also loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald as a child, and read them aloud to my kids.

Let's not forget The Hobbit, by Tolkien, which my mother read to me when I was young, and which I read to both of my kids. And, of course, Narnia.

The Boxcar Children is another good series. And one of my personal favorites is A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which I always preferred to The Secret Garden. Julie Andrews wrote two fabulous children's books: Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.

I second the Ransome series, which are rollicking adventures.

Katy wrote: "The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton are classics."

Yes, I must look up and read some Enid Blyton!

Karlyne wrote: "And E. Nesbit, although she's a bit older than Retro. And, of course, the Narnia books! One of my grandsons read the series this year, and we had so much fun discussing!"

Thanks for the suggestion, Karlyne!

Abigail wrote: "I second E. Nesbit! And are there any sailors out there? The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome is wonderful, set in the Lake District in England."

Thanks so much, Abigail!

Moonlight Reader wrote: "I love retro children's books! Some additional suggestions include pretty much anything by Edward Eager, who is similar to Edith Nesbit. I also loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle..."

This is a wonderful list, thank you. I absolutely adored The Secret Garden.

Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ wrote: "Also George Macdonald books! The Princess and the Goblin and more."

Yes, that's a good one. My list is growing!

My daughters are 8 and nearly 10 and we have been reading older children's books for a while now as our bedtime books. We also listen to audio books on the way to school. Some recent favourites in this category (some are probably classics rather than retro reads):
Ballet Shoes
The Children of Green Knowe
Misty of Chincoteague
Little House in the Big Woods
Black Beauty
The Children of Noisy Village
Peter Pan
Homer Price
The Saturdays
The Muddle-Headed Wombat
Charlotte's Web
Tom's Midnight Garden
Heidi

We've just finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

That's a great idea, listening to children's books when you're in the car. Thanks for this list, which I have now copied and pasted!

As an almost middle-aged woman I still hunt in charity shops for the few 'Chalet School' books I've not read. Thing is, I now see their faults but there's still something compulsive about them!

I’ve never heard of them, Debra! What are they about? I’ll check them out myself. Thanks.

There's a 99c Kindle sale for a delightful classic 1968 Newbery Award winner right now:
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Hi, Elinor - well, let's start with one of those weird but pleasing coincidences, the author shares her name with you - Elinor Brent-Dyer. There are nearly 60 of them and they tell the story of a girl's school originally founded in Austria, then moving to Wales and eventually to Switzerland. It was started in the 20s and ended (with author's death) in the 70s, and of course there was the strange time-slew you get in long series books with people not ageing as they should, but you learn to live with that. In some ways it's a typical school story series, but also touches on deeper issues - one book in particular - The Chalet School in Exile, later re-titled as The Chalet School at War even touches on such matters as anti-semitism. The central character, Jo Bettany, later Maynard, the sister of the school's founder, runs through all the books. As I hinted above, some quibbles - there is a kind of pseudo-religiosity that grates a bit, even though I'm a Christian, and it can be tediously moralistic, but also good sides - for instance, we also see things from the adult point of view, which doesn't always happen in school stories, and I like the fact that Jo, though the mother of an improbably large family is also a children's writer. It's better to start at the beginning, but by no means essential. Hope that helped!!

As you can imagine, I have been called Eleanor all my life -- so it is refreshing to find the odd Elinor here and there! I like to think that I'm named after Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, although my mother may not have been that literary. The Chalet books sound very interesting. I was passionately fond of the boarding school concept when I was a teenager on an isolated farm in Saskatchewan!

Elinor wrote: "... when I was a teenager on an isolated farm in Saskatchewan!"

That sounds like a good book itself!

It does indeed! And as a real fan of that kind of book (I love Laura Ingalls Wilder) it would certainly be one I'd read. I actually spent a while (as a day girl) at a school that was also boarding, but not nearly as romantic as the Chalet School or Hogwarts or Malory Towers or whatever.

Debra wrote: "It does indeed! And as a real fan of that kind of book (I love Laura Ingalls Wilder) it would certainly be one I'd read. I actually spent a while (as a day girl) at a school that was also boarding,..."

Since you mentioned it, I hope it isn't considered spam if I suggest that you check out my new novel Wildwood.

I would have a lot of books from Tadiana's list.
I also would have:
Betsy-Tacy--the whole series; I am just listing the first one.

I second Tom's Midnight Garden.

There was an anthology of poetry illustrated by Tasha Tudor which I loved. It was a mix of classics and really got me hooked on poetry--I still am.

I really loved this series: All-of-a-Kind Family
I also loved E. Nesbit and Edward Eager. Beverly Cleary was wonderful. I loved her books.
When I was quite young I simply adored Lois Lenski and her Mr. Small.

As an American, I was more exposed to Nancy Drew than to Enid Blyton. When I was 9 I got hooked on Sherlock Holmes and then when I was 11 I read everything by Agatha Christie.

Hi, Elinor, sounds great, certainly will.

More generally, did anyone else love Mrs Pepperpot? Or the Noel Streatfield books? I won 'Ballet Shoes' as a school prize when I was 10!!

Natalie wrote: "I would have a lot of books from Tadiana's list.
I also would have:
Betsy-Tacy--the whole series; I am just listing the first one.

I second Tom's Midnight Garden.

There was an antholo..."

Lois Lenski! My grandkidlet loves Mr. Small, and when I was small, I checked Corn Tassel Girl (and it's called Indian Captive now, but I'll bet my best boots the title has been changed) out of the library so many times, I'm sure I wore it out!

I still read E. Nesbit, too!

.Skimming down I see many of my favorites, most of them bought for my DDs in the 1960s, many of them also read by me. Many have been passed on to be shared with my granddaughters!

I didn't note anybody mentioning (though I could be wrong ...) the Anne of Green Gables books. I also like a series from the early 1920s by Nell Speed about the Tucker Twins. I had read the first two volumes as a kid but could never find them in all the used bookstores and library sales. I finally found them on the Gutenberg site and promptly down loaded them. I especially enjoyed the many references to Gilbert and Sullivan and the Bible as well as the fact that the girls grew up.
Among the earliest books I bought for my DDs were those by Leslie Brooke, esp The Golden Goose Book with its wonderful illustrations for The Three Bears. The others were the Beatrix Potter books. My older DD liked Peter Rabbit and I read it to her so often I knew it by heart!
I still reread some of the books -- though many have been passed on, esp The Children of Green Knowe, usually around Christmas time for some reason. On my shelf of reserved children's books re also Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Stalky and Co. (Kim is on my Kindle), The Green Knowe books and a couple of Noel Streatfields.
Lots of good memories!

I second the Betsy-Tacy and All of a Kind Family series!

Natalie wrote: "I would have a lot of books from Tadiana's list.
I also would have:
Betsy-Tacy--the whole series; I am just listing the first one.

I second Tom's Midnight Garden.

There was an antholo..."

Elinor wrote: "Debra wrote: "It does indeed! And as a real fan of that kind of book (I love Laura Ingalls Wilder) it would certainly be one I'd read. I actually spent a while (as a day girl) at a school that was ..."

I love the Anne series and, even more, Emily of New Moon. I haven't heard of the Tucker Twins, but will have to look for them because I'm a Gilbert & Sullivan fan.

Jacquie wrote: ".Skimming down I see many of my favorites, most of them bought for my DDs in the 1960s, many of them also read by me. Many have been passed on to be shared with my granddaughters!

I didn't note an..."

Debra wrote: "Hi, Elinor - well, let's start with one of those weird but pleasing coincidences, the author shares her name with you - Elinor Brent-Dyer. There are nearly 60 of them and they tell the story of a g..."

I loved the Chalet School books as a child and read loads of them. They also helped to inspire me to learn German. I remember my favourites included The School at the Chalet, the very first one where they go to Austria and set up the school, and Carola Storms the Chalet School, where a girl runs away *to* the school! I wonder if I would still find them so appealing now?

Speaking of boarding school, has anyone read the three Katy books? What Katy Did

What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School, and What Katy Did Next?

I am really looking forward to introducing some of these wonderful books to my three little granddaughters.

I loved (and still do) the mysterious nature of the George MacDonald books, The Princess and the Goblin et al. Also anything based on folktale or myth, such as Puck of Pook's Hill.

If anyone is a fan of the 1940's The Boxcar Children series, books 1-12 are currently on a Kindle sale, $3.99 for the whole set. https://www.amazon.com/Boxcar-Childre...

Read to them a Roal Dahl. It's sure. I mean, when I was 6 years old, I read one by week. You can take some novelettes ( I'm not sure about the word "novelette" ), they also are very cool.
Sorry for the bad english and the mistakes, French aren't good in English.

I adore Roald Dahl's children's books!

Here's a heads up on a $1.99 Kindle sale for a 1953 children's book that might interest some of you (cross-posting from the Kindle sales thread):
Little Witch: 60th Anniversay Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Witch-A...

I read at least the first one when I was a little girl. I'd like to read the whole series (I think there are a couple more, including Clover).

Elinor wrote: "Speaking of boarding school, has anyone read the three Katy books? What Katy Did

What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School, and What Katy Did Next?

I am really looking forward to intr..."

Elinor wrote: "Speaking of boarding school, has anyone read the three Katy books? What Katy Did

What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School, and What Katy Did Next?

I am really looking forward to intr..."

Elinor wrote: "Speaking of boarding school, has anyone read the three Katy books? What Katy Did

What Katy Did, What Katy Did at School, and What Katy Did Next?

I am really looking forward to intr..."

I loved those books! A treasure!

I have all but the last two in the Elizabeth Ann series my Mother had as a child, and which I really liked. My grand-daughters have read them and loved them. My Mother and her three sisters used to get one book between them a Christmas - that was their main gift!

The series begins with The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann

Cross-posting this from the Kindle freebies thread:
Another old Happy Hollister children's book has shown up as a Kindle freebie:
The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery

Judy wrote: "I loved the Chalet School books as a child and read loads of them. ."

I loved these too. I'm tempted to read them again, but I wonder if I've moved on too far to enjoy them, given that it must have been 45 years ago. I don't want to spoil the good memories I had of them.

Well, only one way to find out I guess!...

I'll chime in and Joan Aiken.... her alternate history series starting with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is an all time favorite.

Another retro favorite is Jane Louise Curry, especially the time travel book Parsley Sage, Rosemary and Time, which was out of print for years and is now available on Kindle (although you still can't get the sequel).

Ooh yes, I used to love Joan Aiken too. She also wrote some good sequels to Jane Austen books in more recent times.

I remember most of the books mentioned above. I don't think anyone mentionedEleanor Estes, author of Rufus M., The Middle Moffat, and The Hundred Dressesamong others. I also loved Roller Skates, Understood Betsy, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

I love a lot of the books mentioned here, including The Saturdays - in post 4 Tadiana Night Owl mentioned The Four-Story Mistake and Then There Were Five which are sequels and really the whole series is wonderful.

Edward Eager was mentioned and I'd like to especially recommend Half Magic and Magic by the Lake. He has a reference to E. Nesbit in each of his books he is such a fan.

I read a lot of Catherine Wooley's books which I now find just a bit too sugary but special mention for the second Ginnie & Geneva book Ginnie Joins In because it takes place on a lovely vacation and it's my favorite.

I think Charlotte's Web might just be the very best book of all time.