Your Favourite book as a child

The Bluebird - beautiful and explains that life is about enjoying every day without being annoyingly moral

I loved The Silver Sword too. I also enjoyed Elidor, by the Welsh writer Alan Garner. However, the book that remains with me is I Am David, by Anne Holm. It's about a boy who escapes from a concentration camp and goes in search of his mother. It is simply written but powerful. Also, The Secret Garden. Martin, you made me feel all nostalgic now......

The best book read as a child, and I still have it, was a book called "Marianne Dreams" which to my surprise I saw as a late night film years ago. Its about a girl that is confined to bed, and draws a picture of a house.That night when she sleeps, she dreams of the house. You get the picture. It turns into a bit of a horror story at the end. I also had a book called "When Marnie was there" and despite years of searching, Ive never been able to find it anywhere. It would help if I knew the author I suppose....I'd love my own daughter to read it.

Wow. That's hard. MMMm The Silver Sword's a good one, also To Kill A Mokingbird and I've read and reread the Chronicles of Narnia I don't know how many times. But my favourite childhood book is called Daddy Long Legs...don't know who it's by...it's the story of an orphan sponsered by a gurdian she doesn't know who tells the whole story of her life at school and growing up by letters she's required to write to him. She falls in love with a schoolfriend's uncle only to find out at the end of the book that he's been daddy long legs after all. Corny I know but beutifully written...if anyone know's the auther I'd love to read that book again.

Jean Webster is the author Vicky. I read it to a very long time ago.

Thanks Wolfgirl! That's been bugging me for AGES....cool...now I've just gotta find it... Cheers Vic

Vicky, The Bookplace are selling Daddy Long Legs for £4.49!! If you buy it via our site (see top left corner of home page) you'll be doing us a real favour. 20 per cent profits go to The Big Issue's social development fund too, so every little helps! Yours unashamedly Lisa Communications Director for ABCtales

Danny the champion of the World or Stig of the Dump

There were so many I loved. Miss Suzy by Miriam Young was probably my favorite. Anything by Roald Dahl. Bridge over Terribitha (I think that's what it was called) and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry were other good ones.

Hello Lisa...I'll certainly try my damndest....but since they took my credit cards away (sob...sob) it's a pain in the but to buy online... but I'll try just for you...and the big issue.

When I was very small I refused to go to bed unless my dad read me Goldie Locks and the Three Bears. It was an institution. Where the Wild Things Are was another long standing favourite.

The Silver Sword came in the post this morning...and I was surprised at how short the novel was, around 70 pages....I'm sure it was a big read when I was a child...It'll only take me a few minutes to read it now......you grow up and everything gets smaller....apart from your beer gut and chins......

Yes, Wolfie - Elidor was brilliant, as were the Narnia books. I also loved the William books, various horsey books, and L.M. Montgomery's 'Emily' trilogy.

I know what you mean Martin. When you revisit your old primary school, those coat pegs look as if they were made for pixies. Yet you can probably remembering stretching to reach them. The only thing that doesn't change quite so much is those warm, comforting feelings that arrive upon rereading a childhood book. I think that you gain a little bit more from them when you are older but there's often a little sadness too for the bits of innocence you have lost inbetween. Or is that just me?

No - that's exactly how I feel when I re-read books I used to read when I was much younger - some parts of you feel a bit jealous of the child you used to be.

you're right wolfgirl......I'm going to spend Sunday (about 2 hours of it anyway) rediscovering "The silver sword"

I read marianne dreams on a childrens fiction course a few years ago and got lots of disturbing flashbacks to what i now realise must have been the film. Wasn't it really scary? I thought i was going crazy when i read the book and experiencing deja vu!

Yeah - It was really scary. I remember the thrill I got reading Marianne Dreams as a kid - the film isnt titled the same, it escapes me at the moment what it is called though - something with the word "midnight" in it I think. The worst bit was when she drew a boy inside a window of the house, and some large boulders in the garden. When they fell out in the dream, she drew really mean evil eyes on the boulders, and then found herself in the garden, in the dead of night with all these shuffling stones (great name for a band) after her. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!