I was thinking recently about “Stories for Eight Year Olds” which I presumably first read when I was eight. I remember it being quite a hard read the first time but enticing. It’s a great selection – with many scary and strange stories. Still occasionally I think of the story of the little girl who had a magic fishbone (if memory serves) which she could only use when the family were down on their luck. Her father kept wanting her to use it and asking anxiously “You have not lost it?” “No papa.” “Or forgotten it?” “No indeed papa.” After all these years I still remember her refrain and her capably finding solutions to problems while her father despairs. She uses it in the end though, I think the consequences were…good.
I still love to read but nothing, I suppose, will ever match the intensity of my love for those early books from the “Cat in the Hat” to the “Famous Five” and the Narnia books. I remember disappearing into the spare room and spending the whole day reading “The Swiss Family Robinson” under the bed (where I, presumably, was unlikely to be found and told to carry out unwelcome tasks).
I loved to read and it was such a gratifying habit as everyone seemed to feel it should be fully indulged except late at night when reading under the blankets was frowned upon. My parents were slightly down on comics, however, which I also adored. Cissie who minded us used to bring me a comic when she came back from her day off. It was about a pet lamb called “Lamb chop” which my parents found hilarious for reasons I did not at all understand at the time. My best friend got Mandy and Bunty and I burned with envy.
What did you like to read as a child?
Oh good lord I was consumed with chalet school girls, Enid blyton and bunty. I also adored the whole anne of green gables and what katy did
Yes liked the Chalet school also. And Anne of Green Gables. Bit cooler on What Katy Did but read them all as well.
Yes to the Chalet Schools, Enid Blyton and Bunty..also Blue Peter Annual every Christmas.
Then Sherlock Holmes.
Last of the Mohicans.
In other news, how lovey to visit and find almost a whole month of posts. NaBloPoMo in full swing and true to form getting ever more desperate for content by the end. Will we ever be told what the neighbour considered so urgent it warranted a house call?
I read anything I could get my hands on. At one point for some reason the bedroom my sister and I shared was also where my parents had put the overrun bookshelves for all their books so we were surrounded by entirely unsuitable literature which I spent a lot of time reading and not really understanding (‘Looking for Mr Goodbar’ is the one which sticks in my head for some reason). How to make a writer, I suppose …
Suzy, we had no Blue Peter in Ireland, alas. Well, I think they did in Dublin where they had everything, you are bringing up old bitter memories…
Henry, “Last of the Mohicans” have never read that, might give it a go. Thank you for the positive feedback which, honestly, I really need at the moment. Neighbour works in a similar job to mine and wanted work advice so disappointing. And stayed an hour on a Monday, a school night. However, she is v nice so, you know, was fine but an hour of work adjacent chat wouldn’t have been my absolute first choice for the evening. But still better than a neighbourhood disaster, I suppose.
TM what on earth is “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”? Am intrigued.
A quick google suggests it was even more inappropriate than I had remembered https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_for_Mr._Goodbar_(novel)
Good grief, that is quite the ominous plot summary.