Nostalgia Thread: Best Children's Author?

[lycradodger]

Wasted on kids, Aperitif! (Chiz mone drone etc.)

 

[sheddy]

Did anyone read 'Thunderbolt of the Spaceways' as a kid ?
No idea who wrote it. Main man was a bit of a pirate. Similar to Han Solo.

 

[Arch]

Willard Price series. Fantastic: a disaster a page. One of my favourite ever scenarios from any book was from Whale Adventure where one of the heroes, Hal (an impossibly mature & sensible 18 year old) got stranded on top of a dying whale. He managed to bring it back to the whaling boat by covering one of its eyes with a hankie so it swam round in a giant circle. True, they were written in another era, but if memory serves me correctly they did not suffer from the aggressive stereotyping of Biggles (i.e. no "filthy japs").

Not quite that bad, no, but there is the odd "these African chaps don't know any better than to believe in witchcraft" sort of remark which wouldn't go well with a modern audience...

The thing I loved though, was the relentless accumulation of facts about animals. I hoovered them up as a kid...

Also, although it was a cliffhanger a page, you quickly learned that it was bound to come out ok in the end, so it wasn't at all stressful!

 

[Kirstie]

My favourite was 'volcano adventure' cos I used to love volcanos when i was a kid.
When I explained what the books were about to my parents, they refused to buy me any of them - from what I recall they were all about two blokes going around catching animals for the world's zoos and fighting off the natives. My parents always hated the idea of zoos so that was probably what did it.

 

[Arch]

I set to a few years back, and collected the lot. They turn up a lot in charity shops, often for a few pence.

 

[Cathryn]

Enid Blyton was amazing! Haven't gone back and re-read as I'm worried it will ruin it for me - I spent a lot of time pretending I was George (which is silly, because in all honesty, I'm so much more like a gutsier Anne).

I really loved the school books as well - there were some set at somewhere unpronounceable called Trebizon which I loved, and the Chalet school books set in Switzerland.

They were good days...

 

[papercorn2000]

I got Lion Adventure for my 8th birthday - after that I was hooked. Mind you, some of the scenarios were a bit unlikely - how did they manage to end up on board a sailing whaler with a modern (?) day Captain Ahab?

 

[lycradodger]

I got Lion Adventure for my 8th birthday - after that I was hooked. Mind you, some of the scenarios were a bit unlikely - how did they manage to end up on board a sailing whaler with a modern (?) day Captain Ahab?

Unlikely? Never! Cutting edge realism at all times, even when one of the boys had to fight off a leopard that he had fallen into a pit with (a trap engineered by a gorilla with a grudge against humanity) - Gorilla Adventure I think it must have been. Initially he had planned to kill it by ramming his fist down its throat and so choking it to death. However, then a shaft of moonlight revealed it to be a priceless black panther - so he merely knocked it out so he could save it for his dad's zoo. Leaving himself in a pit with an unconscious and presumably mightily ticked off leopard that had already taken lumps out of him. Priceless.

 

[Arch]

I got Lion Adventure for my 8th birthday - after that I was hooked. Mind you, some of the scenarios were a bit unlikely - how did they manage to end up on board a sailing whaler with a modern (?) day Captain Ahab?

Some of the scenarios? It was all pretty random!

Hmm, seems like I've hit a vein of Willard Price devotees here. If anyone wants to borrow one, let me know...

 

[cisamcgu]

Some of the scenarios? It was all pretty random!

Hmm, seems like I've hit a vein of Willard Price devotees here. If anyone wants to borrow one, let me know...

Borrow one .... I still have everyone one of them !

And yes, to this day, the whale one still sticks in my mind as being completely odd - with no rhyme or reason why they were on that ship


Andrew

 

[Arch]

I'm going to have to re-read them now! Lucky they only take an evening each now...

 

[goo_mason]

I read so much as a kid that I can't really name a favourite, though the first 'series' of books that I can remember really enjoying were the "Alfred Hitchcock & The Three Investigators" ones (I hated the Famous Five & Secret Seven - too twee, posh and English for my young tastes !!), as well as the Professor Branestawm ones.

Other than that, a lot of sci-fi was consumed (Arthur C Clarke, Harry Harrison etc - all through my love of the 2000ad comic !).

My 8yr-old daughter loves Jeremy Strong's books at the mo, and she's getting into Terry Pratchett's kids books too - hooray She's a voracious reader, and she writes better than most adults I know - her imagination is amazing, as is her grasp of language, spelling and grammar. I'm hoping she'll end up as a wealthy author who'll look after her old Dad financially in his twilight years

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea), John Christopher (Tripods) Leon Garfield, Peter Dickinson (The Changes), and above all, Alan Garner - who has since written two of the most beautiful and strange (adult) novels ever: Strandloper and Thursbitch.

 

[redshift]

I remember the three investigators books - didn't one of them have a swordstick or something? - and anything by Norman Hunter was worth it. Then there's always Stig of the Dump (Clive King).

I quickly graduated to Ian Fleming (Bond, not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and Alan "not really kids' books" Garner. I also read some Paul Zindel (Pigman, and Pardon me, you're stepping on my eyeball) are the ones whose titles I remember. Heinlein I couldn't get along with, though I've read quite a few. Douglas Adams I started reading when I was 12 or 13, so he nearly counts. I started reading Mary Stewart's Merlin series about the same age.

Ooh, yes, John Christopher - I'd forgotten him

 

[papercorn2000]

Ursula Le Guin (Earthsea), John Christopher (Tripods) Leon Garfield, Peter Dickinson (The Changes), and above all, Alan Garner - who has since written two of the most beautiful and strange (adult) novels ever: Strandloper and Thursbitch.

I lost my copy of Tripods when I was about 2/3 of the way through and never got round to finishing it!
The Changes was made into a series. Years later, I was the only person who could remember it. No-one else of my age could remember it - I only realised I wasn't going mad when someone (Redcogs?) responded to a desperate thread on the old C+!