Parents we would love to hear about your favourite stories

[Miss Hill]

Class 2 have been talking about their favourite stories and would love to hear from any parents who have favourite stories or books they remember from their own childhoods to share......

[Miss Hill]

When I was younger Enid Blyton was the most popular children's author. I read all of the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Mallory Towers books, but my favourites by far were the books about the Enchanted forest and the Faraway Tree. Does anyone else remember Moonface and the exploding gobstoppers or Mr Saucepan who lost all his pots when he got stuck in the land that kept moving around - I think there was a huge slide called the slippery slip as well?! I can also remember some stories about a magic wishing chair that grew wings and flew off to places.

[Mr Thomas]

My favourite story book was Sinbad. It was a huge hardback book with detailed pictures on every other page. I used to imagine myself on his boat having adventures and making discoveries.

[Class 2]

Dear Miss Hill and Mr Thomas,
thank you for telling us about your favourite stories. Lots of us like reading the Famous Five stories too - we really like Timmy the dog! Not so many of us know the story of Sinbad. Perhaps Mr Thomas could come and tell us about it some time?
Class 2

[Holly]

When I was young, my favourite book was 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase' by Joan Aitken. It was set in the olden days and was about two cousins who lived in a big country house. Their parents had to go away and they were looked after by a wicked governess (an old-fashioned kind of teacher) who treated them terribly and even locked them up. The two girls were very brave and managed to escape. The book had a happy ending but there were more exciting adventures in the next books; 'Blackhearts in Battersea' and 'Nightbirds in Nantucket'.

Holly's Mum

[Holly]

Every good book I used to read as a youngster seemed to have a Puffin in the top left hand corner of the front cover and this was no different.
Emil And The Detectives by Erich Kastner.
Emil was a young German boy, living in the countrside, who was given some money by his mum before she put him on a train to see his relatives in the big capital city of Berlin.
By the time he arrived in Berlin, Emil had been robbed and his adventures with all the young children he met, in an effort to recover the money and bring the robber to justice, make up this thrilling story.
What made it more exciting were the illustrations showing Emil and his band of over 100 young detectives on the trail of, and finally, capturing the thief.
I shan't give away the exciting ending too much. That's for you to discover !
But, it's a happy ending as they all seemed to be back then!

Holly's Dad (on a windy, rainswept Sunday afternoon)

[Mrs Shaddick]

Dear Class 2

When I was younger, my favourite author was most definitely Enid Blyton. Her adventure stories were so exciting! I loved the Mallory Towers books which were about a girls boarding school. These stories were so exciting, I remember begging my parents to send me to boarding school at one point so I could experience the dormatories and midnight feasts!

When I was older I remember enjoying reading the Worst Witch stories to myself. Mildred, if I remember correctly, was not a very good witch, but very likeable and got up to lots of mischief!

Enjoy your stories.

Mrs Shaddick (James' Mum)

[Class 2]

Dear Holly's Mum and Dad and James's Mum,
thank you for the great books that you have told us about. Perhaps we might read these books ourselves when we are a bit older. It seems that everyone likes a happy ending! Thank you for taking the time to be part of our forum.
Class 2

[Charlie's Mum]

I loved Enid Blyton books too but my favourite book was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

This was a story about a spoilt and selfish little girl called Mary who was sent to live with her grumpy uncle in a big lonely house. One day, a robin showed her a door to a secret garden which although was once loved and cared, for had become overgrown and neglected.

Sometimes when Mary was in the garden she could hear crying coming from the house and discovered that her Uncle had a son, Colin, who was very poorly and couldn’t walk. Mary started to take Colin out into the garden and as the garden grew more and more beautiful and magical, the children started to change too. Mary became a kinder, nicer person, Colin became happier and started to walk again and Mary’s uncle was happy too.

I remember that I loved this book so much that as soon as I finished it, I started to read it again!

Charlie's mum

[Class 2]

Dear Charlie's Mum,
Thank you for telling us about your favourite story. Some of us re-read stories that we've really enjoyed as well. The Secret Garden really is a good book!
Class 2