My favourite books growing up

It's been years since I've read (or even seen the front cover of) most of these titles. But here is a list of books I thought were simply the best things since sliced bread. Or socks. They are in a vaguely accurate chronological order.

Animal/Bedtime/Magical Stories

HarperCollins

My mother bought these three anthology-type books for me when she realised I liked reading and she was tired of going over 'So Much', 'Tickle in My Tummy' and others to me and my brothers. I read them like once a week each, and still have them SOMEWHERE in my house (probably). One of my favourite stories from this collection was about a boy who gets his teddy bear to check under his bed for monsters every night before going to sleep. Every night the bear tells the boy that it's safe to sleep. One night, the boy stays up really late and his bear falls asleep before him. He checks under the bed himself and... There's a monster there! The monster lives under the bed but isn't going to eat the boy so the bear always said it was safe. The boy felt so betrayed until he realised the monster was more fun than his bear. He didn't ever want to sleep after that.

I would have put a picture up for these books but all over the internet I was told things like "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock", "No image available" and "Unavailable. Sorry we can't get this title, the button below links through to AbeBooks who may have this title" (they didn't). Maybe they are now a collectors' item?! I'm sitting on a (possible) gold mine.

The Enchanted Horse

Magdalen Nabb

When I was about eight, my mum got me a load of random short stories. I still don't know where she got them from, because there were so many that I assumed she hadn't bought them. One of them was this. I read it, loved it - and then lost it somehow. I only recently found out the name of the book thanks to needing a title to go in this post! Without giving too much away in case you ever want to read it: the horse is made of wood.

Adventures of the Wishing Chair

Enid Blyton

I read this book until the pages fell out and the cover came off. Then I kept reading it, with the addition of cello tape. I could probably recite the entire thing word for word at one point in my life. I can't any more (that would be sad). I remember finding out there was a sequel and being rather disappointed by it. Nothing could beat the original!

Bill's New Frock

Anne Fine

I 'borrowed' this book from my cousin with no intention of ever returning it. I remember looking at it in her room and she told me it was a really good book and one of her favourites. She was my hero back then so I popped it into my bag before I went home. I read it a good few times. She came round after this and saw it on my shelf but thought she had given it to me to borrow. She never took it back - I think she lost interest in reading children's books at that time. She was probably about thirteen (making me ten? Nine? Something like that). To this day, I still have no idea what gender Bill actually is.

The Fairy Dust Series

Gwyneth Rees

I used to be into fairies in a BIG way. I once made cardboard wings to wear just because I could. I loved books about fairies and Gwyneth Rees wrote them well. I was old enough to get pocket money at this point and would save it up to go to the local Ottakars after school and buy as many fairy books as I could. Which usually amounted to one every month. I didn't get much pocket money to finance my joint love of books and fairies.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

This book was given to me by a neighbour who thought I was the greatest kid alive because I loved books so much. She's still really nice to me and occasionally gives me presents, which make me feel special because she doesn't give my brothers anything (haa!) ...Anyway, I didn't read this book for ages after receiving it, partly because the cover looked so boring and partly because it wasn't about fairies. Then I read it. Lawd, how I cried. It was the first time I encountered a story where a main character was allowed to die. When I learned it was an autobiography years later, I cried harder. That shit was serious man.

Beyond the Deepwoods

Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell

Another 'borrow' from a male cousin this time, although I did at least try to give it back. He didn't want it and said I should keep it. It makes me sad reading the "love Dad" scrawled on the inside cover, 'cause I know it's not from mine! This launched my interest in slightly more serious fantasy books (goodbye, fairies!). I bought the next two novels in the series, then learnt I was reading the second trilogy in the overarching universe chronology. When I won a competition for writing, I made sure the school spent the winnings on getting the other books in the series. Unfortunately, I left the school before getting to read them all and to this day, have only read five out of the eleven books. And they're writing a twelfth to be published next year, so I'll be even further behind.