I’m a day late for this week’s TTT hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but I just could not help myself when I read the topic for this week ! Top 10 Books From My Childhood (or teen years) That I Would Love To Revisit.
I love my childhood bookish memories. I read voraciously during the day and couldn’t stop even during the night when I would sneak under my blanket and read by the light of a big black rubber encased torch.
Most of these books that have been a huge part of my childhood are second or even third-hand copies that my father bought for my elder sister when she was a child or a teen. Considering the fact that she and I have a huge age difference, some of them are at least three decades old ! This mélange of books were a huge part of my growing up years after my sister had already grown up and gone away to college.
Here are the top ten books I would like to re-visit from my childhood and teen years:
1. Girl’s Adventure Stories
These short stories for young ladies were quite fun to read. A different female protagonist in each short story finds herself in the middle of an adventure most of the time in a new place. There is no mention of the author nor the publication date but my guess is they were published in the early 80’s. These books are originally a part of my sister’s collection and we have four out of the six in the collection.
2. Girl’s Mystery Stories
Look at the 80’s look on these young ladies! Handed down to me by my sister, we own four of the six stand alone full length novels written by different authors. Some of these are a bit spine-tingling but my favourite one is Dancing with Danger.
3. Hamlyn Story Library Collection
There were many books published in this particular collection for young adults including adventure, mystery, spy, supernatural, animal, fantasy and horror stories but my sister and I just have the 1980’s editions of these three beauties. My special preference is the Adventure Stories for Girls which are charming in their own right.
4. Kay Tracey Mystery Series by Frances K. Judd
I just found out that the Kay Tracey series of 18 books was originally published from 1934 until the 1940’s ! My sister passed me these 1980’s editions that had four books out of which we have these three. The series is very similar to Nancy Drew. Sixteen year old Kay, an amateur detective, lives her mother and a lawyer cousin Bill and goes to high school with her two best friends Betty and Wilma who are twins. A good old-fashioned mystery is right up her alley. My favourite one is The Six-Fingered Glove Mystery.
5. Miscellaneous Mystery Stories
Hurrah for more female protagonists! Same overall theme of a cozy mystery but of course with different ladies and different plots.
6. The Three Investigators by Robert Arthur
Finally, some boys! Until a couple of months ago, I thought that these books were written by Alfred Hitchcock himself as he was featured in each book as the mentor and friend of the three investigators – Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. I used to think it was pretty pompous of him to write his own character as “the famous Hollywood director” in the books. Turns out the series was written by a huge fan of Mr. Hitchcock, a writer by the name of Robert Arthur. My favourite out of the four we possess is The Mystery of the Fiery Eye.
7. The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin
Now, we finally move onto my personal collection! Who can forget these lovely young and enterprising ladies who weren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves for the love of kids and some extra pocket money? I wanted to start a club (any club!) or be in one so bad because of them. I also longed for my own phone line because they had their own number for clients to call them on! My favourites are the Super Specials and the scrapbook of chain letters and cards. I read a lot of these from our local library too. Good times.
8. Sweet Valley Twins by Francine Pascal
Another very popular series that I have personally collected is about the pretty twins – nerdy Elizabeth and party-animal Jessica. I loved reading about their school, high school and university lives, right to the point where Jessica gets married to this really bad boy and has to face the consequences. This series dealt with a lot of teenage issues including bullying, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and a whole lot of other stuff.
9. Sugar Secrets by Mel Sparke
I don’t remember a whole lot about this series of 20 books but I remember being captivated by them and reading all of them one after the other from my neighbourhood library. They also dealt with a lot of problems and difficult circumstances that a lot of young adults face in their teen years.
10. The Enid Blyton Collection
I was saving the BEST for the last! How can I forget the books that got me hooked onto reading as a very young child? Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Mallory Towers, St. Clares, The Naughtiest Girl, The Five Find-Outers – Enid Blyton has written the world’s famous characters and series’. My favourite in this whole collection that is a mixture of my sister’s and my books is the 1967 edition of The Mystery of the Tally-Ho Cottage, the old and tattered pages of which literally crumble to dust upon touch!
My sister and I have read, re-read and then re-re-read our personal collection until they have become shabby and their covers and pages have fallen off. Despite their wear and tear, they still retain their inherent charm. Inside each yellowed book is a bit of my past that I have left behind – dog-eared pages, scribblings, doodles and comments written here and there. I haven’t paid these gems a visit in a long time but just knowing that they are always on my bookshelf, is of great comfort to me. Some of them are so rare that I can’t find proper details of them anywhere online. I love ’em and couldn’t do without any of them! 🙂
Have you read any of these books I’ve featured? Which books led you to take a trip down memory lane? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. 🙂
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Thistles and Whistles 