I have talked about children’s books in the 50s and 60s before but this time I’m focusing on the ‘classics’. There were fewer books available then so those we had we read and re-read. They are still around but if they are known to children today it is more likely to be as a Disney film or a TV cartoon.
This is not an exhaustive list of classics from the time, it is a personal selection. I have limited it to the ones we had at home or borrowed from the library. As we were two girls and a boy, some of my favourite books were ‘girls’ books’ like Heidi. I remember less about the ones my brother read.
When we were still quite young my mum would read books like Alice in Wonderland and The Water Babies to us. Once old enough to read fluently I can remember losing myself in books like Black Beauty, The Children of the New Forest and The Secret Garden.
I have such clear memories of our mum reading this to us before bed. We were in turn fascinated and horrified by it. Some of the images are pretty scary – a baby turning into a pig, for example!
I absolutely adored this book! It is SO sad in parts! I pictured Squire Gordon as the kindest, most handsome man ever.
My sister and I were totally charmed by the Borrowers books. This was the first one then came The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Aloft and The Borrowers Afloat. Years later, as a teacher, I have read The Borrowers to children in my class and it still has a timeless appeal.
As a child I was slightly disturbed by some of the weird things in these two books. I was easily scared I think and they had the same effect on me as Alice in Wonderland.
What a lovely story this is! When I was about ten or eleven it was serialised on TV and shown at teatime on Sundays for eight weeks. The Sunday dramas were brilliant. Several of the books mentioned here were shown as TV serials in the 50s and 60s.
I remember when I was given this as a present my mum explained the Civil War to me in child’s terms. When we are young it’s difficult to picture the span of time and she told me years later that I completely misunderstood the time scale and asked her which side she’d been on!
I’m fairly sure this was a Sunday afternoon serial on TV too but later than the 1960s.
These were a huge family favourite! I think there were parts of some of them which the three of us knew off by heart.
Oh, how I loved these books! I wanted to BE Heidi! I longed to live in a house with bedroom in a loft like Heidi’s. I read all three – Heidi, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children but my true love is the original Heidi.
Another book I really enjoyed was What Katy Did. There were two further books in the series – What Katy Did Next and What Katy Did at School.
The following four photographs are showing the books I still have which were mine in my childhood and teen years. There are two showing spines only. This is because they have lost their dust jackets. In the ‘old’ days books had a paper jacket with a picture and writing on and underneath that was a plain cover with title and author on the spine. One of them is entitled Thunderhead and was written by Mary O’Hara. This was mine but had been my mum’s. It had been one of her favourite books as a youngster and she had kept her copy and gave it to me when I was old enough to enjoy it. It has her name and a date in 1947 written on the fly-leaf.
These last few are just a collection of well known books from the time.
I read Heidi, and others like Nancy Drew Mysteries… Can’t actually remember now all of them. I wonder now with all the electronic gadgets, how many children read ‘actual’ books.. Diane
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There are many families where books are not a feature at home – but at least those children experience books in school.
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My best friend and I were little tomboys (George was our favourite in The Famous Five) so we read “boys” classics: Treasure Island, Coral Island, Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe, The Three Musketeers…
I remember Children of the New Forest, too. I didn’t read the Heidi books, but do remember seeing a movie in the late 1950s that I enjoyed.
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I went through a huge tomboy phase too and George was my favourite then. I longed to have a unisex name like Sam, Jo or Toni!
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I did too! And I remember in the 1950s when people who thinking of names for expected babies, they’d often suggest girls’names that had a shortened “male” version that would work if the little girl turned out to be a tomboy.
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I use to bury my head in books too. My father couldn’t keep up buying books. I remember watching black Beauty as a movie.
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I read most of those but my favourites were the ones that freaked you out a bit, Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. I was always daydremaing and living in a fantasy world s they didn’t seem particularly outrageous or frightening to me.
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The baby turning into a pig in Alice was one which scared me a bit! Also, people drowning in The Water Babies!
Thanks for commenting. Meryl
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