Childhood nostalgia poll

[rachelmanija]

Please reminisce, fondly or not, about any of these, or other books read in childhood, especially if they seem to have, deservedly or undeservedly, vanished from the shelves. I'd love to hear about non-US, non-British books, too.

[Poll #1720139]

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

The Happy Hollisters, which is about as old-fashioned as Bobbsey Twins and, if anything, less plausible. The Hollisters had, like, five kids, plus a dog and eventually, if I remember correctly, a donkey. They solved crimes and traveled a lot.

We knew they were goofy as hell and dated when we read them (they were read-aloud books when I was a little kid, like 4-7ish), but enjoyed them anyway.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there was a kid detective series that I adored but whose name/author/etc I can no longer remember at all. I ought to ask whatwasthatbook, come to think of it. It featured a group of... four or five "detectives," with the viewpoint character being one who kept logs and records for the group. I wish I could remember more concrete details, but all I have to go by is scattered incidents in the books.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

You know, that maaaay be the McGurk Mysteries (http://www.thrillingdetective.com/mcgurk.html)!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

:D

That was exactly it! Thank you!

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to find other fans of those books!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad to have a name for them, because I really enjoyed them!

I particularly liked that--if I remember correctly--the mysteries they solved were mostly in the reasonably-plausible-for-kids-to-be-solving vein: who broke a window, who stole a toy, that kind of thing. Kids investigating kid crimes, not kids involved in tracking down jewel thieves for some reason. I mean, I read and enjoyed the "kids investigating major adult crimes" type of books to and enjoyed them plenty, but it was a nice change.

[cmattg.livejournal.com]

That was the McGurk Mysteries.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I loved those.

[eruthros]

Yes! I agree that the Happy Hollisters were, amazingly, less plausible than the Bobbsey Twins. They also felt more old-fashioned, even though they were way more recent than the old 1920s versions of the Bobbsey Twins I owned. Something about the happy-family tone of them? Or something?

[grrlpup]

They sure were happy. I liked them because one was named Holly, like me, and she was a tomboy with pigtails.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly--I know intellectually that they were (mostly) written after (most of) the Bobbsey Twins books, but they feel at least as old.

I also remember that they certainly did a lot of traveling. They were an amazingly good-natured family to begin with, but it was particularly notable that, on the sixth week of their European vacation, the four-year-old was still sweet and chipper. ;)