Here’s something I originally posted on my previous blog, A Pile of Leaves (currently in a state of compost). I’ve always been fond of it, and I was reminded of it by last night’s outstanding discussion event, #BoxesofDelight, run by Oxford Brookes’ evening of children’s literature (variously: what were your first books, how did they form you, how do we return to that childhood experience or – quite separately – read a children’s book as an adult).

When I was a child at Goodrich Primary School, back in the early 90s, I was encouraged to maintain a little Reading Record. A bit like Goodreads, but the size of a CD case with a blue cover. My memory of childhood reading has always been hazy: sometimes I feel I read nothing, sometimes everything, sometimes only joke books. I was quite startled to find that some solid evidence had survived in the form of these dusty, yellowed book journals. You might find them interesting or amusing; you might be amazed at my spelling and unreconstructed opinions, or perplexed by my juvenile Judy Garland fandom.

You might have reading records of your own! Please dig them out and share if so. For now, let’s go back to September 1992, in Class 15, my penultimate year at Goodrich Primary…

Date: Friday 12th September
Title: Little girl lost, The life and hard times of Judy Garland.
Author: Al DiOrio.
Comment: I have just finished it, and I think it’s brilliant. I bought it while I was on holiday and have been reading it ever since. It’s a very intresting biography of one of my faviourite singers and actresses. I really enjoyed the parts from the newspapers, the film reviews, and the photographs. It gives brilliant accounts on lots of things, starting from Frances Gumm, to Dorothy, to her four divorces to her death. Brilliant.

[This got a little tick from Miss Hunter.]

Date: Friday 12th September
Title: When the siren wailed
Auother: Noel Streatfield
Illustrator: Margery Gill
Comment: It was very good and I enjoyed it. It was about three evacuees from London, who were evacuated to Charnbury. After a while they runaway to find their mum, only to find her [in] hospital, after a bomb hit Marefield Road. The picthures were a bit naff, and in some parts I skipped paragraphs, but all in all it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Date: Friday 12th September
Title: The alchimist’s cat
Aotuher: Robin Jarvis
Illustrator: Robin Jarvis
Comment: A very good book, although I don’t think I’ll go to the trouble of reading others in the same series. Very exiting pictures, and a few deaths. It is set in 1664, and in some parts was a bit boring, but I enjoyed it. It had lots of magic in it, and the chapters were very long. But good.

Date: Monday 12th October.
Title: Lucy and the big bad wolf.
Illustrator: Karin Littlewood.
Author: Ann Jungman.
Comment: A brilliant book. Very funny. All the characters were very strong. What I mean by this, is that their characters were really definete. The bad characters were bad, the good characters good, and the wierdos were wierd.

Date: Wednesday 14th October.
Title: Lucy and the wolf in sheeps clothing.
Author: Ann Jungman.
Illustrator: Karin Littlewood.
Comment: An excellent sequel to, “Lucy and the big bad wolf.” Now with a female wolf. 2.15 (yes that’s the male wolfs name) is hunted by the police, and uses loads and loads of disguises.

Date: Tuesday 20th October.
Title: The mystery of the burnt cottage
Illustrator: Mary Geraint
Author: Enid Blyton
Comment: Really good. It had lots of twists in it. It turned out that the culprit was really the owner! [Giant exclamation mark there to emphasise the psychological dynamism of La Blyton.] I really enjoyed it.

[I have also drawn – quite badly, to be brutally frank – a little role call of the Five Find-Outers, who I much preferred to the Famous Five or Secret Seven. I distinctly remember reading this book with an ice cream on Boscombe beach, so either I reread because it was so good or I was trying to cover up some reader’s block this week.]

Date: Monday 2nd November
Title: The indian in the cupboard.
Author: Lynne reid Banks
Illustrator: -None-
Comment: Really good. I like the writer anyway, but, this was better than the first one I had read. It had two humans called Omri and Patrick. Omri had a sort of cupboard and a toy indian. He put the indian into the cupboard, and it came alive.

[I can’t believe I didn’t go into more detail about just how much I enjoyed this novel.]

Date: Friday 6th November
Title: The dark Portal
Autoher: Robin Jarvis
Illystrator: Same
Comment: This book was really exiting, but I didn’t enjoy it much. It was really [underlined] gorey. I’ve allready read a book by the same aother, it was “The alchemists cat.” I don’t [underlined twice] thingk that I will read any more, it was just TOO disgusting

Date: Friday 13th November
Title: The adventures of Huckleberry finn.
Author: Mark Twain.
Comment: A boring book. I didn’t like it. The print was small, it had 43 chapters in it, and was written in a strange way. It was kind of american. I didn’t enjoy it. Mostly, everytime I opend the book, I couldn’t find the right page, so I must have read some chapters 3 times over.

Date: 2nd December
Title: Little house on the prairie
Author: Laura Wilder
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Comment: Really good. I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t brilliant, but almost. It was really detailed. The print was big enough and there was only 26 chapters. It was about Laura Ingalls and her family when they left their home in the woods, to go and live in indian territory. Really good.

[I’m so lying. Little House in the Great Big Woods was an all-time favourite, but as for the sequel…]

Date: Wednesday 9th Dec
Title: The exiles
Author: Hilary McKay
Illustrator: There isn’t one.
Comment: Very good. It was really funny. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it but this is the story as far as I could go. Four sisters go to spend the summer with their greedy big grandma.

[Wow, who wants any more book than that? I’m sure there’s something fishy about the use of the word ‘unfortunately’.]

Date: 5th January
Title: The phoenix and the carpet
Author: E. Nesbit
Illustrator: H.R. Millar
Comment: Fantastic! I really, really, really enjoyed it! It all starts when these 4 children accidentally ruin a carpet. When they get a new one it turns out to be a wishing carpet. Also, rolled up inside, is an egg and when it hatches, out pops a golden Phoenix! Great!

Date: Tuesday 26th January
Title: Spellhorn
Author: Berlie Doherty
Illustrator: ———
Comment: O.K., but I didn’t like it much. The plot was good, but it was too long drawn out. It was all about Laura, a blind girl. A unicorn called Spellhorn likes her, and takes her away to the wild ones who are camping near by. After awhile, you reach the Wilderness. Laura can see again, and is called Mighty high. At last she gets home.

Date: Monday 22nd February
Title: The hound of the Baskervilles
Author: A.C. Doyle
Comment: Good, but not fantastic. I had heard the story already at Nethercott [Farm, i.e. our school holiday, hosted by the actual Michael Morpurgo, and one of the most thrilling weeks of my young life]. It was much scarier than the ladybird one [i.e. the Ladybird version], because of extra detail. Because it was written for grown ups, it was hard to understand, but it was still good. 8/10

Date: Friday 26th February
Title: THE CAT ATE MY GYMSUIT
Author: Paula Danziga
Comment: BRILLIANT! I’m actually surprised about this. When I got it out of the libary I thought it would be for teenagers, and very boring. But as I got into the plot, I loved it. It’s about a girl called Mary who thinks she’s a blimp. She has a new teacher who teaches language in strange ways, which the children like. Because of her teaching techniuqes, she gets fines. The most dramatic and scary part is where there is a hearing and you don’t know if Ms Finney will win. 10/10

[Here’s a good one to finish on…]

Date: 4th March
Title: The snow spider trilogy
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Illustrator: Joanna Carey
Comment: Brilliant. Very magical and a bit scarey. Also it was very long because it was 3 books in one! [Big exclamation mark to emphasise vastness of the Snow Spider trilogy.] The central character is Gwyn Griffthis. He lives in Wales and has a grandmother called Nain, who tells Gwyn hes a magician. It was BRILLIANT! [Another giant exclamation mark but still only] 8/10 [, although there are little drawings of Gwyn and his Nain so – well, I don’t know what it all means. I have absolutely no memory of reading The Chestnut Soldier as a child, but who knows…?]