Chit-Chat: What's On Your Mind Today?

[EtheltoTillie]

39 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Did you ever see the TV show?  I think it was a limited production and can't recall now if it was PBS (as the Ramona series was) or not.  In any event Eve Plumb played Peter and Fudge's mother and I recall it being very well done. 

I had no idea there was a show.  I'm going to try to find it.

[PRgal]

2 hours ago, Anela said:

I don’t think we had the babysitter's club in England. Or, I just hadn’t heard of it.  I remember a movie, years ago, but I wasn’t a kid when that came out.  

What did British girls (BSC was mostly, no, OVERWHELMINGLY read by girls.  Boys may or may not have read it on the down low) read in the 80s and 90s?  

As for Ramona, I SOOOO wanted to squeeze an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink.  Didn't, of course, because I, too, would have gotten in SO MUCH TROUBLE!

47 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Did you ever see the TV show?  I think it was a limited production and can't recall now if it was PBS (as the Ramona series was) or not.  In any event Eve Plumb played Peter and Fudge's mother and I recall it being very well done. 

I've heard of the show, but it was well after my Judy Blume years.  I think they updated it to the (then) present time (so circa 2000s?)?  There was a Fudge book published after my time too.  

[Anela]

I'm trying to remember what I read, because I was a big reader, but I don't remember most of these. I did read Judy Blume. The Enchanted Wood. The books involving Narnia. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. That was the first book I bought through a book club in school. They handed them out, not long before we went home that day, and I still remember that feeling I had, holding the book for the first time.

We had Degrassi in England, but it must have been before Drake was involved. 

[Dimity]

2 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I've heard of the show, but it was well after my Judy Blume years.  I think they updated it to the (then) present time (so circa 2000s?)?  There was a Fudge book published after my time too.  

I just googled it and it was made in the 90s and was show on the ABC morning line-up - there were less than 30 episodes made which explains why I thought it was a limited production. Checking it out I realize we watched it when it was airing in the UK.  My recollection is that, as you say, it was set in the present day but I think most of the stories were pretty timeless.

[fastiller]

44 minutes ago, PRgal said:

What did British girls (BSC was mostly, no, OVERWHELMINGLY read by girls.  Boys may or may not have read it on the down low) read in the 80s and 90s?  

Not UK/British, but: when I lived in Ireland in the 80s, I and my friends were all over the Jilly Cooper books.  There were others I'm sure; can't recall them now.

[Dimity]

48 minutes ago, PRgal said:

What did British girls (BSC was mostly, no, OVERWHELMINGLY read by girls.  Boys may or may not have read it on the down low) read in the 80s and 90s?  

We lived in England in the late '90s and the British author I recall my daughter absolutely loving was Jacqueline Wilson.  I'm not sure if she has had much success in Canada/US but most Brits would know her.

[Anela]

1 hour ago, PRgal said:

What did British girls (BSC was mostly, no, OVERWHELMINGLY read by girls.  Boys may or may not have read it on the down low) read in the 80s and 90s?  

As for Ramona, I SOOOO wanted to squeeze an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink.  Didn't, of course, because I, too, would have gotten in SO MUCH TROUBLE!

I've heard of the show, but it was well after my Judy Blume years.  I think they updated it to the (then) present time (so circa 2000s?)?  There was a Fudge book published after my time too.  

I didn't see this before I posted. We must have cross-posted. Sorry. 

I'm still trying to remember. We were the V.C. Andrews kids. Flowers in the Attic. Also the Chronicles of Narnia. The Box of Delights, was a successful kids TV show. Children's BBC had several TV series, so I watched those.

The Secret Seven, the __ Five? I read a lot of those books, that were before my time. I started reading Dean Koontz, and other books like that, when I was a teenager. 

John Saul - I read his books when I was seventeen/eighteen. I loved horror books, fantasy. 

[PRgal]

15 minutes ago, Anela said:

I didn't see this before I posted. We must have cross-posted. Sorry. 

I'm still trying to remember. We were the V.C. Andrews kids. Flowers in the Attic. Also the Chronicles of Narnia. The Box of Delights, was a successful kids TV show. Children's BBC had several TV series, so I watched those.

The Secret Seven, the __ Five? I read a lot of those books, that were before my time. I started reading Dean Koontz, and other books like that, when I was a teenager. 

John Saul - I read his books when I was seventeen/eighteen. I loved horror books, fantasy. 

Do you mean the Fabulous Five?  It was a spin-off of the Taffy Sinclair books, right?  The girls lived in Connecticut?  

[Dimity]

21 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Do you mean the Fabulous Five?  It was a spin-off of the Taffy Sinclair books, right?  The girls lived in Connecticut?  

My first thought were the Enid Blyton books The Famous Five. 

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, fastiller said:

Since we're going down book-related memory lane, did anyone else read the Paul Zindel books?  My Darling, My Hamburger; Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball; Teenage Baboon.  And the play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

I read all of those.  I might even still have Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball.  I wonder how it holds up?  Back in the day, I read Narnia, Madeleine L'Engle, Judy Blume (oh, the scandal that was "Forever"!), "Where The Red Fern Grows," and the Little House books to name a few.

[lookeyloo]

I am 81.  I did read all the Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, even Hardy Boys available to me(I think most of them were by the same author).  My favorites were Taffy's Foal and Baby Island.  They weren't part of any series.  I had total access to our library - my mother thought reading anything was better than not reading, and when I graduated to my adult card I had no limits.  My mother and I sometimes read the same books and a lot of that went over my head, but, I was still reading something.https://www.amazon.com/Taffys-Foal-Elisa-Bialk/dp/B0006ARXOA

https://archive.org/details/babyisland0000brin

[Dimity]

7 minutes ago, lookeyloo said:

Baby Island

One of the first books I ever ordered from Scholastic!!  Awesome book  (by the author of Caddie Woodlawn) I recently re-read this in a walk down memory lane and I still loved it.  Totally unbelievable of course but I didn't care then and I still don't care 😃!

[PRgal]

38 minutes ago, Dimity said:

My first thought were the Enid Blyton books The Famous Five. 

Maybe it's just my Canadianness but this is what I think when I hear The Famous Five.  One of the women was an alumna of my high school.  

[shapeshifter]

The most influential book I read was in 5th grade: My Side of the Mountain.
I read it after the teacher read it aloud to us, a chapter a day. I still recall relating to the main character and imagining I was a boy for a bit when I read it. 
Mom was so relieved that I wanted to read something besides comic books.
After that I read biographies, and those "Mushroom Planet" books.
Also Misty of Chincoteague and other horse books, and enjoyed drawing pictures of horses with a like-minded friend.

Decades later, as a parent and then as a librarian, I read the Little House books, the Beverly Cleary books, the Baby Sitters' Club books, and others, including some very dark books for young adults on the Holocaust that my oldest daughter read. 

My middle daughter started reading Jane Austen when she was in middle school. We would enjoy talking to each other like we were in 18th Century England.

I do remember seeing Drake in DeGrassi on TV in reruns. 

[Dimity]

10 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

The most influential book I read was in 5th grade: My Side of the Mountain.
I read it after the teacher read it aloud to us, a chapter a day. I still recall relating to the main character and imagining I was a boy for a bit when I read it. 

My English teacher in grade 7 read us a chapter from Kenneth Roberts "Northwest Passage" and a bunch of us did the 50 yard dash to the library afterwards to get a copy so we could read the whole book.  I wonder if anyone reads his books anymore?   This one is pretty problematic and not one I'd likely recommend but boy was it a page turner back in the day!

Edited 4 hours ago by Dimity

[Anela]

1 hour ago, PRgal said:

Do you mean the Fabulous Five?  It was a spin-off of the Taffy Sinclair books, right?  The girls lived in Connecticut?  

I think it was the Famous Five. I read a lot of Enid Blyton. I'm going to look these books up, though.

Ohh, that reminds me: I'm watching a show now, where a little boy is reading James and the Giant Peach, in the pilot. I loved those books. I read a lot of Roald Dahl, too. 

51 minutes ago, lookeyloo said:

I am 81.  I did read all the Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, even Hardy Boys available to me(I think most of them were by the same author).  My favorites were Taffy's Foal and Baby Island.  They weren't part of any series.  I had total access to our library - my mother thought reading anything was better than not reading, and when I graduated to my adult card I had no limits.  My mother and I sometimes read the same books and a lot of that went over my head, but, I was still reading something.https://www.amazon.com/Taffys-Foal-Elisa-Bialk/dp/B0006ARXOA

https://archive.org/details/babyisland0000brin

My mum was a huge reader, and she's the one who got me started. I've been going to the library since I was little. It's one of my favourite places to be. 

9 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

The most influential book I read was in 5th grade: My Side of the Mountain.
I read it after the teacher read it aloud to us, a chapter a day. I still recall relating to the main character and imagining I was a boy for a bit when I read it. 
Mom was so relieved that I wanted to read something besides comic books.
After that I read biographies, and those "Mushroom Planet" books.
Also Misty of Chincoteague and other horse books, and enjoyed drawing pictures of horses with a like-minded friend.

Decades later, as a parent and then as a librarian, I read the Little House books, the Beverly Cleary books, the Baby Sitters' Club books, and others, including some very dark books for young adults on the Holocaust that my oldest daughter read. 

My middle daughter started reading Jane Austen when she was in middle school. We would enjoy talking to each other like we were in 18th Century England.

I do remember seeing Drake in DeGrassi on TV in reruns. 

Reading in class, reminded me of having to read out loud to the class, in English. This one mean English teacher, mocked my pronunciation of something, instead of just kindly correcting me, and the other kids laughed. I hated that place. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Anela

[Ancaster]

3 hours ago, Dimity said:

My first thought were the Enid Blyton books The Famous Five. 

Learning a foreign language?  Borrow some library books by Enid Blyton - Famous Five, Secret Seven, etc.  If you can ignore the blatant racism and misogyny, her simplistic language is a great way to learn a language.  As long as you can get someone to explain "Lashings of ginger beer".

[Dimity]

1 minute ago, Ancaster said:

As long as you can get someone to explain "Lashings of ginger beer".

And that rugs are actually blankets.  That confused me so much when I was first reading the Adventure series (my personal favourite of her series books).

[shapeshifter]

A meme for some of us:

• Don't worry about not having a Valentine on Valentine's Day.
  You didn't have a groundhog on Groundhog Day either.

[Mindthinkr]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

The most influential book I read was in 5th grade: My Side of the Mountain.

I still give that book as a gift to young boys. I loved it too.