# What were your favorite OBSCURE(?) children's books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684 "2008-01-16T00:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/21 "2008-01-16T11:54:58Z")
[The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek](http://www.amazon.com/Shy-Stegosaurus-Cricket-Creek/dp/1930900376/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200484350&sr=1-2) Although my memory has it as _Sunset Creek_. I have to assume they are the same book so I wonder if it is due to poor memory or maybe they released it under two different names or something else… ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/22 "2008-01-16T12:08:08Z")
I nearly listed _No Flying In The House_ in the other thread! And I did list _No Such Thing As A Witch_. I had a book called _A Witch In Time_ that I loved, but I only read it once or twice before I loaned it to a friend and never got it back. I’ve never seen anywhere since. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/23 "2008-01-16T12:47:03Z")
The Golden Book Encyclopedias, as seen in [this eBay auction](http://cgi.ebay.com/Golden-Book-Encyclopedia-16-Volume-Set-1959-Mint-bonus_W0QQitemZ160198682046QQihZ006QQcategoryZ29223QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). If I did eBay, I’d buy this set - ours were severely worn. My Mom bought them, one each week, at our local Kroger grocery store when I was about 5. It was the first thing to make my parents think I was ‘a scary-wierd kid’, when they realized I was reading the volumes cover-to-cover, in sequence. They never tried to discourage me, though…when I finished the set, they bought the Golden Home and High School Encyclopedias; by the time I was in 8th grade, they bought the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia. I know they considered buying Encyclopedia Britannica (I remember lusting over the sample volume when the salesman was at our house), but it was just too expensive for them. I was also quite fond of spending hours sprawled on the living room floor, reading our Random House Unabridged Dictionary. You couldn’t hold it in your lap; it was so huge that it would cut off the circulation in your legs and you’d fall over when you tried to stand up. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/24 "2008-01-16T13:02:12Z")
When I was about 12 years old and sick with the measles, my mother picked me up an old book at a church rummage sale, **White Patch** , about a little boy who is turned into an ant and spends the day having adventures with all the insects in his back yard. I loved the book and re-read it many times. Whenever I see a copy in a used book store, I buy it and give it to a young niece or nephew. It isn’t easy to find. The book was originally written in Italian and then translated into English and published in the US around 1910. As far as I know, that is the only Enlish-language edition. But it is worth looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/25 "2008-01-16T14:45:29Z")
I’m glad you started this thread! I couldn’t post in the other because I was just paralyzed by the long list of books that came to mind, and then so many people had already posted, I’d probably just be repeating them. One of my favorite books ever is [The Wily Witch](http://www.amazon.com/Witch-Other-Fairy-Tales-Fables/dp/0916144097/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200493983&sr=8-6) by [Godfried Bomans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfried_Bomans). It’s a book of somewhat bizarre fairy tales by a Dutch author. I wish I could remember who gave it to me, because I’d like to know how they happened to find it! These were some dark and strange tales, and the illustrations are incredible. My favorites were the picture of the executioner and the severed head, and the one of the king taking a dump in the cornfield. The best stories were probably The Lady of the Lake, and The Innkeeper of Pidalgo. Is this stuff ringing any bells to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/26 "2008-01-16T14:47:24Z")
I also have fond memories of The Mummy Market and David and the Phoenix. It’d be great to read those again. ---
**Author:** ![UntouchedTakeaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d78d45/32.png) [@UntouchedTakeaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UntouchedTakeaway)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/27 "2008-01-16T14:58:10Z")
Collier’s Junior Classics. Picture: [http://livinghigher.com/ColliersClassicsII.jpg](http://livinghigher.com/ColliersClassicsII.jpg) They were an adjunct of the Collier’s Encyclopedia. I read them continuously when I was a kid. My brother ended up with them & they were lost in a storage unit fire. I found a mint set in a bookstore in Bethlehem, PA - still in the original box with the packing slip intact. The nanosecond I opened the first one, I was 8 years old again. They even _smelled_ like I remembered. They are one of my most treasured possessions. VCNJ~ ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/28 "2008-01-16T15:07:34Z")
[QUOTE=Bill Door] When I was in kindergarten i got a book called [_David and the Phoenix_](http://www.amazon.com/David-Phoenix-Edward-Ormondroyd/dp/1930900015/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200457760&sr=1-1). I loved that book, but we moved in 1960 and I hadn’t seen it since. Looking it up on Amazon its ranking is 346,185 in books, so I guess that qualifies as obscure. [/QUOTE] You might be interested to know that it’s not _that_ obscure anymore; the author David Weber has a great enthusiasm for it, and features it in his latest Honor Harrington book ( she reads from it several times ). Note that his _At All Costs_ is listed under “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”; the book she’s reading from in the cover illustration is _David and the Phoenix_. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/29 "2008-01-16T15:11:32Z")
J.P. Martin’s Uncle the Elephant series. Lovely surreal fantasy, gorgeously illustrated by Quentin Blake. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/30 "2008-01-16T15:12:06Z")
I had _Me And The Terrible Two_ as a kid but I believe I donated it and a ton of other kid’s books I had to the local library. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/31 "2008-01-16T15:23:19Z")
**My Father’s Dragon** was a favorite of mine when I was young. A boy befriends a stray cat and in their conversations the boy expresses his desire to fly. To repay the boy for his kindness the cat tells him of a flying baby dragon held captive on an island overrun by mean wild animals. The boy packs a backpack with random stuff (hair ribbons, toothpaste, suckers, etc.) and stows away on a ship to get to the island. He then proceeds to have encounters on the island with various mean wild animals and outsmarts them with the objects in his backback. A lot of fun. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/32 "2008-01-16T15:36:28Z")
_Friendship Valley_ _Amanda_ and _Sir Archibald_ all by author and illustrator Wolo, aka Wolf Von Trutzschler. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/33 "2008-01-16T15:37:34Z")
Ooh! That reminds me of another one I loved as a kid, but that’s fairly obscure. Andre Norton’s [Dragon Magic](http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Magic-Books/dp/0765353008). Four boys from four different ethnicities (Scandinavian, Welsh, Chinese and African) discover a magic box that transports each of them to a past event in their ancestral history/mythology. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/34 "2008-01-16T15:42:48Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] [The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek](http://www.amazon.com/Shy-Stegosaurus-Cricket-Creek/dp/1930900376/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200484350&sr=1-2) Although my memory has it as _Sunset Creek_. I have to assume they are the same book so I wonder if it is due to poor memory or maybe they released it under two different names or something else… [/QUOTE] Oh, I had that book! I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/35 "2008-01-16T15:52:13Z")
_The Thirteen Clocks_ by James Thurber. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/36 "2008-01-16T15:54:38Z")
The [Tell Me Why](http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Me-Why-Arkady-Leokum/dp/0448044307/ref=pd_sim_b_img_1) series. I believe I had three. I could still use 'em today! ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/37 "2008-01-16T16:01:33Z")
[Ratsmagic](http://www.amazon.com/Ratsmagic-Wayne-Anderson/dp/0224012274) by Wayne Anderson and Christopher Logue. Great, creepy illustrations. I checked it out of our public library dozens of times when I was a kid. Also, [The Rainbow Goblins](http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Goblins-Ul-Rico/dp/0500277591/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200499306&sr=1-1) by Ul de Rico. It has a similar tone in many ways. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/38 "2008-01-16T16:10:34Z")
I used to love a book (still would, if it hadn’t been lost in a move) called _Herbert the Blotchy Great Snapper_, about a fish who became a celebrity. Trust me, it’s not as trite as it sounds; it’s hilarious! There was also a book called [Just For You](http://www.amazon.com/Just-You-Look-Look-Mercer-Mayer/dp/030711838X), about a very clumsy hamster, or rodent-ish creature. Also a favourite. Incidentally, some genius at Amazon submitted the following review of Just For You: > [@No Shit](#): > > This Is A Child Book, October 11, 2001 > > I think this book was a bore for me.It was not a good book.If I was 3 I might like it.This book is not my catagorie of reading.I don’t like to read but I read this book because I thought it might be good, but it wasn’t. What can I say? I’m sorry this wasn’t in your ‘catagorie of reading’, but clearly you are too immature and idiotic for this book. Another favourite was [The House Mouse](http://www.amazon.com/House-Mouse-Dorothy-Joan-Harris/dp/0723260966/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200499551&sr=1-5). I drove my dad nuts by asking for this book to be read out at bedtime, every night. I also had an illustrated version of _The Wendigo_ and _Custard the Dragon_, which is clearly at the root of my lifelong love for Ogden Nash’s poetry. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/39 "2008-01-16T16:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] You might be interested to know that it’s not _that_ obscure anymore; the author David Weber has a great enthusiasm for it, and features it in his latest Honor Harrington book ( she reads from it several times ). Note that his _At All Costs_ is listed under “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”; the book she’s reading from in the cover illustration is _David and the Phoenix_. [/QUOTE] Sorry to use this method of messaging, but I was hoping you might be willing to particapate in [The SDMB Mock election](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451690) and you have the Email & PM functions off. ---
**Author:** ![Ivorybill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ivorybill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivorybill)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684/40 "2008-01-16T16:48:30Z")
[How Tom Beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen](http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=JIZLFGjjxZ8C&dq=captain+najork&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hvOkeyKFhL&sig=XXSrIC7CUSctU_8C95XfHDzwtWI#PPA50,M1) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-childrens-books/433684.md?page=3)