Children's Vintage Adventure and Mystery Books

[davidraphael]

I loved Enid Blyton as a kid.

The Adventure Series (1940s - 50s)

The Famous Five:

The Faraway Tree:

 

[Effingham]

A few years ago I discovered Irving Hancock's "Dick Prescott" -- a classic middle American teen, one of several friends in the early 19-teens -- in one book of his series, Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point (available, conveniently, at Project Guttenberg, and you can read it on your Kindle!).

There are four West Point books (one per year: "Dick Prescott's First Year at West Point"; "Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point: Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life"; "Dick Prescott's Third Year at West Point: Standing Firm for Flag and Honor"; and "Dick Prescott's Fourth Year at West Point: Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps") Post-commissioning, Dick had such adventures as "Uncle Sam's Boys with Pershing's Troops at the Front: or, Dick Prescott at Grips with the Boche."

One of his friends, Dave Darrin, went to Annapolis, and there's a series about him, too (four books for each of the Annapolis years, and a series after he's been commissioned an officer in the navy). One of his books was "Dave Darrin and the German Submarines."

Other friends, as they grew up, had books of their own, too.

Fun stuff, really.

 

[Del Ray]

I loved Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Read most of the Doyle "canon" as a boy. Over the past few years I've enjoyed Robert Parker's Spenser stories. Vastly different from Holmes, of course, but great, great stuff.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

There was a "Peggy" series that I loved as a kid. I only remember "Peggy Finds the Theater" but they were great. I still have mu favorite series- The Junior Classics set that had abbreviated tales divvied up by topic. The Tales from History was my favorite. Leonidas, WWII true stories- they are the best.

 

[lolly_loisides]

My favourite children's book was one of my mothers, "Ameliaranne & the Green Umbrella". I like to think that Ameliaranne played a small part in forming my general world views, she is all about the re-distribution of jammy dougnuts & sweeties The illustrations are just delightful.

 

[Dennis Young]

I love his illustrations. I have a book of short horror stories that he did the cover for, and all other illustrations of his that I've seen have that same "feel" to them.

OMgosh! I LOVE the John Bellairs books! But like many folks, I was grown before I discovered them. What was your favorite book? I think mine was 'The House with the Clock in the Walls".

John Bellairs had 3 main series. Lewis Barnevelt, Johnny Dixon and Anthony Monday. Anthony Monday was a little bit older than the other protagonists.

 

[Isis]

I would like to recommend some less known books by Astrid Lindgren- the books about Beill Bergson (In Swedish Kalle Blomkvist)

Bill Bergson, Master Detective (1946)
Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously (1951)
Bill Bergson and the White Rose Rescue (1953)

They're about a boy, Bill, whose dream is to become a famous PI. The problem is that he is 13 and the small and idyllic town he lives with just doesn't have a lot of crime. Luckily that change. The books are very funny and quite exiting, but also surprisingly serious. In the second book there is actually a murder commited and in the last one a small boy and his father are kidnapped by some truly ruthless villains. There is also a fun sub-plot with a game Bill plays with his friends- they play a game they call The War of the Roses, a game that I played as a child too, though most of my friends had no idea that it originated in this book. I loved them as a child and I still re-read them.