As my childhood came to end I discovered this book called “Ariel” by Steven Boyett in the early 80s. The story is about a boy (Pete) who lives in modern America. The world has just gone thru a “Change” which has rendered all electrical devices, gas powered engines, and guns useless. Fantasy creatures now walk the earth and once again magic crackles thru the air. Pete befriends a unicorn named Ariel and they have several adventures that lead to the ultimate battle of good vs evil which will decide who will control the new world.

Ariel by Steven Boyett

This book is not suitable for children. It has some raw adult situations and the ending is not a “happy feel good” moment. The ending is about making decisions and decisions have consequences. Like most of the books I read, you either hate it or you love it. (Maybe that is just the way it is with all books.)

For myself, Tolkien is my favorite author hands down. (I probably own about 30 books on all aspects of Middle-Earth.) But there is so much information about Lord of the Rings on the net already that I am going to move on to my 2nd favorite fantasy series from the 70s, The Sword of Shannara.

The Sword of Shannara,  the first book of the Original Shannara Triology, was written by Terry Brooks and published in 1977.

Sword of Shannara 1977

From Wiki: “The first novel of The Original Shannara Trilogy chronicles the adventures of the brothers Shea and Flick Ohmsford in their quest to retrieve the Sword of Shannara to defeat the Warlock Lord who threatens the Four Lands.”

There seems to be two camps on Terry Brooks’s novels. The die hard Tolkien fans who accuse Terry of ripping off Tolkien’s ideas and bash Terry’s novels and then there is my group who just loves a good book. Like Tolkien, I couldn’t stop reading the Shannara books either. It was a fantastic read.

Here are the other two books in this series:

The Elfstones of Shannara 1982

The Wishsong of Shannara 1985

He has published many other books based on the Shannara theme which I have not read yet but they are on my to do list.

I really enjoyed reading Runaway Ralph when I was a youngin’. Written by Beverly Cleary, it’s a story about a mouse that has his own motorcycle which leads him into many adventures. Runaway Ralph was the the second book in the mouse trilogy. I have read the first two books in this set, but I was surprised to find out that a third book had been published in 1982.

The Mouse and the Motorcyle - 1965

Runaway Ralph - 1970

Ralph S. Mouse - 1982

I read a lot of books while I was growing up and there were only a handful of those, that I got so absorbed in, that I will never forget them. One of the first of these books I am going to talk about was written way before the 1970s, but I enjoyed the book immensely growing up. It was a hard cover book called “The Happy Moomins ” by author Tove Jansson printed in 1954.

The Moomins

“The Happy Moomins” is about a family of odd shaped characters, that remind me of a hippopatumus, called Moomins who live in Moominvalley. There is Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll. Now this family has many friends, who are also oddly shaped, with even odder names like Snufkin, Sniff, The Snork maiden, and Hemulen. (Snufkin was probably one of my first role models growing up because he was adventurous, mysterious and care free all rolled up in one.) They have incredibly fantastic adventures which I couldn’t even begin to describe. It is the type of book that you will just have to read for yourself.

I still have that hard cover book and it has become a treasure that I will never part with.

Did any of you read this book when you were younger?

I craved these books when I was a child.

The Three Investigators - The Mystery of the Green Ghost

The books revolved around three kids named Jupiter “Jupe” Jones, Peter “Pete” Crenshaw, and Robert “Bob” Andrews. Their headquarters was located in an abandoned house trailer in the middle of a junk yard from which they would solve mysteries. There are 44 books in this series. I know I did not read all of them as my taste changed while growing up and I became more interested in fantasy books such as “Lord of the Rings”. But I read everyone of them that the School Library had. If you do not know about these books and have children I highly recommend picking one up. These books are hard to put down and I would basically sit down and read it from cover to cover.

Here is a list of the books:

1. The Secret of Terror Castle (1964)
2. The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot (1964)
3. The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy (1965)
4. The Mystery of the Green Ghost (1965)
5. The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure (1966)
6. The Secret of Skeleton Island (1966)
7. The Mystery of the Fiery Eye (1967)
8. The Mystery of the Silver Spider (1967)
9. The Mystery of the Screaming Clock (1968)
10. The Mystery of the Moaning Cave (1968)
11. The Mystery of the Talking Skull (1969)
12. The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow (1969)
13. The Secret of the Crooked Cat (1970)
14. The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon (1970)
15. The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints (1971)
16. The Mystery of the Nervous Lion (1971)
17. The Mystery of the Singing Serpent (1972)
18. The Mystery of the Shrinking House (1972)
19. The Secret of Phantom Lake (1973)
20. The Mystery of Monster Mountain (1973)
21. The Secret of the Haunted Mirror (1974)
22. The Mystery of the Dead Man’s Riddle (1974)
23. The Mystery of the Invisible Dog (1975)
24. The Mystery of Death Trap Mine (1976)
25. The Mystery of the Dancing Devil (1976)
26. The Mystery of the Headless Horse (1977)
27. The Mystery of the Magic Circle (1978)
28. The Mystery of the Deadly Double (1978)
29. The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow (1979)
30. The Secret of Shark Reef (1979)
31. The Mystery of the Scar-Faced Beggar (1981)
32. The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs (1981)
33. The Mystery of the Purple Pirate (1982)
34. The Mystery of the Wandering Cave Man (1982)
35. The Mystery of the Kidnapped Whale (1983)
36. The Mystery of the Missing Mermaid (1983)
37. The Mystery of the Two-Toed Pigeon (1984)
38. The Mystery of the Smashing Glass (1984)
39. The Mystery of the Trail of Terror (1984)
40. The Mystery of the Rogues’ Reunion (1985l)
41. The Mystery of the Creep-Show Crooks (1985)
42. The Mystery of Wrecker’s Rock (1986)
43. The Mystery of the Cranky Collector (1987)
44. The Mystery of the Ghost Train (unpublished/unfinished)