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are you there god

8 of your favourite childhood books and what they look like now

How things change…

WE RECENTLY HAPPENED upon a tweet that stopped us in our tracks and chilled us to our core:

The books we read as children were like old friends; stories we would return to over and over again.

Whatever edition of The Famous Five or The Hardy Boys or Lord of the Rings graced your shelves as a child, it can be difficult to take to those beloved books in their updated form.

Let’s take a look at how that art and those covers have changed over the years…

The Twins at St Clare’s – Enid Blyton

First published in 1941, The Twins at St Clare’s is number one in a series of six books about Patricia and Isobel.

This is probably how you remember them:

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Or maybe this earlier version:

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Or this 1988 version:

1 Seriesbookart Seriesbookart

Brace yourself. This is them now:

145200-ml-921800 Scholastic Scholastic

Malory Towers – Enid Blyton

Fellow boarding school brats Darrell, Sally, Alicia and co have undergone some major changes too.

Earlier incarnations of the series looked like this:

1 Seriesbookart Seriesbookart

and this:

third (2) didomibooks.com didomibooks.com

and this:

towers Goodreads Goodreads

These days, the Malory Towers gang look like this:

Malory_Towers Nocookie Nocookie

fifth egully.com egully.com

The Hardy Boys – Franklin W Dixon

The tales of Frank and Joe Hardy have been entertaining us since the late twenties. Let’s see how they’ve evolved.

Then:

Hbtt1rev Wikimedia Wikimedia

Hardy_boys_cover_34 Wikimedia Wikimedia

Hardy Boys Casefiles No. 17 - The Number File Thebiggamehunter Thebiggamehunter

Now:

51SXLaRSpLL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_ Images-amazon Images-amazon

hardy_boys Monkeyreader Monkeyreader

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Earlier this year a controversial new cover for Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was revealed, and branded by some as “terrifying”.

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Here’s how most people know it, featuring the work of Quentin Blake:

0141311304.02.LZZZZZZZ Amazon Amazon

charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-book-cover Bfi Bfi

 

Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory_40_years Lookingglassreview Lookingglassreview

This was the cover of the very first edition of the book:

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Here are some more non-Quentin Blake covers you might recognise:

charcover7 Roalddahlfans Roalddahlfans

charcover4 Roalddahlfans Roalddahlfans

Charlie-and-the-Chocolate-Factory-Puffin-1978 Abebooks Abebooks

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret

Judy Blume’s seminal work was first published in 1970, with this cover:

AreYouThereGod1

Here’s how it’s changed:

AreYouThereGod2 Slj Slj

are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret Wordpress Wordpress

410GTX5J8QL Images-amazon Images-amazon

Are-You-There-God-Its-Me-Margaret Survivingcollege Survivingcollege

The Lord of the Rings – J R R Tolkien

The covers for Tolkiens’ classic trilogy has evolved from his own original designs…

LOTR01 Adazing Adazing

… through all sorts of offerings. Is the one you had here?

bloomsbury-333-717 Tolkienguide Tolkienguide

LordoftheRings-piratedfirstpaperbackedition Uu Uu

LOTR_book_Covers BlogSpot BlogSpot

lotr06 Mytolkienbooks Mytolkienbooks

001010_1 Tolkienbookshelf Tolkienbookshelf

HM-1994 Thebutterflymom Thebutterflymom

The Famous Five

Blyton’s tales of Julian, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the Dog have been hugely popular since they were first published in the early 1940s.

Here’s how they’ve changed over the years…

fgtdr Wordpress Wordpress

Famous Five sml BlogSpot BlogSpot

2205945 Gr-assets Gr-assets

five-go-to-mystery-moor-9 Enidblytonsociety Enidblytonsociety

254568-untitled-1 Dnaindia Dnaindia

74997 Gr-assets Gr-assets

pi8c0c71929db21db9@large Ebs Ebs

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4

The first book in Sue Townsend’s hilarious Adrian Mole series was published in 1982 and it looked like this:

SDMole10 BlogSpot BlogSpot

Since then it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Here’s how the cover has changed:

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adrianmolecover

81OYOLqyMQL._SL1500_ Images-amazon Images-amazon

 

n58563 Fantasticfiction Fantasticfiction

9780141046426 Bibdsl Bibdsl

33 ways Adrian Mole looked at life> 

A definitive ranking of the children’s books you read in school>

Penguin faces backlash over new cover for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory> 

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