I found through Annie of A Bookish Type, an article at Tor about books readers love, that they feel nobody else has ever heard of (much less read). The richness is in the comments, where other readers chimed in with all their beloved, unknown favorites. I myself left an embarrassingly long comment. And wrote down a long list of titles that have now caught my interest. To my happy surprise, the first two are even in my public library’s catalog!
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
My Teacher is An Alien by Bruce Coville
of course, most of them are not found at my library:
Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O’Shea
Ludo and the Star Horse by Mary Stewart
The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman
Prince Ombra by Roderick MacLeish
Rude Tales and Glorious by Nicholas Seare
The Unicorn Window by Lynette Muir
The Beginning of Unbelief by Robin Jones
Terror Wears a Feathered Cloak by Thelmar Crawford
Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly
The Hunting of Wilberforce Pike by Molly Lefebure
David and the Phoenix by Edward Ormondroyd
Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliffe
Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
Two Thumb Thomas by Barbara Freeman
I Will Go Barefoot All Summer for You by Katie Lyle
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
The Vision of Stephen by Lolah Burford
The Light Maze by Joan North
Lydia, Queen of Palestine by Uri Orlev
Silver Chief by Jack O’Brien
The Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian Aldiss
Land of the Lord High Tiger by Roger Green
The Blind Knight by Gail van Asten
I really feel like I might have read My Teacher is An Alien and Silver Chief when I was a kid, but I have almost no recollection so a re-read would feel like new. Happy news: of all the books not available at my public library, I found two on Project Gutenberg, and many many more at Internet Archive- except those I can’t download for keeps, just for a two-week borrowing period. So will have to plan when to access them, but I’m thrilled that I can!