The Borrible Trilogy

Michael Larabate wrote a trilogy of books for children called The Borrible Trilogy, which is The Borables. They were out of print for many years and have recently been brought back into print in a collected volume. In this world, if children run away from home and live on the streets, they turn into a kind of feral elf where their ears become pointed and they never grow old. So they're kind of like Peter Pan, but a kind of a rudour version that steals from markets and wears ripped jeans and so on. And these books were massively influential on me; I thought they were completely outstanding children's books.