What's your favourite children's book?

1jeannie

Swallows and Amazons loved this adventure story and used to recreate the adventure with my friends. Really sparked the imagination of freedom and competition.

:T:j

kathrynha

My favourites when I were a kid:
Malory Towers series
St Clare's series
Naughtiest Girl series
Adventure series (River of Adventure, Castle of Adventure, etc.)
Matilda
Secret Garden
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Little House on the Prairie
The Worst Witch
Pippi Longstocking
Heidi

Favourites with my 9 year old daughter:
Harry Potter
How to Train Your Dragon
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Worst Witch
Pippi Longstocking

Teacher2

When I was young I was knocked out by 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' and read the whole series really quickly and then again and again. I also loved 'The Secret Garden' and 'Winnie the Pooh'. 'The Railway Children' was a favourite and the book(s) I read and reread forever were 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice through the Looking Glass'. I have also read the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy three times.

The 'Alice' books are my daughter's favourites and she has virtually decorated and themed her house around them, not to mention having an Alice themed 'landmark' birthday party.

My son and daughter both loved 'The Worst Witch' series and the whole 'Harry Potter' sequence. I used to have to buy them a book each as they wouldn't take turns reading it. And one of them used to read the latest 'HP' when it was issued from the bookshop at midnight and have it read (all 700 pages) by the morning. They too have fallen for 'The Lord of the Rings'.

We are a bookish family!

waspsandjam

For my 2 yr old - nearly any Julia Donaldson book - topped by "Tiddler"

janiebquick

The Borrowers.

mothernerd

Another vote for Wind in the Willows, also loved the 'Narnia' series and was enchanted by 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith. I thought I was too old for it but had to read it from start to finish (I was 10 but had read nearly everything in the children's library by then - luckily at 11 I was allowed into the adult library and could have ten books a week rather than two at a time).

At early junior school age I loved the Antelope and Gazelle series (modern fiction graded readers published by Hamish Hamilton I think). Read nearly all the Enid Blyton and pony club type books due mainly to availability, Just William, Billy Bunter, Cherry Ames (annoying person - a nurse who was always getting into trouble with matron for 'wearing rouge' when it was just her natural complexion).

I loved a boy detective series - Roy/ Rory Brewster I think (a geek before we ever heard the word). There was another set of books with illustrations by Edward Ardizonne, all about the same family but the children had unusual names like February and Thursday (a Beryl whose full name was Beryllium?) that had quite a lot of history and maybe politics in them - could never track them down when my children were the right age so maybe an author who went out of fashion. They made me think (and absorb information on a wide range of subjects).

When my children were still at the 'being read to' stage we especially loved anything by the Ahlbergs and the Raymond Briggs books, particularly 'The Elephant and the Bad Baby' (words by Elfrida Vipont I think). They loved doing the baby's "Yes" to all the elephants suggestions. On one long train journey we were waiting outside Oxford station for twenty minutes and as I read to them, the whole carriage gradually fell silent and I got a round of applause at the end.

I turned down a request to buy a replacement for our very battered copy of 'The very Hungry Caterpillar' on the grounds that we didn't need it as I knew it off by heart.

MerlinMags

In our house my wife's love of Enid Blyton battles against my mania for Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons). Sadly the kids are following my wife's teaching...

If you liked Ransome, then perhaps you'd like to go sailing in 'Swallow', a famous boat I look after: www.sailransome.org

femalegannet

Enid blytons magic faraway tree is my all out favorite, also the others in the series. I've re read them recently too.
the books i loved reading to my kids were charlie and the choc factory and the great glass elevator.
My favorite read to my grandaughter when she was small was selfish crocodile and any spot book.

LV_Sue

My all time favourite is The Secret Garden but I also enjoyed the Magic Faraway Tree. In fact my grandchildren bought me both books for my birthday a few years ago to replace my very dog-eared copies.

I bought the Secret Garden for my neighbour's daughter for her 9th birthday and she loved it too.

I bought my great granddaughter (11 months old) Dear Zoo & Where's Spot for Christmas as these were favourites of my grandchildren & younger children.

Younger daughter's favourites were the Worst Witch and The Tiger That Came To Tea. Elder daughter loved Green Eggs & Ham and the Miffy books whilst elder son loved Stig of the Dump. Younger son loved all the Roald Dahl books especially James & the Giant Peach (his name is James!) and Funny Bones and Burglar Bill,

Youngest grandson, now 8, loved The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas and The Dinosaur That Pooped a Planet - hilarious reading for bodily function obsessed young boys!

All grandchildren loved anything by Roald Dahl (& still do even as teenagers) and Peace At Last and all Spot books and anything by Julia Donaldson, Gruffalo was the favourite. Favourite Roald Dahl book was Revolting Rhymes, which was required bedtime reading every time they came to stay when younger.

auntiejean

Anything by Michelle Magorian. The Silver sword by Ian Serralier