Share your FAVOURITE CHILDREN'S BOOK for a chance to win £100 to spend at Wordery

[UrsulaMumsnet]

The books you love as a child stay with you forever, they live inside your imagination and shape the way you see the world. There's nothing quite like sharing these stories with a new generation. Watching as their imaginations are captured by the very same tales of giants, magical lands and adventures that once enthralled us.

That's why this year we want to put together the ultimate children's reading list; the comprehensive guide to stories you think no child should grow up without. We'd like you to share your favourites, old or new, and tell us all the reasons why you think they deserve a place on this list.

We'll take the recommendations from this thread and scour the boards for more, to create the ultimate list of children's books. Then we'll put it to vote in attempt to find the best children's book ever written. Because well, who doesn't love a poll?

So, tell us why you think the books you love should make the list, and you'll be entered into a prize draw to win £100 to spend at online book retailer Wordery

[mrsmegavator]

I always loved the Enid Blyton 'Barney' books, for some reason they don't seem as well known as the Famous 5 and Secret 7, but I adored them. Even now, if I'm poorly or feeling a bit sorry for myself, I snuggle up nostalgically with one of them. They feel like a big hug...

[PerspicaciaTick]

"You Choose" has given my DCs and I hours of pleasure. I think it is because it is a book which needs sharing, and promotes conversation and sharing feelings, ideas and dreams. It helped me learn about my children and for them to find out about my memories (of clothes and houses) and hidden talents.
It develops a joy of books before children even have a clue about reading words. And because the flow of ideas is so free (and sometimes surreal), there isn't really an upper age limit, my 12yo still enjoys reading it with her little brother, 9 years after she first read it with me.

[HawkeyeInConfusion]

'The Velveteen Rabbit'. My soft toys were always real to me as a child. Oh, I so felt that little rabbit's heartbreak. I have kept that book for years, and it is safe on my bookshelf for when the DC are old enough for it.

[aristocat]

My favourite book from my childhood was called Pondus the Penguin.

It is the story of the biggest and fattest penguin in the Zoo. I remember him always wearing his red scarf. I can hear my mom reading it to me now

Pondus visited the other animals as he walked around the zoo with the Zookeeper. I still have this book which holds so many memories.

[Rumpel]

I loved and still do Charles Kingsley - The Water Babies. Evocative, imaginative and a true classic.

[TrollTheRespawnJeremy]

I loved Jacqueline Wilson's Tracey Beaker- thought her writing was very fresh and direct.

DD is a bit young for her though, but we are enjoying the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Lots of interesting characters, a bit of drama and plenty of picnics!

[rudolphistheboss]

I read The Borrowers by Mary Norton when I was about 10 and loved it. The whole notion of little people who lived under the floorboards being the reason I could never find a hair clip really appealed to me! I'm now reading it, a chapter a day, to my 3yo DD who is growing to love it too

[AstridPeth]

Guess how much I love you. How can you not fall in love with this book. Little Nutbrown Hare is so desperate to out love Big Nutbrown Hare but doesn't quite get there.
One of my favourites to share with all of my children.
"I love you to the moon and back "

[Sadik]

Swallows and Amazons (and the other 11 books in the series) - I loved these as a child in the 70s, dd and lots of her friends loved them just as much when they read them in the 2000s. They're also good in that they're such realistic stories, which makes a nice change nowadays when so many children's books are fantasy/adventure.

I have very fond memories of dd and her friend age 8 or so being Titty and Susan in a pretend boat :)

[Gazelda]

I could lose myself for hours in the Mallory Towers series. I yearned to be at boarding school, have japes, strong friendship groups and midnight feasts and go home for long hot summers of freedom.
My DD hasn't yet started reading them, but I am so excited for her - you know that feeling when you wish you were seeing or hearing something for the first time and could recreate the wonder of it.

[Tate15]

The Birthday Unicorn by Janice Elliott. A most wonderful tale and beautifully illustrated.

Late for Halloween by Camila Fegan, superb writing and illustrations.

[iwantavuvezela]

For those very early years it has to be "Each Peach Pear Plum" - absolutely loved this book, found it so clever, and fun to read.

For the not so young years, then it's the Varjak books - VArjak Paw and Varjak the Outlaw (SF Said)

[HitsAndMrs]

Mates, dates and inflatable bras by Cathy Hopkins. I know this is more of a teen book but it really helped me accept myself growing up; everyone feels the same and it is normal.

[Lariflete]

The one I best remember from my childhood is Five Children & It by E Nesbitt as my mum used to read it to me and my siblings when we were on holiday. It's got everything in it - adventure, magic and a grumpy foil to the children. I actually still love it now, but DD and DS are too young atm!

The other one from my childhood is Lucy and Tom's Christmas - it shows Christmas as it really is, with overexcited children falling asleep and having tantrums. Not to mention that the drawings are beautiful.

I could very easily go on as I am an avid reader and still love a lot of the books that I have from when I was a child!!

[Tate15]

The tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr s another beautifully written and illustrated book.

[madmotherof2]

Ooh It's a struggle to whittle them down to just one!!!!!

Probably Roald Dahls Matilda would have to have been my favourite as a child. DS2 (7) is just ploughing his way through the Roald Dahl books, he's currently reading Charlie and the chocolate factory ( which has been his favourite too!)

[Chelsea26]

I loved loved loved 'Goodnight Mr Tom' and it sparked a lifelong interest in books about the World Wars. It made me laugh and cry and I can still remember passages of it as I read it so many times. I also liked 'A Little love Song' which was by the same author Michelle Magorian.

When i was young I loved all of the End Blyton's - Famous Five were my favourite but like Secret Seven and Faraway Tree too.

I also like the Chalet School and Mallory Towers and other school books (was there one called redroofs or something?) I was desperate to go to boarding school for a time!

Also there was a series about a girl who tamed a stallion - Ginny?? and a series about a young woman training to be a nurse... Going for a google - I'll be back!

[CheeseEMouse]

I loved "What Katy did at school" as a girl. I used to think it would be lovely to be at boarding school and have a Christmas box to open (!). It just sounded so much fun.

My favourite to read with my young children is "a bit lost" by Chris Haughton. Beautiful illustrations, funny and a very gentle story. Lovely.

[starlight36]

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield was the book I probably re- read more than any other as a child. I didn't have ballet lessons (or particularly wanted to) but loved reading about an unfamiliar world. I also loved the relationship between the three adopted sisters. I read this again as an adult whilst staying in a holiday cottage and fell in love with the story again. I can't wait for my ballet-mad DD to read it to see if she will enjoy it.

The Tiger Who Came To Tea is a childhood favourite which is just as wonderful to read to children as I remember it from my childhood.

[greencarbluecar]

A trilogy rather than just one book, and definitely more towards older children, but the ones I read again and again (and still do) are the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman. They're just so vivid, I'd get lost in the alternative worlds and as I got older, I saw more of the underlying themes so continued to get something from them. I love them so much I decided not to watch the film that was made of the first book in case it changed what I saw in my imagination, something I've never done with any other film adaptation.

[mumsnit]

My absolute favourite book as a child was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge. It was so magical and exciting at the time and I read it over and over again!

The book DD and I have most enjoyed reading together is Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. I would say it's a modern classic without any shadow of a doubt. She is the most fabulous storyteller and we're reading through all her other books now.

[DingleberryFinn]

Each Peach Pear Plum is thoroughly enjoyed by all of us lot.

[HeteronormativeHaybales]

A couple of mine have been mentioned already - the Swallows and Amazons series, 5 Children and It and the sequels, and the wonderful Ballet Shoes.

The Moomins series. It's beautiful, atmospheric writing with wonderful attention to detail and very three-dimensional characters with all-too-(for want of a better word) human foibles and failings.

The Mrs Pepperpot stories - simple, vivid and writtn with a very humorous touch. My dc still remember and talk about them years after reading them with me.

As a child I loved The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden. It was very sentimental but incredibly touching and comforting - a true warm-glow book.

Of more recent books, Small Change for Stuart and the sequl Big Change for Stuart stood out for my boys. Very clever interesting plot with no indication of which way it would go - an exploration of magic beyond Harry Potter.

[DrewsWife]

Guess how much I love you. I read this book to both of my children. Dd is 19 1/2 and DS is 1. Both love nutbrown hare. The story is divine. The characters so sweet.

When I get grandchildren I will read it to them too.

[GrimmauldPlace]

My absolute favourite book when I was a child and I still re read to this day was When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. I also loved Goodnight Mr Tom.
As an older child 27 year old married mum of two my favourite series has to be Harry Potter
The biggest hit in our house at the moment has been mentioned upthread, You Choose my 3yo and 7yo love it equally.