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

From my childhood, Bottersnikes and Gumbles. Very few people seem to have heard of it, but the ones who have always get excited when it's mentioned. Super squishy Gumbles versus big, ugly, bad tempered, hot eared Bottersnikes - it's charming, hilarious and a work of sheer genius.

All of the Frances books by Russell Hoban are just lovely. The way the words go together, the very deep understanding (completely non-judgemental) of how children work, and the adorable illustrations make these (high among) my favourites. They are also really funny: I only knew Hoban as a literary writer until one day I was casting around for a book to read a class of 7 year olds and picked A Birthday For Frances off the class shelf. At one point while reading it I laughed so hard I fell off my chair.

I loved the Roald Dahl books esp bfg & matilda as a child & I have loved my rediscovering them with my children. As a pre teen the sweet valley high or point horror books were my favourites

YY to Jon Klassen and I Want My Hat Back!
I'm not sure a poll for the "best" children's book is a good aim tbh. Noone would ever want to only be able to pick one book to read and most of us, as you can see, can't even pick our own favourite single book (and wouldn't want to). Can you not just compile a list of the best 100 children's books but not ranked in order? Or give everyone lots of votes so we can vote for our favourite 20 or something? Then that would give you results without trying to pick the one "best" book?
This thread is brilliant in making me relive past books I've loved and look out new ones. It seems a backwards step to condense that down to one "best" book. The world is enriched by all these books!

The Blue Balloon - its really fun and lovely and has a great 'what if' side to it.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan - very thoughtful story

And

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler - very good story and takes you back to the 80s/remembering what its like to be a school child brilliantly.

We have just finished reading 'How to Train your Dragon' by Cressida Cowell and for me it is an excellent book because I have been as hooked as my five year old, kids books very rarely get me as inspired as this one did. Its well written, a bit eccentric and unusual which I like. It was very funny and we laughed a lot, the characters have amazing names and there is a place for these new exciting adventures.

The secret garden. Always been my favourite.

We (me and dd) like the famous five too

Can't go wrong with roald Dahl, I read Matilda about 8 times in a row when I was a young girl. Just the whole story captured my imagination.

Just now, my favourite one to read to my daughter is The snail and the whale, by Julia Donaldson. I love the notion of a snail exploring the world, it just speaks to me, and its such a delightful story for her, she's always loved it.

I'm not sure if I'm repeating myself but I think I pressed the wrong button and lost my first attempt. My favourite was and is the Narnia series, it was so easy to get lost in a magical world and then as I grew older I became aware of the analogies, they're clever books as well as being great stories. As a side issue my username has come up as bernie77 instead of bernie777, I thought I'd better mention it as it may cause an identity crisis (and I did try to alter it and it won't)

Blimey, I went on a bit. I just love books. Just realisedI forgotto add Alice In Wonderland and Alice Through The Looking Glass, plus The Wind in The Willows. All firm favourites as I grew up and currently lurking on the bookcases for my children to reach the right age.

For picture books, when I was little I loved the Harry the Dog series by Gene Zion. The stories were funny and I loved that the pictures were only in black, white, yellow and green. My favourite was 'No Roses For Harry' where Gran knitted him a flowery dog jumper which he hated, and the book shows it unravelling. As s child who was oven bought clothes I wasn't keen on, it touched a chord! I've bought the whole series to read with my children.

I also liked 'Funny Bones' by the Alberghs, and love reading 'Peepo' and 'Each Peach Pear Plum'. Classics like 'The Bery Hungry Caterpillar', 'Mog', 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea', 'Dear Zoo' and 'Dogger' are also well-loved favourites. Mick Inkpen's Kipper series is great too.

For more modern picture books, many of Julia Donaldson's are fantastic, especially when she links up with Axel Scheffler. We love The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child, Room on the Broom, Monkey Puzzle and Super Worm.

Oliver Jeffer's 'The Boy' books are great, with lovely illustrations and sweet relationships. We also like 'The Day the Crayons Quit' which he illustrated for Drew Daywalt - very funny for slightly older children.

Jon Klassen is a fabulous illustrator and writer. 'I Want My Hat Back' and 'This Is Not My Hat' are two of my favourite picture books. They're beautifully drawn, have a dry sense of humour and the pictures tell you just as much - and sometimes more - than the words. They are brilliant.

Nick Sharrat is also great. He really tickles my little girls' funnybones. His drawing style is instantly recognisable, whether for his stories or illustrating someone elses. We love 'Pants' with Giles Andre, 'There's A Shark in the Park', 'Octopus Socktopus' and 'Don't Put Your Finger in the Jelly, Nelly'. Always great rhymes and bright. funny illustrations.

For older children, we're not there yet with reading together, but I can't wait to rediscover Roald Dhal especially 'The BFG', 'The Twits' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. I'd have to reread Enid Blyton first to be ready to counter the out of date attitudes it includes and talk about them with my children, but I loved the 'Famous Five' books.

I also had the Storyteller partworks with a range of classic stories, poetry and serials like Gobbolino the Witches Cat, which I'm looking forward to sharing. Just fabulous.

As a teacher of 8 to 9 year old children who love to be read to I recommend Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.
I discovered a fairly new author lately and the children love these books too. Tillie and the Golden Phanton, Tillie and the Voodo Kid and Tillie and the Weird Christmas Tree by Heather B Moon.

My favourite as a child was The Famous Five series. I loved the sense of freedom and adventure. I can't wait to start reading them with my DC.

As a child I loved Enid Blyton - particularly Malory Towers and the twins at St Clare's. Also really loved the animals of farthing wood. My DC are both still quite young so we're still on Julia Donaldson type books, love Stick Man and Monkey Puzzle. I have just started introducing them to my naughty little sister. I love the conversations the books can provoke as quite a lot of the ideas in the book (eg a small child travelling alone on a train) are really quite alien nowadays.

We love Mr Betts & Mr Potts by Rod Hull. It's written in rhyme and DD loved joining in (she's 6yo now and still loves me reading it, in fact we know a fair bit by heart now!). Just a really lovely story with some smart rhymes.

I can't wait to read it to DS (only 5mo).

As a child I loved the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. It was one of the first independent reading I did and I was just drawn into the worlds at the top of the tree.

Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray Williams is another classic that I read over and over again.

Oh yes ^^, Emil is wonderful.
Came back on to mention Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr. So well-written and such a strong and cool-headed heroine.

Emil and the Detectives - by Erich Kaestner. beautifully written in clear prose (even in translation). It is a story about a child gang who act autonomously and on the side of right in a almost still recognisable Berlin.

My mum used to read Peace At Last to us nearly every night and it has a big place in my heart next to Each Peach Pear Plum and The Jolly Postman.

As an older child Carrie's War moved me quite a lot. Hearing about the war evacuees and then a mystery unfolding. Lovely book.

'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. It's beautifully written and illustrated.

Also Dr Seuss' "Oh The Places You'll Go". The rhythm and pace are brilliant and the message of it is really affirming.

I really love books, I was a keen reader as a child, so much so that I out read our local library and they had to start ordering books in for me!

I love reading with my children and one of the books my 3 year old really
enjoys at the moment is The Jolly Postman, he loves the rhyming story and the post to open! He loved to talk about what the postman is getting up to everyday, we got him the Jolly Christmas Postman for Christmas and he was overjoyed to continue reading and sharing the story whilst still being able to interact with the book and open the post.

I don't know what my 4 y/o DD's favourite is. I shall have to ask her! I suspect it might be 'My Big Shouting Day'. We both like 'Rosie Revere, Engineer'.

I was a big reader when I was a child and it's hard to pick favourites. I think the love really took off when I discovered the fantasy genre. Right now I am in the middle of reading The Dark Is Rising sequence which I wish I had read when I was young.

Burglar Bill
Any of the Monster and Frog books

First one because it's such a unique story and doing the voices when you read is a pleasure. 'That's a nice ... I'll have that' has become a catchphrase in our house whenever we see something nice, even for the 17 year old. It's a happy ending, cute, funny - everything you need.

Monster and frog are brilliant characters, poor long suffering Monster and the irritating Frog. They make us laugh reading them and remind us of real people.

There are so many others on this thread that make me go "ooh. That too..."

..but especially The Night Pirates. I love that book, and so did both DS and DD.

For younger children, lots of the ones already mentioned (especially "we're going on a bear hunt"), plus "Monkey and Me", "There's no such thing as a Dragon" and "Pigs Might Fly" (Jonathan Emmett)

As they have got older, both DC have loved the HTTYD series and I have loved reading it to/with them. Enid Blyton was never part of my childhood and hasn't been part of theirs, but 9yo DD is very into "books that you liked when you were little" and has enjoyed lots of Noel Streatfield books as well as Milly Molly Mandy and My Naughty Little Sister.