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Original poster

Recommend classic children's books for me to read

64 replies

starfish8 · 22/02/2016 22:09

Have a young DS (not even at school yet) and have been thinking about wanting to reconnect with some classic children's books I read/or didn't as a child myself. Will buy physical copies that can get reused by him over time, and I'd like to support him by being more familiar about the stories myself.

Can anyone add to this list....

Roald Dahl - BFG, Matilda, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Twits, The Witches - List goes on
Harry Potter - Haven't read any of these
Worst Witch - A real favourite as a child
Malory Towers - Another favourite for me when I was little - Ok, probably not one for my son!

Also, read Wonder by R J Palacio last year and really enjoyed this youth novel. Can anyone recommend any must read recent modern young fiction novels too?

Thanks!

OP posts:
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albertcampionscat · 13/03/2016 14:07

Plus lots already recommended above. Definite yes to Harry Potter.

albertcampionscat · 13/03/2016 14:05

Velveteen Rabbit
Five Children and It
The Thirteen Clocks
A Necklace of Raindrops
The Mog books
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Chimneys of Green Knowe
Minnow on the Say
Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer
Ballet Shoes.

Wrenthamtown2 · 13/03/2016 13:58

the best

hels71 · 26/02/2016 20:38

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
Back Home Michelle Magorian
Journey to the River Sea Eva Ibbotsen

Witchend · 26/02/2016 09:54

Wish for a pony, White Riders (Monica Edwards)
Mystery at Witchend (Malcolm Saville)
Biggles
Wolves of Willowby Place (Joan Aiken)
The Children Who Lived in a Barn
The Children Detectives
Linnets and Valerians, Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge)
Ballet shoes etc. (Noel Streatfield)
Jacob two-two and the hooded fang
Tales of a fourth grade nothing (Judy Bloom)
The Players Boy/The players and the rebels (Antonia Forest)
The Black Riders (Violet Needham)
Cue for Treason, The Bannermere Series (Geoffrey Trease)
The Blue Door Theatre series (Pamela Brown)
I am David

Cornwall73 · 25/02/2016 14:06

Little Women
Ballet Shoes
Anne of Green Gables

I know they have all been mentioned before but these books were my treasures and I read them so many times. If I am feeling low or adult life (and toddlers!) are getting too much I still try to find a quiet 5mins and read a few pages to find that innocence in life again :)

I have started aesops tales with my kids and they are loving it!

ineedaholidaynow · 25/02/2016 13:47

The Wombles series of books
Paddington Bear - you can get a set of books for younger children, or the original stories
My Family and Other Animals

I have loved revisiting my childhood books with DS(11) and have also discovered new ones which I never read as a child. In fact I probably get more children's books from the library than DS does Smile

I have particularly loved discovering the Eva Ibbotson books

BlueChampagne · 25/02/2016 13:34

To add to all the excellent suggestions:

The Hobbit
Goth Girl (new classic!)
The Little White Horse
Olga da Polga
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

If you can find the Magic Roundabout books by Eric Thomson (yeah, Emma's Dad), they're great.

Hopelass · 23/02/2016 21:08

Definitely the magic faraway tree and its sequels. Perfect children's books. I'll be reading them to my DS when he's old enough.

TwoLeftSocks · 23/02/2016 20:34

Dragons of Crumbling Castle (compilation of stories) by Terry Pratchett

OP posts:
Original poster
starfish8 · 23/02/2016 20:26

Thanks all so much for your replies. 53 messages in a day - amazing! Thank you so much!

To clarify on my initial question, I want to start buy buying some books to read myself (which can be used at a later point by my son). I was not particularly into reading as a child and subsequrnyl stalled with reading. I read far too much 'crap' (Choose your own adventure and Babysitters Club) and a lot of non-fiction (every craft book in the library and 'how to look after your rabbit' books!) Better than nothing, but I didn't read a lot of the classics first time around.

'The Secret Garden' - I clearly remember having this book read to us at the end of the day in juniors and thinking how much I hated it! It annoys me how unappreciative I was of books when I was younger, but at the same time wasn't really encouraged.

I therefore want to foster a much better relationship and interest of books with my son and refreshing myself on children's classics is something I fancy doing, alongside filling our house with lovely children's books and having them in our daily routine.

SoMuchToBits Thanks also for reccommending libraries. I work practically full time, but should make more use of the very modern new library in our suburb of Manchester more often.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 23/02/2016 05:32

And the Catwings series by Ursula le Guin.

mathanxiety · 23/02/2016 05:30

Books by -
Sharon Creech: 'Love that Dog,' 'Hate that Cat' and more
Kate di Camillo - 'The Tale of Despereaux', 'The Tiger Rising', 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane', 'Because of Winn-Dixie' and more
Avi
Antonia Barber (for younger readers - esp 'Catkin' and 'The Mousehole Cat')
are all modern classics.

Plus the Nicholas series by Goscinny and Sempe - funny in a subtle French way.

The 'Little House' series, and 'Farmer Boy' by Laura Ingalls Wilder are all good. I liked 'Farmer Boy' more than the LHOTP books I must say.

Beatrix Potter and the real Winnie the Pooh books are all wonderful.

Anne of Green Gables and that whole series - all enjoyable.

The Moomin series by Tove Jansson is great.

Obscure, and maybe out of print, but the 'Henry' series by Mary Calhoun is lovely. Nice for cat-loving children. Henry is a wayward cat.

Another series that may be out of print is the Mrs Pepperpot books by Alf Proysen but if you can find them, get them.

Arnold Lobel books -- 'Mouse Tales' and 'Owl at Home', are charming, whimsical, wonderful.

For very early childhood, the Boo and Baa series by Olaf and Lena Landstrom are funny and engaging.

Get an unabridged Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales.

NotCitrus · 23/02/2016 03:27

Pippi Longstocking is the only longer book my 7yo has enjoyed so far.

Phantom Tollbooth
My Friend Mr Leakey
The Talking Parcel
Flat Stanley

Ladybird Aesop's fables, myths and ledgends, Did You Know? are good.

Bloodybridget · 23/02/2016 02:00

Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge are very funny, good for 7 and over. Russell Hoban's Frances books for younger children.

Sgtmajormummy · 22/02/2016 23:41

Sorry for the typos, contact lenses are out!

Sgtmajormummy · 22/02/2016 23:39

Talking about early childhood classics.

We had metres of shelf space given over to Ladybird books picked up at charity shops and jumble sales. All the faity tales and lots of early numbers and lletters. Some of them were from MY childhood era (ahem...) and I found the kids loved the story length, book size and easy language even before they could talk properly and certainly before they could read. A great way to introduce them to a love of books.

We had the Mr Men books and reduced them to tatters.

Older Ds was surrounded by Disney Winnie the Pooh (bah!) but Dd got the real one (hooray!).

MsMarple · 22/02/2016 23:35

Some great suggestions here! I love The Box of Delights - save it for just before Christmas.

Pippi Longstockings is another one I've rediscovered recently. And definitely get some Tintin, DS loves these as much as I did when I was little.

Moln · 22/02/2016 23:23

I didn't read all of them Katarzyna79 as a child, depended on what I found at jumble sales. But read them as an adult, when I was aware of they'd were supposed to have Christian parallels and it seemed so obvious!!

Frontstep · 22/02/2016 23:19

Tom's Midnight Garden

For littler ones:
My Naughty Little Sister - love these for short bedtime reads for younger children
The Alfie stories, Dogger, and any anything else by Shirley Hughes
Mog stories, esp Mog's Christmas
Milly Molly Mandy - maybe more for girls though

SoMuchToBits · 22/02/2016 23:15

I'd also thoroughly recommend libraries! We used our local one loads when ds was pre school age, for picture books. We bought some too, but borrowing from the library gave us good ideas about what he would like.

At primary school, I got involved with helping in his school library (and still do, even though he is now older and in year 10). It's great to see the kids borrowing books and enjoying them. And don't forget non-fiction. My ds borrowed A LOT of non-fiction books from the school library. From my experience, many boys (more so than girls on average) love borrowing non-fiction books about favourite subjects.

Katarzyna79 · 22/02/2016 23:14

moln I never thought of them in that light I'll have to read them again. I remember the tv series used to watch it before running off for mosque lessons after school. there were so many good series adapted from kids books back then.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/02/2016 23:08

It's fairly blatant in 'The Magician's Nephew' which is 1st in the series if you take them in order of 'Narnian history'. It was one of the last ones that he published though. The 6th I think.

buckingfrolicks · 22/02/2016 23:05

Katie Morag I mean!