can we have a list of classic/ best/ favourite/highly recommended childrens books please...

Anything by Quentin Blake in fact - his cockatoo counting book (sorry that's not the exact title which I can't remember) is the best counting book I've come across. I also like "We all went on Safari" from Barefoot Books as a counting book - lovely illustrations and rhyming text. "Baby Rock Baby Roll" by Stella Blackstone is a very simple, rhyming story with lovely illustrations too - that's also a Barefoot Books one.

My son is 2 years old and in the bookstart pack our HV recently gave us was the loveliest bedtime book, "Can you see a little Bear? here

It's a simple but magical read with lavish illustrations, we both really enjoy it. My son loves spotting something new on the page each time, really recomend it.

And (how could I forget?)
Not Now Bernard
Avocado baby

I'm another English Lit graduate who "wasted" my childhood on Enid Blyton (didn't read Winnie The Pooh until I was 19). I liked The Five Finder-Outers best because of Fatty and his cunning disguises.

Thought of a few more classics -
The Bear Under The Stairs
I'm Coming To Get You by Tony Ross
Can't You Sleep Little Bear
Mr Magnolia - I think it's Quentin Blake: certainly the illustrations are his.

Oh and also, Beatrix Potter - can't believe I forgot that.

Elmer books and Toucan Toucan by David McKee
Meg and Mog

For much older children The Silver Sword Ian Seraillier

Monkey Puzzle is fab!

Faraway Tree

Flat Stanley

Most of them already said by others, but Just William. And So Much by Trish Cooke.

Astropup, are we twins? I have exactly the same thing as you, wasted childhood reading Enid Blyton. Grew up to do English Littritcher and find everyone else reminiscing about things I didn't really know about (never read Winnie the Pooh for e.g.)

I too love Milly Molly Mandy and have already started reading them to DS who is just turned 3 - he seems to get a surprising amount of it, as there's often a lot of repetition in it.

Enid blyton books - Wishing chair and folk of the faraway tree etc.

Trying the library is a great idea but also TheBookPeople and their spin off RedHouseBooks (online and will happily send you print catalogues) are a good source of sets of classic children's books, both older and newer ones.

the Mog stories and theTiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr.

Thursdays Children and the Dolls House by Rumer Godden

I (oops, and the kids ) have always loved Dogger by Shirley Hughes.

Also, anything by Maurice Sendak (In the Night Kitchen, Where the Wild Things Are etc)

Hairy Maclary, great for smallies!

Everything by Eric Carle, Dr Seuss, Mr Men, CS Lewis and Roald Dahl.

As I child I loved:
Dear zoo
the hungry catapilla
each peach pear plum
the jolly post man
teddy robbinson
Not now bernard
mr men and little miss books

And when I was a little bit older
Milly Molly Mandy
Mrs pepper pot

My list would be the similar to Shitemum's with the following additions:
Alphabet Poem by Michael Rosen
Peepo by janet & Allan Ahlberg
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Flat Stanley
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Enid Blyton books (I know not very PC, but I really enjoyed them as a child)

Oh... Madeline and Barbapapa were my favourites... hw could I have missed those off?
Still have a couple in the bookcase.
And Johnny Crow's Garden... but you're unlikely to find that one either. DD (2.10) loves it!

Have stuck to picture/books early reading only. DS (3) also loves fact books (space, dinosaurs, trains, planes fire engines etc etc -well he is a boy) but these are the ones I have read to him for my own enjoyment which he seems to have liked too-even though my choices are a little bit girly!
Classics
Where the Wild Things Are
The Tiger who came to Tea
Madeline Ludwig Bememelmans
Babar Jean de Brunhof
Dr Seuss
Richard Scarry
Roald Dahl-have only done C and the CF so far
Peter Pan JM Barrie-illustrated version
Shirley Hughes-Alfie
Pippi Longstocking

Oh I love "A Necklace Of Raindrops" - I still remember my primary school teacher reading it to us!

littlies: Elfrida Vipont: The Elephant and the Bad Baby.
Barbapapa series - very unlikely to find these now - they are a 70s tv spinoff and fetch ludicrous prices on amazon! but they are still great and so lovely and hippy and peaceful.

older but still great to read aloud: Rudyard Kipling: the Just So Stories.
Milly Molly Mandy
Orlando the Marmalade Cat

to read to themselves:
Rumer Godden: Miss Happiness and Miss Flower Joan Aiken: A Necklace of Raindrops.
CS Lewis: the Narnia stories
Louisa May Alcott: Little Women, also An Old Fashioned Girl and Eight Cousins.

Just keep taking them to the library and let them loose - they will find their own loves...

Winnie the Witch - the picture book ones not the chapter books, the pictures are just fantastic and lovely stories too.

For primary school aged girls:
What Katy Did/What Katy Did at School/What Katy did Next
Those Pamela Brown books about children running their own theatre
Noel Streatfield

leo the late bloomer

Where The Wild Things are - a total classic; I love it.
We're Going On A Bear Hunt

Pass The Jam Jim

Lullabyhullabaloo - in fact, anything by Mick Inkpen who is a genius as far as I am concerned!

Alice In Wonderland

The Winnie the Pooh stories - and the Christopher Robbin poems even more so

The Alfie and Annie Rose books

The Large family books - especially A Quiet Night In and A Piece Of Cake

Tom's Midnight Garden

The baby Who Wouldn't Go To Bed

Anything by Lauren Child