to ask what your favourite children's/adults books of all time are?

[SundayBea]

I am wanting some inspiration for myself and for the DC. Children's and adults books of any age and genre, fiction and non fiction. Basically what I am asking is if there are books that are great enough to be hands down your childhood favourites / your DC favourites / your own favourites then please pass on your recommendations. Thank you

YANBU.

Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh by Robert C O Brian. A fabulous book for children and adults.

For adults., The short stories of F Scott Fitzgerald. They are in my opinion the greatest short stories every written about the human condition.

Baby/toddler: Each Peach Pear Plum - Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Child: Matilda - Roald Dahl
Young Adult: There are masses, but the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness is one of my favourites (or rather, are three of my favourites)
Adult: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh and The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

I loved cider with Rosie, as a teen. I admit I've not read it since

The Saga of Erik the Viking was a favourite of mine, plus many Roald Dahl books (not all, some are considered a bit non PC these days I gather though they never did me any harm.

For non-fiction I would recommend the Usborne Science Encyclopaedia, it's great for teaching a basic understanding of how things work.

Ballet shoes by Noel streatfield. Loved that book.
Also the bfg, secret garden, things like Mallory towers etc.

Adult books my favourites are Fiesta Earnest Hemingway and Germinal Emile Zola.

I loved Roald Dahl and Judy Blume as a child and then a teenager.
My DC's love Julia Donaldson books, Meg and Mog and Judith Kerr books. My eldest also adores The Velveteen Rabbit.
I love reading and will pretty much pick up anything. Two books I have read recently and thoroughly enjoyed have been Life After Life and The Night Circus

Child: - The Velveteen Rabbit

My kids favourite: - Not Now Bernard

My Fave: Anything by Kate Atkinson but especially Behind The Scenes At The Museum

Mine are The Velveteen Rabbit, The BFG, Amelia Jane Books, anything by Stephen King and James Herbert. I also loved Patricia Leitch as a teenager especially the Jinny at Finmory series.

Why do you think you may be being unreasonable?

YABU.

Harry Potter for all

I could be here all day :)

Babies: Peepo (Ahlbergs); Goodnight Moon
Pre-schoolers: just about anything by Dr Seuss; Burglar Bill; The Mousehols Cat; The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
From chapter book age (in roughly increasing age order): Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf; Mrs Pepperpot; Finn Family Moomintroll and sequels; Danny the Champion of the World; Swallows and Amazons and sequels; Tom's Midnight Garden; The Phantom Tollbooth; Ballet Shoes... I could probably go on.

Adults, so many.

Can I ask, as your kids get older and you start to read chapter books, don't you get frustrated that you can only read so much? For example Harry Potter has 30ish chapters, it'd take a month reading 1 chapter a night. What if 1 dc falls asleep before you're done? Do you re-read it again the next night?

Oh, mustn't forget Emil and the Detectives and Anna Louise and Anton. Erich Kästner writes sublimely and if you get a good translation they are a delight.

I came on to say The Velveteen Rabbit but I see we are well covered already

All the Moomin books.

As a kid I liked Dominic, and as a teen Paul Zindels books and To Kill a Mockingbird. But I also used to read Dickens.
As an adult my favourite books include I Claudius, Claudius the God by Robert Graves
The Stand, 22 11 63, and Under the Dome by Stephen King
Anything written by Michael Chrichton, Bill Bryson, Stephen King or Bill Bryson
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

Ooh excited to start putting these suggestions into my Amazon wish list once DC are in bed. Thanks so much for all the replies so far! I always think if a book is worthy of being someone's favourite then it's surely worth a read.

Yes perhaps AIBU is not correct forum to ask but this place always seems to get lots of responses! I might repost in the book category also.

Please keep them coming, HetronormativeHaybales no need to hold back, we are a family of insatiable bibliophile's.. even the baby!

Books that I loved as a preschooler that I've since bought for my DS, who will be 3 in July:

Each Peach Pear Plum, Peepo, Burglar Bill (all by the Ahlbergs)
The Giant Jam Sandwich
The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Books that I read and loved as an older child / adolescent:

The Secret Garden
Anne of Green Gables
Carrie's War
Peter Pan
Goodnight Mr Tom

Books I love now:

Harry Potter :)
The Secret History
Pride and Prejudice (also Longbourn, which was a retelling from the servants perspective).
The English Patient
Wuthering Heights
I Capture the Castle
To Kill a Mockingbird

There are many, many more, but those are the ones that first spring to mind.

Heteronormative*, knew I was going to get that one wrong

For older ones
Little Women and Good Wives by Louisa M Alcott
The Jennings books by Anthony Derbyshire
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
Malory Towers

OK then - adults.
I recently (re)read Mrs Dalloway - utterly wonderful.
Dubliners
The Bell Jar
A recent discovery is Roddy Doyle - found his books hard to put down
I loved White Teeth.

Child, narnia books, also any and all kids encyclopedia s, which can also be handed down..

Adult. . crow road ian banks

The Bell Family is IMO one of the best lesser-known Streatfeilds.

A Necklace of Raindrops - is that Joan Aiken?

One that might be hard to find (adult one this) in English is Silent Close No. 6 by Monika Maron - actually I might have it somewhere. Lovely book.