To ask your favourite classic stories?

[AragornsManlyStubble]

Just that really. Your favourite books/authors from when you were a child. What's the one book you believe every child should read? I'm trying to build up a bit of a library for the dc's and need some inspiration.

I haven't seen anyone mention
The Eagle of the Ninth, and The Armorer's House by Rosemary Sutcliff
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
Christmas Carol - Dickens
The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury

There was an book called The Hutchison Treasury of Poetry which was a great introduction to poetry going all the way from nursery rhymes, through Michael Rosen and Spike Milligan, to poens such as Ozymandius and The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Another vote for The Weirdstone of Brisengamen here. All Alan Garners books are great and so imaginative.

Noel Streatfeild
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising sequence
E Nesbit
Narnia
John Christopher - Tripods, and the Prince in Waiting

And my go-to book when I was tired or sick or stressed - Cue for Treason (Geoffrey Trease)

As an adult I read the Chalet School - but I didn't really become addicted to this until my late teens

I see a PP has Robert Westall on the list. I'd agree (although he was definitely for teens, not for younger children). I'd particularly nominate Futuretrack 5, which is quite simply one of the best dystopian books around,

I'd also add Peter Dickinson for The Changes, and also for The Seventh Raven.

And Antonia Forest shouldn't be left off the list.

Norton Juster "The Phantom Tollbooth"

The faraway tree books by Enid Blyton. I remember them being read to me as a child and I've just read them to my 5yo who loved them. We just went to the bookshop yesterday to pick something else and we picked The Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so hoping they will be enjoyed as much.

Lots of the books already mentioned - I'll add that I loved The 13 clocks by James Thurber - my Puffin copy fell to bits through frequent re-reading & I really like his writing for adults too. I'll also put in another bid another bid for The Land of Green Ginger.

Agree with many of these so I won't repeat except to emphasise Robert Westall.

Nobody has mentioned Charlotte Sometimes, which I was obsessed with as a child, or the Flicka / Thunderhead series.

For older scifi enthusiasts Enders Game is great. Westall did great writing in this genre too. A rag, a bone and a hank of hair is wonderful.

Anne Fine is great, her Tulip Touch is great about malignant friendships. Any Judy Blume.

I also read a book called Playing Beattie Bow over and over, can't find it nowdays.

I still have a couple of old Misty annuals, my 9 year old daughter adores them. Wish there was a similar comic nowdays.

Each Peach Pear Plum

I read and loved most of these below. Particular obsessions with Charlotee Sometimes and Tom's Midnight Garden.

Loved

A Little Princess
Secret Garden
Heidi
Anne of Green Gables

Get nice copies if you can then they can be handed down. We have the set below.

Pipi Longstocking,Mrs Pepperpot for younger kids. Not being American I never read much American books bar A Little House on the Prarie and Huckleberry Fin but my kids have. The Mixed up Files( about 2 kids sleeping in a museum is fab).

Many not much

I'd love this copy of A Secret Garden.< drool> Think gorgeous copies of classics are a thing now. The other pic is the American book I mentioned( long title). I would have adored that as a child, it was my fantasy to sleep in a shop or museum. Surprised I never stumbled across it as it's quite old.

I'm so looking forward to finding these. I've got 2 bookcases to fill, might just have enough room!! :-)

Definitely E nesbit Psammead series. They seem to work better as a read to rather than a read to self.

Narnia series

For younger children

The slinky Malinki series - Linda Donaldson

How much do i love you

Old bear stories

'The Mouse & His Child' by Russell Hoban.

I read this when I was 2nd year Juniors and... well, it's stayed with me. For over 30 years. The other one (and this may "out" me) is "The Gnome's Kitchen". Which is incredibly difficult to find, now, but... along with 'The Secret Garden', 'Little Grey Rabbit', 'The Borrowers', 'The Wind In The Willows', :Lewis Carroll's works and stories about Hammy the Hamster's adventures on a riverbank, those were the go-to books of my childhood.

Agree with loads of these. You can't discuss children's literature without Michael Morpugo being in there. So beautifully written and fantastic for preteens/ teens.

How old are the dcs?

Oliver Twist - I remember my dad reading an abridged version to us as kids and loved it

The Animals of Farthing Wood series

Aesop's Fables

The Worst Witch

Teens - got to be Adrian Mole, and of course Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I really like Diary of a Teenage Health Freak as well, and the follow-up I'm a Health Freak Too

Just remembered my favourite book as a tiny.

"The Story of a Little Mouse Trapped in a Book"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Story-Little-Mouse-Trapped-Pictures-Star-Elephant/0914676520

Spoilers: he nibbles his way out 😭

For young teens, anything by Paul Zindel.

I don't want to be a pedant phlebasconsidered, but 'A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair' is actually Nicolas Fisk, not Westall. It's a brilliant book, though.

Also, Playing Beatie Bow is by Ruth Park if that's any help - it's available on kindle.

Charlotte's web by EB White
The greengage summer by Rumer Godden (a teen read not young children)
How I live now by Meg Rosoff (another teen read)

Oh I loved Playing Beatie Bow!

Another huge yes to Land of Green Ginger, anything by E Nesbit and The Children of Green Knowe.

I'll add: Brother Dusty Feet and The Armourer's House, both by Rosemary Sutcliffe. The Armourer's House is pure magic.

The Dribblesome Teapots by Norman Hunter

The Just So stories by Rudyard Kipling

The Pobble Who Has No Toes by Edward Lear

The Bogwoppit by Ursula Moray Williams