Children's Books: What Are Your All-Time Favourites?

[babyboy520]

I’ve been on a bit of a children’s book binge lately (as if my bookshelf wasn’t already overflowing!), and I’m curious to know: what are your all-time favourite kids' books? The ones that never get old, the ones that hold up after countless readings, or the ones that you can actually tolerate reading over and over again (because, let’s face it, some books are just torture by the 30th read!).
I’ve got a few classics in mind, but I’m always looking for fresh recommendations – especially ones that might get my little one really into reading (and not just chewing on the pages). Anyone else got those hidden gems you can’t stop reading with your kids? Or maybe a story that never fails to make you giggle?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Bonus points if you can recommend books that have beautiful illustrations because let’s be honest, those are almost as important as the story itself!

Tom’s Midnight Garden is an absolute classic, and the ending never fails to move me though I must have read it about twenty times since I first encountered it as a child.

Thank you so much @TheBookShelf. I have never read the Dewdrop Inn Holiday by Eve Garnet. I will hunt it down.
I also loved The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown. Wonderful for Children who dream of having their own theatre.

This looks brilliant – I’ll definitely be giving it a proper read.

I just like hearing different perspectives and picking out what might work best for me. People’s experiences are usually really helpful, that’s all.

There were several sequels toswish of the Curtain too

Golden Pavements _ they go to drama school
Maddy Alone _ Maddy does a film while the older ones are at drama school
Blue Door Venture _ They open the theatre as a professional rep and get ripped off so have to do lots of theatre jobs across the country while tracking down the thief

And I think possibly one more

Oh so many!
All of Diana Wynne Jones,
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series,
Lucy M Boston’s Green Knowe series,
Penelope Lively’s The Voyage of QV66 and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe,
All of E. Nesbit,
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame,
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr,
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce,
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and A Little Princess,
Antonia Forest’s Marlows novels,
All of Cynthia Harnett,
All of Rosemary Sutcliff,
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books,
Mary Norton’s The Borrowers series,
Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes, The Growing Summer, White Boots, Curtain Up and The Circus is Coming,
Penelope Farmer’s Charlotte Sometimes,
Eve Garnett’s One End Street trilogy, especially Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn,
Leon Garfield’s Smith and Devil in the Fog,
Barbara Willard’s Mantlemass series,
Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr,
Tove Jansson’s Moomin series, especially Moominland Midwinter, Moominvalley in November and Moominpappa at Sea,
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert deJongh
Mardie’s Adventures by Astrid Lindgren,
Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and Co series, Bartimaeus series, and Scarlett and Browne series,
Garth Nix’s Sabriel series.
John Masefield’s The Box of Delights,
Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War and The Peppermint Pig.
Cold Christmas by Nina Beechcroft.
I’ve no doubt there are others that have slipped my mind.

Bob Graham's picture books. The Frog, Duck and Rabbit books. I am David. The Little House on the Prairie books.

All Hairy Maclary books. I never got bored of reading these over and over. Same with Johnny Duddle’s ‘The Pirate Cruncher’ that someone else mentioned. It has such beautiful illustrations.
Winnie the Pooh—had a huge book with all of them in (A A Milne with E H Shepherd illustrations—not the Disney versions) and I have such treasured memories of reading these to my eldest when he was little. He
loved them (apart from the heffalump—we only read that once!).
Shirley Hughes’ Alfie books.
Old Bear—again, amazing illustrations.

Any bluey or Julia Donaldson