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

[AstroPup]

My family was never bookie so, although I have enjoyed reading and discovering books since I was 12 or so, I feel I have missed out on the whole childrens literature thing, and I love how people reminisce and seem to really have taken their childhood favourites to heart.
I really want this for my DC but dont know where to start.
What do you recommend? What did you love?
(start from as young as you like, I have an almost 3yo)

TIA

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!

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)

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

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.

Oh this is fantastic!
Thank you all.

Fishie - yes, have a fair to middlin' library, ,will make the most of their books and then buy the ones that are hits.

Am very excited!!

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

Thursdays Children and the Dolls House by Rumer Godden

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.

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

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.

Monkey Puzzle is fab!

Faraway Tree

Flat Stanley

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

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.

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

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.

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.