Best Childrens' Books Ever? You Decide

The Times recently published an article in which a distinguished panel of literary figures compiled a list of fifty books they believe every child should read.  It’s not the only such list out there – the Independent did one a couple of years and the Telegraph had a bumper Top 100 list five years ago, but, nevertheless, it’s an interesting one.  The article can be found here but I’ve set out the bare list here, omitting the paragraph of commentary on each one.  I’d recommend giving the article a read (although it sits behind a paywall) to see whether you agree with the given reasoning – it’s well worth it.

Although there are many indisputable ‘must-reads’ on the list, there are a number of surprising omissions.  There’s no place for Harry Potter or anything by the wonderful Julia Donaldson.  Jacqueline Wilson, much lauded for her books dealing with difficult issues for children doesn’t make the cut and Michael Morpurgo, Childrens’ Laureate and author of War Horse is similarly missing.  The Famous Five and Secret Seven are absent as are Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver of Treasure Island fame.  I also have a personal grievance that they excluded Susan Cooper’s brilliant The Dark is Rising cycle and would guess that the judging criteria permitted only one book by each author to feature (how else to explain there being only one Roald Dahl entry).  I’m pleased that there was room for older books such as Vice Versa confirming that great literature is timeless, although I suspect that political correctness may have done for Enid Blyton, W.E. Johns' Biggles books and, possibly, Willard Price.

It's also interesting in that it highlights the question of what constitutes 'childrens literature'.  Back in my day, the book world was divided into adult literature and childrens literature but in recent years, books have become more and more categorised - YA, MG, new adult etc.  Yet, there are books on the list like The Diary of Anne Frank which weren't written with a particular audience in mind.  Equally, series like His Dark Materials and The Hunger Games have audiences that reach well beyond the underaged.  A personal example is One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel of life in the Soviet gulag.  Not written specifically for children, we read it at prep school and it was a childhood favourite.  How do books like this fit in to this kind of list?

I suspect it’s cause for celebration that one can rattle off any number of books and authors that could have been on the list without even having to give it much thought.  My love of reading was definitely nurtured as a child by the combination of generous parents who almost never said no to a trip to the library or the bookshop and the ready availability of exciting books to read.  If that was the case in the 1970s, the same must go in spades for today’s children, judging by the number of recent books in the list as well as those mentioned above, most of which weren’t around in my youth.

Mini-Falaise is reading now and clearly loving it – Mrs F and I often turn a blind eye to the sound

of her reading out loud after bedtime and, over the next few years, I hope to facilitate this love.  I’m going to need to strike a balance between steering her towards books I loved and allowing her to explore the vast country of Literature.  I’ve been slowly and piecemeal starting a collection of books for her, including some gorgeous Folio Society editions, but need to slow down to give her the space to find her own way.

In any event, I am so looking forward to her first years of ‘proper’ reading – I hope she loves some of my favourites and that we discover some great new books together.  The Times list and mini-Falaise have inspired me to make my own list – I’ll be posting it in sections over the next few posts – please do stop by and let me know how you think it stacks up to the Times and to your own favourite childhood reads.

The Times 50 Books Every Child Should Read

1.  The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

2.  The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

3.  The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

4.  His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

5.  Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

6.  A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

7.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

8.  The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

9.  The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

10.  The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

11.  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

12.  Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

13.  The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

14.  Just William by Richmal Crompton

15.  Matilda by Roald Dahl

16.  The Midnight Folk by John Masefield

17.  The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

18.  Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

19.  Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

20.  Stories for Children by Oscar Wilde

21.  Hellbent by Anthony McGowan

22.  The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban

23.  Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

24.  The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones

25.  The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

26.  The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White

27.  The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

28.  The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

29.  The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

30.  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

31.  The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

32.  How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

33.  The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

34.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

35.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

36.  One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson

37.  The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier

38.  The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate by Margaret Mahy

39.  Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

40.  How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

41.  Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

42.  The Borrowers by Mary Norton

43.  The Snow-walker’s Son by Catherine Fisher

44.  Holes by Louis Sachar

45.  Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

46.  Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond

47.  Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

48.  Vice Versa by F. Anstey

49.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

50.  Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy by Lynley Dodd