Five Children's Laureates choose their favourite children's books

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

Here are the choices:
Whaddya think?

Quentin Blake
Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, Edward Ardizzone
Queenie the Bantam, Bob Graham
The Box of Delights,John Masefield
Rose Blanche, Ian McEwan and Roberto Innocenti
Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
Snow White, Josephine Poole
Stuart Little, E. B. White

Jacqueline Wilson
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
What Katy Did, Susan Coolidge
The Family from One End Street, Eve Garnett
The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild
Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers

Michael Morpurgo
Five Go to Smuggler's Top, Enid Blyton
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Virginia Lee Burton
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
A Book of Nonsense, Edward Lear
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde

Anne Fine
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken
Absolute Zero, Helen Cresswell
Just William, Richmal Crompton
Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson
Lavender?s Blue, Kathleen Lines
A Child?s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White

Michael Rosen
Clown, Quentin Blake
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kästner
Not Now, Bernard, David McKee
Fairy Tales, Terry Jones
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear, Andy Stanton
Daz 4 Zoe, Robert Swindells

[BirdyArms]

Jacqueline Wilson's are almost exactly what I would choose. Very girly though.

Haven't rad all of Michael Rosen's choices but I love those that I have - Anne Frank. Emil & the Detectives, Not now Bernard

[LightShinesInTheDarkness]

This was on the Times Online website, and I do agree that the selections are rather 'worthy'. I can't see many of the children I know warming to Oliver Twist or Rudyard Kipling. I think the language would make them rather inaccesible to some kids.

It seems to come down to whether you rate a book for 'literary merit', or simply because kids love it!

[hellzapoppin]

Yes LightShines - the two are not always compatible.

No Roald Dahl there I see. A few of those choices look a little self conscious.

[jambutty]

I saw this and didn't feel that dd1 (9) would want to read many of those books - largely because some of them are - IMHO - dated rather than timeless. Some of the social contexts would be alien to children today. It looked to me as though the authors were choosing books they liked as children, rather than books they thought children would like now.
And no Roald Dahl!

[hellzapoppin]

I know what you mean Jam- tried getting my Ds into Just William but he wasn't really interested whereas he loves The Indian in the Cupboard!

The Happy Prince is timeless IMO but so very hearbreaking..
DS is enraptured by it, but he finds the ending so sad that it's is only read once in while.

[jambutty]

You hit the nail on the head there Hellzapoppin - Dd got very bored reading the Borrowers, but loved Indian in the Cupboard.

[hellzapoppin]

and where is Dogger for the little ones?? No Shirley Hughes - it's an outrage.

[Takver]

Perhaps they just picked the books that they loved as children.

My DD liked the Borrowers a lot, she also loves One End Street, Ballet Shoes, Little Princess etc. They were old when we read them . . . no reason they shouldn't still appeal.

I was very happy to see the Wolves of Willoughby Chase, although I have it hidden away for the moment to save until dd is a little older, and also Absolute Zero, I love the Bagthorpes

[Fennel]

Takver, not sure how old your dd is but my 7yo dd loves Wolves of Willoughby chase, it's her favourite book, she has re-read it a few times, watched the film a few times, and is working her way through the series.

My 9 and 7yo dds have enjoyed a lot of these books, either reading to themselves, or us reading, or on audio cds. They have been enthusiastic about the Borrowers, Jungle book (actually, that was surprisingly accessible), E Nesbitt, F.H. Burnet, Just William.

I think you can lower their boredom threshold with a bit of practice. We have a lovely set of audio cds from the book people - 12 of these old classics, virtually unabridged, 3 hours each. Long, slow and strange vocabulary. It's acclimatised them to old-fashioned stories.

[Takver]

She's just 7, Fennel, and I think you're right, she probably would like it now - I was just a bit dubious about giving her nightmares when she was younger.

I definitely wouldn't say that old fashioned language puts my dd off - she even worked her way through one of my old 'Jill & her pony' books which is full of the most amazingly and spectacularly dated slang (I dug it out when dd was bored on a wet afternoon, and hadn't realised quite how funny it now seems ).

Do you have a link for your cds ? They might be just the thing for long train journeys (or indeed car journeys - anything to save us from the Famous Five tapes!)

[JeffVadar]

My DS loves some of these old-fashioned stories from time to time, particularly the Just So Stories and several of the E Nesbit books. People seem to think that long and old-fashioned words will put off children today, but in fact it was usually these words that he latched on to.

Also, when he was doing the Victorians at school, the E Nesbits complimented that very well.

I agree that getting them on CD is a very good way of introducing them

[Fennel]

I don't think the book people is selling them at the moment, but they are worth looking out for. 12 classic stories, 36 hours of CD in all, for £19.99.

Anne of green gables
Jungle book
A little princess
The secret garden
Little women
Wizard of Oz
Peter Pan
Railway children
Christmas Carol
Wind in the willows.

It's kept us going in the car for 18 months now (we don't use the car that much). The only one my dds haven't got into has been Little women. We haven't tried A Christmas Carol yet, it seems unseasonal, but most of these they've thoroughly enjoyed. DP and I like them too.

[Fennel]

Mine like the Victorian language too.

"Oh Albert, do stop snivelling".
"That's just not cricket".
"Jolly good, what!".

We went to see a Victorian cotton mill with accomodation for child labourers last weekend (middle class cliche, us?) and I sold it to dd2 as being a Real Life Example of the sort of workhouse/orphanage/laundry that features in Wolves of willoughby chase. She loved it.

[Takver]

I'll keep a look out - I just had a look on their website & the only 'classics' collection at the moment is Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, several Jane Austen et al, and I think they're (a) a bit old for dd just yet and (b) really shouldn't be abridged.

[Takver]

The only thing that I find with the Famous Five is that dd gets very cross when DH & I howl with laughter at the 'lashings of lemonade' et al.

[provinciallady]

Takver, School Link (by the Book People) has that set of CDs on offer for £21.99. Here is the link
I too loved 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase' - it would certainly be in my top five children's books.

[Fennel]

Oh yes, that's the one. Black Beauty and Alice in Wonderland too.

A really pleasing set of story cds.

[Takver]

They look excellent - will have to invest