Recommendation
The benefits of reading at every stage of a child’s development are well documented. Luckily, raising a reader is fun, rewarding and relatively easy.
Exposing children to diversity in books will prepare them for life in a diverse world.
Finding a children's book to satisfy your kid (or indeed, the kid in you) can be tough with so much to choose from.
From timeless classics to modern novels; marvellous mysteries and trips back in time, these books deserve a spot on everyone's bookshelf.
Matilda, by Roald Dahl
Matilda is the world's most famous bookworm, no thanks to her ghastly parents. Her father thinks she's a little scab. Her mother spends all afternoon playing bingo. And her headmistress, Miss Trunchbull? She's the worst of all. She's a big bully, who thinks all her pupils are rotten and locks them in the dreaded Chokey.
Despite these beastly grownups trying to push her down, Matilda is an extraordinary girl with a magical mind. And she's had enough. So all the terrible adults had better watch out, because she's going to teach them a lesson they'll never forget!
‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”’
So begins the tale of Alice, who follows a curious White Rabbit down a hole and falls into Wonderland, a fantastical place where nothing is quite as it seems: animals talk, nonsensical characters confuse, Mad Hatters throw tea parties and the Queen plays croquet. Alice’s attempts to find her way home become increasingly bizarre, infuriating and amazing in turn.
A beloved classic, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has continued to delight readers, young and old, for over 150 years.
Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine.
But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger.
Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survival.
Can he rise above his enemies and become the master of his realm once again?
Over the rooftops of London, Peter Pan and the fairy Tinkerbell lead Wendy, Michael and John Darling to Neverland to start a new life with his gang of Lost Boys.
There, they will encounter mermaids, princesses, a ticking crocodile and the fearsome Captain Hook and his terrible crew of pirates.
What will their new life be like in Neverland?
If Captain Hook has his way, they won't live long enough to find out...
After losing her parents, young Mary Lennox is sent from India to live in her uncle's gloomy mansion on the wild English moors.
She is lonely and has no one to play with, but one day she learns of a secret garden somewhere in the grounds that no one is allowed to enter.
Then Mary uncovers an old key in a flowerbed - and a gust of magic leads her to the hidden door.
Slowly she turns the key and enters a world she could never have imagined.
Madame Doubtfire by bestselling author Anne Fine is a wonderfully funny, punchy story about family life. Lydia, Christopher and Natalie are used to domestic turmoil.
Their parents' divorce has not made family life any easier in either home. The children bounce to and from their volatile mother, Miranda, and their out-of-work actor father, Daniel.
Then Miranda advertises for a cleaning lady who will look mind the children after work - and Daniel gets the job, disguised as Madame Doubtfire.
This bittersweet, touching and extremely funny book inspired the highly successful film Mrs Doubtfire, starring the late Robin Williams.
Once there was a velveteen rabbit who longed to be Real.
He was owned by a boy who loved him more and more every day, even when the rabbit's shiny coat grew old and shabby and worn.
Then one day something magical happened, and the rabbit's wish began to come true . . .
The Velveteen Rabbit is a classic, much-loved children's story by Margery Williams.
The classic story of friendship between man and beast.
Young Mowgli escapes the vicious jaws of the growling tiger Shere Khan, and is adopted by Father Wolf. As he grows up, Baloo the Bear and Bagheera the Panther teach Mowgli the Law of the Jungle, and so his extraordinary adventures begin . . .
The adventures of Rikki Tikki Tavi the snake-fighting mongoose, little Toomai and the elephant's secret dance, and Kotick the white seal are all part of Mowgli's extraordinary journey with his animal friends.
In the course of his famous travels, Gulliver is captured by miniature people who wage war on each other because of religious disagreement over how to crack eggs, is sexually assaulted by giants, visits a floating island, and decides that the society of horses is better than that of his fellow man.
Swift's tough, filthy and incisive satire has much to say about the state of the world today and is presented here in its unexpurgated entirety.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
'We said there wasn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.'
Huck Finn escapes from his alcoholic father by faking his own death and so begins his journey through the Deep South, seeking independence and freedom. On his travels, Huck meets an escaped slave, Jim, who is a wanted man, and together they journey down the Mississippi River.
Raising the timeless and universal l issues of prejudice, bravery and hope, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was and still is considered the great American novel.
Selected Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
This collection brings together some of Hans Christian Andersen’s most popular fairy tales – including ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘Thumbelina’ – in a celebration of one of the world’s most widely recognised children’s authors. With universal themes and dark humour at their heart, these moralistic tales have delighted readers since first publication in the nineteenth century and continued to be well loved today.
The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, a storyteller of great importance to Western literature, have inspired many films, ballets and plays, and entertained generations of children and adults alike.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Collected by the German Grimm brothers, these folk tales have captured the imaginations of children and adults alike since they were first published in 1812.
The best-known stories such as The Golden Goose, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince, and Snow-White and Rose-Red remain as popular today as when first told, although there is an underlying darkness and violence to the original stories that has softened over time.
+
