30.03.07
Top 50 Children's Books
The “Books for Children” bookclub has just published the top 50 children’s books. They asked members (I never got round to doing it) and are now publishing the results. So there they are with some comments from me (aren’t you glad!). The * means I have read it, most of them I own too.
0-3 years
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle *
A great classic and a fantastic concept. All these little holes, and pictures of food, I mean, what else does a toddler want? I would always recommend buying the board book version though.
Guess How Much I Love You – Sam McBratney & Anita Jeram*
This is a lovely book, but my two have never been really taken by it. They like listening to the audio version though.
Thomas the Tank Engine – Rev W. Awdry*
Well, fine, ok, Thomas is a legend. But the books are so boring!!!!!
The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter*
The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler*
This is fab – what else can I say?
Kipper – Mick Inkpen*
The Hutchinson Treasury of Fairy Tales
Where’s Spot – Eric Hill*
Meg and Mog – Helen Nicoll & Jan Pienkowski*
See my two monsters above enjoying Meg and Mog in French!
Each Peach Pear Plum – Allan & Janet Ahlberg*
The Snowman – Raymond Briggs
It’s funny, but I have never really warmed to this book.
Hairy Mclary from Donaldson’s Dairy – Lynley Dodd*
Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell*
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury*
We saw a great stage adaptation of this. Isn’t it great when you can recite whole chunks of books off by heart with your kids?
The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr*
4-6 years
Winnie-the-Pooh – A.A. Milne & E.H. Shepard*
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak*
The Cat in the Hat – Dr Seuss*
Tales from Percy’s Park: Owly Night – Nick Butterworth*
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame & Inga Moore*
We have the version with the original illustrations (E.H. Shepard’s). I have never understood why people see it as a children’s book. It is very complex.
The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me - Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake
The jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling & Nicola Bayley
A Bear called Paddington – Michael Bond
The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams & William Nicholson
I have always wanted to have this book, ever since it featured in an episode of Friends (“The One with the Dirty Girl” series 4 … I know we are the saddos who still watch friends on E4)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll & Helen Oxenbury*
Have both original version and Helen Oxenbury’s. I must admit I much prefer the latter.
The Jolly Postman – Janet & Allan Ahlberg*
Love it, but requires an awful lot of prior knowledge on fairy tales, just like Lauren Child’s Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book?
Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie*
who on earth would read the original Peter Pan to a 4 year-old? I read it as an (young) adult and I struggled!
7-12 years
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman.
Ok here I have to put my hands up, in shame: I am a school librarian and I have never read his Dark Materials. I know, I hear you gasp in utter disbelief. I did start Northern Lights but I found it so boring. It is on my list of “give this one another try”.
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis.
Ditto the above. Why are Brits so obsessed with fantasy? Interestingly, Pullman is appaerntly no big fan of Lewis. There is a lot of Christian symbolism in Narnia, whereas His Dark Materials has been banned in many places for being anti-Christ.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling*
well, who exactly does not own this book? The woman has sold trillions of them! I loved this one, not sure about the rest of the series, but this one really stood out from other kids’ books when it first came out.
The Worst Witch – Jill Murphy
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Road Dahl & Quentin Blake*
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
Charlotte's Webb – E.B. White*
Five Children and It – E. Nesbit
The Little Grey Men – B.B.
Should I be ashamed to say that until now I had never heard of the book? Nah ....
The BFG - Road Dahl & Quentin Blake
The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton
Stig of the Dump – Clive King
Goodnight Mr Tom – Michelle Magarian
Matilda - Road Dahl & Quentin Blake*
How can a librarian not like Matilda, the little girl who says “I am wondering what to read next (…) I’ve finished all the children’s books.” Bless.
Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden
The Sheep-pig – Dick King-Smith*
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott*
Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories – Joyce Lankester Brisley.
When I went to see Shirley Hughes speak, she said those were a favourite of hers and had been a real inspiration so it HAS to be good!
The Secret Garden - Frances Hogson Burnett*
The Railway Children – E. Nesbit*
I love this book, and I love the film too!
Watership Down – Richard Adams
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Mmmmm … so there you go. Loads are missing (Shirley Hughes, Lauren Child, John Burningham for a start) but then I suppose nobody is ever going to be totally happy, are they? I very look forward to Junior Magazine’s. In fact I’d better start thinking of my top 5 right now, the closing date is in August and I’ll need at least that to make up my mind!
04.03.07
Meet the author ...
Today we went to see Nick Sharratt and Sue Heap, and what great fun that was!
It is particularly great to see illustrators because they always perform some "live drawing" which I think children find amazing. I know Oisín really enjoys it. But I must say most of the time I only use my children as an excuse because I really want to go myself (next week I am going to see Shirley Hughes, but this time on my own)!
We are really lucky as there are plenty of such events around, with Cheltenham Festival, Hay-on-Wye Festival and this September a brand new children's books festival in Bath.
Definitely worth taking your little mice to (but then this is coming from the girl who dragged her husband and kids all the way to London just to have a books signed by Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy!)
01.03.07
It is World Book Day!
Happy World Book Day!
Today every child in education should receive a £1 token to be either exchanged for one of the specially published World Book Day Books, or redeemed against the cost of any book worth £2.99 or more.
Tokens are valid from 26th February to 25th March.
It is a great opportunity to get a little book for free, or get money off a book you have had your eye on.
Go on, treat your little mice!
25.02.07
Why we love Charlie and Lola ...
... and by we I don’t just mean Oisín and Rosalie, but me as well. I know, at 32, it is quite sad. But a long time ago, in 
2000, I went to an author talk in London and met Lauren Child who was starting to be quite famous then with Clarice Bean, That's Me. She was just so different. Her illustrations were nothing like I had ever seen before and she seemed such a nice person too ( and I loved her clothes too!). I was hooked from then on.
I particularly love Charlie and Lola because of the positive sibling relationship it portrays, especially as I have a boy and a girl! I think Oisín and Rosalie have learnt to love it because I made them watch the tv series!
Anyway, the main reason for all this waffling is that for this year’s Comic Relief, a new Charlie and Lola is focussing on another of my big passions in life: fair-trade chocolate! It is called But I Do Know All About Chocolate and if you buy it (£2.99), £2 will go to Comic Relief.
What a great way to:
- give money to charity,
- get a new Charlie and Lola book
- be able to explain how chocolate is made (until then Oisín looked at me very suspiciously when I would tell him that cocoa grew on trees!)
And if all that is not enough, check out the Red Nose Day website for more Charlie and Lola stuff, including a recipe for cupcakes made with one my favourite fair-trade choc bars: Dubble bars. Yum!
18.02.07
La Comtesse de Ségur (et la Bibliothèque Rose)
Il y a des trucs comme ça, qui sont tellement français, qu’on ne peut pas les expliquer aux Anglais. Le Petit Nicolas en fait partie ( bien que maintenant publié en Angleterre chez Phaïdon) , la Comtesse de Ségur aussi. Alors pourquoi écrire en anglais quand ils ne comprendraient pas de toute façon ?
Quand j’étais petite, j’adorais la Comtesse de Ségur (comme presque toutes les petites filles, d’ailleurs), et maintenant que Hachette a relooké la Bibliothèque Rose, les livres de la comtesse sont ressortis, avec des nouvelles couvertes, superbement illustrées par Iris de Moüy. Alors, petit à petit, je les rachète, d’abord pour moi, car c’est magique de les redécouvrir, et plus tard, peut-être, pour ma petite Rosalie. Il y a des choses comme ça qui vaillent la peine d’être transmises!
La Bibliothèque Rose a célébré ses 150 ans en 2006, et en cette occasion Armelle Leroy a publie deux bouquins qui valent le coup, si vous êtes un peu du genre nostalgique !
D’abord Le Club des cinq, Fantômette, Oui-Oui et les autres : Les grands succès des bibliothèques rose et verte, un livre plein d’illustrations, d’exemples de couvertures (plein de souvenirs) et de petites infos sur les séries principales.
Puis La Saga de la Bibliothèque Rose, qui entre beaucoup plus dans les détails de l’historique de sa naissance, des séries et des auteurs.
Du coup, moi, je suis rentrée chez mes parents, j’ai fouillé dans les placards et j’ai retrouvé mes bibliothèques vertes que je ramène petit a petit chez moi : les sœurs Parker, les jeunes filles en blanc, Alice … pas de la grande littérature, mais bon, comme je l’ai déjà dit, je suis une grande nostalgique !
