This is a list that grows, so do keep coming back to check it. Some of these are books I read as a child, some my parents read as children, some I’ve only just found for my children to read.
Picture Books
Anything by Margaret Wise Brown, try starting with Goodnight Moon
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury
Badjelly the Witch, Spike Milligan
Miss Lily’s Fabulous Pink Feather Boa, Margaret Wild & Kerry Argent
Anything by Lauren Child, try starting with I am not Sleepy and I will not go to bed
Anything by Dr Seuss, try starting with The Cat in the Hat
Oh Hogwash, Sweet Pea!, Ngareta Gabel
Anything by Eric Carle, try starting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Little Grey Rabbit Books, Alison Uttley, try starting with Little Grey Rabbit’s Washing Day
Anything by Beatrix Potter, try starting with The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Flower Fairy books by Cicely Mary Barker
Anything by Margaret Mahy, try starting with The Witch in the Cherry Tree
anything by Maurice Sendak, try starting with Where the Wild Things are
Ping The Duck, Marjorie Flack
The Cow who fell in the Canal, Phyllis Krasilovsky
Chapter books
For younger readers / to read aloud
Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, Astrid Lindgren
The Pipi Longstocking books and Children of the Noisy Village books, Astrid Lindgren
Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White Also Stuart Little
The Moonintroll series, Tove Jansson
The Green Knowe series, Lucy Boston
Milly-Molly-Mandy stories, Joyce Lankester Brisley
The My Naughty Little Sister series, Dorothy Edwards & Shirley Hughes
Anything by A.A. Milne, try strating with Winnie the Pooh
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
For older readers
His Dark Materials Trilogy, Philip Pullman
Anything at all by Maurice Gee, try starting with Under the Mountain
Anything by Alan Garner, try starting with The Owl Service
The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper
The Wizard of Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle
Anything by Roald Dahl, try starting with The Twits
The Bartlett series and Hazel Green series, Odo Hirsch
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Anything by Robert C. O’Brien, try starting with Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
