As revealed by Booktrust the list of the 50 best children’s books (polling 4,000 people) was as follows:
TOP 50 BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
Famous Five, Enid Blyton
Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Matilda, Roald Dahl
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Cat in the Hat, Dr Suess
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Malory Towers Series, Enid Blyton
Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H.C. Andersen
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
The Witches, Roald Dahl
Stig of the Dump, Clive King
The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett
James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
Aesop’s Fables, Jerry Pinkney
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski
Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proyson
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson
Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson
The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
Miffy, Dick Bruna
The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
The St. Clares Series, Enid Blyton
Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey
They appear to have omitted Tove Jansson, Alan Garner, and Robert Westall from the list completely – and poor Roger Hargreaves is named for his entire masculine output (including the rubbish later books where the variosu Mr Men start appearing in each other’s books) as opposed to the artful simplicity of the early morality tales (that for me can’t be read aloud without attempting an Arthur Lowe impersonation).
Anyway, any thoughts on what’s missing?
CS Lewis can feck right off, transparent apologetics that I hated even as a kid.
No Alan Garner, no point reading any further.
Rowling? Eff off. Give us some Anthony Buckeridge if you want school stories.
And where’s Jan Mark’s “Thunder and Lightnings”?
Not a good list.
No Buckeridge tell us us everything we need to know.
For me the lack of Tove Jansson (if only for the despair of COmet in Moominland) told me enough about the list (oh, that, and gettig various titles incorrect and mixing up series and individual volumes).
No Uncle, no molesworth, no Jennings, Bunter or William. And as you rightly point out, no Alan Garner either. Culturally deprived the lot of ‘em.
Also, is Tolkien missing because he wasn’t very good, or (more likely) could it be because – gasp – he didn’t write children’s books for the purposes of this poll?
Uncle is a bit much for most well-adjusted kids. Which is why I love him dearly.
Uncle?
Sorry – passed me by as a well-adjusted child.
Could you or the estimable burkesworks elucidate?
Uncle is a very rich gin-drinking elephant who wears a purple dressing-gown, drives a traction engine, and has a BA. Don’t forget the fact he has a BA. The books were written by a retired vicar called J.P. Martin in the early 1960s, and are all out of print. Dave “brother of the more famous Jon” Langford is a fan and enthuses about them here.
Many thanks. I’ll keep an eye
Scott
He stole a bicycle.
& is molesworth reely for children or is he STRICTLEY FOR ADDULTS hem hem ect?
Gyles Brandreth has revealed the fate of poor Billy Bunter on Radio 4 this week – never again destined to be adapted because you can’t show a fat lad being bullied.
Where’s Richard Scarry, the man was/is (delete as applicable, depending on whether’s he still alive or not) a genius.
Died in 1990s I think. My 4 year old was having a look at one of the Busytown books the other day.
Ah yes, that famous book “Famous Five”, and that other famous book, “Alice in Wonderland”. I agree that Garner’s a crazy omission. And the Adventure series was the best of Blyton, with its homoerotic hero Bill Somethingorother. Though I did rather like reading about all those girls’ boarding schools, with their jolly communism and midnight feasts which were obviously a metaphor for something.
I was never able to treat Enid seriously again after the opening night of Channel 4 and that special Comic Strip version of the Famous Five. Then to cap it all I discovered that the TV adaptation had Gary Russell in it…
If I ever meet Gary Russell, I will start singing
Weeeee are the faaaaamous five
Juliandickannegeorgeand TIMMY THE DOG
We are the famous fiiiiiive
And we’ll keep on coming back to you
Time after time after tiiiiiii-
IIME after time.
Which was the song.
Well, not bad for a twenty odd year old memory. It was actually this:
> We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
Which reminds me of an incident when I was ambling through Manchester city centre; a grubby and rather seedy-looking chap sidled up to me and intimated that he “liked bears”. Believe me I’ve never clenched my arsehole so tightly in my life.
The most recent publication of same includes a cartoon narrated by Kevin Whately who manages to imbue “We’re not scared” with his best Geordie fatalistic ennui.
No Jacqueline Wilson, which is probably a Good Thing, and no Louise Rennison, which is probably an Even Better Thing – tough on proto-chicklit, tough on the causes of proto-chicklit.
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series blows Rowling out of the water.
My local children’s bookshop speaks up for Philip Reeve and Mortal ENgines in the children’s fantasy stakes.
I had that recommended to me recently and it’s rapidly approaching the top of Mount To Be Read ;o)
No Tove Jansson or Revd. J P Martin, as stated above; no Andre Norton, no Russell Hoban, no Raymond Briggs. No sense to it at all.
…or Pippi Longström, for that matter.