My Favourite Children's Books

Now that I'm a school librarian... I thought I should list my ten favourite children's books - that is, the books I loved most as a child. If I do it nicely, I can print it out and put it up in my new library! For most of them I have found images of the covers of my actual copies, rather than more modern covers.

1. Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion - a dog who started out white with black spots, and ended up black with white spots - so even his mistress didn't recognise him. The story ends with a glorious bubble bath. Being known is better fun than being filthy!




2.  Diana and her Rhinoceros by Edward Ardizzone - my goodness I made my parents read this story SO MANY TIMES! A young girl befriends a rhinoceros who escaped from the zoo, treats its nasty cold, and feeds it toast made in front of the fire. When the zoo keepers come with long guns, she fends them off and manages to keep her unusual pet... To this day, a ghostly Edwardian lady walks the streets of London with her huge companion at her side...




3. Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson.
This is the first of a whole set of books that I adored. The main character is a short, round, amiable troll-person, called Moomintroll, and his friends are Snufkin and Sniff. There is Moominmama and Moominpapa, and a beautiful but sad creature called the Snork Maiden, the strange Hattifatteners, and many more. Moomintroll gets up to adventures and makes strange and fascinating friends along the way. Endearing and magical. I could read them all again right now...




4. Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning.
This book tells of a young girl who goes on holiday with her parents to a Cornish beach, and one day hears a loud sneeze coming from a cave. The sneezer turns out to be a dragon - fortunately a friendly talkative one. The dragon tells the girl wonderful stories, and takes her on some magical journeys, including a visit to a mermaid. How I wanted to have that dragon for a friend!

5. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis. I lapped up this whole set of books, adoring each one in turn, relishing the winning mixture of adventure, talking animals, magic, siblings, the awe and love surrounding Aslan, the underlying tenet that good is strong and powerful. I knew Narnia must be a real place, and that even though I most likely wouldn't find my own magic wardrobe door or living painting, I would eventually go there...

6. My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I read lots of Gerald Durrell's books, mostly about his life of collecting rare animals to bring back to his zoo to study and to help preserve their species. I loved how he arrived in an exotic location with a "shopping list" of animals, and the often hilarious accounts of how he tracked down and captured them, with the help or hindrance of local people. But My Family and Other Animals is about his childhood on a Greek island, and is as much about his whacky family and friends as about animals - and very funny.




7. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. I read and re-read these stories. I greatly admired the knights, each riding off to do noble deeds and save lives, even if it meant sacrificing themselves. And I so felt the sorrow of Lancelot who loved Guinevere even though he shouldn't, and of Arthur whose beautiful wife loved Lancelot.






8. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. The story of this loyal, faithful, and strong horse, who was friend and companion to a succession of fellow-horses and humans, contains so much sadness, and yet I loved it. Maybe I loved the fact that he survived it all and in the end was reunited with his beloved owner and given a peaceful retirement in a green field...






9. The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkein. Probably don't need to say anything about this wonderful trilogy. But, suffice to say, when I first read these books as a young teenager, at the end I turned straight from the last page of book three, to the first page of book one, and read it through all over again.

10. The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. This remains my favourite children's book ever; I re-read it several times through my teenage years, and took it to Zambia in my twenties. Everything about the story: the hero Maria, her little dog, her governess, her new home in a castle, her valley, her pony, her church, her friend Robin, and then the adventures that followed, charmed me and drew me into another world where friendship and courage mattered, where bad things happened but could be overcome, where mysterious creatures had been sent to be by your side and guide you, where magical moments do happen which prove you are special. A perfect world.