Favourite Children's Books

I thought it would be fun to share our favourite children's books (both for us to recall back to those young and carefree days) and to see how the list has changed over time to the present day.



Most of my English children's books I've sourced easily via the 2 suppliers Amazon or Waterstones on my website www.UK4Me.co.uk. Amazon typically offers lower prices than Waterstones but the delivery can be higher & Waterstones offers cashback & special offer discounts.



My favourites back in the late 70's early 80's:



The Hungry Caterpillar


Spot The Dog


Winnie the Pooh



My little one's favourites in 2010:



The Hungry Caterpillar


That's not my Puppy


Giraffe's Can't Dance



We have a couple of French books:


Miam Beurk & Silencieux Bruyant which show contrasts yummy, yukky, quiet & noisy which she loves.



Let us know what your favourites were & what your little one's/or grown up kids favourites are now French or English...



amazon.fr have lots of cheap books in English. I’ve gotten some at 1 cent.

Yes we have these too, they’re great! We’ve also just added Guess How Much I love you (airport treat!) and she really likes that one too.

Suzanne
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas

Oh yes - I must get a copy of the last one for mine!

Any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books were much loved by my girls.

I agree, I have a couple of Shirley Hughes books & I actually have some Roald Dahl books from when I was little. I’m also not a fan of Tellytubby talk, I have to confess that I do let my little one watch Cbeebies occassionally but I only allow programs where the people speak properly!

Spot was big when they were tiny then Blackberry farm

Shirley Hughes - Lucy and Tom and Alfie - my three all loved the detailed illustrations and they lasted years. Nice for parents to read too. I embargoed all the psychedelic imagery and telly tubby style writing - couldn’t stand it.

then Roald Dahl - I read the Narnia books to them and they then went on and read them themselves, Enid B is v popular - Alfred Hitchcock investigates series is great for boys, (can’t recall the name of the series)

TBH I’ve found the classics way better than most current stuff. There are obviously exceptions like HP and Jacqueline Wilson but by and large, older books tend to be better written and illustrated. Kids love detailed illustrations which is why Shirley Hughes is so good - they can read them time and time again and still see something new.

Yes I think it’s a series. It also exists in French but it’s slightly different along the lines of Ou est mon tracteur… etc

I also remember reading Enid Blighton books in my Grandma’s attic bedroom, there used to be shelves of them. Fantastic Mr Fox, Famous Five and many others. I looked up there on my last trip back but they were all gone. Shame as I have a lot of childhood memories of reading those books on our annual pantomine nights near Christmas.

They’re very old books - think the Famous Five in boats on the Norfolk Broads and you won’t be far off:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ransome

Ohhh, Enid Blyton! My daughter’s still too young for that, but they are great. I don’t think any kid wouldn’t like them. Along similar lines, I went nuts for the Swallows & Amazons series of books by Arthur Ransome when I was at Enid Blyton age. They were excellent.

Ha, we’ve got “That’s Not My Teddy”, so sounds like there’s a “That’s Not My…” series!

Our daughter mostly has my old books - Topsy and Tim, Blackberry Farm series (I think), Winnie The Pooh, indeed Spot and The Hungry Caterpillar (which she likes too). And an assortment of books that were presents, so I don’t actually remember most of them. There’s not much for an adult to read in them, so I haven’t paid too much attention. Some of the books for really small kids seem to be full of psychedelic imagery and “Telly Tubby”-style writing, which I’m not sure is a great idea, to be honest.