What are the Top Three children's books?

[Anita Bensoussane]

The Sea of Adventure is only a whisker behind The Valley of Adventure for me, Tim - another of Enid Blyton's masterpieces.

As I said, End of Term may well be my top Antonia Forest book too, though I'd have to read the series again to be sure. I love the storylines about Lawrie and her acting. I first read The Ready-Made Family at the age of twelve and found it all rather unsettling - not only what happens to Rose, but the Karen-Edwin relationship which I couldn't quite fathom.

I agree that the Six Cousins books are among Enid Blyton's best work, though I prefer Six Cousins Again to Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm because we learn more about Rose (a flawed but fascinating character). Personally, I rate The Six Bad Boys very highly too. It's unusual, beautifully-structured, thought-provoking and sheds light on the workings of the juvenile courts of the time.

[John Pickup]

The Valley of Adventure, Strangers at Snowfell by Malcolm Saville and The Silver Sword by Ian Serralier. Three books which have left a lasting impression on me.

[Anita Bensoussane]

When I was in the top year of junior school (aged 10-11) our teacher read us The Silver Sword. We had a couple of chapters every day, just before home time. I found it gripping and it taught me a lot, and I went on to read it by myself shortly afterwards.

I agree that Strangers at Snowfell is one of Malcolm Saville's best books, full of tension and atmosphere.

[John Pickup]

When I was in the top year of junior school (aged 10-11) our teacher read us The Silver Sword. We had a couple of chapters every day, just before home time. I found it gripping and it taught me a lot, and I went on to read it by myself shortly afterwards.

What a coincidence. Our teacher read a couple of chapters each afternoon just before we went home. I was so taken with it that I pestered my mother to buy it and she did eventually. I still have it, a hardback reprint.



Edit

I've started a new topic to discuss books which teachers read to us at school:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9136

Anita

[Boodi 2]

I am surprised that nobody mentioned "The Wind in the Willows" or "Winnie-the-Pooh"! Obviously I did not mention them either, but if I was allowed to select my "top ten" (or better still "top 20") they would definitely make the list.

[Katharine]

I started reading Wind in the Willows quite a while ago, and then gave up as I found it quite boring. I made another attempt and got further into the book, but once again it's been put to the side and half-forgotten about. I will try and get around to finishing it at some point, but I'm afraid so far, unless it improves greatly towards the end, I don't think I'd even include it in a Top 100.

I've never read any Winnie-the-Pooh other than very short stories that my children had. They were either very abridged, or maybe even just based on the originals - they were in a set of board books with just a couple of sentences on each page. I did quite like what I read in them, but have never got around to finding the 'proper' books.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Funnily enough, I'm currently reading The Wind in the Willows and I'm finding it even more delightful than I remembered. The writing is poetic and rhythmic, the seasons are evoked beautifully and life on the river sounds most enticing. Toad's escapades are legendary, but most of all I'm enjoying Mole and Ratty's jaunts along the river. Their relaxed, carefree companionship is endearing. E. H. Shepard's classic illustrations are the icing on the cake. The Wind in the Willows is not among my Top Three titles but it may well be among my Top Thirty.

[Fiona1986]

I've read the first Winnie-the-Pooh book (as an adult) and I was a bit disappointed. I haven't read Wind in the Willows.

[Susie9598]

When Hitler stole pink rabbit - Judith Kerr
The lion, the witch and the wardrobe - CS Lewis
The diddakoi - Rumer Godden

But it’s hard to pick just three!

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's good to see The Diddakoi being mentioned. I read it after watching the TV serial (retitled Kizzy) as a child and I enjoyed both the book and the TV adaptation. Rumer Godden deals with some tough themes in a sensitive and very engaging way.

[Katharine]

I remember Kizzy being on TV, but hadn't realised it was originally a book.

I'm amazed that the original title was published as recently as 2013 - I always thought that term was considered to be very offensive.

[Courtenay]

Like others here, I feel a bit awful picking just three and having to leave so many great books and authors out!! But the three that made the biggest impact on my life and are still part of me today, more than any others, would have to be:

C.S. Lewis — The Chronicles of Narnia (All right, yes, I KNOW that's cheating, as it's a seven-book series. But it's available in a one-volume edition, so there. And if I really had to pick just one, although there's no one book I definitely like the most out of them, I would take The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as it was the one my mum read to me when I was really little — I discovered the rest of the series a few years later.)

J.R.R. Tolkien — The Lord of the Rings (Which is maybe not a "children's" book, but I certainly read it when I was still in primary school and, like Narnia, it rocked my world. And that one DOES count as one book, because Tolkien intended it to be published in a single volume but it was split into three parts at his publisher's recommendation, I think due to ongoing paper shortages after the war.)

Richard Adams — Watership Down (Another incredibly beautiful and moving book that became part of my childhood world. It was a thrill a few years ago, after I moved to England, being able to visit the actual locations and "see the whole world" from the top of the real Watership Down! )

[Anita Bensoussane]

I also enjoyed Watership Down. Thinking about animal books, some of my favourites when I was a youngster were Bambi, Bambi's Children and Fifteen Rabbits by Felix Salten. They're lyrical, philosophical and (like Watership Down) extremely moving.

[Courtenay]

Ah, I read Fifteen Rabbits when I was still in primary school (I was possibly 11 or so), but didn't enjoy it that much. I felt the ending was a bit rushed and felt rather "staged" — if I recall rightly, in the last few pages there's something of a final showdown where all the rabbits go running in front of a lot of hunters with guns and a number of them die (the rabbits, that is, not the hunters), but at least the main character survives, and then the story ends pretty much there, shortly after. I haven't read Bambi or Bambi's Children, though I was aware Felix Salten was also the author of those. I understand they're a fair bit darker than the legendary Disney film!! (Which is also a bit thin in places — I always find it jarring how it cuts straight from the heartbreak of "Your mother can't be with you any more" to a jolly spring song with Bambi suddenly all grown up and falling in love. But the sheer artistry in the animation and the backgrounds is just breathtaking.)

The most similar book to Watership Down I've ever read is a little-known one called The Cold Moons by Aeron Clement — Mum picked it up cheaply at the supermarket when I was probably 8 or 9, and I was just enchanted with it too. It's set in Wales — although I think the author was either American or Canadian — and is about a colony of badgers who, rather like the rabbits in Watership Down, are fleeing destruction at the hands of humans, this time because of the culling of badgers to protect cattle from tuberculosis. They have a very long and arduous journey, with many adventures, and there are quite a few heart-wrenching events, but the story ends very happily. That's another one that meant a lot to me as a child, though it wasn't quite as well-written as Watership Down, so the latter is the one I'd choose as my absolute favourite animal story.

[Barnard]

Aeron Clement, the author of The Cold Moons was born in Wales, look you, whateffer.