Thursday, June 5, 2014

Britain's Top 10 Children's Books

While lists of great books, let alone 'best-loved' books, are fraught with problems, they do serve to remind us of books we might just have forgotten.  Yes, what we love will vary from adult to adult, and also from child to child, but this recently promoted list of 'Britain's best-loved children's books' is interesting as much for what isn't in it, as what did actually make the top 10. Interestingly, only one book in the top 10 was published in the last 25 years. I'd want to add a number of more recent books to my top 10. I suspect that 'Winnie The Pooh' wouldn't be number 1 in the US, but it might be in the top three in Australia. I have included a link to Lorna Bradbury's list of 100 top books below, which makes for interesting reading. I've also added some links at the end of the post to a number of sites that feature the choices made by children which tend to have a much more recent bias. I'd love to hear about books you'd like to see in the top 10.

1. Winnie The Pooh - AA Milne (1926)
2. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1865)
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (1969)
4. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (1937)
5. The Gruffalo - Julia Donaldson (1999)
6. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (1964)
7. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell (1877)
8. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
9. The BFG - Roald Dahl (1982)
10. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (1950)

Lorna Bradbury's Top 100 Books for Children and Young Adults 
US Children's Book Council 'Children's Choices 2014' 
Young Australians Best Book Awards (YABBA)

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