The Best Children's Books Ever

Preface: Hortense is a kind little girl and happy apart from one thing: she doesn’t like her shadow and she thinks her shadow doesn’t like her. She tries everything she can think of to get rid of it until one day she succeeds.

Then something happens to make her realise that maybe her shadow isn’t so bad after all and maybe is quite a useful thing to have around.

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Preface: Fearless Mouse has looked after her younger brother, Sparrow since their Ma died when Sparrow was just a baby. Her destiny is to captain her family ship one day but until then she has to combat the dangerous Terrodyls and deal with worried over her missing father. In the mean time her whole Tribe is worrying about the ice encroaching on the seas and why the Terrodyl's are not nesting when they should be.

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Preface: Lyra is a young girl living in Oxford. Only the Oxford she lives in is in another world that differs from ours in one very special way: every human in this world has something called a ‘daemon’. Their daemon takes the form of an animal and reflects their inner personality. It is an outer manifest of their soul.

Lyra and her friends have heard rumours of children going missing in Oxford and other places around the country. Rumours about a group of people called The Gobblers. Lyra and her friends aren’t really concerned though and make a game of playing Gobblers.

All that changes when someone they know goes missing. Despite having an ongoing feud with the Gyptian families who frequent Oxford, Lyra and the others are concerned when one of their children goes missing, Ma Costa’s son Billy. Lyra’s concern grows though when she realises that she hasn’t seen Roger since that morning.

Lyra decides she needs to find and rescue Roger. Her journey takes her North and leads her to many new friends among the Gyptians, the witches and the armoured bears.

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Preface: Monday 26th June 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. To mark this anniversary I decided to review Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone on this website but to make it a review with a difference.

As I doubt very much that there are many people who haven’t read Harry Potter I decided to make this review more about my experiences of reading and re-reading Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone and some of my personal favourite bits from the book.

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Preface: Its the 1920's and Newt Scamander has just stepped off the boat and into the hustle and bustle of New York City. With him he carries a briefcase full of magical creatures he intends to study in order to release a book.

When a series of unfortunate events mean his creatures escape Newt knows he must find them or risk exposing the wizarding world to the most dangerous creatures alive....humans.

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Preface: When Joe, Beth and Frannie move to a new home, an Enchanted Wood is on their doorstep. And when they discover the Faraway Tree, that is the beginning of many magical adventures! Join them and their friends Moonface, Saucepan Man and Silky the fairy as they discover which new land is at the top of the Faraway Tree. Will it be the Land of Spells, the Land of Treats, or the Land of Do-As-You-Please? Come on an amazing adventure – there’ll be adventures waiting whatever happens.

Preface: When Mollie and Peter go to buy their mother a birthday present, they discover the most extraordinary thing: a chair that can fly and grant wishes! The Wishing-Chair takes them on some marvellous adventures – to a castle where they narrowly escape from a giant and rescue Binky the pixie, to the Land of Dreams, and to a disappearing island!

Preface: Join the Jolly Postman on his rounds as he delivers cards and letters to various fairy-tale characters. He has a letter of apology for the three bears from Goldilocks, a postcard from Jack for the giant, a solicitor's letter on behalf of Little Red Riding-Hood for the wolf who ate grandma, and more!

Preface: When little Sara Crewe is brought from India to London to join Miss Minchin's school, she arrives a princess - cloaked in velvet and feathers, surrounded by extravagant affection. Then disaster strikes; her father dies and his business fails, and Sara is cast into poverty. Now a beggar, and used by the school for back-breaking work, she must depend on her imagination, and the kindness of strangers, to lift her above the misery of her circumstances.

Preface: Mr Twit is a foul and smelly man with bits of cornflake and sardine in his beard.

Mrs Twit is a horrible old hag with a glass eye.

Together they make the nastiest couple you could ever hope not to meet.

Down in their garden, the Twits keep Muggle-Wump the monkey and his family locked in a cage. But not for much longer, because the monkeys are planning to trick the terrible Twits, once and for all . .

Preface: Real witches dress in ordinary clothes and look like ordinary women. But they are not ordinary. They are always plotting and scheming with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts - and they hate children.

The Grand High Witch hates children most of all and plans to make every single one of YOU disappear.

Only one boy and his grandmother can stop her, but if their plan fails the Grand High Witch will frizzle them like fritters, and then what . . . ?

Preface: I bet you think you know this story.

You don't. The real one's much more gory.

From Cinderella and Goldilocks to Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, wicked beasts, brazen crooks and a ghastly giant star in these hilarious nursery rhymes with BITE!

Preface: Mary Lennox has grown up in India, surrounded by colour and life, and people who always do exactly what she wants. When her parents die, she is sent to her uncle's cold and lonely manor on the Yorkshire moors. There she finds the house and the gardens full of secrets. And unearthing them might just lead to the greatest discovery of all

Preface: Winnie-the-Pooh may be a bear of very little brain, but thanks to his friends Piglet, Eeyore and, of course, Christopher Robin, he’s never far from an adventure.

Preface: This is the story of a little girl named Fern who loved a little pig named Wilbur and of Wilbur's dear friend, Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful large grey spider. With the unlikely help of Templeton the rat, and a wonderfully clever plan of her own, Charlotte saves the life of Wilbur, who by this time has grown up to be quite a pig.

Preface: On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan’s song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will be known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible.

Preface: One of a series featuring Greg, who thinks it's pretty cool when he and his friends find an old camera in a derelict house and it works. But the camera takes weird photographs like the one of Greg's dad's new car - totally wrecked. Then his dad is in a bad car accident. What's going on?

Preface: Mildred Hubble is a trainee at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, but she's making an awful mess of it. She keeps getting her spells wrong and crashing her broomstick. And when she turns Ethel, the teacher's pet into her worst enemy, chaos ensues...

Preface: Darrell is two terms behind her classmates and feels out of place and alone.

Soon, however, Darrell makes friends as well as enemies as they induct new students, win and lose sporting matches and play tricks on teachers.

Preface: “A bear on Paddington Station?” said Mrs Brown in amazement. “Don’t be silly – there can’t be.”

Paddington Bear had travelled all the way from Darkest Peru when the Brown family first met him on Paddington station. Since then their lives have never been quite the same… for ordinary things become quite extraordinary when a bear called Paddington is involved.

Preface: Jess Aarons wants to be the fastest boy in the class, but when a girl named Leslie Burke moves into the neighbouring farm his life changes forever. Even though she runs faster than him, Jess begins to think Leslie might be okay - she's clever and funny and not a bit soppy. And it is Leslie who invents Terabithia, the secret country on an island across the creek where he can escape his troublesome family.The only way to reach Terabithia is by rope-swing where Jess and Leslie become King and Queen, defeating giants, sharing stories and dreams, and plotting against their enemies. They are invincible - until tragedy strikes. It is more dreadful than anything Jess had ever dreamed of, but as he struggles to cope with his grief and anger, he finds that his family value him more than he'd thought and that, still King, he could even save Terabithia for the future.

Preface: When a move to a new house coincides with his baby sister's illness, Michael's world seems suddenly lonely and uncertain. Then, one Sunday afternoon, he stumbles into the old, ramshackle garage of his new home, and finds something magical. A strange creature -- part owl, part angel, a being who needs Michael's help if he is to survive -- Skellig. With his new friend Mina, Michael nourishes Skellig back to health, while his baby sister languishes in the hospital. But Skellig is far more than he at first appears, and as he helps Michael breathe life into his tiny sister, Michael's world changes forever.

Preface: My naughty little sister is stubborn and greedy and full of mischief. She tries to cut off the cat’s tail and eats all the trifle at Harry’s party! How much bother can one little sister be?

Preface: Young Willie Beech is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the Second World War. A sad, deprived child, he slowly begins to flourish under the care of old Tom Oakley - but his new-found happiness is shattered by a summons from his mother back in London . . .

Preface: Long ago, at a time in history that never happened, England was overrun with wolves. But as Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia discover, real danger often lies closer to home. Their new governess, Miss Slighcarp, doesn't seem at all nice. She shuts Bonnie in a cupboard, fires the faithful servants and sends the cousins far away from Willoughby Chase to a place they will never be found. Can Bonnie and Sylvia outwit the wicked Miss Slighcarp and her network of criminals, forgers and snitches?

Preface: Full of typical classroom events that will be recognized and enjoyed by everyone. From never-ending projects, reading tests, quarreling, making-up, excuses and 'Please, Sir, it isn't fair.'

Preface: Gez Walsh burst onto the poetry scene in 1997 armed with his first collection of children's verse, The Spot on My Bum: Horrible Poems for Horrible Children, which was rapidly to become a cult classic. Written in response to his dyslexic son's need for stimulating, approachable reading material, Gez decided to use humour as his tool to encourage interest. Quickly realising he'd hit on a successful method of providing reluctant readers with enthusiasm, Gez's world of laughter sprang into life. Soon it was not only his son enjoying hilarious performances of these poems but a much wider audience of enthusiasts at schools, festivals, book signings and charity events.

Preface: One of Beatrix Potter's most popular and well-loved tales, this mischievous little rabbit has hopped into the heart of generations of book lovers.

Peter Rabbit loves the yummy vegetables he finds in Mr McGregor's garden, the only problem is: Mr McGregor doesn't want Peter to get his paws on his crops!

First published in 1902, this edition has been re-originated so it matches Beatrix's first published work, all those years ago.