The Daily Mail has an the intriguing results of a poll for the best children’s books in the UK. Amazingly, Harry Potter came in SIXTH! The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis was voted into the top position and if you take a look at the top 50, you will see many other beloved children’s classics. Here are the top 50. I started to bold my favorites, but it turned out that almost every one I have read, I have loved, so the ones in bold are the ones I have read:
1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
3. Famous Five, Enid Blyton
4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
5. The BFG, Roald Dahl
6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
7. The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
8. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
9. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
10. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
11. The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
13. Matilda, Roald Dahl
14. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss
16. The Twits, Roald Dahl
17. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves
18. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
19. The Malory Towers series, Enid Blyton
20. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
21. The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
22. Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H.C. Andersen
23, The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
24. The Witches, Roald Dahl
25. Stig of the Dump, Clive King
26. The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
27. Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
28. The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
29. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett
30. James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
31. A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond
32. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
33. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
34. Aesop’s Fables, Jerry Pinkney
35. The Borrowers, Mary Norton
36. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
37. Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski
38. Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proysen
39. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
40. The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson
41. Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson
42. The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
43. Miffy, Dick Bruna
44. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
45. Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
46. The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
47. Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
48. Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
49. The St. Clare’s series, Enid Blyton
50. Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey
Looks like I need to brush up on my Blyton! Anyone have a favorite one to recommend that I haven’t read yet?
Waking Brain Cells 
My son is 7 and we still read the Donaldson books. Room on a Broom is a great Halloween read, but we simply adore The Gruffalo.
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I’ve made your blog a daily visit and love the wide variety of books you cover.
I have to pass along a recommendation for #10 – Julia Donaldson’s “The Gruffalo.” My son loved it and I found myself unable to contain a grin through many readings.
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Gruffalo books are quite wonderful and Six Dinner Sid has been a personal favorite since it was published.
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A great, old-fashioned book to read with children is Kate DiCamillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. If you like The Secret Garden and Velveteen Rabbit, you’ll adore this precious book.
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