h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I always recommend Ludmilla Zeman's stuningly beautifully illustrated three volume retelling of the Gilgamesh Epic.

I'm not sure if they're in print at the moment.

Probably more entertaining than Tom Swift, I'll admit. Longer, too.

Her Sindbad books are ripping, too: http://www.ludmilazeman.com/

Multiple

I hadn't heard of Tom Swifties before, so no to that, but I just bet there's a market for it on h2g2... h2g2: No pun left un[insert devastatingly witty pun].

I was trying to think what must have Russian books we are sharing with my son, but oddly enough, apart from Pushkin poems, what he gets from that side of the family are cartoons. Although I don't think the word 'cartoon' really does justice to what is some top quality visual storytelling.

I mean, there are a lot of children's books, but for my son's age a lot of them are retelling traditional tales.

'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', anyone?

Sol - there is a publishing company called Girls Gone By and they are currently reprinting all the Lone Pines - I completed my collection and *finally* got to read Strangers at Witchend a couple of years ago.

I still have all my children's books - I've never grown out of them and frequently return to them for comfort reading (I'm currently back at the Chalet School). If I had to pick one it would probably be Winnie the Pooh (we have both books in a single volume so that's not cheating, right?) and my favourite story of the lot is the pooh sticks one - I can still remember the first time I read it aloud to the children, although they were captivated more by my tears of laughter than by the story itself, I think.

Despite the nightly storytime routine from being babies, none of my three read anything like as much as I did (and still do) - but then I did read *all the time* (and still do pick up a book to while away the minutes eg while the kettle's boiling). And they do of course own books and read books, just not any of my fantastic collection. I've just started Osh on Swallows and Amazons so we live in hope.

Probably my favourite picture books when they were little (Pooh doesn't count, that's literature) were the Alfie ones by Shirley Hughes (who also provided the illustrations for our copy of My Naughty Little Sister). We also liked Zagazoo and Mrs Armitage on Wheels, both by Quentin Blake (our copy of Zagazoo is signed and dedicated by the man himself ). And we have lots of the Ladybird fairytale books, beautifully illustrated. Nod could 'read' them (making the up and down noises of speech) before she could speak; she knew what sounds to make from the picture opposite each page.

Mol

A recent thread on Tom Swifties: F19585?thread=8257285

At the age of 11 I read the Neverending Story (no, it's not like the movie). I think that was my turning point away from children's crime stories (I really loved them, especially Thomas Brezina, an Austrian writer, *everyone* at elementary school read his books) towards teenage and adult fantasy. It was my favourite book until I read the Lord of theRings at the age of 13.

As a kid I read voraciously, but I can't really remember most of what I read. I loved Meg and Mog and the Worst Witch when I was 7/8 as well as the Secret Garden. I also read a lot of anthologies about Greek/Roman mythology

I'm not sure if we're including young adult stuff in with childrens but if we are the His Dark Materials trilogy is some of the best writing in all of English literature and Pratchett's Nation is one of my favourite books of all time.

I keep thinking of more and more stuff I read as a kid. Tintin, Asterix and Charlie Brown spring to mind: I think my mum was a big fan when she was younger, because my grandparents' house had loads of them, and we would all spend quite a bit of our summer holidays reading them.

I don't have children, but I was a child once. When I was sick, my sister would read "The Wizard of Oz" or "Alice in Wonderland" to me. If I had to choose favorite books from my childhood, those would be the ones I would pick. There are so many levels to "Alice in Wonderland" that I imagine a person could go back to it several times during a lifetime, seeing new things in it every time. "The Wizard of Oz" was published more than a century ago [1904, if I remember right], and continues to stimulate new versions. In the 1970s, there was "The Wiz." More recently, there was "Wicked." Stage versions of the 1939 film have also been mounted, and I imagine that there's a production of it going on somewhere in the world today.

'Pratchett's Nation is one of my favourite books of all time.'

Just put it down and I have to agree that it is better than usual. As I've said elsewhere, I prefer Neal Stephenson- Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age are good for most ages- teens up to codgers like me. I suppose 'Children' must include me, since I never grew up.

I liked Enid Blyton as a child but now seem to be cursed to read everything she ever wrote to my son. I find myself desperately hoping that somebody will tell him that Malory Towers is for girls. Or at least what ever happens in the 5th at Malory Towers......

I loved anything by E Nesbit but my all time favourite was When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. It's a kind of Ann Frank for beginners.

My son has boycotted World Book day as I subtled discouraged him from dressing as Pippi Longstockings and his teacher disallowed him writing a book with a character in he wanted to be in perpetration for World Book day.

I remember being read some Enid Blyton in school when I was Very young, so young i'm not sure if it was the magical faraway tree, or the wishing chair stories.

The first *book* I read was aged 7, it was 'Say Cheese and Die', one of the R.L. Stine Goosebumps books. I'm still reasonably sure my mum had bought it for my 5 years older sister. I then devoured the Narnia series, LOTS of Blyton, yet more Goosebumps, i think I still have a whole set of Paragon Children's Classics. Black, Beauty, Rhoald Dahl, Harry Potter, Eoin Colfer, Animal Ark books, anything with horses in, What Katy Did, Little Women, Little House on The Prarie . . . . . I would even read the back of the cornflakes box.

I used books as my 'escape' from the real world, form bullies and family etc. I could be the girl at the Ballet school, or the one riding the prize winning pony, or the one saving the orphaned baby lamb, or I could hang around with Harry and Ron, or with Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

I loved books as a child. I still do! I was very reluctant in letting my little sister, or younger cousins have my books once I had outgrown them, but eventually I had to give some away, so I could make room for more.

mini

Pooh! Mil. Yes of course. Now that is a wonderfully written series. My dad must have read me them a lot because now I am starting to read them to my son, the stories just trip off my tongue. I like Eyore.

E Nesbit. That was the Phoenix and the Carpet woman. I did like those.

Sorry, that was 'Pooh! _Mol_'.

That sentence rates up there for nomination for QOTD!

The Pooh books were by A A Milne.

Edith Nesbit wrote "Five Children and It."

There was also an early children's book called "The Princess and the Goblins."

If you want to go even further back than that, in the early 19th Century there was a wonderful collection of short stories called "The Peterkin Papers." The Peterkins don'tseem to beawfully bright, but they disasters are always resolved when they get advice (usually commonb sense) from the wise "woman from Philadelphia." It's a charming work,l and never seems to be dated.

I read some Blyton, but only the Adventure series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_Series
For some reason, I attached some kind of stigma to the Secret Seven and Famous Five books. Early scenester behaviour, I suspect ("I only like her early underground work, before she sold out..."), although I think I associated them somehow with the Boy Scouts, which struck me as like what I did every evening with my mates already, but with a load of interfering structure and regimentation.
Again, though, I loved those early books. I still remember key stimulating sections from some of the books: a character trying to float up dangerously through a flooding mineshaft while holding a (pointless, I now realize) heavy lump of ore; possibly the same character slowly befriending local birds of prey while he lived in a hollow in some brambles in 'The Castle of Adventure'...