Which books should be on a child’s bookshelf?

As a woman without children, it is of course logical that I be the person to write this Book Week article; after all we childless woman always have views on how others should raise their children, so why not what they read?

The original brief was the “The five books which should be on a child’s bookshelf”. FIVE? I had more than that without thinking, so me, myself and I negotiated and decided not to count!

One thing that became very evident was that as a “no kids”, I am out of touch with what kids are reading now; my list was rather based in the past.

Fortunately I have a panel of expert friends; young women with young families, or grandmothers who love sharing their books with their grandchildren, so I could undertake the definitive study of this subject. With many thanks to Megan, Rebekah, Marnie, Faith, Christine and Kate, plus inclusion of some of the books of my childhood, here is a combined list of our recommendations, in no particular order.

My great-nephew aged one year and three months, is an avid fan of:

• “That’s not my Bunny/Dolly/Elephant/Puppy” etc (over 40 titles) series of books where each page has textured pieces.
• Anything by Mem Fox, although “Where is the Green Sheep” is the current favourite.
• Earlier favourites (we all change as we grow) are the “Spot” series and any lift-the-flap book. This little man has so many books in his library it gladdens my bookworm heart!

Moving on to the friends with older toddlers and “just started school” i.e. under 6 years old, boys and girls, I learned all these new titles – do I feel a day at the library reading children’s literature, coming on? My new reading list:

• The Grug books – simple, short and keep a five year olds attention.
• Hairy Maclairy from Donaldson’s Dairy series. They have a great rhyme scheme to get the kids interested and the language is actually quite sophisticated so it’s great for vocabulary building.
• The Gruffalo – a great book that highlights being smart, brave and willing to back your own ideas.

Interestingly there were some books recommended by a majority of my experts:

• Narnia – a great starting point for getting into lots of other fantasy books.
• The Harry Potter books.
• Greek, and Roman, legends and mythology.
• An illustrated Book of Bible stories.
• All May Gibbs books.
• Stories from Indigenous culture, The Dreamtime.

Enid Blyton, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Anne of Green Gables, What Kate Did, Little Women series and “a full set of Little Golden Books”, had a number of supporters and I was pleased to see that books I loved as a child still have a place on modern bookshelves. Nobody but me, however, remembered “Gregory the Horse!”

Where I found the greatest generation gap in reading was in the tweens/teens titles, where The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones (and other George RR Martin titles) and Divergent replaced Black Beauty, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Wind in the Willows.

Overall the most recommended books were: 

• Dr Seuss books – ridiculous, silly, but fun,

• Playing Beatie Bow – Ruth Park and

• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee.

Thank goodness, despite all the electronic gadgetry available to them, children still read and have people read to them.

As adult readers, we all have our likes and dislikes and apparently this starts very early in our reading careers.  I’m sure there are many more books our community would like to add.

What books do you think are most important for children of all generations to read? Tell us in the comments below…