Bailey Finch takes a stand by Ingrid Laguna

Bailey has a special friend - her dog Sheba. She takes Sheba for a run down at the creek near their home nearly every day. Bailey loves to climb trees and this bush retreat is her happy place but one day Sheba is badly hurt when she swallows some glass. Sheba is rushed to the vet but this incident means Bailey now looks more carefully at the creek. She sees all the dreadful litter and degradation of the natural environment. 

"Bailey found chocolate wrappers, old tennis balls, bits of foam, coffee cups, beer cans, a Coke bottle, rubber bands, string, plastic packaging and tinfoil."

A few days later when she visits the creek Bailey means a boy called Israel. He is a natural history walking encyclopedia. He talks about the birds and the frogs and even shows Bailey a photo of a platypus - but we do learn is a very long time since any platypus were seen in this area.

Bailey is a girl of action. Things are hard at home because her mum has died and her father has retreated into his grief. Bailey wants to reconnect with her dad and she hopes if she can inspire the community to assist with cleaning up the creek then he might notice her and move on from his deep sadness. Meanwhile she is also desperately worried about her precious dog because he seems to be getting worse not better. Every visit to the vet is so upsetting. 

Bailey and Israel visit the council office but they won't help them because they are too young so she and Israel decide to clean up the creek anyway. They make some posters and flyers and they invite the community to come on Saturday. It is a wonderful affirming scene when lots of people turn up and heaps of hessian bags are filled with debris and even better every one is keen to make this a regular Saturday event. 

I picked up this 2021 book because it was a Environment Award for Children's Literature, Fiction, 2022 winner.

Bailey’s desire for change stems from sentiment: the creek where she’d spend time with her parents, and her dog’s sickness from that same creek. If we all started to initiate the change needed in the places we regularly interact with, we can collectively make a difference – and Israel and Bailey’s friendship is a testament to this. Better Reading

This book is an easy read with that all important happy ending. I had one tiny quibble. Early in the story Bailey mentions giving her dog Sheba some chocolate cake - this is very dangerous. Dogs should not be fed any chocolate. I wonder why how the book editor missed this? I do like the cover. If you are studying local government with your class you could use Chapter 17 as a way to discuss the role of councils and local community activism. Here is an interview with Ingrid Laguna where she talks about this book. 

Flocked by Chren Byng illustrated by Andrew Joyner

No one ever leaves the flock

"Welcome to the flock. In the flock, everything is good. In the flock, everything is warm. In the flock, everything is safe. .. Do not question the flock. The flock is all you need. The flock is all you know. You are the flock and the flock is you. You are happy in the flock."

There’s sure to be a correct literary term for this plot but I call it a “grass is greener story” and I have read lots of them. Daisy by Brian Wildsmith; Wendy by Gus Gordon; Once upon a Small Rhinoceros by Meg McKinlay; and the famous Iranian allegory The Little Black Fish by Samad Behrangi. 

The point of difference here is the tone of indoctrination which is a theme you could explore with older students. The flock do not question their lot in life and everyone is expected to conform. The page where all the sheep are smiling is especially chilling. Is the head sheep a dictator? 

The pages set under the sea and in the busy city street offer a stark contrast to the ‘sameness’ of the flock in the field.

The final pages ask the reader to ‘fill in the gaps’. We see that the young sheep has survived and indeed thrived in the outside world so perhaps after reading the post card, others in the flock might take a step out into the wider world? The expression “pulling the wool over our eyes” comes to mind when I look at the woolly end papers. I think this is more than a story about bravery and stepping out of your comfort zone and it is interesting that the youngest community member is the one who is curious about the world and it is the youngest sheep who is willing to take a risk and defy convention.

You could also view this as an allegory about group think. It plays on the notion that people are like sheep - who follow one another around without thinking. If you look at the labels I have added to this post I think you can see there are terrific possibilities for using this book with a group of older students to explore "bigger" themes such as propaganda; conformity; independence; misuse of power; risk taking; and adventures. This is a book that repays rereading and older children will love being able to predict where the story is going and even what happens next.

The character of the little sheep himself is especially appealing. We see his personality and interests start to develop – with the sideways glances away from the flock and towards the little red flower. You can see more books illustrated by Andrew Joyner here. 

Companion books:

Brian the Brave

Louis I King of the Sheep

Daisy 

Once upon a small Rhinoceros

Louise the Adventures of a chicken

The Little Black Fish

The World Through Picture Books

The aim of The World Through Picture Books programme is to create an annotated list of picture books from around the world, recommended by librarians. The programme is led by IFLA Libraries for Children and Young Adults Section. ILA is the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. 

The publication of the World Through Picture Books was first published in 2012. The first edition of favourite books from 30 countries. The 2012 first edition was replaced by an expanded second edition in 2015. The pandemic created challenges for the participation of many countries and the new third has just been released. The third edition features the lists of the favourite picture books from 57 countries, in 37 languages and includes 530 books. It is a wonderful achievement by all involved and a list well worth exploring.  Here is a link to the new catalogue.

Aims of the Programme

To create selections of picture books from around the world that have been recommended by librarians and which can then be used:

• As a way of celebrating and promoting the languages, cultures, and quality of children’ publishing around the world.
• By countries wishing to purchase books from other countries and looking for ‘favourite’ titles

Criteria for Book Selection

Each country was asked to submit ten picture book titles that:

• Are suitable for ages 0-18.
• Include books that have stood the test of time and are, or may become a ‘classic,’ representing excellence in publishing by the country submitting them.
• Have been published in the country of representation.
• Are in the original language of publication.
• Are of good quality, a high standard of publishing and are excellent for reading aloud to and with children.
• Have text and illustrations that complement each other, although wordless books are not excluded.
• Reflect a positive message.
• Are still in print and able to be purchased

Take a look at the catalogue for ideas about how to use the travelling exhibition. There is no charge to borrow these collections but each country wishing to borrow them will be responsible for costs of

transportation, insurance, and security.

Here are some of the featured texts in English and nearly all of them are titles I have talked about here on this blog so you can just pop any title in my search bar if it sounds interesting.

Australia

• Window by Jeannie Baker
• Why I love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft
• Animalia by Graeme Base
• Bear and Rat by Chris Cheng illustrated by Steven Michael King
• My Two Blankets by Irena Kobold illustrated by Freya Blackwood
• Are we there yet? by Alison Lester
• The Rabbits by John Marsden illustrated by Shaun Tan
• Ella and the Ocean by Lian Tanner illustrated by Jonathan Bentley
• Sorry Day by Coral Vass illustrated by Dub Leffler
• Mr Huff by Anna Walker

Canada (a selection)

• On the Trapline illustrated by Julie Flett
• Town is by Sea illustrated by Sydney Smith
• When I found grandma illustrated by Qin Leng
• Up the Mountain Path by Marianne Dubuc
• The Great Antonio by Elise Gravel

New Zealand (a selection)

• Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd
• A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy

United Kingdom (a selection)

• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
• Luna loves library day by Joseph Coelho
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Axel Sheffler
• The Tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr
• Elmer by David McKee
• My name is not Refugee by Kate Milner
• We're going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
• You're snug with me by Chitra Soundar illustrated by Poonam Mistry

United States (a selection)

• The day you began by Jacqueline Woodson illustrated by Rafael López
• Last stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña illustrated by Christian Robinson
• Thank you, Omu! by Oge Mora
• We all play by Julie Flett
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen illustrated by John Schoenherr

I was so pleased to see The Ribbon from France - a book I saw at an exhibition of Silent books here in Sydney a few years ago.

 Each page interacts with a yellow ribbon attached to the cover. The images and the ribbon complement each other in a meaningful way. In this scheme, the ribbon turns out to be the tongue of a snake, the tea

dripping from the teapot, or the sawed-off bar of a prison cell suggesting an escape.

The French list also includes On a Magical do Nothing Day by Beatrice Alemagna

The list from Germany includes Two for me One for You by Jörg Mühle

The Italian list includes Professional Crocodile illustrated by Mariachiara Di Giorgio

The list from Korea includes Waiting for Mama illustrated by Dong Sung Kim and Wave by Suzy Lee

Netherlands (hooray) Frog is Frog by Max Velthuijs

Slovenia Every little Kindness by Marta Bartolj 

One of my favourite illustrators from Ukraine Kost Lavro has a book on the list too. 

The Tree at Number 43 by Jess McGeachin

Sam lives with his mum and grandpa in a busy city. It is noisy in the street but Sam and his grandpa have a special spot on the roof of their building where they can sit together and Sam can hear all about grandpa's life adventures. Sam especially loves to hear about the jungle with trees so tall they seem to touch the sky. From his travels grandpa has collected seeds. Sam decides to try a little gardening - all he needs is soil, water and sunlight and a lot of patience.

"Sam waited so long that he missed dinner and then dessert. He waited until the moon was high and his eyelids grew heavy and then ..."

There are no words on this page as you can see but something magical is happening and when Sam wakes up he finds himself lying under a huge tree. It has grown from the ground floor right up through the roof of their three storey building. So now on the roof grandpa and Sam have an even better spot to talk, and read and play card games with friends. The tree even provides delicious fruit which his mum makes into a strudel. Life at Number 43 is good UNTIL a letter arrives. Yes you knew there had to be a complication.

The letter looked "very official with curly writing and suspicious stamps." There have been complaints about leaves and wild creatures. Sam knows this letter needs a reply so he writes back explaining about leaves, and toucans and sloths and the friendly tiger not to mention the yummy fruit. The format of his letter is very special. But the authorities won't listen and a team of men arrive to cut down the beautiful tree. This is another wordless double page in the same form we saw previously at night with a silhouette of the tree again but this time we see it being progressively cut down. 

Luckily for everyone, though, Sam is a problem solver. His grandpa has more seeds and so this time Sam gives a little packet of them to each of his neighbours and before long ...

"A yew grew at number two, a pine at number nine, a gum at number thirty-one." 

The air is now filled with a different sort of noise - happy laughter, friendly roars and squawking birds.

The theme of urban renewal and greening a city is not original but this book is so charming especially in the way it demonstrates problem solving and community action all done using magical realism. It is such a fun twist to have the tree grow inside their building and it is so good to see the ways the family adapt to having a tree inside along with all those amazing jungle animals. 

Jess McGeachin adds some delightful details in his illustrations. There is a tiny spider and her web on the title page signifying patience; the moon moving through the night sky to show the passing of time; the bent floor boards in the kitchen which accommodate the tree trunk; plants growing out of the chimney pots; the evil face on the postage stamp; the repeated building silhouette page (the growing of the tree and then the removal of the tree); and we can see at the end people are have added flower boxes and are sharing fresh produce and games. The final small night time image on the very last page made me smile – I think if I was the book designer, I would have been tempted to use this on the final end paper.

Jess McGeachin is the author of Frankie and the Fossil; Fly (I love this book); Kind; Deep; and his latest book -  High. 

Companion books:

The Lollipop Tree

The Girl who planted Trees

The Secret Sky Garden

The Curious Garden

Thea's Tree

Gooney Bird Green by Lois Lowry illustrated by Middy Thomas

Blurb: There’s never been anyone like Gooney Bird Greene at Watertower Elementary School. What other new kid comes to school wearing pajamas and cowboy boots one day and a polka-dot T-shirt and tutu on another From the moment Gooney Bird Greene arrives at Watertower Elementary School, her fellow second graders are intrigued by her unique sense of style and her unusual lunches. So when story time arrives, the choice is unanimous: they want to hear about Gooney Bird Greene. And that suits Gooney Bird just fine, because, as it turns out, she has quite a few interesting and "absolutely true" stories to tell. Through Gooney Bird and her tales, the acclaimed author Lois Lowry introduces young readers to the elements of storytelling. This book encourages the storyteller in everyone.

The library I visit each week is going through a lot of change. The Teacher-Librarian is on leave for a short break and her replacement has decided to very heavily "weed" the collection. Putting aside the unprofessional and inappropriateness of this task by some one who is just "filling in" I am curious about her criteria. From what I have observed it all seems to be about age and condition of a book and not borrowing frequency or use by staff or value to readers or usefulness in a curriculum sense. And the process is not following the library collection development policy. It is all quite distressing, sad and haphazard.

With this in mind I decided to borrow a few of the older junior fiction books - titles I previously read and enjoyed - hopefully I can save them or at least see for myself if they should be saved. One of these books is Gooney Bird Greene - a book from 2002 - that I first talked about here in 2013. In the past Gooney Bird Greene was a book I often recommended to Grade 3 teachers as a terrific class serial or read aloud book.

I reread Gooney Bird Greene this week and I loved it all over again. What struck me this time, apart from the interspersed "tall tales" Gooney tells her class, were all the wonderful clothing descriptions. Teachers could use these as a writing stimulus for a class.  Here are some examples:

"She was wearing pajamas and cowboy boots and was holding a dictionary and a lunch box."

"Gooney Bird Greene was wearing a pink ballet tutu over green stretch pants, and she had three small red grapes, an avocado, and an oatmeal cookie for lunch."

"On Friday, Gooney Bird was wearing Capri pants, a satin tank top, and a long string of pearls. Her hair was twisted into one long braid, which was decorated with plastic flowers. There were flip flops on her feet."

"She was wearing a ruffled pinafore, dark blue knee socks, and high top basketball sneakers ... (and her) earrings dangled and glittered and were very large."

"Gooney Bird was wearing gray sweatpants, a sleeveless white blouse with lace on the collar, and amazing black gloves that came up above her elbows."

I also loved all the individual class characters - shy and silent Felicia Ann; Malcolm who is often found under his desk; Barry Tuckerman who likes to make important speeches; and sensitive little Keiko.

There are six books in the Gooney Bird Green series:

Book 1: Gooney Bird Greene

Book 2: Gooney Bird and the Room Mother

Book 3: Gooney the Fabulous

Book 4: Gooney Bird Is So Absurd

Book 5: Gooney Bird on the Map

Book 6: Gooney Bird and All Her Charms

Here is the web site for Lois Lowry. Her most famous books are Number the Stars (a book that still haunts me) and The Giver. Here is the Kirkus review of Gooney Bird Greene. Listen to the first few pages here - the audio book sounds terrific. 

The front of my copy of Gooney Bird Greene book mentions other feisty girl characters such as Anastasia (Lois Lowry) and the Blossom books (Betsy Byars). I would also add this long out of print book Freckle Juice and Clementine (Sara Pennypacker). Gooney Bird is also a little like the famous Pippi Longstocking. 

On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer: A precious Australian bird by Rohan Cleave illustrated by Julian Teh

"They are the only member of their family tree. No other bird exists like them anywhere on the planet. 

This is why the Pains-wanderer is so important."

This is a wonderful new Australian book about a very appealing and rare little ground bird. Just before I discovered this book, I visited Deniliquin in Southern New South Wales and while I was there I read a report in a local newspaper about the Plains-wanderer. Later I discovered that in 2021 the town held an art exhibition to raise funds to help save this endangered bird. 

Here is one example of a painting from the fund raising event:

The cover illustration of On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer is so striking. Compare it with this photo from eBird.

Julian Teh really captures the personality the Plains-wanderer but without reducing it to a comic character. The page where we are given an aerial view of the cracked red earth is especially powerful (this is used on the back cover too) and the spotlight scene creates a very effective page turn. The horizon line gives a strong sense of the landscape – the vast plain where this rare bird lives. The tussocky grass looks almost tactile. 

This tiny bird is now only found in western Victoria, eastern South Australia and in the western Riverina region of NSW. You can hear it here. 

Image source: Birds in backyards

Scientific name: Pedionomus torquatus

Conservation status in NSW: Endangered

Commonwealth status: Critically Endangered

Threats - loss of habitat; farming practices and overuse of chemicals; predators such as birds of prey, foxes and feral cats.

The Plains-wanderer is a small quail-like bird standing about 12-15 cm tall and weighing 40 to 95 grams. Both sexes have straw-yellow legs and bills, and their plumage is mainly fawn with fine black rosettes. The larger female is easily distinguished by her prominent white-spotted black collar above a rich rufous breast patch.

Further reading:

Bush Heritage Australia

NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

eBird.com

Nature Conservancy

Reading more about Julian Teh, I discovered he is a natural history photographer and illustrator.  On the Trail of the Plains-wanderer is a 2023 Notable book in the Eve Powall (non fiction) category. Watch the trailer on the publisher (CSIRO) page. 

Bookseller details about this book:

• Introduces kids to the life of the Plains-wanderer - an ancient bird species that is unique as it is the sole member of its family.
• Because of its evolutionary uniqueness and risk of extinction, researchers have ranked the Plains-wanderer as Australia's most important bird and the fourth most important bird species in the world.
• The Plains-wanderer has been nicknamed the Goldilocks bird, as they are quite particular about their habitat.
• The books shares a message of hope, highlighting how farmers are working with researchers to make their properties just right.
• Explores how Zoos are helping save the Plains-wanderer with captive breeding programs and creative thinking.

Here are some other fabulous books published by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).

The 100 Greatest Children's books of all time BBC Culture

BBC Culture polled 177 books experts from 56 countries in order to find the greatest children's books ever. From Where the Wild Things Are to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, here's the top 100. ... In total, 1050 different books were voted for by 177 experts – critics, authors and publishing figures – who came from 56 countries, from Austria to Uzbekistan. ... Each voter listed their 10 greatest children's books, which we scored and ranked to produce the top 100 listed below.

The greatest books EVER - that's such a big claim!  

Did you see this list?  As usual it contains many of the books you could easily predict, a few books that you might not know, books I would not add to a list like this and of course you will think of missing books that you wish they had included!  I was happy to see Momo on the list at number 43. The people who composed this list didn't ask me (of course) so now I am going to think about my suggestions for another post. 

The list from the BBC is too wide ranging for me - it has picture books for babies and for older readers, wordless books, old classic books from the 19th century, longer novels, and even a few young adult titles. And as always I worry about parents or other well intentionned adults who see lists like this as prescriptive or as the best of the best. There are some wonderful books on this list but every reader is different and while some of these books will appeal to your young reader others won't. So that makes me wonder about the purpose of a list like this and also I wonder if a better list might have emerged with the addition of parameters such as a date range and format (novel, picture book etc). And also if they had specified one book per author other titles might have reached the list - with all those Roald Dahl and Moomin books and so on (explained below) potentially up to eleven books have missed "the cut".

Along with Momo, I was pleased to see: A Wizard of Earthsea; We're going on a Bear Hunt; So Much!; Out of my mind; and the wordless book Wave. My choice for a Kate DiCamillo novel would have been Because of Winn Dixie. 

There are ONLY two Australian books on this list - both by Shaun Tan (Rules of Summer and The Arrival) . It seems odd to me that there are five books from the Moonintroll series. There are six books by Roald Dahl and three by Astrid Lindgren. Three items in the list are not actually books - Grimms Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault Fairy Tales and Mother Goose. Apart from these the oldest book is from 1867 (and there is the Tales of the Panchatantra from India written in 200BCE) and the newest from 2018 (Julian is a Mermaid). 

Other more modern titles are: I want my hat back; Duck, Death and the Tulip; Brown girl dreaming; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Gruffalo; and The Graveyard Book.

Here are the 100 books with links to my blog posts (red) and BOLD titles as books I need to discover presented in sets of 25.

1          Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak, 1963)

2          Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)

3          Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren, 1945)

4          The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943)

5          The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien, 1937)

6          Northern Lights (Philip Pullman, 1995)

7          The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis, 1950)

8          Winnie-the-Pooh (AA Milne and EH Shepard, 1926)

9          Charlotte's Web (EB White and Garth Williams, 1952)

10        Matilda (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, 1988)

11        Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery, 1908)

12        Fairy Tales (Hans Christian Andersen, 1827)

13        Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (JK Rowling, 1997)

14        The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle, 1969)

15        The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper, 1973)

16        The Arrival (Shaun Tan, 2006)

17        Little Women (Louisa May Alcott, 1868)

18        Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl, 1964)

19        Heidi (Johanna Spyri, 1880)

20        Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, 1947)

21        The Adventures of Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi, 1883)

22        A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K Le Guin, 1968)

23        Moominland Midwinter (Tove Jansson, 1957)

24        I Want My Hat Back (Jon Klassen, 2011)

25        The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911)

The next set of 25

26        Duck, Death and the Tulip (Wolf Erlbruch, 2007)

27        The Brothers Lionheart (Astrid Lindgren, 1973)

28        Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (JK Rowling, 1999)

29        Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson, 2014)

30        The Three Robbers (Tomi Ungerer, 1961)

31        The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats, 1962)

32        The Tiger Who Came to Tea (Judith Kerr, 1968)

33        Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones, 1986)

34        A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle, 1962)

35        Watership Down (Richard Adams, 1972)

36        Tom's Midnight Garden (Philippa Pearce, 1958)

37        Grimm's Fairy Tales (Brothers Grimm, 1812)

38        The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter, 1902)

39        The Railway Children (Edith Nesbit, 1906)

40        Noughts and Crosses (Malorie Blackman, 2001)

41        The BFG (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, 1982)

42        Rules of Summer (Shaun Tan, 2013)

43        Momo (Michael Ende, 1973)

44        The Story of Ferdinand (Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, 1936)

45        The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954)

46        The Owl Service (Alan Garner, 1967)

47        Ronia, the Robber's Daughter (Astrid Lindgren, 1981)

48        The Neverending Story (Michael Ende, 1979)

49        The Panchatantra (Anonymous / folk, -200)

50        Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883)

And the next 25

51        Mary Poppins (PL Travers, 1934)

52        Ballet Shoes (Noel Streafield, 1936)

53        So Much! (Trish Cooke and Helen Oxenbury, 1994)

54        We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, 1989)

55        The Adventures of Cipollino (Gianni Rodari, 1951)

56        The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein, 1964)

57        The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, 1999)

58        Julián Is a Mermaid (Jessica Love, 2018)

59        Comet in Moominland (Tove Jansson, 1946)

60        Finn Family Moomintroll (Tove Jansson, 1948)

61        The Witches (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, 1983)

62        A Bear Called Paddington (Michael Bond, 1958)

63        The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908)

64        Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D Taylor, 1977)

65        Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Astrid Lindgren, 1955)

66        The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer, 1961)

67        The Cat in the Hat (Dr Seuss, 1957)

68        The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline, 2006)

69        Peter and Wendy (JM Barrie, 1911)

70        One Thousand and One Nights (Anonymous / folk)

71        From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler (EL Konigsburg, 1967)

72        When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Judith Kerr, 1971)

73        Shum bola (G'afur G'ulоm, 1936)

73        Ernest and Celestine (Gabrielle Vincent, 1981)

75        A Kind of Spark (Elle McNicoll, 2020)

And the final 25

76        Little Nicholas (René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé, 1959)

77        Black Beauty (Anna Sewell, 1877)

78        Daddy-Long-Legs (Jean Webster, 1912)

79        No Kiss for Mother (Tomi Ungerer, 1973)

80        My Family and Other Animals (Gerald Durrell, 1956)

81        Jacob Have I Loved (Katherine Paterson, 1980)

81        The Lorax (Dr Seuss, 1971)

83        Fairy Tales / The Tales of Mother Goose (Charles Perrault, 1697)

84        The Moomins and the Great Flood (Tove Jansson, 1945)

85        The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L Frank Baum, 1900)

86        Just William (Richmal Crompton, 1922)

87        The Twits (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, 1980)

87        The Mouse and His Child (Russell Hoban, 1967)

87        Out of My Mind (Sharon M Draper, 2010)

87        Moominvalley in November (Tove Jansson, 1970)

87        Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1932)

92        Danny the Champion of the World (Roald Dahl, 1975)

93        The Snowman (Raymond Briggs, 1978)

94        Wave (Suzy Lee, 2008)

95        The Black Brothers (Lisa Tetzner, 1940)

96        The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams, 1921)

97        The Bad Beginning (Lemony Snicket, 1999)

98        The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman, 2008)

99        American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien, 2006)

100      Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie, 1990)

Perhaps you could consult a different list or a different book such as these:

Here is a link to the 2019 edition of this publication.

I plan to talk about the newest version in a blog post over the coming days

The 100 best-ever children’s books, as chosen by our readers Penguin UK

100 best children's books Book Trust UK (listed in age groups)

Welcome To Story Hour: 100 Favorite Books For Young Readers NPR USA 2020

The best books for kids of all ages Time Out USA 2020 (contributor Betsy Bird)

THE LIST: 100 BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF ALL TIME Time Magazine 

I have just bought this book - I will talk about it in a few days: