Harry Potters, Matildas and Horrid Henrys will fill school classrooms across the world tomorrow as education celebrates the 20th annual World Book Day.
The beloved event prompts major decision-making for a teacher. Who has the best costume in the class? Which bookish activities will engage the children the most? And, most importantly, which character are you dressing up as?
This year TES is asking teachers to make another huge decision. What is your favourite children’s book of all time? It may take minutes, hours or perhaps even the whole day, but once you’ve made arguably the most important decision of the week, we want you to tweet us using the hashtag #MyFavourite.
It took a while for the TES editorial team to individually pick their favourite books (one of our finest journalists couldn’t choose between her top 16…). But after much deliberation, the list below was cemented as TES’ 15 favourite children’s books.
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Oi Frog! by Kes Gray and Jim Field
- Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
- Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
- Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Five Children and It by E Nesbit
- The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend
- Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
- Dogger by Shirley Hughes
Other World Book Day favourites
Despite our love for all things literary, we know our list is a just very small selection from the many wonderful children’s books available. So, who better to kick-start our #MyFavourite celebration than some of TES’ favourite contributors:
- Geoff Barton (incoming general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, and TES columnist): Burglar Bill by Allan Ahlberg
- Joanne Cummins (literacy manager at Chalk Ridge Primary School): Mrs Pig’s Bulk Buy by Mary Rayner
- Jane Flood (early years teacher at Copythorne Infant School): A Cheese and Tomato Spider by Nick Sharratt
- Emma Cox (head of english at Exeter Cathedral School): The Sea-thing Child by Russell Hoban
- Sally Hamerton (school librarian at Crondall Primary): Skellig by David Almond
- Nancy Gedge (TES SEND specialist): The Famous Five Series by Enid Blyton
- Sarah Ledger (teacher and blogger): Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner
- Tom Starkey (teacher and TES columnist): The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments by Arnold Lobel
- Jo Clarke (school librarian at Whitchurch CofE Primary): The Girl Who Walked on Air by Emma Carroll
TES will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 2 March. Join in and follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #MyFavourite. What’s your favourite?
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