Books Children's Books

Top 50 children’s books parents love to read

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Written by Tim Barnes-Clay

It’s World Book Day. But how many of these children’s books have you read?

World Book Day is a celebration for your kids not to miss! As a collective we get to celebrate authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) reading , which – lets be honest – is becoming a lost art in the age of technology.

As a kid I loved Wold Book Day, I got to dress up and assist my mum with making the  costumes of my favourite characters (there was A LOT of Harry Potter costumes).

Not only is World Book Day a truly a fabulous way to spend that quality time with your children and educate them about the wonderful pleasure of reading. But we also get to enjoying watching them getting lost in the world of books. Long live print I say! Although one must marvel at the irony of you reading this article on a screen.

Cat in the where?

In a recent study of 2,000 parents, it was found that nine in 10 mums and dads are fed-up with reading the same books over and over. A further one in three even admitting they often pretend to lose a book from time to time to avoid having to read it again. But, even more worrying, six in 10 parents admitted to skipping pages without their children even noticing!

Come on guys, I know The Cat in the Hat may not have the most thrilling plot line or involve complex characters with dark pasts, but aren’t we supposed to be doing this for the greater good?!

We need to pull our socks up and tackle the mundanity of it all, so we can enjoy our little ones getting excited by what another human has created for them to enjoy.

Perhaps it is time we mix it up a little and challenge our kids by broadening their imaginations. For some reading inspiration, we have provided below the top 50 books parents love to read to their kids to help you along the way:

The top 50 children’s books parents love to read

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
2. The Gruffalo
3. The Cat in the Hat
4. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
5. The BFG
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7. Winnie-The-Pooh
8. Dear Zoo
9. The Harry Potter series
10. Room on the Broom
11. The Tiger Who Came to Tea
12. Matilda
13. The Snowman
14. James and the Giant Peach
15. Horrid Henry
16. Stickman
17. Where’s Spot?
18. Charlotte’s Web
19. That’s Not My Monkey
20. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
21. Meg and Mog
22. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
23. Green Eggs and Ham
24. Where the Wild Things Are
25. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
26. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
27. A Bear Called Paddington
28. The Magic Faraway Tree
29. The Highway Rat
30. The Worst Witch
31. Each Peach Pear Plum
32. The Secret Garden
33. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
34. Curious George
35. Goodnight Moon
36. The Little Princess
37. Dig Dig Digging
38. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
39. Stig of the Dump
40. How to Train Your Dragon
41. I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato
42. The Little Prince
43. The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet
44. Flat Stanley
45. Noddy Goes to Toyland
46. Pippi Longstocking
47. Asterix the Gaul
48. The Sheep-Pig
49. Watership Down
50. The Queen’s Nose