Reread a childhood favourite

Of all the challenges, this is the one that most has me wondering what the top choice will end up being.

Roald Dahl is the most popular choice for now, with The Twits, The Witches, The BFG and Matilda, in that order.

(If the thought just occurred to you that Hey, I could watch The BFG for Challenge number 8, "Watch a movie based on a book", may I say that yes, you could, but it does have a bit of a wait list as all new releases do. But do you know of the two other Roald Dahl adaptations which are firmly up there among the movies no child -- and few adults -- should miss: the hilarious Matilda, directed by and starring Danny DeVito, and the whimsical stop-motion James and the Giant Peach, with the wonderful Pete Postlethwaite and, please quote me, "See Miriam Margolyes and Joanna Lumley as Aunts Spiker and Sponge and die".)

Enid Blyton is in next place, a generation older but having such a long career and being so prolific that it hardly matters, and let's not forget about the handing-down. One for all: the reader of Five go to Mystery Moor who says "This book is sentimental to me as it's the first famous five book my mum gave me to read".

First edition, 1943

If Enid Blyton is sentimental to you too, have a look at the website of the Enid Blyton society. If you, for instance, read The magic faraway tree between 1971 and 2014, you'll be able to find your very cover among the 16 covers on the 16 editions from those years. Which was your era? Bell-bottom jeans? Roman sandals? With white socks? No socks?

New Zealand titles: Two that I didn't know which have been logged are The house that grew by Jean Strathdee from 1979, a "positive rendering of an alternative lifestyle in the bush" (says picturebooks.co.nz), which hopefully doesn't yet seem overly dubious as a premise; and No one went to town by Phyllis Johnston, published in the same period but set in pioneer days, the story of a real-life family in the hills of Taranaki. Anyone else remember these?

Oldie-but-goldies: Oliver Twist from 1838 is the oldest of all the books people have read for this challenge, followed by, to my great pleasure, The Jungle Book, from 1894. This is the book where you'll find the story "Rikki Tikki Tavi", recently voted by our table of librarians at our Christmas lunch the scariest story of their formative years, and an excellent read-aloud I could have included in my recommendations, although you do have to be ready to impersonate a snake, because if you don't hiss a line like "If you move I strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people, who killed my Nag!'' then it's never going to work.

Moving into the 20th century, we have The railway children, Anne of Green Gables which I was shocked to discover was first published in 1908, I read that book as a kid and it didn't seem that old; Milly Molly Mandy, Mary Poppins, then at mid-century The snow goose ("I love this book as it brings back memories of reading with my Grandad" was the comment) and The Black Stallion, and moving into the post-Beatles'-first-LP era, Watership Down.

Welcome to this century: Put your hands together for those readers who had Percy Jackson and Jimmy Coates to accompany them in their childhoods! And Coraline!

What are you all re-reading? Let us know in the comments!

Anyone share any of these childhood favourites of mine?

• Alice in Wonderland (my cult book)
• Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web (still digesting their gifts and will be all my life)
• Ramona the pest (and pretty much everything Beverly Cleary wrote)
• Mrs Piggle-wiggle (for giggles)
• Pippi Longstocking (talk about strong female heroines)
• The Little House books ("Now is now. It can never be a long time ago." says Laura. Unless you are lucky enough to have a book to read like the Little House books)
• Just so stories (and which was your favourite, oh best beloved? Mine was Cat who walked by himself)
• The Little Grey Men (how I dreamed of building an airplane like theirs!) and Down the bright stream 
• Little Women, Little men, and even more, the proto-feminist Eight Cousins and Rose in bloom
• Treasure Island (one of the most perfect books ever written)
• The Phantom Tollbooth (manifesto for curiosity!)

 And finally, I want to especially mention The Borrowers. I want to mention The Borrowers in this context of re-reading childhood books because it is the book where I most vividly and unmistakably remember the sensation of believing in its magic. At the back of our old wooden house, my sister and I noticed that moss was growing underneath one of those airing grates that houses have down at their foundations. We knew that it was because our borrowers were using the grate to empty out their buckets of water (our toothpaste tube tops!) after mopping the floor of the house they had made below our floorboards. We were sure that one day we would catch sight of them. Actually, I seem to remember we did, once, or maybe it was the flash of a piece of foil a borrower was using for a mirror as she dried her hair by their window that we saw. Yes, that would have been it.

Author: Karen Craig, Reading Engagement Specialist