Books your grandchildren love

The Childhood Collection, ten classic stories with original illustrations, is always by the bed when GC come to stay. Favourite story The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig! When they get interested in the Romans please get them The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff. The film was not very good, but the books (3) are wonderful, and beautifully written.

I forgot to mention Topsy and Tim books which my children loved and they have recently been reprinted and updated. My 3.5 year old GS has now got the whole lot and asks for them time and time again.

The Baby's Catalogue by Allan and Janet Allberg was for a long time the favourite book. No words but loads of little pictures of home life and familiar things and activities which make it totally absorbing.

My gd loves my DD reading her Milly Molly Mandy. They were written in the 1930's and are really old fashioned but she is fascinated by them.Both grandchildren love Thomas the Tank engine and The Bear Hunt. My GS loves best of all, The Gruffalo.

I found myself reading Just So Stories two nights ago - found a copy I had bought for DS and kept for when he was old enough. Might try him with 'how the whale got his throat' and 'how the camel got his hump', just as a starter.... see how we get on from there.

I reread the Just-So stories recently (on my Kindle) and they were far, far better reads than my GDs book-of-the-film-of-the-book of the Jungle Book. That was no more than a resume of the plot of the film, in words of one syllable. I must get a hard copy of the real Jungle Book for her, along with the Just-So stories.

Got Dragon Stew for our 4.5 year old from the library - he enjoyed it hugely and so did I!

I bought Dragon Stew last week for my two grandsons - one is almost four and the other is 20 months. Both loved it. The four year old wanted it read to him straight away twice. It is a rhyming story with words four year olds find amusing and with very good vibrant pictures. Definitely a success.

Anything by Anthony Browne, last year's children's book laureate. My current favourite is 'Little Beauty' which is suitable from 4 years onwards. The story of a Gorilla who wanted a friend and the keepers at the zoo gave him Beauty, a kitten and he loved Beauty and they were very happy together. As always with Browne there are strong philosophical issues raised about happiness, sadness, friendship, fairness, truth and lies and more. It is wonderful.

My advice is to include classical books, such as 'The Wind in the Willows', 'The Railway Children' and 'The Secret Garden', as soon as you think your family's children are ready for them; these are beautifully written, and familiarise children with the rules of syntax without having to consciously study them.

PS For anyone who read my suggestions, I had a senior moment. The book and dvd series is Walker books, not Picture Lions.

A couple more suggestions
My grandchildren are all under school age and even though it's been fun to read some of the books I read to their parents, it's been even better to discover new ones.
We like many that have already been mentioned - Shirley Hughes, Julia Macdonald, Lynley Dodd but also
Giles Andreae - Commotion in the Ocean and others in a series
Jonathan Emmett - She'll be Coming Round the Mountain and Bringing Down the Moon - about a mole who desperately tries to catch the moon.
The last one is from a series of Picture Lions which come with delightfully gentle dvd's, including Going on a Bear Hunt.
Returning to picture books has been one of the best things about having grandchildren.

Usbourne Books do an utterly brilliant "1001 Things to Spot". Scenes from all over the world incl farms, arctic, jungle, carnival etc. The three year old GS is entranced. Beautiful illustrations and plenty to talk about. I think it will be good for another couple of years at least. Great for looking through and letting the imagination roam.

on amazon people have lists -could Geraldine do a gransnet list of recommended books-perhaps she could negotiate discounts for us?

Oooh Yes, Hairy Maclary series are fab.

We still use those names to describe dogs we see now! The Old English Sheepdog - Muffin Maclay like a bundle of hay or the sausage dog - Schnitzel Von Krum with the very low tum. Lynley Dodd also did The Other Ark. We get to recite the opening passage to that very often living in England:

"It started to rain, it bucketed down
Teeming in torrents on mountain and town"

Kind of fitting for today!

We still have You Choose! As an adult, I was not too impressed that it had no words HOWEVER, the kids have always loved it and we can look at those highly illustrated pages and talk about something different every time we look at it (See other thread on talking to your children!) so a win-win.

Another tip for parents who don't talk/read to their children is audio-books. The youngest is in there now listening to The Snow Queen on CD and enjoying looking at the pictures and turning the pages for herself. Independence at such a young age? That's another topic!

I laughed at the "Screw-Fix" catalogue comment. The old adage that boys prefer Non-Fiction still stands then?

My 5 year old GD loves Spider School (Early Reader) by Francesca Simon (author of the Horrid Henry Books)

''Snakes and snails and spiders for dinner! Kate was having a bad day. Her first morning at her new school and already her clothes have gone missing, her best friend has disappeared, and her new teacher is a comic-reading gorilla. Something is very wrong Francesca Simon brings every child's worst nightmare to life in this funny, original story brought to life with Tony Ross's inimitable illustrations. ''

The oldest one is working his way through all 13 Lemony Snickets and I have just bought a boxed set of the Narnia Chronicles for him and his slightly younger sister. I also have a big pile of Roald Dahl stories from the second-hand bookstall in the local market. The two littles love Hairy Maclairy and Slinky Malinkee. (I'm sure I've got the spellings wrong but I haven't seen them – books or children – for a year as they live the other side of the world.)

I've just ordered A necklace of raindrops too but think mine just the paperback on ebay, looking forward to reading it to my granddaughter, thanks for telling us about it Rosiebee.

Rosiebee I have just ordered A necklace of Raindrops from Amazon and managed to get the hardbacked edition with the Jan P illustrations.
gma I have also ordered Freddie and the fairy, cant wait for them arriving!!!!

My GS has this book and loves it too!

One of the best books I ever got for my granddaughter when she was about 3 was a book called 'You Choose' by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt .
It's actually a book without any words but lots of colourful pictures on each page. It's great for the imagination, the child chooses things like where she would like to live, palace, castle, tent etc. How she would like to travel, boat, plane etc. a great book to get children talking. My grandaughter is nearly five now and still loves looking at it, its one of those books where you find something different in the pictures each time. I actually bought two books, one to keep here with me and one to take home, she liked it that much.

It's still available on Amazon.

I recently got a book from the library for our 4 yr old called Gumdrop and the Elephant (gumdrop is a vintage car). I don't know who enjoyed it more - me or the little one. It was very funny. Also we like the Sir Charlie Stinkysocks books. The younger of my two step-gs's (then 12) said I should read "Mr Gumm and the Dancing Bear". It is totally ridiculous and absolutely hilarious (or is it just that I've got a juvenile sense of humour)!