Books you've enjoyed reading with your grandchildren and would recommend

Isabella Tree’s ‘When We Went Wild’, gorgeous illustrations too.

Black Beauty. One granddaughter especially likes horses and was very sad when Ginger was mistreated and the horses died in the stable but still enjoyed it

The Elephant and the Bad Baby, by Elfrida Vipoint, illustrations by Raymond Briggs. Toddlers love all the repetitions.

Peace at Last, The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's child, Room on The Broom, grandson was obsessed with Stick Man at one time and asked for that every time he came to ours. Granddaughter loved Alice in Wonderland. They both liked The Minpins a beautifully illustrated Roald Dahl I'd kept from when my children were young. Slinky Malinki, about a cat who steals things from the neighbourhood, Dibble and Dabble (two ducks) Bad Mood Bear another I kept. We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Night Before Christmas at Christmas time. Those were the ones I can remember I think there were others.

Good old Enid Blyton, she knew how to write a good tale. Mr T and I were tickled by how the Faraway Tree has been PC’d. But I was pleased or our grandchild’s woke parents might have objected. Sadly the Wishing Chair didn’t make the cut because of the name of one of the characters. I downloaded a sample of The Ickabog on to my Kindle to see if it would be our next read after The Faraway Tree. I’m afraid it didn’t appeal.

My GDs absolute favourite were Flower Fairies books .

Mr.Stink by David Willams.,
The Ickabog. Jk Rowling
Both lovely books .

The Magic Faraway Tree and The Wishing Chair. The Famous Five series and the Island of Adventure series. My eldest grandaughter aged almost 9, has just discovered Tracey Beaker.

I can't wait to read Jill Murphy books to my new grandson especially Peace At Last. Both my children and my older GS loved it and I see she has a new book out this year.

Also well loved by older GS were the How do Dinosaurs Books by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague and The Dirty Great Dinosaur by Martin Waddell. I was always being asked to read the last one with lots of dinosaur roars!

Joan Aiken's Necklace of Raindrops. Lovely magical stories. I read them for years as an Infant teacher and then to my beloved granddaughter when she came for sleepovers. I went through several books over the years. My last copy was donated to my neighbour's little girl during the first lockdown. My original book had beautiful illustrations by Jan Pienkowski.

GrannyRose15 that's so funny ???

Have you seen the video of a gran reading "The Wonky Donkey". It's hilarious.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbsZohEMn38

If you've got an Amazon Prime membership, check out the free "prime video" TV app. (It's in the list of apps where you find BBC iPlayer, ITV hub etc).
In the "Kids" section there is a collection of beautiful animations of several Julia Donaldson books: Snail and the Whale, Highway Rat, Room on the Broom, Stickman, Gruffalo, Gruffalo's Child, Zog.
Lovely to watch together.

Our current (topical) favourite book is "The Great Race," written and illustrated by Emily Hiles.
It's the story of the twelve animals that make up the Chinese New Year; the year of the Ox has just started. I've got a set of the animals finger puppets to go with the book and we've been making Chinese lanterns today with ox faces on.
The children love it every year.

Children and granchildren loved " Ferdinand the Bull " When small the "what the ladybird heard " books lovely raised ladybirds to feel on the pages.

Oh all the Slinky Malinke books by Linley Dodd. My grandchildren are all teenagers now but I can still make them smile and join in when I quote lines from them. The rhythm is perfect for young ears.

Gdcs at 3 and 4 really enjoyed Poo In The Zoo. It’s in verse, and for once, the lines do scan properly. IMO it’s both clever and funny.

Once I get the chance to read to them again, and now they’re a bit older, I think I’d try the Horrid Henry books - IMO very funny.

I can recommend the story orchestra books there’s swan lake and the nutcracker and others . They have the story of the ballet with snippets of the music to press and play they’re brilliant!

Hairy McClary, Room on the Broom and the Highway Rat and Six Dinner Sid were the ones I always picked out to read to/with them when young.
Then My Naughty Little Sister and Milly Molly Mandy for the GDs but the GSs would never sit still ?. Ditto the Faraway Tree and the Children of One End Street.

The Snail and the Whale and Room on the Broom. I found younger children loved the rhythm of these.
Shirley Hughes books where always popular with their lovely illustrations, even though they were written some time ago.

We used to read all sorts from the word go - all Julia Donaldson’s books; the ‘Mog’ books; ‘Hairy McClairy’; all the Katie Morag books. When he was here, he always brought a book. Ultimately, it was the Harry Potter, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series which he read the print off! The last book we read together was Rosemary Sutcliffe’s “Eagle of the Ninth”. He’s fourteen now. A lot of years of wonderful reading we had together.

‘The 1000 year old boy’ by Ross Welford. My DGS and I read this over face time in the first lockdown taking it in turns to read out loud. He was in year 6 and a bit of a reluctant reader. We have continued with other books since and are currently reading David Williams’ ‘Code name bananas’. He now has the confidence to do the voices.
‘Shadow’ by Michael Morpurgo is on his school list for this year but I doubt they will get to it so it’s next on the list. Very though provoking.

The Silver Sword went down well for slightly older children. It's about a group of refugee children roaming around Europe at the end of the war. It is exciting and thought provoking. It is linked with the forming of the Pesselotsi Villages for war orphans.( Not sure I spelt that right.)

My granddaughter and I enjoyed Jacqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather series together until she was 13 or 14.
The younger ones like Julia Donaldson’s books especially The Snail and the Whale and Stickman, as well, of course, as The Gruffalo!

Only just seen this thread and sorry there weren’t more suggestions. I haven’t been able to read to my youngest grandchildren for months but (just) 2 year old absolutely loves “Go go pirate boat” by Katrina Charman and Nick Sharrat. It is sung to the tune of Row, row, row you boat. And also “Car car truck jeep” by same author/illustrator and sung to tune of ‘baa baa black sheep’.

5 year old loves the Rabbit & Bear series by Julian Gough & Jim Field.

I remember reading the story of the happy Prince by Oscar Wilde to my son. He cried at the end. (Think he was about 6)