Today is International Children’s Book day, so to celebrate we asked our contributors to look back and reflect on their favourite childhood book.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
Madeleine Raine
Matilda by Roald Dahl
While it may be cliché, my favourite childhood book was Matilda by Roald Dahl. I would say the book was almost singlehandedly responsible for my love of reading. My uncle gifted me a rainbow-coloured set of Roald Dahl books when I was seven, and thus a love-affair was born. As a somewhat insular kid who also had to deal with a Trunchbull-esque figure in her own life, Matilda gave me comfort during a time when I needed it, and because of her, I too decided to find my solace in books. While I did not get supernatural revenge on my teacher as I had hoped, I did get out of her class eventually and continued on my literature journey. I managed to read the novel many times after that, and I even dressed as the character for World Book Day – complete with a book cart in tow. Without Matilda to kickstart my love of reading, I would not be where I am today: surrounded by beautiful books and studying French Literature at the University of Oxford with a dream of becoming a writer. I owe so much to this one book.
Emily Manock
The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
Sat upon the blue carpet of my primary school classroom, its bristles spiking through my woollen tights, I’d swallow the words of Enid Blyton that fell from my teacher’s lips. The first book of The Faraway Tree series was my favourite, The Enchanted Wood. I longed to be the fourth sibling of Jo, Bessie, and Fanny; venturing up the enchanted tree every evening after school, instead of returning home to my annoying brothers and sisters. The ever-changing land at the top of the tree filled me with excitement. I imagined making my own perfect lands, filled with colour and all my favourite things. I day-dreamed of tea parties with Moon-Face, Silky the Fairy, and The Saucepan Man and sliding back home down the ‘slippery-slip’. I was delighted when the class project was to create our own faraway tree out of recycled materials. My proudest feature being my mini caricature of Moon-Face, made out of tin foil. Escaping into the pages of The Faraway Tree series filled me with so much comfort as a child and, thinking back now, it still sets alight that warm fuzzy feeling.
Eve Davies
The Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson
Dame Jacqueline Wilson needs no introduction. Accompanied by Nick Sharratt’s lively and characteristic illustrations, Wilson’s controversial and immersive children’s novels raised my generation on ‘show, don’t tell’ sensitive storytelling that inspired countless writing assignments during my school career. Her book that impacted me the most was The Bed and Breakfast Star. The book introduces us to 10-year-old Elsa and her pregnant mum, stepdad “Mack the Smack” and her two younger half-siblings as they navigate their turbulent life in run-down bed and breakfast accommodation – punctured by sharp moments of levity and persistent jokes from its optimistic young narrator. Elsa’s defiant optimism in the face of her family’s mounting misfortune serves as a repeated reminder for readers of the importance of retaining humour, hope and solidarity in times of adversity. Thumbing through the book once more as an almost-24-year-old, I’m as impacted by its astute handling of sensitive themes as much as I was at age 10; such is Wilson’s aptitude for engaging her audience through the unfiltered voice of her young protagonists. A testament to its now worn-out spine and well-thumbed pages, I would regularly devour the novel in one speedy 40-minute sitting, and at an easily digestible 208 pages long, The Bed and Breakfast Star remains my favourite childhood comfort read.
Lucy Metters
The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
My favourite book as a child was The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit. I first came across it because it is one of my Mum’s favourite books from her childhood, so I always had a lovely connection to the story. My parents read it to me, and then when I was a bit older I read it to myself, and have gone back to it recently. It follows the story of three siblings who move with their mother from London to the countryside, in a house near a railway, after their father has been falsely accused of spying in his position at the Foreign Office. The sense of camaraderie and boundless imagination between the three children is joyous, which only adds to the poignant, heart-warming storyline that centres around the goodness of humanity. It has an air on magic and hopefulness about it, which is something that will always have me returning to the story, no matter how old I am.
Nicola Townsend
How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
No other book series captivates me more than the How To Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell during my childhood. Honestly, I’ve always preferred this book series than the Harry Potter series. I just don’t understand the hype around the Harry Potter franchise. Looking back, the book series is different from the How To Train Your Dragon film series. I remember I read most of the books at the time and the adventures Hiccup had with Toothless, Kamikaze (Astrid from the films most likely got inspired by her) and the rest of the Isle of Berk Viking tribe. In the books, Gobber is much more ruthless than he is in the movies. Due to how the books were written, they were meant to be read out loud. I can imagine how exciting life would be if I got the chance to live amongst dragons, despite the fact they’re monstrous and larger-than-life creatures. Before the later instalments were released years later, I always wondered what happened to Hiccup’s mum and if I’d ever have the opportunity to see her. If it weren’t for these books, I wouldn’t still be reading nowadays. And this is coming from someone who refused to read books.
Wing See Li
Our Cat Cuddles by Gervase Phinn
Whenever I felt any remote tinge of sadness as a child, I would run to my overstuffed ramshackle of a bookshelf and tug Our Cat Cuddles off it. Gervase Phinn’s witty Northern rhymes and Amanda Montgomery-Higham’s bright-coloured playful illustrations never failed to make me chuckle. Phinn’s farcical tale starts with two siblings, Lizzie and Dominic and their hunt for the perfect kitten. They bypass “the fat cats, the fierce cats, the ferocious, catch-a-rat-cats.” They overlook “the furry cats, the fluffy cats, the friendly, sit-on-your-lap cats.” Finally they eventually settle on the tiniest, meekest cat. Yet, in the biggest of plot twists, (well it was when I was 5), the cat grows to be every parent’s feline nightmare, a lion. Hilariously, Cuddles, a cute pussy-cat, metamorphoses into Brian, a destructive king of the jungle. Our Cat Cuddles is a rhyming, timeless masterpiece and my now very tattered copy will forever be a priceless heirloom.
Olivia Bothamley-Dakin
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Daniel Handler, under the name of Lemony Snicket, took a darker approach to the world of children’s literature. A Series of Unfortunate Events starts with the death of the Baudelaire children’s parents in The Bad Beginning and gets progressively more depressing as the series continues. Even still, 13 books later the series was just as popular than ever, leading to a movie adaptation and a Netflix original series. I revisited the series in lockdown and found that it affected me in a very different way. When I first read the books, Violet and Klaus were older than me, so I guess I figured they were well-equipped to deal with tragedy and adventure. Now however, I see them as the children they are, and realise that the true villains of the series were the adults that never helped them.
Vicky Greer
The Faraway Tree collection by Enid Blyton
As a young child I remember so clearly bedtimes which consisted of sitting on my bed with my younger sister listening to my mum reading an Enid Blyton book. From the countless books that were read, my favourite was The Faraway Tree collection which contains four books. The first book was published in 1939 with the others released in 1943, 1946 and 1951. The story follows the adventures of three children, Jo, Bessie and Fanny, who move into a house nearby a wood then discover that a tree is magical. The Faraway Tree is so tall that the top is hidden in the clouds and hosts numerous different worlds which rotate. The children go on adventures within these lands and never quite know what they are going to encounter and how long they have before the land starts to move on from the tree. Accompanying Jo, Bessie and Fanny are the individuals who live in the tree such as Moon-face, Silky the fairy and Dame Washalot who help the children both cause and get out of any mischief they find themselves in. The books are an absolute classic by an incredible author; however, the memories they remind me of are just as special.
Abby Titmuss
Cheeky Little Kitten by Joan Stimson
I read a lot of books growing up but my first memory was of my dad reading Cheeky Little Kitten by Joan Stimson. The little kitten wants everyone to have fun always, until one day tabby scowler comes to play. Apart from she doesn’t want to play, she just wants to scowl. Every bedtime my dad sat next to me, and read it, doing funny voices, adding his own little plot points. A lot of the time he read it more than once. I loved it. Throughout my childhood, my dad would often make tabby scowler jokes to cheer me up and that book still lives on my bookshelf. That’s the magic of reading (or being read to) as a child; it inspires a love that will last a lifetime.
Orla McAndrew
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
“Oh! If people knew what a comfort to a horse a light hand is…”
When I was a child, I was horse-obsessed; my room was filled with horse toys and magazines. They are gentle and gorgeous animals that deserve our respect. My mum introduced me to a classic 1877 Anna Sewell novel; a fictional autobiography of a horse named Black Beauty. It recounts the tales of Beauty’s life from when he was a carefree foal to his hard-working life pulling London cabbies, eventually retiring to the countryside and returning to his kindest master, Joe. Black Beauty is an emotional rollercoaster; it has very sad moments that teach us a lesson about animal cruelty. But it also offers beautiful moments about the virtue of love, kindness, and friendship. I’d highly recommend this book for younger readers from the age of 10. It is the most sensitive and heartfelt animal story I have ever read. The book serves the purpose to open your eyes to the mistreatment of animals and offers a reminder to always be kind to all creatures, regardless of how many legs they have.
Paloma Priya
Featured image via Clay Banks on Unsplash. Image license is available here. This image has in no way been altered.
Orla McAndrew
Orla McAndrew is a co-founder of Empoword Journalism and also a features and Instagram editor. As a freelance writer she has written for Stylist Magazine, The Yorkshire Evening Post, The Indiependent, The Hysteria Collective and SmallScreen. Currently she is an intern at Screen Yorkshire, and in September she was be starting her English Literature degree at the University of York.