This year’s World Book Day arrives on 7 March, championing the joy of reading and encouraging children to “read their way” in 2024.
Reading for fun can teach children so many lessons, from compassion, empathy, and wellbeing to improving social skills and life chances across their school career and into adulthood.
And yet, according to the National Literary Trust, less than half (47.8%) of children say they enjoy reading, the lowest figure in almost 20 years.
If you’re looking to get your children or grandchildren into reading, try these seven great books from children’s classics to modern Young Adult adventures, sure to ignite a lifelong love of stories.
1. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (1877)
Although it was published way back in 1877, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse remains a classic of children’s literature, and for good reason.
Beautifully written and sure to grab young readers’ attention from the off, the story follows the life of the titular well-bred and well-born horse whose grandfather won the cup at New Market twice.
From his days in the fields being looked after by his mother Duchess, Black Beauty is sold and must strike out alone pulling cabs in London. It is a life of adventure, cruelty, and enduring spirit; a story that adults and children alike have been returning to for close to 150 years.
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
When Mary Lennox’s parents die, her life in India is upended and she is sent to live with her uncle in the Yorkshire Moors.
So begins another classic of children’s literature, Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.
Forced to make her way alone around the dusty rooms of Misselthwaite Manor, Mary finds a neglected garden and begins to tend to it, hoping to return it to its former glory.
But her actions will have consequences for the residents of the Manor, not least her uncle who locked the garden himself, upon the death of his wife years earlier.
3. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (1961)
James and the Giant Peach was Dahl’s second book for children, following 1943’s Gremlins.
It tells the story of James, recently orphaned and sent to live with his two nasty aunts, Spiker and Sponge. The pair force James to do chores and live in a single room on hard floorboards until he is given magical crystals by a mysterious man.
When James drops the crystals near a barren fruit tree the resulting giant peach becomes a gateway to adventure. With a cast of unforgettable characters, James and the Giant Peach became the first of many Dahl stories to capture the imagination of generations of young readers.
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)
In American author L’Engle’s science-fiction adventure story for children, Meg Murry goes in search of her missing father on an adventure through time, space, and multiple galaxies after meeting a new neighbour, Mrs Whatsit.
Meg, her child genius brother Charles Wallace, and schoolmate Calvin O’Keefe must battle evil – in the form of The Black Thing – as they travel through the fifth dimension to alien planets. Their physical and emotional journey explores themes of spirituality and science, religion and fantasy.
The novel is the first in L’Engle’s Time Quintet.
5. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian (1981)
In Michelle Magorian’s timeless classic, young evacuee Willie Beech must leave all he knows to take up residence with the taciturn widower Tom Oakley.
Amid conflict both global and internal, the unlikely duo form an incredible bond, finding solace, as well as emotions once thought lost, in each other’s company.
Read Goodnight Mister Tom with your child or grandchild this World Book Day and the story is sure to stay with you both, long after lights out.
6. Skellig by David Almond (1998)
David Almond’s Skellig won the Carnegie Medal and Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year on its release back in 1998.
When young Michael moves house he finds a man in his garage that he assumes to be homeless. Crotchety and suffering from ‘Arthur Itis’, the man demands aspirin and Chinese food.
As Michael and his new friend Mina, spend more time with the man they hear a story that human shoulder blades are sometimes thought of as vestigial wings. Soon, they start to question if Skellig is human.
Described by the Whitbread Prize as ‘an extraordinarily profound book, no matter how old the reader,’ there is something in this heartwarming book for everyone.
7. Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve (2001)
Tom Natsworthy grows up in the traction city of London in the age of “Municipal Darwinism”.
It’s long after the 60-minute War wiped out civilisation and we know it and now giant cities on caterpillar tracks race across the wasteland hunting each other for sport and resources.
When Tom finds himself flung out of London, he must befriend loner Hester Shaw to survive. Together, they will embark on a quest involving political intrigue and high adventure as they join the fight between the giant wheeled cities and the Anti-Traction League.
Mortal Engines is the first book in the Mortal Engines Quartet.
