Best books for children
05. Aug, 2011 
With so many beautiful children’s books to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start. How do you know which books your child will enjoy, or find just the right flip-the-flap or touch-and-feel book to buy for your friend’s new baby?
We’d love to hear your recommendations on the best children’s classics, picture books, nursery rhyme collections, flip-the flap books, touch-and-feel books, and paperback fiction for those hard-to-buy-for primary school children. Just leave a comment below telling us which books your kids love and why!
Keep an eye on our Books and Music category as well – our visiting BookWorm from Clover Hill Book Reviews writes a regular feature previewing brand new children’s books by talented new authors and illustrators. You’ll also see features about some of our favourite authors like Judith Kerr and Julia Donaldson.
Best places to buy children’s books
We wholeheartedly recommend the Oxfam Second-hand Bookstore. They have a great selection of second-hand books, including some gorgeous children’s classics. The money you spend in their online second-hand book store will go towards Oxfam’s campaigns to fight poverty around the world, and to help other families.
If you are looking for new releases or the best deals online, The Book People website has some deals which are simply too good to be true, with whole collections of top selling children’s books for a fiver at times.
A few of Really Kid Friendly’s favourite books for young children
The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
A wonderful illustrated children’s book about adventure, companionship and a subtle message about ecological responsibility.
Tickling Tigers by Sean Taylor and Jo Brown
Incredibly silly little picture book for young children and a great excuse to have a tickle and a giggle.
The Nickle Nackle Tree by Lynley Dodd
What a pleasure to read! This picture book uses inventive language and feels fresh and fun every single time.
Main image courtesy of Kate Ter Haar on Flickr
101 Responses
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For real littlies I’d recommend ‘Dear Zoo’ or ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, for small kids I’d say anything by Shirley Hughes, ‘The Tiger that Came to Tea’ etc, & for older kids anything by Roald Dahl, or the Harry Potter series.
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Has to be twas the night before Christmas
x
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My two little ones love all of the ‘That’s Not My’ books. They are built to last as well!
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My children like puppet books they have one called Wendy the wide mouthed frog it is fab
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both my kids realy loved dear zoo
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My kids both love The Gruffalo and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They also love rhyming books which is why Juliia Donaldson is a firm favorite! The series of ‘That’s Not My…’ are very good too.
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My son loves the Gruffalo & the Usborne Puzzle Books, they’re great for reading together!
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The tiger who came to Tea was always a favoutrite in our house along with all the Hairy McLary stories and the Maisie books (when a little bit older).
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The Twits by Roald Dahl has been loved and read a lot by all the children here! I enjoy reading it too
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the hungry caterpillar is a great book , it also educates children which is good
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My little one absolutely adores The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Peace At Last – they were also really popular with my other 2 children who are now a little bit older. Both stories are fantastic and the brightly coloured illustrations in The Very Hungry Caterpillar are fantastic for very young children. Peace At Last is a wonderful story book and the constant use of repetition is fabulous for children to join in with!
My elder daughter absolutely loves The Rainbow Magic series of books which I would highly recommend for little girls who love to hear stories aloud but who can also start to read basic words by themselves so they can join in. My little girl loves fairies, pixies, goblins etc so this range of books is great for encouraging her to improve her reading. She also loves hearing the Enid Blyton Magic Faraway Tree series. A really brilliant set of books!
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I recommend the velveteen rabbit for children. I used the extract where the rabbit asked the horse what is real and the horse explains that ‘real’ (love) is when you’r shabby and got bits falling off you but your still loved, for my wedding. I now read this book to my 6 month old daughter and it’s such a beautiful story with a lovely sentiment and is especially special to me.
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I used to read The Faraway Tree when I was little, & now I read it to my 2 boys – they absolutely love it too!
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I would recommend The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I Love You To The Moon and Back, also Lauras Star is a favourite of all my children.
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I always make sure either myself or my husband enjoy the books we read to our baby daughter so that our baby senses our enjoyment too. Particular favourites at the moment are Happy Dog Sad Dog, Nosey Norman, Dear Zoo, I won’t Bite and The Washing Line…and lots more!!!
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James and the giant peach is a great read for kids!
You end up dreaming that you will come across one some day!
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Must be “The very hungry caterpillar”!
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My two both enjoy the Very Hungry Catterpillar, the Gruffalo, Dear Zoo, One Mole Digging A Hole, The Whale and the Snail, and are now getting into the classic tales such as The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the three Bears, and also the Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy books
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For older children Harry Potter captures their imagination from a young age through to adulthood, and later on Lord of the Rings is also a fantastic read, not forgetting old classics such as The famous Five, Secret Seven, and other Enid Blyton books
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To be honest I think any book is good if it captures a child’s imagination-each child finds different things appealing so all books chosen are to be encouraged as this is the whole point-to get them wanting to read
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A family favourite is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, such a classic! x
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I love the hungry caterpillar. we do all the actions,
my oldest son is16 and still remembers us reading it together!
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I recommend The old lady who swallowed a fly – I had it as a child and bought it for my son who seems to like me singing it to him while he puts his fingers through the holes in the pages. We recently read Hairy Mclairy for the first time and that was an instant hit with everyone.
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Robert Sabuda’s pop-up books are fantastic for eliciting that vision of wide-eyed wonder at the turn of each page (and not just the first time!).
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My older children all loved the Chronicles of Narnia. Great for bedtime reading because you can always finish on an exciting bit. They can then go to sleep thinking about what will happen next.
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We love the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes. The stories are very real life and the illustrations are lovely.
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I also recommend highly the Hungry caterpillar, it is a much requested classic in my house!
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I like Charlie and Lola Books. My Children love them even more. Make such entertaining reading.
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Our favourite is The Very Hungry Caterpiller xxx
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im afraid, its Hungry Caterpillar, LILY MAI fav
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Fuzzy Wuzzy Scrunchy Book – Sally Hunter
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Tickle, Tickle by Helen Oxenbury
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the gruffalo is a favourite in our house
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This Little Baby (Campbell Books)
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I recommend any rhyming book. The Dr Seuss books are great but so are some of the Janet and Allen Ahlberg books such as ‘peepo’. The rhythm of peotry really grabs little imaginations.
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The Mr Men books seemed to have grab my grandson attention, he loves them and has him laughing out loud!
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Id recommend The Very Hungry Caterpillar
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar EVERY time, that book never grows old, it will be around for many more years to come, each telling their story to the next generation! :3)
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My 2nd son loves The Gruffalo, The Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket. His older brother when younger loved the first 2 books but his favourite was One Bear at Bedtime.
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I love reading the Gruffalo to my nieces, its such a clever little book, and they love it.
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We love We’re going on a bear hunt and Eat your Peas!
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@needaphone Gruffalo hands down
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My kids all love the very hungry caterpillar and the owl who was afraid of the dark!
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Mine love anything by Julia Donaldson esp Stick Man and Tiddler x
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Mine love The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Twits
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we like the funny bones books lol @jessws2011
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Great websites for good deals and fabulous book, will add Oxfam Second-hand Bookstore to list. Buying books and giving back it’s very rewarding. Thank you for your input.
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Ive always been a fan of Meg and Mog
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The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s child are my daughter’s favourites. Also Where the Wild Things Are!!
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My 18 month old loves “Oh Dear” by Rod Campbell. It’s a lift-the-flap book and tells the story of Buster who goes to stay with his Grandma on her farm. His mission is to find the eggs. I don’t know what it is about the book but my son has loved this book from a very early age and can ask me to read it again and again … so much so that there have been occasions when I’ve hid the book under the sofa cushion when his back is turned!!!! Another absolute favourite has been “Frogs & Friends” by Joanne Barkan. This book has two plastic frogs embedded in the front cover which “ribbit” when you press them. The pages lift over the frogs so they feature on each page of the story. The story has a lilting rhyming sound to it and I think this is why my son loves it so much. The illustrations in both books are excellent and are useful to teach my son animals and objects ie: “where are the ducks”, “where is the sun”, “where is Buster’s teddybear”? etc etc etc.
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For 5-6 yr-olds, Frog and Toad stories are wonderful, written by Arnold Lobel. They use great stories but also use simple enough language that the children can read them too.
My 8-yr-old son is currently working his way through the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books. They are quite dark tales, but are full of brilliantly drawn characters and wonderful language. Also love the way all the adult characters are flawed in some way (or deliciously evil) whereas the children are resourceful and intelligent.
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