My favourite books for Friday Club

Oh come on, if you’ve read here for long, you *know* I’m going to blog when the prompt is about books. (And if you haven’t read here for long, you’d probably better take a quick peek at my 100 book challenge…). I think the idea was to blog about your favourite book, singular, but that’s never going to happen. Choose just one book? I can’t. So instead, I’m going to do you a list of 10 books I love with my children, or am looking forward to sharing with them, from pic books right the way up to novels.

So, in vague suitability for age order, here you go.

Rattletrap Car Gorgeous picture book, suitable for whole family read aloud, that we read so many times that we memorised it. There’s just something particularly lovely about the language, and also quite nice to see a book with just a father in, rather than just a mother, as is most common in picture books.

Hello, World Baby’s first walk, along with teddy and a number of animal friends. Just beautiful.

Winnie-the-Pooh Does anyone not know Winnie the pooh? Stories that can be read aloud and are not mind numbingly dull to do so over and over again, which is just as well, as none of my children were satisfied by a single reading of this. I confess I haven’t read the modern sequel though, and I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz I can’t find a link to the exact edition we have, which is rather a shame, as it has beautiful pictures which really enhance the story. It is a very strange book though.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. There’s a story behind this book (there would have to be really, wouldn’t there?). It was read to me at school, probably when I was about 8, and I’d never managed to find it since, even when I’d searched Hay on Wye. Then I met Tim, and he introduced me to internet shopping, and ordered this for me from Amazon. Fairly sure it was one of the first things he ever bought me. (He probably slightly regrets that now….)

A Wrinkle in Time. Really looking forward to Small reading this one, think he’ll get a lot out of it. Great story about the important things in life.

Ender’s Game. There are now lots of books in this series – this is the first and stands alone. A fabulous story that can be read at so many different levels – just as a yarn, or you can get much more out of it if you’re coming to it first time as an adult.

Little Brother (or you can download it for free). I reviewed this one before, so I’m just going to refer you there if you want further details.

The Gate to Women’s Country. A vision of a future where men and women live very different lives – I much prefer this one to the bleakness that is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Not that it’s much less bleak tbh, but somehow there’s a little more hope. Not really one for children though, as there is, iirc, some slightly unpleasant sex in it, though it is congruent with the story and not at all gratuitous.
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The Children’s Story. At the end of the list because despite the title, this isn’t really a book for children. You used to be able to read this one online, but I can’t find it now sadly. It’s a very short book, and I highly recommend it. If you’ve ever wondered how vulnerable your children’s mind is, this is the book that will send shivers down your spine. And yet it’s not graphic, or scary, or unpleasant at all.

Really looking forward to seeing the other entries in this carnival – pop back later when I should have links 🙂 ETA:

Here are the other entries in this Book Carnival:

Kelly from Domestic Goddesque posts about the book that gave her back the joy of losing yourself in a book in I read books once. Now I have small children.
Jenny from GingerBread House reviews her favourite book: Orla Kiely – Pattern.
Nova from Cherished By Me posts about the books that fuelled her passion for reading in My favourite book.
Not So Single Mum from Diary of a (not so) Single Mum reviews The Lady in the Tower.
Becky from Book Reviews for Mums reviews the book that opened her up to her responsibilities and the choices she makes in life in My Favourite Book.
Helen from Cheeky Wipes reviews her favourite books in From Riders to The God Delusion – my favourite books.
Cass from The Diary of a Frugal Family reviews her first and favourite cookbook in Where It All Began.
Cara from Freckles Family reviews a favourite from the past few years in A Favourite Book.
Maggy from Red Ted Art reviews a recent gift, a Pop-up, Pull-out, Picture Atlas.
Ella from Notes From Home reviews Sad Book.