Building a children's library
From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses ... what the top writers say every child should read
While the poet laureate Andrew Motion chooses highly ambitious texts including Don Quixote, Ulysses, The Waste Land and Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman focuses on fairytales, myths and legends and JK Rowling sticks to old favourites with To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights and Beatrix Potter.
Classic of the month: The Alfie Books by Shirley Hughes
I've been trying to put my finger on why I love Shirley Hughes's Alfie books so much. Why should the everyday tales of a four-year-old boy and his toddler sister Annie Rose so lift my spirits - as well as those of my two young children - at the end of a dog-tiring day?
Classic of the month: Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny, is a little black cat simply too timid to have fun, but capable of extraordinary bravado when she thinks no one is looking. This scaredy-kitten is at the centre of Esther Averill's deliciously appealing books about climbing up to confidence, paw by nervous paw.
Classic of the month: The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
The first book I remember adoring was Enid Blyton's The Enchanted Wood. My mother and I went out one Saturday to spend £3 for my birthday - I must have been eight or nine. I recall buying a Monopoly set and this beautiful green hardback book with cream paper and rich black prin