Children should get acquainted with Long John Silver, Mary Poppins and Oliver Twist before Harry Potter, say the most recent five U.K. Children’s Laureates.
Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and the current Laureate, Michael Rosen, were asked to choose seven works each to recommend to children as part of a 10th anniversary celebration for their position. The list was heavy on the old school, while Harry Potter’s old school, Hogwarts, was nowhere to be seen.
Via guardian.co.uk
The five children’s laureates were asked to pick their favourite children’s book and plumped almost overwhelmingly for older books, with only five of the 35 titles selected less than 20 years old.
The 1930s were the most popular decade for the laureates, with seven titles making the list, from TH White’s story of a young King Arthur, The Sword in the Stone, to Noel Streatfeild’s tale of three orphaned girls, Ballet Shoes, and PL Travers’s classic Mary Poppins.
You can see the list of books here.