Oldies Beat Newbies

February 22nd, 2008 |

I see from this mornings DTeleg that the people at Booktrust (an independent charity set up in 1921 to encourage people of all ages to read) have asked 4000 parents to reveal their most favourite books to compile a Top 50.

The oldest book, in the top 10, is from 1865 (Alice in Wonderland) and the most recent from 2005 (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) and there is everything in between. What is slightly surprising (or not) is that the Potter book is the only one of JKR’s tomes in there.

TOP 10

1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C S Lewis

2 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

3 Famous Five Series, Enid Blyton

4 Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

5 The BFG, Roald Dahl

6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J K Rowling

7 The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

8 The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

9 Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

10 The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson

The poll noted that four out of five parents read a bedtime story to their children every night, for an average of 22 minutes, which is heartening as one of my regional newspapers suggested (about Albert The Third): “… the whole package would be great for reading aloud at bedtime.”

If kids are really interested in reading, or more importantly writing, I do hope that when Culture Secretary Andy Burnham announces today that plans for 5,000 apprenticeships in arts and media bodies are to be unveiled that he well remembers that writing is an art. Unfortunately I can see that it will be music, theatre, film, fashion and the graphic arts that will get the public money.

( Eric Carle’s ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ is said to have sold an average of one copy every minute since it was first published in 1960 - nice one Eric. )

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