My top ten* children's authors (in no particular order)

One of my current writing projects for myself is a series of illustrated children’s books for young readers. I find it a great way to wind down after a day of proofreading, editing or copywriting – doing something deliciously fun and fairly ridiculous with words. It usually involves vibrant felt-tips, an enormous sheet of paper and some stick men drawings my two-year-old nephew would scoff at.

So reading (and rediscovering) children’s books is something I’m particularly into at the moment. Earlier today I was chatting with a client about which children’s books his grandson may like, and I enjoyed myself so much suggesting authors, I thought I’d share some of my favourites here.

Roald Dahl – the man was a genius
Terry Pratchet – especially the recent Wee Free Men books
J.K Rowling – obviously
C. S Lewis – for the Narnia series
Philip Pullman – I especially like the Sally Lockhart quartet
Dr Seuss – try reading Fox in Socks aloud quickly!
Hans Christian Andersen – beautiful
L. Frank Baum – his Oz books are much better than the film
Enid Blyton – her books have a certain charm
Judy Blume – because she was one of the first authors to stop talking down to kids

Thinking about it, I rather disagree with labeling children’s books as that at all. I think the world would be a far happier place if adults read this stuff more as well (and no, I don’t mean at your wee one’s bedtime when, in order to tuck them in quickly, you skip whole paragraphs, speak so fast your tongue cramps and turn over the pages ten at a time!).

* For today at least. There’s so many to choose from!