The Best Children’s Stories Ever
Saturday, January 28th, 2012The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
For 0-2 year olds, there’s no better story than that of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Youngsters can interact with this highly colourful and engaging story, following the creature as he works his way through foodstuffs leaving bitten ‘holes’ in his wake. The ending (the caterpillar evolving into a beautiful butterfly) encourages children to think about the life cycle of all creatures and has to this day been translated into 50 different languages.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
This gloriously illustrated and imaginative book has been such a hit that it is recently been turned into a film. The story follows a young boy, Max, who is sent to his room for being too wild. Alone and furious, Max’s imagination takes his across the sea to ‘where the wild things are’. Here he slowly looses interest in rebelling and trying to tame the beasts, so the end sees him returning to the reality of his bedroom.
This children’s book deserves to make the list because it reflects beautifully how creative a child’s imagination can be. The story follows a young boy, Max, who after being sent to his room for being naughty uses his imagination to ‘run away’ to where wild things live. However, Max soon grows tired of rebelling with the beasts, and returns home to a hot supper. This story is so loved it was recently made into a hit movie.
The most famous of Roald Dahl’s stories, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory combines fantasy with tantalising imagery, making it a sure hit with kids. As with most children’s stories, this book combines story telling with morality, with Willy Wonka punishing the naughty children in often dark and gruesome ways. The story is so loved by adults and children alike, it has also been made into two hit movies.
Like all of Roald Dahl’s stories, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory combines lovable and detestable characters with morality. The story is set around a group of children who, along with their parents, have won a tour of Willy Wonka’s magical chocolate factory. However, on the way the naughty kids are punished by Wonka who had created the competition to find a suitable successor to his factory, highlighting how good children get the rewards.
The books that make up the Harry Potter series are perhaps the greatest books of all time. Sales figures certainly reflect this claim, with Harry Potter the best selling book series ever.
The books get increasingly darker as they go on, but throughout all seven books there are themes of friendship, love, family, courage and the power of good versus evil, ultimately making the stories timeless and appealing to all ages.
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