I found the following blog written by Childtasticbooks, and thought it made interesting reading. I’ve read approximately 50% of the books on the list, mostly the older books.

At Moulton, we have a beautiful library, which is available to hire for reading groups, adult and children, and for more informal meetings. The library is well stocked, and as you would expect, has lots comfy chairs for settling down with a good book! Contact me for further details.

The most influential / important books in British Children’s Literature since 1960

Posted by CHILDTASTICBOOKS

OK, it’s a strange title but it’s the first topic of my new MA module on British Children’s Literature, 1960 to the present day, and it’s a very vague and hazy area.

We’re spending the next few months looking at various books and authors that have defined and influenced British Children’s Literature since the 1960s and the books chosen form part of a literary canon. The problem is, how do you define a literary canon? I would have a stab at it by saying it comprises books that have been influential and have enjoyed enduring popularity over a period of time, as this indicates that their message never dates or grows stale.

However, books and authors that I choose might not show up on someone else’s list. In fact, our first exercise this week was to say whether or not we agreed with the texts chosen as part of this module, which are:

The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff (1959)
The Borrowers Aloft by Mary Norton (1961)
A Stranger at Green Knowe by Lucy Boston (1961)
A Dog So Small by Philippa Pearce (1962)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)
Elidor (1965), The Owl Service (1967) and The Stone Book Quartet (1976-8) by Alan Garner
Smith by Leon Garfield (1967)
Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden (1973)
The Trouble With Donovan Croft by Bernard Ashley (1974)
Going Back by Penelope Lively (1975)
The Machine Gunners (1975), The Scarecrows (1981), Blitzcat (1989), The Kingdom by the Sea (1990), and Gulf (1992), all by Robert Westall
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp (1977)
The BFG by Roald Dahl (1982)
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend (1982)
A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Paton Walsh (1983)
The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith (1983)
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne-Jones (1985)
Bill’s New Frock by Anne Fine (1989)
The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson (1991)
Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty (1991)
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995)
Junk (1996) and Doing It (2003) by Melvin Burgess
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling (1997)
Postcards from No Man’s Land by Adrian Chambers (1997)
The Lion-Tamer’s Daughter by Peter Dickinson (1999)
Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond (1999)
The Stones are Hatching by Geraldine McCaughrean (1999)
Plus Enid Blyton’s Five on a Treasure Island (1942 but reprinted often since 1960s).

It’s a lot of reading!