My children might now be reading the likes of Shatter Me, Red Queen and New Moon independently, but I have very fond memories of reading stories to them.

Judith Kerr’s Mog books and The Tiger Who Came to Tea; Spot the Dog, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, loads from Usborne’s touchy-feely That’s not my… series and the wonderful My Mum book by Anthony Browne were firm favourites. A plethora of Julia Donaldson books including The Gruffalo, The Smartest Giant in Town, The Highway Rat, What the Ladybird Heard and Room on the Broom also featured regularly as bedtime (and daytime!) stories.

Julia Donaldson and the Gruffalo

A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good…

It looks like we weren’t alone in our love of Julia Donaldson books. A survey commissioned by The Works reveals that nearly 20 percent of parents will choose one of her titles as the first book they read to their child. The modern classic The Gruffalo tops the list and is selected by one in eight parents. Released in 1999, The Gruffalo has sold over 13 million copies to date.

My girls loved the Gruffalo. We had the book in different versions (as well as The Gruffalo’s Child), had lots of merchandise and even had the Match and Memory Board Game!

The top 10 first books parents read to their children:

1. The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
3. That’s Not My…  – Fiona Watt
4. Guess How Much I Love You – Sam McBratney
5. Peppa Pig
6. Spot – Eric Hill
7. The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
8. Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell
9. Winnie the Pooh – A. A. Milne 
10. Harry Potter – J. K. Rowling

The research highlighted that 44% of parents read to children from birth. This is certainly what we did, and I’m convinced it fostered my children’s love of reading.

The First Books We Remember

A certain series featuring a boy wizard tops the charts in terms of the books that we remember as our first read. The survey highlights that 5% of the population cite one of the J.K. Rowling books as the first they remember reading either independently or having read to them. 

The second book on the list is Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree followed by the author’s Famous Five series. Winnie the Pooh and The Very Hungry Caterpillar complete the top five.

Roald Dahl features prominently in the top 10 with The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all making the list with 13% of the respondents recalling something written by the author. For me it was George’s Marvellous Medicine.

Gruffalo versus a Caterpillar

Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar – which has sold over 50 million copies since its 1969 release – is the only book to feature in the top five of both lists. That is it’s the book we most remember being read to us and one of the first books we read to our own children. I certainly remember it on both sides of the fence!

World Book Day 2024

World Book Day, a charity that operates in the UK and Ireland, aims to enrich lives by promoting a love of books and reading. Whilst dressing up has become a big aspect of the annual celebrations there are plenty of other activities and ways to engage from ‘adopting an author’ to redesigning book covers and being a contributing author in ‘story consequences’.

Find out more below:

World Book Day takes place on Thursday, March 7th 2024. The Works are supporting the charity and are encouraging children and parents to bring their £1 book token into stores any time up until March 31st to exchange their token for a book from the World Book Day 2024 range.

You can find out further information here: https://www.theworks.co.uk/page/world-book-day.html

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The site doesn’t look the slickest, but is a real Aladdin’s cave of new and old time classics with a wealth of activity books, fiction, non-fiction, book & CD combos and even work books (scary Key Stage 1 and 2 stuff). They will even source books at the best possible prices if they aren’t already offered on the website.

You’ll find heavily discounted books from much loved and more mainstream authors such as Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, Anthony Browne and Jill Murphy – a hardback copy of Julia Donaldson’s The Highway Rat costs just £5.50 instead of the RRP £10.99 – on the site, but The Book Stalk also seems to excel in finding lesser known treasures.

Looking at Perseus flying in Greek Myths and Legends

Amongst the more unusual titles is Greek Myths and Legends (which I got a sneak preview of and which has just become available on the site at £6.50 instead of the RRP £12.99) – a hardback anthology of 11 of the most familiar myths and legends from ancient Greece. I feel this would really appeal to boys as an antidote to some of the traditional fairytales, which are often targeted at girls, and is a good example of The Book Stalk’s varied offering. However, speaking of traditional fairytales, the site also has some lovely compilations and has offered readers of this blog 50% off two great titles.

Julia Donaldson’s The Highway Rat and Tales of Princes and Princesses

Fairy Tales – A Classic Collection compiles ten classics including Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Blue Beard and Little Thumb. With wonderful illustrations and stories varying significantly in terms of subject and characters, this would appeal to boys and girls alike. Available on the site for £9.99, readers can receive a 50% discount by using the code ParentSocial50 at checkout.

Unashamedly girly, Tales of Princes and Princesses is a beautifully presented collection of nine tales adapted from the stories of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, each illustrated by a different artist. This hardback book with a lovely fold over magnetic closing is available on the site for £12.99, but readers can get a copy for just £6.50 by using the code ParentSocial50 at checkout.

The Book Stalk also offers some other great gifts, such as children’s cooking sets, convertibles and many games from our family favourite, Orchard Toys, at heavily discounted prices.

A wonderful collection at fantastic prices, but do watch out for the delivery costs as they do vary quite a bit from product to product and can bump it up.

Visit: www.thebookstalk.co.uk

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