The Graveyard Book: a neat and tidy review

Children's cover illustration

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is one of the greatest books for children's bedtime reading.  The Graveyard Book is a spooky modern reimagining of The Jungle Book, telling the story of Nobody Owens, an orphan raised by the ghostly inhabitants of a graveyard.  As Bod explores the side-by-side worlds of the living and the dead, his safety is threatened by the man who murdered his family.  This is a classic coming-of-age story that will resonate with both young and older readers.

Bedtime reading gold?

What makes The Graveyard Book such a brilliant bedtime read is its structure.  Each chapter is an episode, containing a story with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.  Enjoying the story one chapter at a time, children will be excited to continue following Bod's journey, but will sleep soundly at each chapter's end.  I think this would also make it a fantastic audio book.

Adult cover illustration

Double demographic?

Neil Gaiman has referred to The Graveyard Book as "a book for adults that children would like too".  It is for parents AND for their children.  In fact, the book has been published with several different front cover illustrations to highlight its different demographics.  

Two different narratives fit snugly side by side: one of a child's coming of age in a big and scary world; and another of parents struggling with the emotional conflict of letting go as their child outgrows their cotton-wool protection.  This double narrative makes The Graveyard Book a rewarding read that validates the experiences and emotions of both young AND older readers.  

Theatre Review: "Cimarrón" at Brisbane Metro Arts

Sally Lewry's brave new performance work Cimarrón is a call to the wild.  I wrote this review for uni after going to see it in March, but I thought I might as well share it with you too!  

When I read that Sally Lewry’s new performance work Cimarrón hoped to reveal its audience’s inner “savage beast”, I felt a touch of dread that my viewing experience might involve eating dirt and making animal noises at my fellow theatre-goers.  I’m a shyish person so audience participation is exactly the sort of thing I like to avoid.  Brisbane’s Metro Arts celebrates risk-taking theatre and often hosts unconventional works with confronting messages.  With this in mind, I arrive more scared than excited about what is in store for me. 

The Sue Benner Theatre is mood lit with plush red chairs sloping to a dirt floor.  It makes me think of a horse corral.  My friend and I make up one third of the audience for tonight’s performance: the brave few?  When the lights dim, the small room seems to grow huge.  Despite my wariness, I find myself squinting into the shadows for signs of life.

A wild woman (played by director Lewry) tiptoes into view.  Wearing a hessian mask and a fur coat back-to-front to expose her semi-nakedness, she represents the pure and primal animal part in us all.  A hunter (Tamara Natt) lures and captures the wild woman.  She strips her of her mask and coat and begins the gruelling process of breaking her spirit into submission.  Observing ranchers breaking in wild horses inspired Lewry during the process of creating Cimarrón.  This analogy is central to the narrative.  Clever control of the lighting transforms the space into a cage or corral where the performers’ silhouettes on the walls heighten the sense of entrapment.  

Like the use of lighting, the costuming choices also help to convey meaning.  With so little else present on stage and only minimal dialogue, the costumes work overtime to double as props.  There is a great deal of symbology at work.  As the wild woman is gradually ‘broken in’ (horse analogy) she becomes more and more like her captor until she finally adopts the same uniform her captor wears.  This uniform consists of a black sack-dress with two sashes attached at the neck.  These sashes act like horse’s reins to control both women, revealing their submission to a higher power.  This begs the question, does climbing higher on the social ladder mean becoming more enslaved by the system that structures that society?  This is one of many challenging questions Cimmarón prompts its audience to consider.

Lewry’s goal as a performance artist and director is to create “evocative” and “original” works that wrestle with socio-political issues.  She achieves this through physical and visceral theatre, of which Cimmarón is representative.  Lewry and Natt’s performances in Cimarrón are highly physical.  There is an exhausting amount of galloping around and digging involved.  Because there is so little use of dialogue in the work, it puts faith in strong physical movement to impart the narrative.  I doubt it would have been nearly as successful in presenting its poignant message if the story had depended on dialogue.  Like all English teachers will tell their classes, it is better to show than to tell.  Cimarrón tackles complex issues and puts forward a powerful message without leaning on the use of dialogue as a crutch.  The experience of puzzling the meaning from the visual clues is much more engaging and memorable.

The title of the work, Cimarrón, is a Spanish word meaning “that which cannot be tamed”.  Lewry points out it is also a word used to refer to slaves that have escaped captivity to live on the edges of society.  In a crucial scene near the end of the performance, blaring music stirs the wild woman into a gallop on the spot.  Her abandonment of self-control is infectious.  She allows her primal instinct to run wild, spitting, sighing, hair flicking, completely freed.  This is an intimate moment that has a remarkably immersing quality.  If there was a real horse galloping onstage it could not have been any more captivating.  For the first time during the performance, the tension in my body relaxes and I feel completely at ease.  If only she could gallop forever.  If only I could join her.  I realise this moment unlocked a small part of my own inner animal.  When it ended, I felt disappointed to leave it behind.  It speaks to the ability of Cimarrón to inspire a visceral reaction and stir up from within a bit of “savage beast”: that which cannot be tamed.

I entered Metro Arts timid of having to do things that made me feel uncomfortable.  I left that shyness behind.  Practically galloping down the stairs and out into the Brisbane twilight, I felt riled up inside with an animal energy I couldn’t yet explain.  Through its narrative of domestication, Cimarrón urges its audience to ask if we have become slaves to the socio-political structure we created.  Lewry argues we have.  The story of the wild woman is a cautionary tale, warning against letting the conventions and structures of society enslave our inner animals.  But it is also a call to the wild to stop silencing that inner beast.  It may not have been as confronting as I dreaded beforehand, but what I didn’t expect was to be quite so moved. 

Bibliography

2014.  “Artist – Sally Lewry.”  Accessed March 14, 2014.  http://metroarts.com.au/artist/sally-lewry/

2014.  “Metro Arts Brisbane – Artistic Statement.”  Accessed March 20, 2014.  http://metroarts.com.au/artistic-statement/

2014.  “Metro Arts Brisbane – Cimarrón.”  Accessed March 14, 2014.  http://metroarts.com.au/posts/cimarron/

Huxley, Matt.  2014.  “The Domestication of the Human: A Review of Cimarrón.”  Accessed March 11, 2014.  http://www.moustachemagazine.com/2014/03/the-domestication-of-the-human-a-review-of-cimarron/

Lewry, Sally.  2014.  Cimarrón.  Writer Sally Lewry.  Performed Brisbane, Sue Benner Theatre: Metro Arts.  Performance: Theatre (viewed 12 March, 2014).

Lewry, Sally.  2014.  “About.”  Accessed March 14, 2014.  http://www.sallylewry.com/about-1/

           

Lewry, Sally.  2014.  “Cimarrón.”  Accessed March 12, 2014.  http://www.sallylewry.com/work/cimarrón/

Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time

I've been desensitised to war stories.  I can read or watch them with the same level of emotion as drinking a glass of water.  But Slaughterhouse Five changed my apathy and made me feel something.  

"LISTEN: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a contemporary classic that tells the surreal and poignant story of Billy Pilgrim, a soldier, optometrist and time-traveller.    Billy's story centres around the 1945 bombing of Dresden, a point in time he seems never able to escape.  His life flashes forwards and backwards in apparent chaos, sometimes with fantastical sidetracks that caused me to question reality and review my attitudes towards the causes and value of war and love.

At times this novel is dawdlingly slow and at others hectic and suspenseful.  But it always provides an insanely fresh interpretation of topics that have grown dusty and clichéd.  I enjoyed the experience of being reawakened to the emotional impact of subjects so over-analysed they grew helpless to inspire feeling from modern readers.

The narrative voice of Slaughterhouse Five is simple and eccentric, succeeding in lullabying its reader into a dreamlike mood - much like Billy himself who is passive to the twists and turns of his bizarre fate.  The continually repeated phrases act as fingerposts in Billy's life, so strange and yet always reimagining the same images and scenes again and again.  In this way, the narrative structure reflects the cyclical rollercoaster of its readers' own lives.  This short book manages to encompass so much of life.

I was impacted by Vonnegut's depiction of post traumatic stress disorder.  There are so many interpretations of Billy's reality, but I found that looking past the question of fact versus fiction, his time travel was effective in unpacking the experience of PTSD in a way that allowed me to empathise.  Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time, but he can never escape it.

I realise reading Slaughterhouse Five has expanded my understanding and perception of many topics.  Its universality and evocation of emotional empathy makes it moving and memorable.   

What We Read: 2013

It has been a huge year for my reading-life.  I've branched out way more than ever and had a terrific time.  Here is my 2013 book list  plus the year's Highlights and Lowlights.  

What We Read 2013:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

• The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

• Mr Penumbra's 24 Hr Bookstore by Robin Sloan

• The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

• Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• Dracula by Bram Stoker

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

• Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany

• The Adventures of Tintin Volumes 1 - 7 by Hergé

• Atonement by Ian McEwan

• Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

• The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

• Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

• Sin City: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller

• The Adventures of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

• The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith

• This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

• Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

• Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

• Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

• Esio Trot by Roald Dahl

• Tampa by Alissa Nutting

Lowlights:

These are the books I didn't enjoy and would not read if I went back in time.  Forgive me if any of these are your favourites!  

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan is talked up a lot, especially as a past Booker prize-winner.  However I  guessed the plot twist almost as soon as the characters were introduced so it was a big anti-climax.  Ultimately it's no more than a hiccup in my longterm love affair with McEwan as a writer.  

Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany was the 2013 winner of the Stella Prize for Australian women's fiction.  The tone and mood feel like an imitation of Tim Winton's work.  Besides being unsatisfying and offering no room for empathy with the characters, I felt it portrayed a poor ideal of what it means to be Australian.  

Highlights:

These are the books that made me think and feel, new favourites to revisit forever.  

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling is so different from her other work, but incredibly thought-provoking.  It is an edgy and often confronting read with a good pace driven by character and plot development.  Notions of privilege, justice and family are challenged by this depiction of truth.  

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky had a huge resurgence in 2013 due to the release of its film adaptation.  It's a young adult fiction that tackles some controversial and topical subjects, while at the same time reopening timeless ideas of love, family and identity in a way that guarantees its status as a contemporary classic.  It's emotionally engaging and memorable.  

Atonement by Ian McEwan is an epic masterpiece that redefined my standards for fiction.  It is sensationally well written.  Its tragically beautiful plot left me hopelessly moved. 

White Teeth by Zadie Smith is a brilliant début.  It is sassy and cunning, memorable for its wit and ingenious way of tying up threads.  It also boasts one of the most engaging openings to any novel I've read.  

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh is grit and filth and so much fun.  Unique in every way, the genius of this confronting little book cannot be silenced.  The prose is addictive.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is an Australian classic that I feel pristinely defines what it means to be alive.  This book is written with love and pain, and the magic and earthiness of its prose will colour its reader's perception of life.  It is an experience and a supreme gift of literature.  

So thankyou for coming along on my reading adventures.  Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to recommend each other plenty of great new reads for 2014.  

Review: Cloudstreet

Tim Winton's modern classic Cloudstreet is unavoidably a masterpiece. But unlike the works that we normally associate with the esteemed "M word", it isn't prim, cold and correct.  

This book is life and grit and salt and sweat.  It is the dirt you build a home on and it is a gift.  

Source: au.news.yahoo.com

My aim in writing this review is to acknowledge the impossibility of summing this book up.  How can I possibly describe a book that has changed my life?  It's futile trying to give you my experience in a nutshell when you can only really know by experiencing it yourself.  

So this is really a lousy stab at revealing my heart. 

Cloudstreet is deliciously well-written.  I read it in a state of constant swoon.  Tim Winton treats Australia like rare magic, and now the sky and earth appears to me imbued with dreams.  

The book is life.  I've never been so shocked and so upset.  Great sadness sits beside great happiness in its swelling tide.  It was real for me, every bit.  

When I finished reading it, all I could do was weep and hold the book tight against my chest.  I felt that for the first time, I had been given a piece of life and hope all my own.  It is a gift I didn't feel worthy to receive, but no one can take it from me because now Cloudstreet is in my veins.  

I never felt alone reading it.  This is a book that deserves to be read in community and togetherness, to be shared and talked about until you're forced to admit that you could never get to the bottom of it. It is an individual and communal experience.  

Cloudstreet for me is an epiphany of what it is to love.  What is it to be a family? And what is home - people or places?  Within it's pages I found an indescribable surety I was alive.  

Review: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Critics agree that Zadie Smith's White Teeth is an outstanding début.  Just listen to this review:

'An impressive début, not only for its vitality and verve, but mainly for the sheer audacity of its scope and vision ... an epic tale ... swooping, funny ... it has ambition, wit and is unafraid' 

- Meera Syal, Express

I read this book with my Mum, holding miniature book-club sessions between chapters to discuss it.  I've thought about it so much that I hardly know how to sum it up for you, but I'll do my best.

Scale

White Teeth is an epic story that starts small.  It covers so many loaded topics - family, relationships, roots of tradition and religion - all tied masterfully together by the metaphor of teeth.  The narrative spans several decades with the effect of showing the incredible reverberations of each character's thoughts and actions.  

Retrospect

It was only in retrospect - reflecting on the book as a whole with all the puzzle pieces added up - that I was capable of fully appreciating its beauty.  There are slow moments.  There are long chapters.  But everything has purpose.  It's only visible at the end, but everything is deliberate, significant, fateful.  The themes of fate, chance and doom are run both through the narrative and the structure itself, startlingly smart.  

An incredible thing to remind myself though, is that every reader's experience and interpretation of White Teeth will be different.  It's exciting to wonder what it meant to others, because to me, it meant so much.  Moments of clarity and stunning revelations are inherent.  It is a beautiful book for deep thinking and discussion, for gaining insight by delving into one's personal experience of the work.  

Voice 

'Quirky, sassy and wise' - The New York Times.  I completely agree with this description of Zadie Smith's unique voice.  Often it feels that the narrator has an almost god-like vantage point over all that takes place, from which she reports with slow-cooked warmth and wisdom.  However this tone is punctuated by laugh-out-loud moments of alarming wit.  It's the sort of book that is a joy to pick up, unsuspecting.    

The images are beautifully fresh.  The observations that stab between the events are authentic, so memorable that I know I'll be constantly prompted to reflect on them.  

Characters

The characters are all so memorable.  It is confronting yet thrilling to discover that people you loved are played as villains and the ones you didn't care much for at the beginning emerge from the fray as heroes.  Their voices are unique, their inner thoughts so complexly described that they became completely alive.  

Conclusion

White Teeth is memorable for all the right reasons.  It has stimulated so much wonder and reflection in me.  I've spent hours talking with my Mum, enjoying the many threads of its beautifully woven storyline and layers of meaning throughout.  It is sadly sweet, funny in a fresh way, and lingering.  It is impossible to unfurl its tendrils from my heart now that I've finished reading it.  I know the experience of it has already enriched my understanding of the world.  

Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth

Intoxicated by Transpotting: A Review

I finished reading Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting a week ago.  It's grittier and grimmer than anything I've ever read before.   It has been such a weirdly eye-opening experience, so I couldn't resist rambling on about it for a little bit longer.  

If you missed my introductory post to Trainspotting, you can catch up on it by following the link: The Idiot's Guide to Trainspotting.

The trainspotting experience

I think the most obviously unique thing about Trainspotting is the fact that it's written in dialect.  It takes patience to get used to it initially, but suddenly you'll find it just 'clicks'.  The vernacular wrecks havoc in your head until even your inner thoughts have a Scottish accent!

I love the 'grit' of Trainspotting.  Anyone who's watched the 1996 film adaptation knows what a raw and grisly affair it is.  But that I think is part of what makes it irresistible.

If you allow yourself to sink momentarily into the lives of the characters, the world that awaits you is terrifying and intoxicating.  

There was one moment that I literally threw the book away from myself mid-sentence, because what I read was so confronting and repulsive.  But no matter what happened to disgust me, I could never abandon it.  I went back for more, over and over again.

Wit and humour are the constants that weave through the story.  The characters are so true to themselves that I felt I knew what they would say even before they said it.

The story is cram-packed with adventure and misadventure, an exhausting yet exhilarating trip into an alien landscape.  I emerged, buzzing from what I had seen, and ready to take on the world, braver and smarter.

I've added Trainspotting to our list of 100 Books to Read Before You Die, because I believe that the experience is something that you can't afford to miss.  

Humans of New York Book Released

Humans of New York sums up what it is to be human:

As a stranger on the streets of New York.  

As a member of a global community, bound by shared ideas, emotions and experiences.

Readers of HONY become a part of HONY.  

What is HONY?

HONY, as it's called for short, is a book of photography full of stories and images of people from every imaginable background.  It celebrates the beauty of humans and the way  they experience life.  

Brandon Stanton began HONY in 2010, without the slightest clue as to the monumental sensation it would become.  It now has over a million followers collectively on Facebook and Tumblr.

(Scroll down for links.)  

HONY's Impact on Me

Every time that I look at HONY (book or blog) it fills me with a milkshake of emotions.  The stories are sometimes tragic and sometimes delightful.  But one thing that stays the same is that they're always honest.  The stories are authentic, brimming over with individuality.  

This book sums up what it is to be human.  As a stranger on the streets of New York.  As a member of a global community, bound by ideas, emotions and experiences shared.  Readers of HONY become a part of HONY.  

One part of the experience of HONY is that there is always someone that I can empathise with.  Today, I read the diary entry of a 16-year-old girl, which you can also view by following the link.  

A glimpse into the journal of a (quite intelligent) 16 year old girl.

This image reduces me to tears.  It confirms for me that I am not alone.  I am not the only one to think and feel the things I think and feel.  My pain is not mine alone, but an experience and reaction to life that I share with others all over the world.  This is a provider of hope.  

It's useless to attempt to articulate the experience of HONY in a way that does it justice.  It is an intimate and honest book that must be seen to be believed.  Please give yourself the gift of reading this book.  

How to Find HONY 

Official website:  www.humansofnewyork.com
Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork
Goodreads page:  www.goodreads.com/book/show/17287009-humans-of-new-york

The Idiot's Guide to Trainspotting

I started reading IRVINE WELSH'S 'TRAINSPOTTING'.  Perhaps you're better acquainted with director Danny Boyle's 1996 film adaptation.  Having seen and enjoyed the movie, I was intrigued by what the book would be like.  I certainly wasn't prepared for the adventure that awaited me.  

Thinking in Scottish

At uni, we talk about the importance of developing a unique 'voice' as a writer.  Never before have I been confronted with such a shockingly unique voice as that of Irvine Welsh in Trainspotting.  

It is written in dialect.  The first paragraph succeeded in annihilating my expectations:  

"The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling.  Ah wis jist sitting thair, focusing own the telly, trying no tae notice the c***.  He wis bringing me soon.  Ah tried tae keep ma attention own the Jean-Claude Van Damme video."  

Don't take for granted how difficult it is to get used to this.  I normally read aloud to myself, but the dialect made it impossible.   I simply couldn't get my tongue or brain to work fast enough.  

However, after reading in my head for a while, it all began to make sense.  It was slow going, but the words flowed.  I imagine it would feel similar to when you finally know enough of a language to have a proper conversation.  

And the very funny thing is that it became so natural to my brain, that even after I had put the book down, I continued to think in a Scottish accent in my head!  When I spoke aloud, it actually made me feel weird that my voice didn't match the one in my thoughts.  

Irresistible

When I borrowed Trainspotting from the library I didn't intend to read it.  I had it in mind to quickly glance over the first chapter, just as a study in narrative voice.  But I've fallen prey to its irresistibly compelling narration and now there's no turning back.  

Welsh's mastery of language is sensational and obvious.  I'm proud to flaunt the fact that I'm reading this book because it is evidently a classic and at the very least, an adventure I will have trouble forgetting.  

If you need any more convincing to check it out, read on....

Criticism for Trainspotting

'The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent' - Sunday Times 

'A novel perpetually in a starburst of verbal energy - a vernacular spectacular... The stories we hear are retched from the gullet' - Scotland on Sunday

'Trainspotting marked the capital debut of a capital writer.  This marvellous novel might feel like a bad day in bedlam, but boy is it exhilarating' - Jeff Torrington 

Links

• Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Goodreads page

• Trainspotting 1996 film trailer

The Helsinki Roccamatios

I think it's safe to say that now everyone knows of YANN MARTEL, the author of LIFE OF PI.  Before Pi, however, I knew nothing of this great storyteller.  My creative writing tutor strongly recommended his Man Booker Prize-winning short story collection, The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, so I went and checked it out from the library.  Shall we begin?

 The Size and Shape

It's been a long time since I've picked up any book so irresistibly attractive even before I read the blurb.  It's because of it's size and shape.  I never take for granted a book that just feels 'right' and this book is as close to perfect as it gets. 

This hardcover gem is 19 cm by 12 cm and 3 cm thick.  It is the most warmly welcoming, little brick of a book, the sort of thing you would want to take with you everywhere purely because it's nice to hold.  I'd fallen in love before I'd read a word of it.  

Yann Martel's Introduction

I haven't even started reading the stories yet because the author's note was so compelling!  I knew by the end of the first page that I wouldn't be able to resist blogging it.  

"...  One consequence of this youthful existential crisis was my first creative effort, a once-act play I wrote over the course of three days.  It was about a young man who falls in love with a door.  When a friend finds out, he destroys the door.  Our hero promptly commits suicide.  It was, without question, a terrible piece of writing, irredeemably blighted by immaturity.  But I felt as though I'd come upon a violin, picked it up and brought bow to strings: the sound I made was perhaps terrible - but what a beautiful instrument!  There was something deeply compelling about creating a setting, inventing characters, giving them dialogue, directing them through a plot, and by these means presenting my view of life.  For the first time, I had found an endeavour into which to pour all my energies."

Excerpt from the Author's Note.  Yann Martel.  1993.  The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios.  Edinburgh: Canongate.  2004 Ed.  

Martel articulates such a lovely concept of writing: the wonderment of the form, and the necessity and compulsion to develop in it.  

As soon as I get a break from script-writing, I'm going to devour this little book and hopefully it will provide plenty of fodder for blog posts, so keep an eye out.

15 Books all Children Should Read

I thought I would challenge myself to come up with my top 15 children's books.  It's no mean feat deciding the order of these books since I love them all so much, but I'll give it a go.  This list could easily be pushed to a top 50 in the future, but I think this is a good start for now.  

15.  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This book is a riotous adventure, and one of the great American novels.  It features many misadventures, all of which are extremely memorable and tinged with humour.  

14.  Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Told by Black Beauty himself, this story is sad but very sweet.  

13.  Watership Down by Richard Adams

Richard Adams once said that he wanted to write a "proper adult book" for children.  This book is an adrenaline-filled adventure, full of gut-wrenching ups and downs.  The maturity of its storytelling would be best appreciated by older readers.  

12.  A Series of Unfortunate Events  by Lemony Snicket

These books are famous for featuring the very unfortunate lives of the Baudelaire orphans.  However, they are not entirely grim and gloomy.  The Baudelaires themselves are endearing heroes that you will cheer for through every misfortune that they encounter in the series.  Also, this adventure is made even more memorable by the cunningly creative narrative voice of Snicket.  

11.  The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

This is my favourite book by E.B. White.  Although it hasn't received the level of fame of Charlotte's Web or Stuart Little, it is equally heartwarming.  Louis has the virtues to make him a truly memorable hero.  

10.  James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

This is my favourite Roald Dahl book.  It's short enough to read in a couple of days, and yet the adventure it offers is big enough to enjoy for a lifetime.  Like all books by Roald Dahl, you will love it for its quirkiness and endless creativity.  

9.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Aside from its remarkably imaginative storyline and characters, this book is also beautifully written.  It's descriptions and moving reflections make it so much more than the familiar Disney rendition.  This book is much, much more magical.  

8.  National Velvet by Enid Bagnold

This book has a delightfully eccentric feel.  The home of the dysfunctional Brown family is a great place to escape as each character is quirky and full of life.  I adore it for it's many memorable misadventures.   

7.  The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann

For many years, this was my favourite book.  It has always inspired me with its show of the strength of friendship and courage in the face of huge difficulty.  

6.  The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

From page 1, this book is immediately captivating.  There are moments for crying in mourning and moments for shouting in triumph.  It is an exhaustingly epic tale that you mustn't miss!  Obviously this one is for older readers.  

5.  The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting

I never want this adventure to end.  With unbeatable heroes from the minuscule Jabizri beetle to the marvellous Doctor himself, it is easy to feel like the characters are family.  It's many plot twists and escapades make it a riveting read.  

4.  The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit

This magical adventure is so fresh and original, I never cease to be surprised and amazed by the plot.  E. Nesbit's imagination is boundless.  If you like this, you'll also love her Psammead Trilogy.  

3.  Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I received this book on my first birthday and so my battered copy contains many memories for me.  Anne is one of my best friends and role models.  Her story is timeless and wonderful.  

2.  The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Even though I'm new to the world of Harry Potter, it's already affected me so deeply in the short amount of time that it's been a part of my life.  It is the ultimate adventure and every person deserves to be enriched by taking a part in it.  

1.  The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

My favourite series of all times.  I read and re-read these books every year without fail and the characters continue to be some of my closest friends and fellow adventurers.  

So there you have it.  My top 15 children's books.  This may change slightly over the years, but I'm confident that my love for these books will never fade.  

As I look back over this list, I realise how much these books have affected my life, and most importantly, the sort of person that I am today.  The amount of times I've turned to these books for solace, courage, friendship, and a home-away-from-home astounds me.  I believe it wholeheartedly when I say that the reading you do as a child is the most important reading you do in your whole life.