Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

By Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl's books are so popular that it almost seems unnecessary to recommend them. However, they played such a big part in my childhood that it would be unfair not to give them a mention.

I can still remember my teacher reading this book to me at primary school and I have read it, and most of the others, many times since.

For anyone who doesn't know (they are presumably from another planet), it is the story of a young boy, Charlie Bucket, who wins a competition to enter a magical chocolate factory owned by the enigmatic Will Wonka. Charlie is likable enough, but the real stars of the book are the other four winners, dreadful children who have been spoilt rotten by their parents.

Dahl is one of the few writers who is able to talk to children directly. When I first came across this book I felt like I had also been allowed to enter the chocolate factory. The book is full of the subversive ideas and outrageous humour that set Roald Dahl apart from other children's authors.

Visit the Roald Dahl web site

The Phantom Tollbooth

By Norton Juster

This is another childhood favourite that I revisited after I became an author myself. It's about a boy who goes on a journey through a magical kingdom where words and numbers have a life of their own. Among the many strange and wonderful creatures that he encounters are a Spelling Bee, a Watchdog and the Mathemagician.

It's a sort of 20th Century version of "Alice in Wonderland" with a lot of clever ideas and some marvellous wordplay that make it a very enjoyable read.

Northern Lights

(Also known as The Golden Compass)

By Philip Pullman

Like most grown-ups, I stopped reading children's novels when I was a teenager. It was only after I became a children's author and then a parent that I started to read them again and this is one of the first books to make me realise how much I had been missing.

It tells the story of Lyra, a young girl who lives in a parallel world that has many similarities to our own. Lyra uncovers a secret conspiracy in which children are abducted and taken to the far north where they are subjected to sinister experiments.

This is a book of great contrasts - light and dark, humour and terror - but it is consistently entertaining and gripping. It is the first book in Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy.

Visit Philip Pullman's web site
Visit the "His Dark Materials" web site

The Mansions of the Gods

(An Asterix Adventure)

Text by René Goscinny, Drawings by Albert Uderzo

The Asterix series by Goscinny and Uderzo are good examples of how intelligent comic books can be. Uderzo's drawings are packed with atmospheric detail and visual witticisms that could not be expressed in writing. All the books have inventive and original plots and a wealth of amusing characters.

This particular story tells how Julius Caesar attempts to civilise the Gaulish heroes by building a Roman town next to their small village. The plan succeeds at first, but the Gauls soon find that civilisation isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Visit the Asterix web site

The Compleet Molesworth