1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare

I guess this is more like a reference book that one delves into rather than something that one reads cover to cover. And, of course, I have not read this cover to cover. As an older reader, I have the advantage of having read books myself when I was young, then having read another generation of books to my children, and then reading books to my grandchildren. So A pretty wide spread of years to cover. I bought the book second hand and was amused to find that the previous owner had done exactly what I was going to do....that is, to count the books there that I have actually read. My totals were not that different from the previous owner. I found that for ages 0-3 years, I had read 14 of the books (out of 35). For ages 3+, I had read 31 show more of the books. For ages 5+, I had read 29 of the books. For ages 8+ I had read 52 of the books. And for ages 12+ I had read 25 of the books. In total I have read 150 of the 1001 that the authors think I should have read.
I always have some difficulties with books of this nature that simply reflect the experiences or prejudices of the contributors. I wonder if any of the 72 contributors have actually read all the books....or how many of them have they read. Certainly, the editors have tried to put together an international collection of contributors...but it's not really international. I can't complain too much.....my own country (Australia) is heavily represented. There is a clear preponderance of British contributors ...and rather a dearth of American....and very few from Asia (I counted about 3 from Japan) or the Middle East ....and rather few from continental Europe. So, I guess, we have a selection here that has a massive anglo saxon bias with a scattering of other tales. I visit Japan a lot and am very impressed with the wonderful range of illustrated books available there ....but hardly any appear in 1001 Children's books. (Except for Roald Dahl's interpretation of James and the giant peach....which I think probably has some sort of origins in the Japanese folk tale, Momontoro and two other's that I noticed). In some ways, I wanted to buy this book because of the great children's book illustrations and the collection of illustrators...and in this, I was not disappointed. There is a great collection of illustrations ...and many styles.
One issue that I had was that often I had read a version of the book that was different to that illustrated in 1001....for example, "The wide-mouthed frog" where we used to have a pop up version...which was wonderful. (I think I might still have it). So I was half wondering whether one had to read the version that was shown in 1001....and what one was missing if one had read a different version.
Each book has a description and often background information which is interesting and helpful. Will I go out and buy (or borrow) the books that I haven't read? Almost certainly not. They don't even have "The Poky Little Puppy" listed among the 1001. Now this was a favourite of mine and very popular with two later generations of kids.... And, of course.....Johnnie's Machines (a little Golden Book that seems to be out of print.....but I loved it as a chid). And of course......The Fairy Tales of Grimm and Anderson, Illustrated by Anne Anderson, Collins, 1925.
As the editor acknowledges "Any grouping of children's books inevitably raises as many questions as it answers". and this is no exception. It's obviously a great start for somebody who has to buy a present for a child or for a parent looking to educate their children. But it is just one perspective on the issue.
I quite like it and think I will keep it (as opposed to donating it to charity). I give it 4 stars. show less

Although a British title, this is a very valuable resource for librarians as well as teachers. It has a great collection of books with a synopsis of each title and is broken up into different age ranges for added convenience. I selected this because it includes lesser known international titles.

This is a delightful book with wonderful suggestions for children of all ages. It is a heavy book (960 pages) and well worth the time spent in perusing the wonderful descriptions, well written reviews and stunningly beautiful illustrations.

This was a joy to read and I'm going to buy a copy if I can find one.

Highly recommended!

is a good and useable reference guide for international children's books (and while I generally agree with most of the inclusions, I would likely have added some and removed others, as these kinds of books are basically always somewhat a matter of personal taste and preference). The only real issue I have with this book is the fact that a number of the non English language children's books listed are actually not even available in English translation (being of German background, I noticed this with some of the German language children's books that made the list, and while I definitely think all or at least most of the books reviewed in

show more Grow Up deserve their inclusion, deserve their ranking, it should also have been noted which of the non English language children's books that were included are available in English translation and which are not). show less

I love 1001 reference books, but I particularly like this one because of the way its organized and the little extras. For instance, Mog the Forgetful Cat entry is followed up by a "Other Well Loved Cat Books" box at the bottom. Each entry also includes nationality, year, publisher, and most have the first edition cover art. Very fun. A good companion to Book Crush by Nancy Pearl.

Includes classic covers and artwork. A delight to wander through. Nicely written overviews of the books, but the artwork reproduced makes this heavy volume worth picking up.

This is an excellent resource. I'm going to try to read my way through them all. It has an international outlook and so I find a lot of British books which I particularly like.

Julia Eccleshare is Children's Book Editor for the Guardian.

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