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Children's reading lists

14 classic audiobooks you need to listen to

Things you didn't know classic Puffin children's books

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4 things you didn’t know about these classic Puffin children’s books

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6 Puffin books that stand the test of time

The Secret Garden

Harriet Walter and Beryl Reid star in this full-cast adaptation of the much-loved children's classic.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester in 1849. After living in poverty, she emigrated to the US in 1865. She wrote over forty books; the best-known today are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. She died in 1924.

Harriet Walter and Beryl Reid star in this full-cast adaptation of the much-loved children's classic. When spoilt young orphan Mary Lennox is brought back from India to live in her uncle’s house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds the blunt ways of the staff at Misselthwaite Manor an unpleasant shock. Bored and miserable, it seems as though life in England will be awful. But Misselthwaite has hidden delights and, when Mary begins to discover them, nothing is the same again. First, there is the secret garden – and with it comes a boy who knows all the wonders of the country. He can even talk to the birds! Then, as the old house gives up its biggest secret, Mary forms a magical friendship. Frances Hodgson Burnett's charming story is played out with all the freshness and warmth of the original novel in this BBC Radio full-cast dramatization.

A Little Princess

When Sara Crewe is orphaned she is stripped of her lovely things and forced to work as a servant at the boarding school she once attended. A classic tale of courage and imagination.

I'm not sure I could have survived childhood without Frances Hodgson Burnett. My sister and I would crawl into the attic of our suburban American house and pretend we were looking across London rooftops. We'd lost our parents and our money, but perhaps a mysterious monk would visit our miserable garret.

Sara Crewe is a Cinderella figure... She is intelligent and good humoured with an infectious warmth that embraces the lowliest of her new acquaintances. The sunshine continues when impoverishment and drudgery befall her and she relies on her private fantasies to preserve her natural zest for life.

Generations of children have fallen in love with the story of Sara Crewe, the little girl who imagines she's a princess in order to survive the hard times

I read A Little Princess as a child, and from that there lingers still a whiff of the irretrievable quality of childhood reading. I was mesmerised by the account of Sara Crewe's lavish clothes; silks and satins and velvets

Instead of a rags to riches story, this is a riches to rags story...a good, girly read

So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!

National Association for the Teaching of English

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester in 1849. After living in poverty, she emigrated to the US in 1865. She wrote over forty books; the best-known today are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. She died in 1924.

‘I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one’ 
 
Without her beloved father and miles from home, it is very hard for Sara Crewe to like her new life at boarding school. Luckily Sara is always dreaming up wonderful things and her power of telling stories wins her lots of friends. When a letter arrives that brings disastrous news, the wicked headmistress Miss Minchin forces Sara to become a servant. Her lovely clothes and toys are taken away from her. She must work from dawn until midnight. How will Sara cope with her new found poverty? Can her imagination help her overcome this horrible situation? 
 
BACKSTORY: Read why Jacqueline Wilson loves this book and find out which pupil of Sara's school you are most like.

What little girl can turn a whole household upside down and breath new life back into a strange, old manor? The wonderfully contrary, strong-willed, angry, misunderstood Mary Lennox.

Rediscover the favourite childhood classic. 
 
***With a heartwarming introduction by Sophie Dahl*** 
 
What little girl can turn a whole household upside down and breathe new life back into a strange, old manor? The wonderfully contrary, strong-willed, angry, misunderstood Mary Lennox. 
 
When Mary Lennox is sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody says she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true, too. Mary is pale, spoilt and quite contrary. But she is also horribly lonely. Then one day she hears about a garden in the grounds of the Manor that has been kept locked and hidden for years. 
 
And when a friendly robin helps Mary find the key, she discovers the most magical place anyone could imagine... 
 
'The book is brim full of magic and joy' Sunday Telegraph

The Secret Garden should be on every child's bookshelf

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is my "current" favourite children's book. I reread it to my six-year-old daughter last summer and both of us loved it - although she did require me to have a go at the full Yorkshire accent for Dickon, which proved a little bit tricky. It has magic, darkness, whimsy and truth and the fact that it was first published in 1909 yet still managed to enthral my 21stcentury daughter is a testament to its greatness

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a wonderful story that I could think myself into, given that the heroine is the sort of awkward little girl that I thought I was. I loved the idea of a secret place where children could be on their own

Mary is a tough feisty character, who manages to turn a whole household, and the lives of those in it, completely upside down... The book is brim full of magic and joy

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester in 1849. After living in poverty, she emigrated to the US in 1865. She wrote over forty books; the best-known today are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. She died in 1924.

Rediscover the favourite childhood classic. 
 
What little girl can turn a whole household upside down and breathe new life back into a strange, old manor? The wonderfully contrary, strong-willed, angry, misunderstood Mary Lennox. 
 
When Mary Lennox is sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody says she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true, too. Mary is pale, spoilt and quite contrary. But she is also horribly lonely. Then one day she hears about a garden in the grounds of the Manor that has been kept locked and hidden for years. 
And when a friendly robin helps Mary find the key, she discovers the most magical place anyone could imagine... 
 
EXTRA ACTIVITIES INCLUDED: Take our quiz, learn about the plucky author and find out about the real secret garden. This beautiful edition includes fantastic extra educational resources.

Stop What You’re Doing and Read…To Your Daughter: I Capture the Castle & The Secret Garden

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE &amp; THE SECRET GARDEN: Two wonderful stories about two very unusual girls, who discover freedom, friendship and love. Read aloud and hold your listener spellbound.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE - Everyone I've passed it on to has found it a hit - it works every time, for absolutely everybody

THE SECRET GARDEN  -  Mary is a tough feisty character, who manages to turn a whole household, and the lives of those in it, completely upside down... The book is brim full of magic and joy

Dorothy Gladys 'Dodie' Smith was born in 1896 in Lancashire and she was one of the most successful female dramatists of her generation. Her first novel, I Capture the Castle, was written when she lived in America during the 1940's and marked her crossover debut from playwright to novelist. The novel became an immediate success and was produced as a play in 1954. She has written numerous other novels but is best known today for The Hundred and One Dalmatians, a story for younger readers. The Hundred and One Dalmatians became the basis of two Disney films. 
 
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester in 1849. After living in poverty, she emigrated to the US in 1865. She wrote over forty books; the best-known today are The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. She died in 1924.

To mark the publication of Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books. 
 
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE 
'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time... 
 
THE SECRET GARDEN 
Mary Lennox is an orphan who is sent to live with her uncle at gloomy Misselthwaite Manor. Neglected and lonely, she begins to explore her new home and learns of a secret garden that her uncle has forbidden anyone to enter. A friendly robin shows Mary the key to the garden and she discovers a world she could never have imagined... The Secret Garden has enchanted generations of children and adults alike.

The Secret Garden (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849. In 1865, after her father's death, her mother moved the family to rural Tennessee, where they struggled to earn a living. At seventeen, Burnett sold her first story to a magazine, and by the time she was twenty-two she had earned enough to return to England. From 1887 until her death, she maintained homes in both England and America. Bother her marriages-to Dr. Swan Burnett, with whom she had two sons, from 1874 to 1898, and to actor Stephen Townsend from 1900 to 1902-ended in divorce. Burnett wrote a number of popular novels for adults, among them THE LASS O' LOWRIE'S (1877), THROUGH ONE ADMINISTRATION (1883), and THE SHUTTLE (1907), as well as several plays and a memoir of her childhood, THE ONE I KNEW BEST OF ALL (1893). But she is mainly remembered for her children's novels: LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (1886), A LITTLE PRINCESS (1905; an explained version of the 1888 novella SARA CREWE and the stage play of THE LITTLE PRINCESS), and THE SECRET GARDEN (1911). Burnett died in 1924 at her home in Long Island. 
 
JILLIAN TAMAKI is an illustrator and comics artist. She grew up on the Canadian Prairies and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been published in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, among others. She has two books of personal work, and a graphic novel that she made with her cousin Mariko Tamaki.

Published to coincide with the 2011 centennial of The Secret Garden's publication, this Penguin Threads edition of the classic children's tale includes cover art by Jillian Tamaki and deluxe french flaps. Commissioned by award-winning Penguin art director Paul Buckley, the Penguin Threads series debuts with cover art by Jillian Tamaki for three gift-worthy Penguin Classics. Sketched out in a traditional illustrative manner, then hand stitched using needle and thread, the final covers are sculpt embossed for a tactile, textured, and beautiful book design that will appeal to the Etsy(tm)-loving world of handmade crafts.

'The Secret Garden should be on every child's bookshelf' Amanda Craig, The Times

What little girl can turn a whole household upside down and breathe new life back into a strange, old manor? The wonderfully contrary, strong-willed, angry, misunderstood Mary Lennox. 
 
When Mary Lennox is sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody says she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true, too. Mary is pale, spoilt and quite contrary. But she is also horribly lonely. Then one day she hears about a garden in the grounds of the Manor that has been kept locked and hidden for years. 
 
And when a friendly robin helps Mary find the key, she discovers the most magical place anyone could imagine... 
 
The perfect heart-warming story for young readers and young-at-heart readers alike. 
 
'The book is brim full of magic and joy' Sunday Telegraph

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is my "current" favourite children's book. I reread it to my six-year-old daughter last summer and both of us loved it -although she did require me to have a go at the full Yorkshire accent for Dickon, which proved a little bit tricky. It has magic, darkness, whimsy and truth and the fact that it was first published in 1909 yet still managed to enthral my 21stcentury daughter is a testament to its greatness

Frances Hodgson Burnett

The author of Little Lord Fauntleroy was the J.K. Rowling of her time

Really, we can all learn a lot from little Lord Fauntleroy. So maybe we can forgive him the knickerbockers and the red stockings

‘And so this is little Lord Fauntleroy’ 
 
Ceddie is a regular little boy living in New York with his mother, until the day a tall, old gentleman arrives to give him some startling news. Ceddie, it turns out, is the child of a great English family. He must go to England to live with the Earl his grandfather and become a person he never knew he was: Little Lord Fauntleroy. 
 
What the old gentleman neglects to mention is that Ceddie’s grandfather is one of the most grumpy, grouchy, gouty and feared old men in all England. Wish the new Little Lord Fauntleroy good luck… 
 
Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can find out more about the inspirations for the story and take the Little Lord Fauntleroy quiz! 
 
 Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

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BBC Children's Classics

Everyman's Children's Classics has more than 50 titles in print. It offers the finest editions currently available of the world's greatest children's books in handsome, full cloth hardcover bindings. 
 
The library brings back into print major illustrators such as Ivan Bilibin, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Nicolas Bentley, Walter Crane, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Ardizzone, W.Heath Robinson and Mervyn Peake.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Praise for Little Lord Fauntleroy

The author of Little Lord Fauntleroy was the J.K. Rowling of her time

Really, we can all learn a lot from little Lord Fauntleroy. So maybe we can forgive him the knickerbockers and the red stockings

Books by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Articles featuring Frances Hodgson Burnett

14 classic audiobooks you need to listen to

4 things you didn’t know about these classic Puffin children’s books

6 Puffin books that stand the test of time

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