Best Childrens Books

Over 30 years of reading later, and the three books I still remember the most fondly are the books I read as a child. I read these when I was about 7-10 years old and they have stayed with me ever since. I think the appeal of these children's books is that they have a pure story and fed my already intensely active imagination. Each of them is about discovery, invention and adventure and I would definitely categorize them as 'boys books' but believe that girls would equally enjoy them. These really are memories that I would want every child to have so if you have a young child in your family, do them a favor and make sure that they reads these books.

A Tale of Rescue

A Quick Overview

The last four gnomes in Britain live happily by a Warwickshire brook. But when one of them decides to go and exploring one day and doesn't return, it's up to the remaining three Gnomes to build a boat and set out to find him. This is the story of the gnome's epic journey in search of their missing friend, Cloudberry and is set against the background of the English countryside, beginning in spring, continuing through summer, and concluding in autumn, when the first frosts are starting to arrive.

What first attracted me to this book was the forward where the author clearly states that this is not a book about tinsel winged fairies. Now that's the way to start a young boy's book! Fun, full of exciting action and funny moments, this saga in miniature is a journey of imagination that any reader, especially the young, will cherish for a life time.

About The Book

Barney is a solitary eight-year-old, given to wandering off by himself. One day he is lying on the edge of disused chalk-pit when he tumbles over, lands in a sort of cave, and meets' somebody with a lot of shaggy hair and two bright black eyes'. This strange primitive is wears a rabbit-skin loin cloth and speaks in grunts. Barney names him Stig and the two become fast friends the way that children do. They learn to understand one another, and together they raid the rubbish dump at the bottom of the pit, improve Stig's cave dwelling. Together they enjoy a series of adventures that are sometimes wildly improbably and sometimes extremely practical.

One of the things that I remember loving about this book was that, at the time, I really believed that something like this could happen. I had read many adventure stories about lost tribes in the Amazon jungle so why couldn't a stone age caveman be living in rural England? of course it could happen! To me, the story being grounded in the realms of possibility and not set in some fantastical, far away land or in a world populated with ogres and dwarves, made the story excitingly real. I kept imagining it happening to me and, as a kid that preferred to spend most of my time alone exploring our own rural farm in Australia, I kept hoping that it would.

This is just about the ultimate boy's book. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Simply a must read, I implore you to make sure that every young boy and girl has a copy of this incredible book.

Oh, and when you read the part about the can of 'Weed Killer' you will remember it forever, I promise you.

This was my absolute favorite book as a kid (and maybe still is to this day). It is a book that is so good that it doesn't even need a synopsis of the story, just know that any story with inventors, kid inventors, flying bicycles and Spitznagle's ice cream (Better than it sounds!) is sure to entertain and delight. I really can't express how much this book touched me or how much it influenced my life but let me say that, because of this book, I convinced several school teachers to take time out of their personal lives to help me study to become a mechanical engineer.

Follow-up: I recently learned that this book has a sequel! It's by the same author, Jan Wahl, and is called S.O.S Bobomobile. How I wish I had known about this when I was a boy.