J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)

This is on my Best 100 list of children's books to read.

I read the first three books in the Harry Potter series at least once a year. They're part of my comfort-books collection - the books I read when I am ill or unhappy or just suffering from an overload of world misery. I keep it to the first three because nothing really bad happens in them. My favourite characters aren't culled from the plot and the stories are more about fun than saving the world.

I love the imagination that went into creating the wizard world - pumpkin juice, butter beer, every flavour beans, pictures that move and owl's delivering mail. I know there are similarities between this series and Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch, but it doesn't make their world's any less enjoyable. I love them both.

In this book Harry Potter learns he's a wizard, gets sent off to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, makes friends, eats lots of good food, makes enemies, flies on a broom and encounters a misunderstood villian who really just wants to be loved - Voldemort. Fun.

Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are (1963)

This is on my Best 100 list of children's books to read.

I never read it as a child and that's just sad because it is so much fun! I want to dress in a wolf suit and sail away to a magical island forest with lots of impossible creatures who make me Queen!!! I've always wanted to be an autocrat and have a wild rumpus, making lots of noise and mayhem.

The pictures are beautiful. My favourite is when his room has been transformed - "his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around...".

The book teaches imagination and how you can have fun, even when you're alone - well, until you get hungry.