For my list I’ve chosen 10 works of children’s fiction that I think don’t receive enough attention. They’re not known to millions of readers here in the UK, and they ought to be!

1. Fire, Bed and Bone by Henrietta Branford

This slim book is one of the finest of all historical novels for young readers, I think. And it’s narrated by a dog. But it’s not a fluffy, cute or sentimental story, quite the contrary. Set during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which is seen through the experiences of a nameless old hunting dog, it’s tough, tense and vivid. It’s also, unlikely as this may sound, entirely believable. An astonishing achievement.



2. Tulku by Peter Dickinson

Oh, read Peter Dickinson! I’m recommending Tulku as a starter, but there are many gems to choose from. (His Changes trilogy is a masterpiece, by the way…) Tulku is a historical novel set in China during the Boxer Rebellion. An American missionary’s son flees from his ruined home and travels to Tibet, and discovers that life is more complicated (especially in terms of religion) than his father had taught him. It’s complex, clever, dramatic, with some finely drawn characters – all of Dickinson’s great strengths in one small book. Read it. And then read everything else he’s written. (There’s lots.)

3. Corbenic by Catherine Fisher

I’ve never understood why Catherine Fisher isn’t one of the book world’s superstars. She writes richly imagined dark fantasy, woven through with myth and legend, and all realised just beautifully. Corbenic – which has all these qualities – is a grail story filled with Arthurian legend, but it’s also a completely contemporary book, with real characters with modern problems. Despite its ancient influences, it feels constantly fresh and utterly original.

4. Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish by Michael Foreman

Foreman is a bit of a wizard of picture books, producing book after book full of wisdom and beauty, and this is one of his best. A man builds a space rocket, and ferocious dinosaurs are reawakened… But this isn’t an adventure story, it’s a clever, important, thought-provoking environmental fable. Rather incredibly, it was published over 40 years ago, and its message gets more relevant, not less, as the years go by. (Let’s ignore just for a moment how sad that is…) This one is essential reading for young children. And older children. And grown-ups. And, um, everyone else.

5. Badger on the Barge by Janni Howker

I’ve just written a new reference book, The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, and a friend has already taken me to task for neglecting Janni Howker. And she’s right, of course – Howker has written relatively few books, but they’re exceptionally good. Badger on the Barge, her debut, is unusual in that it’s a collection of short stories, five of them, each looking thoughtfully at a relationship between a young character and an old one. And the writing is just stunning – it’s not always a simple read, but more than repays the effort.

There’s No Such Things as a Dragon...but hunt one down if you can! Photograph: PR

6. There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent

One of my favourites when I was small, and like any personal favourite I simply cannot understand why it’s not everyone else’s favourite, too! It’s the story of a small boy called Billy Bixbee, who wakes up one morning to find a very small dragon in his room – but his mother won’t believe him, saying very sensibly “There’s no such thing as a dragon”. But then, bit by bit, page by page, the dragon starts to grow… This book isn’t all that easy to find nowadays (I’ve given so many as presents I feel I may have bought most of the existing copies myself…) but it’s worth hunting down – it’s so very good. (And though, yes, it’s for relatively young children, there are bits that still make me laugh and I’m 41.)

7. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg



This one’s an absolute classic in America, and has been since it won the prestigious Newbery medal almost half a century ago. Its fame is very widespread (just last week, in Italy, I met a publisher from Taiwan who named it her childhood favourite), but it’s mostly ignored here in the UK, and it shouldn’t be! It’s great. It’s the story of Claudia and Jamie, who run away from home and move instead into New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Mrs Frankweiler of the title, the book’s narrator, is a rich, elderly eccentric, who has sold the museum a renaissance statue which the children believe is by Michelangelo. Brilliant. Fortunately this one’s being reissued by a British publisher this year, and you can see for yourself.

8. Fattypuffs and Thinifers by André Maurois, translated by Norman Denny

This is a pretty well-known book, but I’ve chosen it because of the illustrator, Fritz Wegner. Wegner, who died last month, was never the household name he deserved to be, even if his illustrations are recognisable to anyone who’s seen them – and the ones in Fattypuffs and Thinifers are some of his best. Two boys travel underground to a pair of enemy kingdoms, inhabited by fattypuffs and thinifers, respectively – it’s a terrifically fun story, full of pleasingly surreal inventiveness; but it’s Wegner’s hilarious, irresistible illustrations that make it for me. They do that thing all great illustrations do, making it quite impossible to imagine the story existing without them.

9. Conrad (sometimes called The Factory-Made Boy) by Christine Nöstlinger, translated by Anthea Bell

Nöstlinger is one of the best children’s writers of our time, but she’s practically unknown in the UK. (We have a rather bad habit here of reading only writers who write originally in English, and ignoring those writers whose work could be translated for us from other languages.) This is one I remember from my own childhood reading, a brilliantly funny story about conformity (or otherwise). In it, a rather eccentric woman, Mrs Bartolotti, receives a parcel in the post containing a factory-made child called Conrad, who is perfect in every way (and much better behaved than his new parent); but the factory have made a mistake and soon they want him back…

10. Don’t Let Go by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

Willis and Ross have collaborated on so many famous picture-books, but this is my all-time favourite of theirs – it’s the simple, rhyming story of a girl learning to ride a bike, and it’s joyful and heart-breaking all at the same time. (Quite apart from children liking it, I defy any parent to read this one without a tear in their eye.) Not enough people know this book, but it’s much loved by those clever people who do…

And oh, these but also so many others. Honestly, do you have any idea how hard it is to choose just 10?

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator and the author of a new edition of the Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature.