My favourite childhood books

World Book Day is a celebration of books and reading, with a focus on encouraging young people to come together and share their love of stories. On the first Thursday of March, children across the UK will be dressing up as their favourite literary character and will receive a £1 token from National Book Tokens Ltd. Since World Book Day is upon us,I think now is the perfect time to reflect on my favourite childhood books, which made me fall in love with reading.

The books are repetitive and do follow the same formula – once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all

The Rainbow Magic series by Daisy Meadows
I vividly remember entering my primary school library, ready to borrow my first proper book, and Ruby the Red Fairy caught my eye. This series follows best friends Rachel Walker and Kirsty Tate, who met on holiday at Rainspell Island. They work together to save their fairy friends from the evil Jack Frost and his goblins. Within the franchise, the books are grouped into sets which follow a theme, such as ‘The Weather Fairies’ or ‘The Dance Fairies’.

Years later, I’m still mentally processing that Daisy Meadows is not a person and instead a collective pseudonym, which completely blew my mind when I found out. This is a common practice for children’s books, as it helps organise the books in a library or shop and makes it easier for children to remember one author’s name rather than several.

The books are repetitive and do follow the same formula – once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. The protagonists, Rachel and Kirsty, are also interchangeable, lacking distinct personality traits. However, when I was younger, I loved the simplicity and familiarity of these books. I became obsessed with the franchise, scouring every charity shop and car boot sale to find a new book to add to my collection, as well as placing multiple reservation requests at my local library. The Rainbow Magic books were the most borrowed children’s books at UK libraries in 2010, and I definitely contributed to that number.

The series shows no sign of slowing down, and over 300 books have been published since the series launched in 2003. The books have also become more inclusive by introducing disability representation and celebrating racial and ethnic diversity.

The book has a moralistic angle, and those who don’t conform are punished by being sent to Coventry or having a trick played on them. This standard is fairly black and white

The St. Clare’s series by Enid Blyton
I could have quite easily filled this list with just Enid Blyton books. Malory Towers, The Five Find-Outers, and The Wishing Chair Collection were just some of the Blyton staples on my bookshelf. St Clare’s follows twins Pat and Isabel O’Sullivan and their friends as they get up to mischief at their boarding school. With midnight feasts, tricks on teachers, and thrilling sporting matches, there’s never a dull moment at St Clare’s.

The books are set in the 1940s, and while some aspects are clearly dated – the currency and simplistic technology with no mobiles in sight – the girls still feel relatable with their struggles and joys resonating with the modern day. Blyton’s language is whimsical and colourful, yet also itself straightforward and accessible. She is able to make ginger beer, tinned peaches, and sardines sound absolutely delicious despite the fact I don’t like these foods.

Characters like sour-milk Prudence, decent Hilary, and circus girl Carlotta, my personal favourite, are dynamic and interesting, each bringing a unique personality to the school. The twins themselves also have strong characterisations. Pat is more hot-tempered and stubborn than her sister Isabel, who is calm and generous. The teachers, too, are memorable, from Mam’zelle Abominable to the wise headmistress Miss Theobald. However, I wouldn’t recommend spending too long questioning the ages of the characters and who’s meant to be in what form, as you will be there for a while!

The book has a moralistic angle, and those who don’t conform are punished by being ‘sent to Coventry’ or having a trick played on them. This standard is fairly black and white, and poor ‘featherhead’ Alison, whose greatest crime is not being good at sport and being more interested in fashion and her appearance, is frequently teased and encouraged to be ‘more sensible’.

The series finished rather abruptly at the fifth form, leaving readers on a cliffhanger. It’s not clear why Blyton stopped writing the series, perhaps due to the outbreak of WWII or due to shifting her focus to other projects like Malory Towers, which is praised for having a clearer structure. Pamela Cox, in 2000 and 2008, wrote three continuation books to seamlessly fill in the gaps, perfectly emulating the style of Blyton.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
“Harry – yer a wizard.” If you aren’t already familiar, this series chronicles young wizard Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The seven books span Harry’s seven years at Hogwarts as he learns magic, plays Quidditch, and plots to defeat the evil wizard Voldemort.

After watching all the films one summer, I was hooked and soon read all the books, finishing the 257,000+ words of The Order of the Phoenix in one weekend. I fondly remember dressing as Hermione Granger for World Book Day and having magic battles with my friends in the playground, who had also decided to dress in Hogwarts attire.

A new Harry Potter television series is set to air next year on HBO with Dominic McLaughlin as the titular character. I do see this move as a cash grab and given how well-made the films were and how recently they were released, relatively speaking, a remake isn’t needed. Nevertheless, I am curious to see how characters cut from the book, like Ludo Bagman and the Gaunt family, translate to the screen.

Charlotte Sometimes is by far the most popular […] inspiring the title of a 1981 single by The Cure

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
Another book set at a boarding school – I’m definitely noticing a pattern – Charlotte Sometimes has a unique time-travel twist on the genre. New girl Charlotte goes to sleep in her school dormitory, and when she awakes, she finds it’s 1918, 40 years earlier, and everyone calls her Clare. Every night, Charlotte and Clare continue to swap places, and they communicate with each other in a hidden diary.

We only ever follow Charlotte’s perspective as she struggles with her identity and loses her sense of self: “She thought uncomfortably, what would happen if people did not recognise you? Would you know who you were yourself?” Penelope Farmer was herself a twin, which may explain her fascination with identity, which she explored in her other works. As the new girl, hardly anyone realises Clare is taking Charlotte’s place, although Clare’s sister Emily can instantly tell Charlotte is not her sister. This theme particularly resonates with the tween audience grappling with the awkward transition from childhood to adolescence, but even for adults, navigating identity and how others view us is something we can still relate to.

I don’t remember the circumstances in which I first read the book, but the themes and the story have remained in my head since. Charlotte Sometimes is actually the third book of the Aviary Hall trilogy, which features the Makepeace sisters, Charlotte and Emma – something I didn’t know. Charlotte Sometimes is by far the most popular and famous of the three, even inspiring the title of a 1981 single by The Cure.

Though written over 100 years ago, Anne of Green Gables is truly timeless

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
“But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne spelt with an e.” Anne of Green Gables, set in the fictional town of Avonlea in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island in the late 19th century, follows the red-haired orphan Anne Shirley, who is mistakenly sent to live with ageing siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, who had wanted a boy to assist with running the farm. The Cuthberts decide Anne can stay, and the book chronicles her everyday life in Avonlea as she forms friendships and becomes a part of the community.

Though written over 100 years ago, Anne of Green Gables is truly timeless. The book tackles challenging topics like death and bereavement, yet it maintains a heartwarming and light-hearted charm throughout with themes of family, love, and forgiveness. The character of Anne is larger than life. She is warm, imaginative, dramatic, talkative, feisty, intelligent, and a girl desperate to fit in and feel loved by those around her. She also has a love of the simple things – “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” – and reminds us to appreciate the beauty of the world around us and the smaller things in life. It is notable that Montgomery drew from her own life experiences growing up on Prince Edward Island with her grandparents, bringing an added depth and heart to the work.

I first discovered this book after being gifted an e-reader because it was a free download since the copyright had expired. I must give an honourable mention to some of my other favourite classic children’s books, Heidi and The Secret Garden. There are a total of eight books in the Green Gables series which follow Anne’s life as a high school principal, her marriage to Gilbert, and raising her many children. I never managed to read all the books, but I would like to return to the series one day and finish it.

There have been several adaptations for stage, film, and TV, including the 2017 Netflix adaptation Anne with an E. I struggled to get into the series due to differences from the source material, although I must admit that I usually struggle to enjoy any screen adaptation when I have read the book first, so don’t let me put you off giving it a watch. The series was abruptly cancelled, but considering how popular the book is, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide, I expect there to be more adaptations down the line.

This World Book Day, I encourage you to take a break from your assignments and busy lives and take a moment to read a book, perhaps an old favourite or something completely new. There’s a whole world out there waiting to be discovered.