Every child should read Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory before leaving primary school, according to a survey of teachers.
A list of the top 100 books children need to read, topped by Dahl's classic about a boy who wins a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's factory, was compiled by TES magazine in partnership with the National Association for the Teaching of English.
Goodnight Mister Tom, following Second World War evacuee William "Willie" Beech, came in a close second, followed by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland in third.
Three other Dahl books were in the list, with Matilda, the tale of a bright but neglected girl, in fourth. The Twits and Esio Trot came 28th and 33rd respectively.
Former children's laureate Julia Donaldson, who until recently lived in Bearsden rounded off the top five with her tale The Gruffalo, which follows an encounter between a mouse and a monster.
The list was published to coincide with the start of the school summer holidays.
In the magazine's editorial, editor Ann Mroz urged children to resist "the delights of Netflix" and "escape" into the world of books. She added: "Reading fiction teaches children how to navigate the journey of life."
Other books in the top 10 include The Chronicles Of Narnia at sixth, The Very Hungry Caterpillar at seven, We're Going On A Bear Hunt at eight and Dogger at nine.
Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are, which was adapted to film in 2009, secured 10th place.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel