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The 50 books every child should read

The 50 books every child should read

To celebrate World Book Day, which falls on Thursday, Sainsbury's has published a list of books every child should read before they turn 16.

The list is based on a survey of 2,000 parents carried out by Census Wide last month, with Roald Dahl's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory taking top spot.

As well as childhood favourites including books from the Harry Potter series and Tom's Midnight Garden, the top 50 includes more adult books such as Charles Dickens's Great Expectations and JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.

These are the top 50:

  1. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl
  2. Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
  3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis
  4. Winnie The Pooh- A.A.Milne
  5. Black Beauty- Anna Sewell
  6. James and The Giant Peach- Roald Dahl
  7. The BFG-Roald Dahl
  8. A Bear Called Paddington- Michael Bond
  9. Treasure Island- Robert Louis Stevenson
  10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain
  11. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – J.K. Rowling
  12. Matilda- Roald Dahl
  13. The Railway Children- E. Nesbit
  14. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
  15. Five on a Treasure Island- Enid Blyton
  16. The Wind in the Willows- Kenneth Grahame
  17. The Very Hungry Caterpillar- Eric Carle
  18. The Jungle Book- Rudyard Kipling
  19. Charlotte's Web- EB White
  20. The Tale of Peter Rabbit- Beatrix Potter
  21. Watership Down- Richard Adams
  22. The Hobbit -J.R.Tolkien
  23. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling
  24. Lord of the Flies- William Golding
  25. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 ¾ Sue Townsend
  26. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
  27. The Cat in the Hat- Dr Seuss
  28. The Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson-Burnett
  29. The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank
  30. The Twits – Roald Dahl
  31. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum
  32. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
  33. Anne of Green Gables- L.M.Montgomery
  34. The Tiger Who Came to Tea- Judith Kerr
  35. Green Eggs and Ham-Dr Seuss
  36. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
  37. Bambi- Felix Selten
  38. Tom's Midnight Garden- Phillipa Pearce
  39. Little House on the Prairie- Laura Ingalls Wilder
  40. Funny Bones- Janet and Allan Ahlberg
  41. Where The Wild Things Are- Maurice Sendak
  42. Carrie's War- Nina Bawden
  43. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
  44. The Magician's Nephew- C.S. Lewis
  45. The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
  46. The Story of Doctor Dolittle- Hugh Lofting
  47. The Story of Tracy Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson
  48. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
  49. Curious George- H.A.Ray
  50. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

More: 10 foreign books we should all read

Census Wide polled 2,000 parents in February 2015

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