Core’s Super Pod had a nostalgic moment this week and formed a list of their favourite childhood books – do any of these match your favourites?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar topped our poll as the best book from our collective childhoods.  Interestingly, this book is aimed at the youngest age range of all our top five choices and yet was the one we all remembered best.  Its brilliant combination of simple language, brilliant illustrations and an innovative design concept makes it a winner all round.  Since being published in 1969 the book has been translated into 47 languages and sold over 29 million copies so we are clearly not the only people who still love this classic book!

The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
The Witches and Matilda (to name a few) – Roald Dahl
The team was divided over which is the best Roald Dahl book but one thing was clear we all loved his fantastical tales.  From the grim comedy of The Twits and The Witches to Matilda’s magical powers and good old Charlie Bucket winning the golden ticket, Roald Dahl captured our imaginations and engendered a lifelong love of books.  Strong plots and a keen sense of mischief combined with Quentin Blake’s fantastic illustrations have rightly made Roald Dahl the world’s favourite children’s author.

The Secret Seven – Enid Blyton
Ok, so we know Enid Blyton wasn’t that nice to her own kids but we still can’t shake our fondness for the children’s characters she created.  Our most loved Enid Blyton series was The Secret Seven whose secret password, badge, and secret headquarters in the garden shed seemed incredibly cool at the time.  Not only did the Secret Seven solve mysteries and crimes with the help of their faithful dog Scamper but they were also supplied with picnics including cucumber sandwiches and lashings of ginger ale by their very 1950’s parents.  The books weren’t the most original, in fact Blyton repeats some of her own plots later on in the series, but for some reason we loved these dull do-gooders!

The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton
Probably the most fantastical of Enid Blyton’s books, The Magic Faraway Tree centres around a concept not dissimilar to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by appealing to children who don’t want to grow up by allowing them to grow down.  Exact memories of the book remain hazy as it was packed with so many topsy turvey concepts and characters but we do recall a brilliant choice of character names including Dick, Fanny, Moonface, Silky the Fairy and Saucepan Man which perhaps make us giggle more now than they did in the 80’s!

The Jolly Postman – Janet and Alan Allberg
A Janet and Alan Allberg classic, The Jolly Postman took a staggering five years to write.  With a post round which included delivering letters to Goldilocks, Cinderella and the Gingerbread Man we not only loved the fairytale concept of this book but also the envelope shaped pages which included the letters sent to each character.  In a similar vein to the classic pop-up books this clever devise kept us reading and made us feel part of the story.  Other works by the famous couple which just missed out on our top five include Each Peach Pear Plum, Funnybones and the hilariously unforgettable poem – Please Mrs Butler.