12 classic children’s books to get for your kids for the school holidays

A brilliant hobby that children should get into is the habit of reading. Children’s books have been written and illustrated in unique and creative ways to be understood and relatable by children of different age groups and learning levels.

These classic children’s books have been around for many years and have shaped the lives of many children who are young adults today.

If your children love to read, or have just began getting into the habit of reading, then these classic children’s books are the perfect books to get them to read in the upcoming school holidays.

Charlotte’s Web

Written by E. B. White

Charlotte’s Web is about a girl named Fern, a pig named Wilbur and a spider called Charlotte. They live on a farm and Fern is horrified when she finds out that Wilbur as a piglet is to be slaughtered.

She rescues Wilbur only then to have him sent away from her to her uncle’s farm, where he is friendless and snubbed by the other animals except Charlotte, a spider, and this is where Wilbur’s adventures begin.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Written by Lewis Carrol

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tells the story of Alice, a young, curious girl who follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

There, she encounters some of the strangest and most peculiar creatures, including the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Carroll regularly experimented with logic, wordplay, and mathematical puzzles, successfully creating an intriguing make-believe world that appeals to both children and adults.

Winnie the Pooh

Written by A. A. Milne

Since 1926, Winnie the Pooh and his friends—Piglet, Owl, Tigger, and the ever doleful Eeyore—have endured as the unforgettable creations of A.A. Milne, who wrote this book for his son, Christopher Robin, and Ernest H. Shepard, who lovingly gave Pooh and his companions shape. 

These characters and their stories are timeless treasures of childhood that continue to speak to all of us with the kind of freshness and heart that distinguishes true storytelling.

Matilda

Written by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a very smart little girl who lives with her mean parents that don’t care about a word she says. Matilda’s mother goes to bingo all day and her dad sells cars that are done up cheaply and not safe.

Her parents finally decide to send her to school, and Matilda has the sweetest teacher, Miss Honey, but not a very nice principle – Miss Trunchbull.

Matilda is about to find out that she has a special power. Will Miss Trunchbull hurt Matilda? Why is Miss Honey so afraid?

Cat in the Hat

Written by Dr. Seuss

A dreary day turns into a wild romp when this beloved story introduces readers to the Cat in the Hat and his troublemaking friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2.

A favourite among kids, parents and teachers, this story uses simple words and basic rhyme to encourage and delight beginning readers.

The Little Prince

Written by Antoine de Saint-exupery

The Little Prince was originally written in French and then later translated to English.

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow.

“Please,” asks the stranger, “draw me a sheep.” And the pilot realises that when life’s events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries.

He pulls out pencil and paper… And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

The Jungle Book

Written by Rudyard Kipling

The classic story of friendship between man and beast. Young Mowgli escapes the vicious jaws of the growling tiger Shere Khan, and is adopted by Father Wolf.

As he grows up, Baloo the Bear and Bagheera the Panther teach Mowgli the Law of the Jungle, and so his extraordinary adventures begin.

The adventures of Rikki Tikki Tavi the snake-fighting mongoose, little Toomai and the elephant’s secret dance, and Kotick the white seal are all part of Mowgli’s extraordinary journey with his animal friends.

Madeline

Written by Ludwig Bemelmans

Madeline is the smallest of the girls. She is seven years old, and the only redhead. She is the bravest and most daring of the girls, flaunting at “the tiger in the zoo” and giving Miss Clavel a headache as she goes around the city doing all sorts of antics.

One night, Miss Clavel wakes up, sensing something wrong. She rushes to the girls’ bedroom and sees Madeline crying. Doctor Cohn is called and takes Madeline to the hospital because she has a ruptured appendix.

Hours later, Madeline finds herself recuperating. She is greeted by her classmates and Miss Clavel, who gives her flowers and a doll house from her Papa. In return, Madeline shows them her scar.

Madeline’s classmates and Miss Clavel go home, but Miss Clavel wakes up again to find the other little girls wailing, demanding to “have their appendix out too”. Miss Clavel assures them that they’re all well and calls on them to go to sleep.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Written by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by Scout Finch, a six-year-old tomboy who lives with her lawyer father Atticus and her ten-year-old brother Jem. During the novel Scout, Jem and their friend Dill try to make their reclusive neighbour Boo Radley leave his house. Boo has not been seen in Maycomb since he was a teenager.

Many residents of Maycomb are racists and during the novel, Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes on the case even though everyone knows he has little hope of winning. The reader sees the trial develop through the childlike eyes of Scout, as gradually both she and her brother learn some valuable life lessons from their father about tolerance, empathy and understanding.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Written by Ann Brashares

Friends since birth, teenagers Lena, Tibby, Bridget and Carmen discover a unique way to stay connected while life takes them in new directions: by sharing a pair of second-hand jeans that miraculously fit them all. Sharing these pants becomes a lifeline for the friends as they navigate a significant summer—months that propel them from adolescence into adulthood, each in different ways.

The girls mail the jeans to each other in their different locations, from South Carolina, where Carmen is visiting her estranged father, to Mexico, where Bridget is pining after a crush at soccer camp, to Greece, where Lena is discovering first love, and back home in Maryland, where Tibby is stuck working at the local drugstore.

The Hunger Games

Written by Suzanne Collins

The mid-2000s was a dark era for teen-girl lit. The Twilight Saga created a vogue for swoony, regressive, supernatural romance novels like Marked and Blue Bloods.

The Hunger Games is about Katniss Everdeen, an eagle-eyed archer with an equally keen moral compass, this heroine of The Hunger Games’ YA dystopia volunteers to take the place of her little sister in their society’s eponymous annual competition, which pits randomly selected teenagers against one another in a televised death match for the entertainment of a debauched ruling class.

ALSO READ: ‘Blesser’s Game’ author Jackie Phamotse pivots to children’s books

The Fault in Our Stars

Written by John Green

The Fault In Our Stars is a fabulous book about a young teenage girl who has been diagnosed with lung cancer and attends a cancer support group.

Hazel is 16 and is reluctant to go to the support group, but she soon realises that it was a good idea. Hazel meets a young boy named Augustus Waters. He is charming and witty. Augustus has had osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, but has recently had the all clear.

Hazel and Augustus embark on a roller coaster ride of emotions, including love, sadness and romance, while searching for the author of their favourite book. They travel to Amsterdam in search of Peter Van Houten the author of An Imperial Affliction. While on their trip Augustus breaks some heartbreaking news to Hazel and both of their worlds fall apart around them.