I think I was 10. I was having a party. The weather was good, so my mother was keeping us all outside, so we'd break nothing and get sick on the grass. One of my friends handed me a present. He looked a bit embarrassed. I knew what it was before I opened it. A book... I thanked him and tore off the paper. Great Expectations. I eventually read it. Pip in the graveyard, the escaped convict - more than 40 years later, I'm still reading Dickens

Readers mourning the end of the Artemis Fowl series can take heart: this first book in the time-bending WARP series is an all-out blast.

An engaging tale with ordinary people made extraordinary by circumstances

The book is a record of an uncovenanted voyage, which ended in Holland, of the rain and wind, the darkness and the wild water, the escapes from buoys and from ships crossing in the night, the courage and resource of the children

Perhaps the best of all ... Just what does happen is told with all the wealth of practical detail and satisfying sense of reality which make Mr Ransome so unfailingly successful

I can think of few greater pleasures in reading aloud to a bookish child than to read that child first Gulliver's Travels and then Mistress Masham's Repose... It is a stunning book for a child to know

A book I read again and again is Mistress Masham's Repose... you're in awe of the imagination behind it. When I read it as a child I thought it had really happened.

Open Mistress Masham's Repose, by T H White, and you stop into a magical place... The book is an idyll.

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is an absolute gem of a book. It is a beautifully tender and enchanting story of a developing friendship between two most unlikely characters, in the most improbable of settings...The story broaches many themes including friendship, hope and courage to name a few, but touches on them with lightness and wonderful humour, including some particularly funny moments and splendid repartee...The book, as an object, is absolutely stunning. The cover itself is marvellous, complete with tea stain and worn edges and one must applaud the publisher for taking a possible risk by choosing style and beauty over a more "commercial" cover. The inside illustrations work in perfect unison with the tone of the text. The bear is particularly glorious; there something so kind and safe about his demeanour.

This is an insightful read that is both poignant and laugh out loud funny. The developing relationship between the boy and the bear is beautifully observed. It captures the everyday minutiae of situations every child experiences - boredom, questioning authority, making things worse while trying to help - and sets these in a surreal world of a boy in a boat rowed by a bear encountering adventures whilst "not lost" on the high seas.