It's a story that was written more than 100 years ago, yet The Railway Children commands the affections of the British people like few other fictions

Guaranteed to jerk a tear from the most stony-faced child

The Railway Children was one of the first children's classics I ever read. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it. I started reading the story and was immediately gripped. E. Nesbit remembered exactly what it felt like to be a child

Her child characters were remarkable in her day because they are so entirely human. They are intelligent, vain, aggressive, humorous, witty, cruel, compassionate. . . in fact, they are like adults

So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!

Told in the zany, entirely convincing voice of Tracy Beaker herself . . . The strains of communal life with other children, rivalries and friendships and jokes, all spring to life, and Tracy's prose is decorated throughout with cheeky line drawings

Many years down the line, memories of those happy shared times in which lessons are disguised as pure enjoyment for both reader and listener will be recalled as golden days.