MALORIE BLACKMAN, RAYMOND BRIGGS and MICHAEL BOND included in “The 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time” list!

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (Penguin), A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond (HarperCollins) and The Snowman by Raymond Briggs (Puffin) have made BBC Culture’s list of the 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time.

BBC Culture polled 177 book experts from 56 countries to find the greatest children’s books ever. 1056 different books were voted for by the experts, who consisted of critics, authors, and publishing figures (including author and The Agency client Candy Gourlay) and who came from 56 countries from Austria to Uzbekistan. Each expert listed their 10 greatest children’s books, which BBC Culture then scored and ranked to produce the top 100 list.

The final list of the 100 Greatest Children’s Books of All Time spans children’s literature throughout history, from the 2^nd Century BCE all the way through to the 21^st Century. Only fourteen of the top 100 books were published in this century, and we are thrilled that Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses (published in 2001) was one of these fourteen.

In a subsequent article on The Greatest children’s books of the 21^st Century, Malorie Blackman was asked to comment on her place in the overall 100 list and being one of the fourteen books published in the 21^st Century. Malorie, Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015, spoke about the diversit犀利士 y in children’s books: “Sad to say I have encountered children from various backgrounds who have told me that reading is not for them because they’ve never seen characters like themselves in fiction books. We need more books that feature children of colour, children with mental and physical challenges, children from diverse backgrounds […] What needs to be encouraged is a wide range of stories available to all our children so that they can develop and stretch their empathetic muscles. That way all our children grow knowing that stories about other people who may not share their background or heritage are still theirs to enjoy and share.”

For the full list and BBC Culture article click here.

For the Independent’s article click here.