I was digging around and found some books from when I was little, I still have a few, some paperbacks, my first cookbook and a ‘Magic Roundabout’ story book!

Sadly, I don’t have any books from the ‘Ant and Bee’ series which was my absolute favourite when I was a kid and learning to read. I remember visiting the library and making a beeline (ha! see what I did there) for the ‘Ant and Bee’ books. They were lined up on the top shelf and I gathered all I could and checked them out at the desk where the librarian took the tickets from inside the books and stamped the return date on the label inside the front cover. Remember when libraries were full of tickets and drawers and it was all kept track of by pieces of paper which were taken in and out of books as they were borrowed and returned?

Of the books I have, I think I have read most of them to my kids and my youngest and I are currently reading the rather politically incorrect ‘Dr Dolittle’ series. We are loving the adventures of Dab Dab, Chee Chee, Polynesia and the fabulous two headed creature, the Pushmi-Pullyu. Not bad for a story which was written in the 1920’s and the book we are now reading cost 20p when it was new!

I wonder if any of the modern books children are reading now will be deemed inappropriate in the future because of the language used and the way people are portrayed.

Will Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Bob the Builder be read by generations to come? Will the characters and language become so out of date that they are seen as quaint and from the ‘old days’?

Maybe I will save our ‘Charlie and Lola’ collection for my grandchildren and see what they think?

Do you have favourites from childhood? Do you still have them? Do you still read them?