More children than ever are turning their attention to digital literature than regular books. High street bookstores are on the decline, and while many of us may still be attached to our regular reading material, it makes sense to embrace our children's interests by seeking out eBooks to pique their interest in the written word.

There are many, many sites from which we can download children's eBooks, but as any parent understands certain books are just better than others. The quality of language, illustration and storytelling set some books apart from their competitors... and of course it's even better if those books can be found for free!

Here is a list of sites which provide eBooks for children of all ages which you can access for free on a tablet or PC. Many provide downloads (in PDF, ePub or MOBI format) while others must be accessed online. Wherever possible, I've tried to include links to "tablet-friendly" eBooks, though in some cases you may find it easier to download materials to your PC and transfer them to your preferred reading device.

Oxford Owl

The Oxford Owl website offers more than 250 free eBooks for children from 3-11. Registration is required to access these books, though it is certainly worth it! Many series are available to help children advance through different learning stages according to their age and development. Additionally, most eBooks have accompanying activities or can be "read aloud".

Visit Oxford Owl

Internet Archive Children's Library

Currently boasting close to 3000 items, the Internet Archive's Children's Library features out-of-copyright eBooks which can be read online or downloaded in many different formats.

I would suggest that most of these eBooks are better suited to confident older readers, though you'll likely find collections (such as Anderson's fairy tales) which are perfect for bedtime stories that younger children will adore.

If you're not sure where to start, take a look at the "Books of Interest" or "Staff Picks" sections which can be found on the main page. Particular treasures we enjoy from this site are Old French Fairy Tales (download the PDF or read online to enjoy the beautifully illustrated editions); McGuffy's Eclectic Primer and Little Lord Fauntleroy.

WikiJunior

This is a fantastic resource for non-fiction books for all ages, from birth through to age 12! Some of the more well-developed books are available in PDF format, but all are available to view online and appear to be "tablet-friendly".

I'd recommend browsing books on the main page to find those you are most interested in, or search the site if you're looking for works on a particular subject.

Visit WikiJunior

Bibliotastic

Younger readers may enjoy the small-but-growing range of free eBooks from Bibliotastic. Currently 19 contemporary books are available in the children's section, made free by their authors for personal use. Books can be read online by anyone, or you can choose to register in order to download eBooks for an e-reader.

Classicly's Young Readers Collection

Classicly offers a collection of public domain eBooks for younger readers which are available to download in PDF (and sometimes Kindle) format.

Many recommendations are featured on the main page, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Beatrix Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit, and Edward Lear's A Book of Nonsense to name a few.

Browse Classicly's Young Readers Collection

Thunderbolt Kids

Thunderbolt Kids provides free PDF eBooks and comics for school children in grades 4-6 on subjects related to the natural sciences and technology. These full-colour eBooks are engaging and exciting, with prompts for consideration and discussion. Best of all, they are available under a creative commons license and may also be used in the classroom!

Visit Thunderbold Kids

International Children's Digital Library

This treasure trove of free books for children includes reading material in many different languages and several award-winning titles.

Finding a great book to read is incredibly easy using the many different search functions. All books can be read online, and while there is no need to register, you can choose to become a member of the library to save your language and books you have read.

Visit the International Children's Digital Library

FreeKidsBooks.org

A simple collection of contemporary eBooks which can be read online or downloaded in PDF format for viewing later. Book listings can be sorted by age group (toddler, pre-school and young adult).

Visit Freekidsbooks.org

Read.gov Classic Books for Kids and Teens

The Library of Congress site, Read.gov offers 51 classic books for kids and a further 6 for teens which can be read online or downloaded in PDF format (I'm not sure I'd include Dracula or Poe's tales in the kids section though...).

Several of these titles can also be found elsewhere, but there are a few intriguing books I hadn't come across before such as A Princess of Mars (first in the John Carter series); The Children's Object Book and The Rocket Book (which we found hugely entertaining). All feature beautiful vintage covers, which may even encourage you to read a few yourself!

Your children may also like to read the interactive book, The Exquisite Corpse Adventure - an intriguing contemporary mystery - which is available in a separate section of the site.

Reading Hawk Library

Don't be put off by the simplicity of this site! These eBooks are intentionally basic as they are aimed at pre-school children who are just beginning to develop word/object recognition; for this reason, both Babyman and I think they are a wonderful tool for absolute beginners!

The series is is based on the Dolch sight word list, and is divided into stages so you can easily know what to read with your children next. Interactive books and printable pages are also available.

Visit Reading Hawk Library

Clarkness

Related to the Reading Hawk site, Clarkness offers free eBooks and reading pages for Kindergarten and first grade children. These basic eBooks are organised into stages and collections for children to build their reading skills and discover new words.

Visit Clarkness

PhysicsQuest

Originally intended to accompany experiments in the classroom, these comic books make physics vastly appealing for middle-school children (and you can always gather the materials to conduct experiments at home!).

Titles include Nikola Tesla and the Electric Fair; Marie Curie's Floating Classes and Ben Franklins Secret Message to name a few. I rather enjoyed looking through these myself, and learned a fair few things along the way...

Visit the PhysicsQuest page on Physics Central

More free eBooks for Kindle, Nook, Kobo and more

I realise that many of you would like to find device-specific eBooks, but as the free titles available for Kindle, Nook and Kobo change on a daily basis, it is incredibly difficult to link to static pages.

Instead, I'd recommend browsing (or registering for updates) on the following sites:

• eReaderPerks (Kids Section) - Monitors free releases at Amazon (USA), plus eBooks for Kobo and Nook. You can opt to receive customisable emails for children's books for ages 0-12.
• FKB (Children's section) - Monitors Amazon (USA) for limited-time eBooks, and also includes an "always free" section.
• Free Feed Read (USA and UK) - These link to the children's sections of Free Feed Read for their relevant countries, and include both fiction and non-fiction books. Sorting by genre, age range and rating are available for time-limited freebies from Amazon.

Can you recommend more quality children's eBook sites?

Sharing books with your baby is an ideal way to introduce literacy skills and provide a sound basis for learning to read as they grow older. Babies are soothed by familiar voices and are adept at learning new skills even though we may not realise it.

Much of a child's capacity to learn is developed in the first three years of life. Studies have shown that children who experience reading aloud from infancy are far more likely to be successful readers as they grow older. And of course, reading with baby allows for enjoyable cuddle time!

In this post I'll explain some tried and tested tips for reading with babies and toddlers which can help nurture their future enjoyment of the written and spoken word.

Develop a familiarity with books

Select a range of age-appropriate books

Establish reading as a part of your daily routine

Make use of the resources available 

What are your suggestions for reading to babies?

To celebrate National Poetry Month, I've compiled an anthology of classic poetry for children which you can download absolutely free!

Rollicking Rhyme features classic verse by Lewis Carrol, Christina Rosetti, Abbie Farwell-Brown and many more authors, chosen specifically for their appeal to younger readers. From nursery rhymes to mischief-making, cautionary tales and flights of fancy, there are poems to suit everyone.

This eBook is available in PDF, ePub and .mobi formats so you can enjoy it on any device you like! What's more, it's available under the CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) license, so feel free to download, share and distribute Rollicking Rhyme any way you like!

Download Rollicking Rhyme (.zip file, includes PDF, ePub and Mobi)

Read on to preview and learn more about this free anthology of poetry.

Introducing Rollicking Rhyme

Get the eBook

Your thoughts..?

There are several lists of top books to read, many of which are a little dated, or include mostly classic fiction which we may not particularly want to read for our pleasure.

1. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

In the world of upper-class New York, Newland Archer anticipates marriage to May Welland, a young girl "who knew nothing and expected everything". Then Countess Olenska arrives, who alternately enchants and outrages New York Society and Archer discovers the real anguish of loving outside its rules.

2. Atonement by Ian McEwen

On the hottest day of summer in 1934, Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is her childhood friend, Robbie Turner. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have changed for ever: Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed an unimagined boundary, and Briony will have committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone.

3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck with three little girls in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster.

Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life.
Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio. Her new life is full of hope but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

5. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.

6. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consummate musician.

When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiancé - a member of the underground - go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?

7. Chocolat by Joanne Harris

When an exotic stranger, Vianne Rocher, arrives in the French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique directly opposite the church, Father Reynaud denounces her as a serious moral danger to his flock - especially as it is the beginning of Lent, the traditional season of self-denial.

As passions flare and the conflict escalates, the whole community takes sides. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the sinful pleasure of a chocolate truffle?

8. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific Ocean in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in Belgium between the First and Second World Wars; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; the testament of a genetically modified ‘dinery server’ on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation – the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

9. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Edmond Dantès spends fourteen bitter years in a dungeon. When his daring escape plan works he uses all he has learnt during his incarceration to mastermind an elaborate plan of revenge that will bring punishment to those he holds responsible for his fate. No longer the naïve sailor who disappeared into the dark fortress all those years ago, he reinvents himself as the charming, mysterious and powerful Count of Monte Cristo...

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can't understand are other human beings.

When he finds his neighbour's dog, Wellington, lying dead on the lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery about it. But in doing so, he uncovers other mysteries that threaten to bring his whole world crashing down around him.

11. Dangerous Liasons by Chodleros de Laclos

The complex moral ambiguities of seduction and revenge make Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782) one of the most scandalous and controversial novels in European literature. The subject of major film and stage adaptations, the novel's prime movers, the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil, form an unholy alliance and turn seduction into a game - a game which they must win.

12. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

14. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albon

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination, but an answer.

15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

16. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

The year is 1969. On the Cochin highway a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded in a workers' demonstration.

Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Estha, and so begins the tale. They grow up between vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their blind grandmother Mammachi's factory. Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they try to fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family – their lonely, lovely mother Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom pincher), their enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth. They learn that Things Can Change in a Day, lives can twist into new ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river, 'grey-green, with fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night the broken yellow moon in it.

17. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one option: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

18. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks.

Intrigued, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston and the mysterious 'House of Silk' . . .

19. If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But alas there is a printer's error in your copy. You take it back to the shop and get a replacement. But the replacement seems to be a totally different story. You try to track down the original book you were reading but end up with a different narrative again. This remarkable novel leads you through many different books including a detective adventure, a romance, a satire, an erotic story, a diary and a quest. But the real hero is you, the reader.

20. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

21. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own.

22. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.

23. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi – a 16-year-old Indian boy. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.

24. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

25. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary tells the tragic story of the romantic but empty-headed Emma Rouault. When Emma marries Charles Bovary, she imagines she will pass into the life of luxury and passion that she reads about in sentimental novels and women's magazines. But Charles is an ordinary country doctor, and provincial life is very different from the romantic excitement for which she yearns. In her quest to realize her dreams she takes a lover, Rodolphe, and begins a devastating spiral into deceit and despair.

26. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In Arthur Golden's poised and beautifully written debut novel, Sayuri tells the extraordinary tale of her life, evoking a quarter of a century of Japan's dramatic history, 1929 through to the post-war years.

Her story encompasses her childhood in a poor fishing village, before taking us, as she was taken at the tender age of nine, into the formal but intimate world of the geisha, a world supposedly of eroticism and enchantment, but also one of exploitation and degradation. Later, when the war has forced the closure of the geisha houses, Sayuri tells of her redemptive struggle, penniless and hungry, finally to forge her own freedom, on her own terms.

27. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children;, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

28. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kathy, Ruth and Tommy were pupils at Hailsham - an idyllic establishment situated deep in the English countryside. The children there were tenderly sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe they were special, and that their personal welfare was crucial. But for what reason were they really there? It is only years later that Kathy, now aged 31, finally allows herself to yield to the pull of memory. What unfolds is the haunting story of how Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, slowly come to face the truth about their seemingly happy childhoods - and about their futures.

29. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

30. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

31. The Observations by Jane Harris

Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckley takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own - including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances.

32. The One-Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not...Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan's earlier life in which - remarkably - he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century.

33. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

34. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her familys ambitious plots as the kings interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

35. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent...

36. The Plague by Albert Camus

In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes a omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.

37. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil.

38. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The pride of high-ranking Mr Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchies of early-nineteenth-century England, with the passion of the two unlikely lovers growing as their union seems ever more improbable. One of the most cherished love stories in English literature, Jane Austen's 1813 masterpiece has a lasting effect on everyone who reads it and is currently celebrating it's centennial anniversary!

39. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers...

40. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

41. Room by Emma Donohue

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

42. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the 'cemetery of lost books', a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out 'La Sombra del Viento' by Julian Carax.

But as he grows up, several people seem inordinately interested in his find. Then, one night, as he is wandering the old streets once more, Daniel is approached by a figure who reminds him of a character from La Sombra del Viento, a character who turns out to be the devil. This man is tracking down every last copy of Carax's work in order to burn them. What begins as a case of literary curiosity turns into a race to find out the truth behind the life and death of Julian Carax and to save those he left behind.

43. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in their hearts for her?

44. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

When 14-year-old Sophie encounters a mysterious mentor who introduces her to philosophy, mysteries deepen in her own life. Why does she keep getting postcards addressed to another girl? Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter, is Sophie herself? To solve the riddle, she uses her new knowledge of philosophy, but the truth is far stranger than she could have imagined.

45. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini

Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Yet love can move a person to act in unexpected ways, and lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism.

46. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.

47. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

When Harold Fry leaves home one morning to post a letter, with his wife hoovering upstairs, he has no idea that he is about to walk from one end of the country to the other.

He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone. All he knows is that he must keep walking.

To save someone else's life.

48. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Eva never really wanted to be a mother; certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher who tried to befriend him. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her absent husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

49. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.

Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

50. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries...

What do you think?