Morag Styles

reader in children’s literature, Homerton College, Cambridge

My first time in a classroom was almost a disaster as I tried to use WB Yeats’s poetry with a very restless bunch of seven-year-olds. That experience taught me to begin with something short, accessible, a sure winner, and then work towards more challenging literature when the time and the class is right.

A good traditional story rarely fails. Ted Hughes’s How the Whale Became and Other Stories falls into the modern myth category and has all the essential ingredients - gripping plots, memorable characters, muscular prose, and no extraneous detail. It’s now available in an impressive new hardback edition illustrated by Jackie Morris (Faber, pound;17.99).

Picture books are not only the territory of the very young. Anthony Browne’s Willy the Wimp books (Walker Books) delight readers of all ages. Use the original Willy the Wimp (pound;4.99) in early years classes and watch the interactive way in which children examine word and image. Or take Willy’s Pictures (pound;5.99) to a class of 10-year-olds as the starting point for a unit of work that will lead you into art galleries and the history of painting with a lot of fun along the way.

As for poetry, anything by Michael Rosen is a safe bet. The Hypnotiser and Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here are certainly two of the best (Puffin, pound;3.50 and pound;3.99). These free-verse tales of everyday life from the child’s point of view are extremely popular with teachers and pupils. Then you can work your way through poets of the past and present (look out for Carol Ann Duffy’s The Oldest Girl in the World (Faber, pound;3.99) and maybe in time even make your way to Yeats.

Mike Hirst

assistant headteacher at Saltdean primary school, Brighton

If you find yourself in a relentlessly Anglo-Saxon corner of England, you and your pupils might be desperate for a splash of multicultural colour. In this case, Seasons of Splendour (Puffin, pound;5.99) is cookery writer Madhur Jaffrey’s collection of Indian folktales, interspersed with short reminiscences about the Hindu festivals celebrated during Jaffrey’s own Delhi childhood. As well as making a mean curry, Jaffrey is a top storyteller. These traditional stories are illustrated by Michael Foreman and are ideal for spicing up key stage 2 literacy and RE - and geography topics on India, of course.

The Man Who Counted (Canongate, pound;9.99) is an even more exotic beast, a collection of Arabian-Nights-style stories about an eminent medieval mathematician called Beremiz Samir. Allegedly written by one ‘Malba Tahan’, the book is actually translated from Portuguese, and the copyright-holder, hidden away on the imprint page, has a distinctly Brazilian-sounding name. Each story, recounting one of Beremiz’s adventures in Baghdad, contains a mathematical trick or puzzle. Some are quite hard, but used sparingly with top juniors these stories work magic to dispel the drudgery of numeracy hour.

Paul Geraghty’s The Hunter (Red Fox, pound;5.99) is a picture book to capture the attention of even the most fidgety pre-pubescent Year 6 pupils. Jamina runs away from her grandfather and gets lost in the African bush, where she finds a baby elephant whose mother has been killed by poachers. It’s a good book to use early in the year when you’re just getting to know your class. The illustrations of beautiful baby elephants never fail, everyone can follow the story, and it’s a great springboard for pupils’ own writing.

Michael Thorn

deputy head at Hawkes Farm primary school, Hailsham, East Sussex

All teachers should have a trusted collection of poetry that they can turn to time and again. I’d be bereft without Walter de la Mare’s Come Hither, with its rambling but scholarly commentaries. This is not readily available, except second-hand, but the effort of tracking it down will be amply repaid.

Attractive new editions that you should consider include Charles Causley’s Collected Poems For Children (Macmillan Children’s Books, pound;9.99), a body of enchanting lyric and narrative verse. Also see Jack the Treacle Eater, a pocket-size selection of Causley’s poems in a new paperback (Macmillan, pound;4.99).

Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon’s Kings and Queens, recently reissued (Jane Nissen Books, pound;5.99), is a brilliantly witty series of poems about every one of Britain’s monarchs from William I to Elizabeth II. A firm grasp of the chronology of kings and queens and the ability to provide a pen-portrait of each always impresses, so this book is an invaluable resource.

Michael Rosen’s Shakespeare: his work and his world (Walker Books, pound;12.99) is a revelation - of just how good a teacher and critic Rosen is, as well as being the most popular children’s poet. Rosen brings a number of Shakespeare’s plays to life through a mixture of quotation and comment that will serve as a model for those teaching Shakespeare at key stage 2 and key stage 3.

Tom Deveson

former primary music adviser for the London Borough of Southwark

Even the most earth-bound children love travelling with books through time and space. Edith Nesbit’s Five Children and It (various editions) was first published 100 years ago, but its blend of comedy, realism, magic and moral challenge is still fresh and invigorating. The children of the title leave London - where everything seems to be marked “You mustn’t touch” - for a country holiday. They meet a creature whose power to make the entire range of juvenile wishes come true turns out to be a highly ambivalent gift.

Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are (Red Fox, pound;5.99) is a modern classic picture book. Max rages at his mother and sails off from his bedroom to an island where he becomes king of a set of grotesque monsters who sound like scary-loving aunts and uncles. The complex images and simple words work together like an endlessly rich dream. It’s for anyone who is or has ever been a child.

Susan Cooper’s King of Shadows (Puffin, pound;4.99) takes a young American boy back to Shakespeare’s Globe. He discovers much more than how to act on stage or where great poetry comes from. He also learns how to deal with fear and grief, how fantasy can enrich life, and when it needs to be abandoned for reality.

Fiona Lafferty

librarian at St Swithun’s junior school, Winchester

One of my all-time favourites is Giant Baby by Allan Ahlberg (Puffin, pound;4.99), especially for reading aloud to Years 2 and 3. Having longed for a sibling, Alice finds a giant baby on the doorstep one morning. As her parents wonder what to do with him, others have plans to kidnap and exploit him. Set firmly in Ahlberg’s familiar 1950s - pre-TV, disposable nappies and the Babygro - children relish imagining the problems of feeding and changing this huge baby.

The Big Bazoohley by Peter Carey (Faber, pound;4.99) is an immensely satisfying short novel for Years 4 and 5. When Sam and his parents arrive in Toronto to sell his mother’s miniature paintings to a mysterious wealthy recluse, they discover that he and the house where he lived have disappeared. Sam knows his parents have no money, so when he spots the Perfecto Kiddo competition, with its prize of $10,000, he decides he simply must win the “Big Bazoohley”.

The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan (Red Fox, pound;3.99) is a collection of remarkable short stories that centre on 10-year-old Peter, whose vivid imagination makes it difficult for him to discern fact from fantasy. Does he really swap skins with the cat or make his parents and sister disappear with vanishing cream, or are these extraordinary escapades just dreams? Certainly, there is much for Year 6 and older pupils to discuss in these short stories, which are at once both disturbimg and gripping.