Ten of the best books to read aloud

Jasper Fforde has been writing in the comedy/fantasy genre since 2001 when his novel The Eyre Affair debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Since then he has published more books, several of them bestsellers, and counts his sales in millions. He lives and works in Wales.

One of his top ten bedtime stories, as told to the Guardian:

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

This story by the American writer/illustrator is quite rightly viewed as a classic across the pond, along with her other tour de force, Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel, but is little known over here [in the UK]. This has been a Fforde bedtime staple for over four decades, and has never failed to delight. Children like the same stories quite often, night after night, and the simple story of a little house living on a small hill surrounded by apple trees, does get asked for quite a lot. We like this book because it graphically illustrates the passage of time, and views the same place through the seasons, then with the march of technology and the encroachment of urbanisation – and the loss of simple things, like not being able to see the stars because of the glow from street-lamps. A childhood is incomplete without at least one reading.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue