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The Hobbit among top primary school book list

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit has come in join seventeenth place in a teachers’ list of books all children should read before leaving primary school.

The TES and the National Association for the Teaching of English asked 500 teachers to list the books they believed all primary school children should read.

Tolkien’s 1937 novel came in join seventeenth place with Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson. Meanwhile Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland came third, whereas fellow Inkling C.S. Lewis came sixth with his Chronicle of Narnia.

Top 20 children’s books to read before leaving primary school:

1 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
2 Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
3 Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4 Matilda by Roald Dahl
5 The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
6 The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
7 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
8 We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
9 Dogger by Shirley Hughes
10 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
11 Stig of the Dump by Clive King
12= Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
12= The Iron Man by Ted Hughes
14 Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
15 Winnie the Pooh by A A Milne
16 Funnybones by Allan and Janet Ahlberg
17= The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
17= Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson
19 Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
20 War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The full top 100 list is available here.
About the Author: Daniel Helen
Daniel is an Officer without Portfolio and Trustee of The Tolkien Society. Elected in 2014, he is mainly responsible for the Society's digital operations, including this website.