Published in 1908, The Wind in the Willows is a pastoral story of four animal friends -- Ratty, Toady, Mole and Badger. This story involves serial car crashes, a gypsy horse trader, a prison sentence and the expected happy ending, with friendship and fairness affirmed.
Created by J.M. Barrie, this story is about a little boy who has the ability to fly and who supernaturally refuses to get older. It is a fantasy of eternal childhood, spent on the island of Neverland. This is a magical adventure world of faeries, mermaids and sea villains. Occasionally, children from the normal world are allowed a glimpse of this world, but they must return to their own lives again.
The Secret Garden was published as a novel in 1911. An orphaned child named Mary Lennox arrives at her uncle's imposing manor, having lost her parents and her former servant. A robin leads Mary to the key of the secret garden, a forbidden place that has not been opened for years. The book features the garden as a physically and spiritually healing place, expressed in the language of magic for its young audience.
This is a keystone classic of children's literature. Alice leaves her own world through a tunnel and encounters all kinds of strange characters and occurrences. Nothing is what it seems; things grow large and small, and nobody's words are entirely reliable. This is a story about a young girl finding her way independently (albeit with some confusing offers of help along the way) in a strange, shape-shifting world. This book is sure to have parents fighting it out over who gets to read their children a bedtime story at night.