Hansel et Gretel

A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a boy from a very small planet. Simple sentences, the author's own watercolours, and the most quoted French book in the world.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Mowgli raised by wolves, plus the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the white seal. A set of separate tales rather than one continuous story.

Rudyard Kipling

Four voyages, starting with the tiny people of Lilliput and getting stranger each time. Children read it as adventure and adults read it as satire.

Jonathan Swift

A map falls into young Jim Hawkins' hands and the ship's cook turns out to be the most dangerous man aboard. Every pirate cliché you know started here.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Alice follows a rabbit down a hole into a world where the logic keeps changing on her. Illustrated, and short enough to read in one go.

Lewis Carroll