Reading aloud to your kids is one of the best ways of having fun together, says Jacqueline Wilson. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

WHEN her daughter Emma was born, admits children's author Jacqueline Wilson, she was "one of those fidgety babies who barely slept and wanted to be played with all the time".

That, the novelist comments, was "pretty exhausting".

Jacqueline quickly discovered one way of keeping her daughter happy and contented, however - reading aloud to her.

"I'd sit her on my lap and cuddle her close and we'd turn the pages of a big picture book together," she explains, in the introduction to her new book Great Books To Read Aloud. "When there was a dog we'd go 'woof, woof' and pretend to stroke him. When there was a cake we'd pretend to eat and go 'yum, yum'. It was as simple and basic as that."

By the time Emma was a toddler, they were onto simple stories and rhymes: Where The Wild Things Are, and girly books like Milly-Molly-Mandy.

Jacqueline worried that by the time her daughter was old enough to read herself, the mum-and-daughter reading aloud sessions might stop.

Not at all "We carried on, because I could read her older books she couldn't yet tackle by herself.

"I'm so pleased we read aloud. I think it's the best gift you can give your child. It's a wonderful way of bonding together and simultaneously entering the magic world of the imagination."

Any parent who has ever read to their children will know that. But it's not always easy to find the right book.

Now, to help other parents, Jacqueline has compiled a list of 70 tried and tested classics, guaranteed to bring peace, harmony and fun back into your relationship with your children.

Great Books To Read Aloud, compiled with the help of recommendations from celebrities such as Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Terry Wogan and Cherie Blair, is a fun introduction to 70 of the best children's books ever written.

Arranged in three age categories (0-5, 5-8 and 8-11), the book is packed with fun information about the stories recommended, as well as some tips on how to make reading aloud even more fun. Bed time need never be a struggle again.

Great books recommended by Jacqueline include: 0-5s: One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins 5-8s: Cosmo And The Magic Sneeze by Gwyneth Rees Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren 8-11s: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve Lizzie Dripping by Helen Cresswell Great Books To Read Aloud by Jacqueline Wilson is published by Random House, priced £1