You've gotta love the top 10 lists

I'm just joking. This one is actually pretty good: the Carnegie of Carnegies.

Arifa Akbar reports for the Independent.

Here's the entire list:

• Skeling, by David Almond (1998)
• Junk, by Melvin Burgess (1996)
• Storm, by Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)
• A Gathering Light, by Jennifer Donnelly (2003)
• The Owl Service, by Alan Garner (1967)
• The Family from One End Street, by Eve Garnett (1937)
• The Borrowers, by Mary Norton (1952)
• Tom's Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce (1958)
• Northern Lights, by Philip Pullman (1995)
• The Machine-Gunners, by Robert Westall (1981)

Top 10 characters from Children's Historical Fiction

The Guardian is at it again with another interesting article on children's books.

Today, Julia Golding, author of the Cat Royal series, lists her top 10 characters from historical fiction. She choses titles from a variety of historical eras, beginning with:

• 1. Prehistoric: Torak in Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother. You root for the orphan boy from the beginning because he is an outcast, trying to survive in the harsh world of a prehistoric forest. You get to sniff the scents, taste the food and feel the fear along with him.

Most recent historical era? WWII and Golding selects one of my personal favorites, Goodnight Mister Tom. If you haven't read this book, you must, as Golding explains:

• 10. Second world war: Tom Oakley in Michelle Magorian's Goodnight Mister Tom. A tale of two lost souls, an evacuee and Mr Tom, helping each other through the traumas of war in Blitz Britain. A beautiful book about childhood, grief and love. You can't read it without falling for Mr Tom's gentle curmudgeonly strength yourself.