Ten books made into films

James and the Giant Peach

It’s notoriously difficult to get it right when adapting books onto the screen. Here are some of our favourites.

Including both a range of ages and genres, if you child loved any of these films why not try get them to read the book?

  • James and the Giant Peach

    James and the Giant Peach

    Author: Roald Dahl Illustrator: Quentin Blake
    Publisher: Puffin
    Interest age: 8-11
    Reading age: 8+

    Through a series of peculiar and magical happenings, James finds himself on an adventure inside a giant peach with a bunch of friendly giant insects for travelling companions.

  • Mary Poppins

    Mary Poppins

    Author: P L Travers
    Publisher: Harper Collins
    Interest age: 7+
    Reading age: 9+

    Mary Poppins arrives with the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane to respond to the needs of Jane and Michael, whose parents are too busy to give them the attention they crave.

  • Millions

    Millions

    Author: Frank Cottrell Boyce Illustrator: Steven Lenton
    Publisher: Walker Books
    Interest age: 9+
    Reading age: 9+

    One night, a bag containing £229,370 falls from the sky and flattens the hermitage. Damian is convinced it is a gift from God.

  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    Author: L Frank Baum Illustrator: Robert R. Ingpen
    Publisher: Templar
    Interest age: 8-12
    Reading age: 9+

    First published in 1900, this children's classic is still popular. Dorothy and her dog Toto find themselves in the strange land of Oz after a cyclone hits her Aunt and Uncle's house in Kansas.

  • The Gruffalo

    The Gruffalo

    Author: Julia Donaldson Illustrator: Axel Scheffler
    Publisher: Macmillan
    Interest age: 1-5

    In this much-loved picture book, a little mouse walks through the woods and encounters a fox, an owl and a snake.

  • The Lost Thing

    The Lost Thing

    Author: Shaun Tan
    Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
    Interest age: 9+
    Reading age: 9+

    A version of this unique book was the winner of Best Animated Short Film at the 2011 Oscars. A boy is out walking on the beach, when he spots a weird looking thing - it looks lost. The boy asks around, but nobody seems to know where it came from, so the boy begins a quest to find the thing somewhere to call home. This memorable picture book can be enjoyed on…

  • The Adventures of Pinocchio

    The Adventures of Pinocchio

    Author: Carlo Collodi Translator: Anne Lawson
    Publisher: Oxford University Press
    Interest age: 9-10
    Reading age: 7+

    The story of the wooden puppet who learns goodness and becomes a real boy is famous the world over, and has been familiar in English for over a century.

  • Howl's Moving Castle

    Howl's Moving Castle

    Author: Diana Wynne Jones
    Publisher: Harper Collins
    Interest age: 9+
    Reading age: 9+

    Sophie Hatter is cursed with an old body by the Witch of the Waste and the spell can only be broken by the dreaded Wizard Howl who lives in his moving castle and likes to eat the souls of young girls.

  • Where the Wild Things Are

    Where the Wild Things Are

    Author: Maurice Sendak
    Publisher: Random House
    Interest age: 4-8

    Max is being naughty, and his mother sends him to bed without dinner, calling him a "wild thing." As Max sits in his fury, a boat appears, taking him to a world of monsters and wild things with big claws and teeth. A classic picture book and one of the first to explore a child's feelings of anger.