These twelve books are great Christmas gift ideas for any reader in your life! Don’t forget one for yourself too ;)

When reading about this series online I saw a review from a woman who said the books would appeal mostly to boys. I have to disagree wholeheartedly here – not once while being engrossed in these books did it occur to me that these were books better suited to boys, or that it should matter that the main character was a boy. I love fantasy and adventure, period, and this series had plenty of that.

At the moment The Graveyard Book is the best Neil Gaiman novel I have read (I’ve only started on Neverwhere so will see if this changes!). In his usual style the book is a children’s book and yet it is not – it is simply a wonderful, well-told fantasy adventure about a boy who grows up in a graveyard.

Still one of my ultimate favourite books is The Silver Brumby, by Elyne Mitchell. Mitchell transported me to the Snowy Mountains, and to the desperate struggle of the silver stallion Thowra to evade capture from humans and protect his herd.