Are you sitting comfortably?

My father reading me stories is one of the strongest memories of my childhood.

Now that I have a daughter of my own, reading to her is my favourite thing. I work in publishing, I love books, but also, in my dream life, I'd be an actress. So there's nothing better than curling up with her, and belting out a great story, comedy accents and all.

It can be hard, though, can't it, to find the good ones? There are a lot of rubbish children's books out there. No wonder every star thinks they can write one. So often, when I'm reading, I'm thinking 'I could do better than this'. And I probably could. But you know what, I could never write The Gruffalo, or Guess How Much I Love You, or the Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories.

When little a chooses Dora (aka Borer the Explorer), my heart sinks - despite the chance to indulge my terrible Spanish accent. But anything by Julia Donaldson, I can read it again and again.

And that's it, isn't it? our kids love stories. Their imaginations are running wild, the whole time. What I love is when the books we find set my imagination running wild, too.

So often I find myself with my friends reminiscing about the books we loved. We can spend hours listing them, revelling in the memories of first discovering them, and retelling the adventures of characters who seem almost more real than our own childhood friends. And it's so exciting to recommend an undiscovered book to someone new: there's such a vicarious thrill in thinking how happy they'll feel when they read it for the first time.

So when I found myself getting very over-excited with jhw (my boss) the other day about The Family from One End Street, and feeling sorrow at the passing of Tales on Half Moon Lane (lovely bookshop in Primrose Hill), I thought - why not make a little space online, to recommend the books I loved, and celebrate rediscovering them, or finding new ones, with little a?

My daughter is four now, so I'll do a bit of catching up, tell you the books we've loved up till now. And then we'll go on our journey of discovery together. She's growing up so fast, I want to hold on to every minute. But at the same time, I'm so excited that soon she'll be old enough to read CS Lewis, and Robert Westall, and Susan Cooper.

My childhood favourites will be a big part of this, of course, but I also want to find new stories. I'll ask my family and friends for their favourites. And I'll see if the stories I remember have stood the test of time. Will I still love them? Will little a love the same ones?