Harry Potter tops book list, with Lemony Snicket second

The three Wootton sisters of Ashburton are book mad. Alex, aged 8, Sarah,11 and Kate, 14, rarely have their noses out of a book.

So it was little surprise that they knew virtually every book in the latest Whitcoulls Kid List launched in Auckland last night.

"There's only four here I haven't read," announced Kate, who has since moved on to adult tomes such as Wuthering Heights and Shakespeare.

The three, book shopping while on holiday in Queen St yesterday, were not surprised to see the magic of J K Rowling was still working on New Zealand children with the Harry Potter series topping the list. Second place was Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate Events.

Needless to say the Wootton sisters don't spend much time in front of the television, only about two hours a week, including videos.

Mrs Wootton concedes the family spends quite a lot of money on books - $60 last week - but they also make heavy use of the Ashburton library.

She said many of the children's books were fantasy. "It wasn't as popular when I was young."

This year fantasy books feature in the list of top 50 books, particularly stories in which children have special powers or abilities that enable them to battle against unscrupulous adults and win.

Many popular books have also been turned into movies.

While The Lord of the Rings had gone down in ranking since the last list, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had moved up in anticipation of the movie, due out in December. Of the fifty titles on this list five were written by New Zealanders.

It is the fourth list to be compiled since 1998 when the number one slot went to Matilda, by Roald Dahl who has eight titles in the 2005 list.

Other classics still pop up such as Green Eggs and Ham (17), Charlotte's Web (23), and Black Beauty (35).

English author, Jacqueline Wilson, is a firm favourite with girls and nine titles by her appear on the list.