I was reading before I went to school and I used to read Topsy and Tim books.

I used to save up my pocket money to buy Enid Blyton's ' Adventure' and ' Mystery' 'of' series.

My sister and me had Enid Blyton's "Hanni und Nanni" - in English I think called St. Clare’s

Other early books I remember are AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh series.

To name a few, I always liked the books by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, as well as the fairytales of H.C Andersen and the brothers Grimm. My mother always read classical children's books for me as a kid. She considered most of the more modern ones to be simply nonsensical. I remember that she used to ask me a lot of questions when reading (Why do you think he did that? Do you think this person expected him to do that? How do you think this person will react to what he did? etc.) and I think that's why, even though I learned to read myself very early, preferred having other people read to me as a kid. I really enjoyed discussing the things I was hearing. I've never really thought of it before, but I think that doing that sort of thing can be quite beneficial when it comes to growth. 

My father didn't really read that much for me. He made up the stories himself. They were actually really great and well thought through, and not at all cheesy as you would expect. I'm still kind of fascinated by the extent of his imagination when it comes to storytelling.

No I think every member of my family gave it a go and couldn't get away with it.

I had forgotten but I used to love reading stories by Ursula le Guin. If you like mildly unsettling fantasy type stories I can thoroughly recommend these, even for adult readers.

My favourite authors as a child were:

* Dick King Smith: he's the one who wrote "The Sheep-pig", which was, long later, made into the movie "Babe"; but also books like Magnus Powermouse, Martin's mice, Sophie's snail...etc etc. I just loved his stories, especially all those which took place in a farm. So many wonderful reading memories...

* Marcel Aymé: I especially loved his "Contes du Chat Perché" (I think it had been translated as "The magic pictures" and "The wonderful farm"), also little stories taking place in a farm, when I think about it. Funny I hadn't noticed such an obvious common point before, lol.

* Pef: a really funny French children books author. He plays with words wonderfully.

And my favourite book (which still is a favourite of mine more than 20 years later) is "The Little Prince" by Antoine de St Exupéry. It is so poetical, so true, so sad... I love it to bits...

^ The book 'Night Flight' I liked best from de Saint-Exupéry. :o)

It doesn't surprise me, that the variety of the childhood books depends on the home country of the reader. :o) Cultural influence?

Mine have been the typical 'german' classics as well :o)

Astrid Lindgren - Die Brüder Löwenherz (The Brothers Lionheart), Ronja Räubertochter (Ronia, The Robber's Daughter)
Michael Ende - Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story)
Ottfried Preussler - Das kleine Gespenst (The Little Ghost), Krabat (the same in english)
Fairytales by Hans-Christian Andersen + Wilhelm Hauff