The children's greatest magical literature—Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, The Wind in the Willows, Gulliver's Travels, Mary Poppins, The Lord of the Rings, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, A Christmas Tale, the Harry Potter cycle, the endless fairy tales and adventures among the "little folks", etc.—all come from the same country: England (I am not including here the colossal number of Victorian moral tales inevitably submitting disobedient children to unspeakable horrors, because I do not believe that they were written for children in the first place, but for neurotic parents).

Could this be a coincidence? Clearly not. It is but one sign that each country, each culture has a specific "soul", a collective consciousness which coalesces in a number of different fields of creation and activity. England has given us magic and innocence, France brilliance and voluptuousness, Germany reason and discipline, Italy music and la dolce vita, Spain spice and passion, Arabia imagination and beauty, and India devotion and meditation.

A Christmas Tale by Charles Dickens (19th century)
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (19th century)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (19th century)
Amar Chitra Katha comics. Anant Pai, ed. These comics present great legends and saints of India in an easily accessible, fun and enjoyable way for children and adults alike.

Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau (20th century)

Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. His classic fairytales include "The Ugly Duckling," "The Red Shoes," and the mystical "The Snow Queen."

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (18th century)

Harry Potter cycle by J. K. Rowling (21st century)
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (21st century): a trilogy comprising 1) Northern Lights, 2) The Subtle Knife, and 3) The Amber Spy-Glass

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach (20th century)

Kim by Rudyard Kipling (19th century)

Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Mallory

ary Poppins by P.L. Travers (20th century)

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Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie (19th century)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by James Matthew Barrie (19th century)

Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving

Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll (19th century)
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (20th century).
A review of 3,000 years of philosophical inquiry in the form of a mystery novel.

Tales about Pierrot and Colombine
Tales about Punch and Judy
Tales by Charles Perrault
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (19th century)
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (19th century)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (19th century)
The Chronicles of Narnia (7 volumes) by C. S. Lewis (20th century)
The House at Pooh Corner by Alan Alexander Milne (20th century)
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (19th century)
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (20th century). A downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (20th century)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (19th century)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (19th century)
The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (20th century). A philosophical tale by the author of Sophie's World through the adventure of a boy journeying with his father to find his mother

The Story of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting (20th century)
The Time Machine by Herbert George Wells (19th century)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (20th century)
Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (19th century)

Winnie-the-Pooh by Alan Alexander Milne (20th century)

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