What would Tolkien say?

[Lalaith]

The Royal Society of Literature in the UK recently asked some of their most distinguished members to nominate the ten books children should read before leaving school. JK Rowling, Phillip Pullman and Andrew Motion (the British Poet Laureate) all responded and their lists are here:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/children...698794,00.html

There have been some eyebrows raised at the "challenging" nature of Motion's list (mine went pretty high, for sure...).
But be that as it may, if Tolkien were still alive and had been asked, what books do we think he would have put forward?
Of course, a lot of what has been recommended had not yet been written when he was around. But I think he would have approved of much of Pullman's list - the ballads, myths and fairytales. I'm sure he would have suggested Andrew Lang - the Blue Fairy Book etc. What did he think of things like Lewis Carroll? I haven't read the letters so I don't have the insight. He might, like many of the authors approached by the RSL, have refused to participate at all.

But I do think he would have approved of this comment from the RSL:

"I think it's a fallacy to say that children need to be given books about children who are in similar situations to them. Children can empathise with characters from any place or time."