Eleanor & Alasdair Read That

We Read The Water-Babies

Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies, made a big splash in 1863. It may have helped end child labour in Britain, but is it actually readable? In this episode, Eleanor and

We Read The Boxcar Children

No aspiring orphan should be without a copy of Gertrude Chandler Warner's 1924 classic, The Boxcar Children. Her bafflingly successful mystery adventures were a huge part

We Read Comet in Moominland

They're soft, they're white, they're somewhere between cute and creepy —  it's Eleanor and Alasdair. And for this episode, we read Tove Jansson's 1946 adventure Comet In

We Read Winnie the Pooh

Here are Eleanor and Alasdair, coming down the stairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head. That's right, Eleanor has murdered Alasdair. But not before recordin

We Read Charlotte's Web

Just like women be shopping, E. B. White. And White's 1952 novel Charlotte's Web is a blackly comical tear-jerker about a spider coming to the aid of a pig who doesn't wa

We Read Johnny and the Bomb

Eleanor and Alasdair step into the trousers of time, with Terry Pratchett's 1996 novel Johnny and the Bomb. Five inept British teens find themselves in World War Two with

We Read The Cat in the Hat & The Tiger Who Came to Tea

1957–1968 was a golden age of big cats breaking into kids' houses and smashing up the joint. For this episode, Eleanor & Alasdair read Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat and J

We Read The Wind in the Willows

Eleanor and Alasdair are fighting! Eleanor is in love with Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, but for Alasdair... it's complicated. The 1908 classic is a tale of

We Read The Borrowers

She's small. She's ginger. She's very hard to get out of your house. No, not Eleanor Morton. We're talking about Arietty Clock, the tiny teenage protagonist of Mary Norto

We Read The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Part 2)

The stone table cracks and Eleanor & Alasdair return to Narnia. It's time to pass judgement on The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. Eleanor sings the praises of the dodgy

We Read The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Part 1)

Always-winter-but-never-Christmas starts earlier every year, doesn't it? Eleanor and Alasdair read C. S. Lewis's furniture-based children's classic The Lion, The Witch &

We Read Watership Down

Eleanor & Alasdair take you down to Watership City, where the grass is green and the girls are... hang on, where are all the girls?   We read Watership Down, Richard Adam

We Read The Worst Witch

A boarding school for witches? Imagine that! No, not Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Bigotry. We're talking about Miss Cackle's Academy, from Jill Murphy's 1974 bestsel

We Read The Railway Children (Live)

The Railway Children is an Edwardian children's classic and health & safety nightmare. Edith "E" Nesbit's novel is packed with unforgettable characters, railway mishaps a

We Read The Story of Tracy Beaker

Eleanor and Alasdair read The Story of Tracy Beaker. Jacqueline Wilson's 1991 hit has spawned numerous sequels and TV spin-offs, but Alasdair has missed out on all of the

We Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

We're all mad here. Specifically, Eleanor is mad about people saying Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on drugs and Alasdair is mad about the Tim Burto

We Read The Secret Garden

Sickly, spoiled and terrified of the outside world, Eleanor and Alasdair read The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett's kidlit classic is the story of an obnoxious lit

We Read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Like a pair of creepy twins, Eleanor and Alasdair venture up Alderley Edge to meet the Wizard. We read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner's 1960 folk horror class

We Read The Witches

Eleanor and Alasdair read a Roald Dahl book about some absolutely horrid women. "Which one?" you quite reasonably ask. It's The Witches: a grotesquely funny revenge caper

We Read Peter Rabbit

Eleanor and Alasdair read The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the story of a semi-nude rabbit tormenting the Scotsman who killed his father. Beatrix Potter's first book was a world