A LIST of the top 100 children's books in Swindon has been revealed by Swindon Stories.

Local children, schools and parents across the town were asked to vote for their favourite books through an online form and social media using the #swindonstories hashtag.

Swindon Stories is a local initiative launched with Swindon Borough Council and the National Literacy Trust to encourage children of all ages to make reading a daily activity.

The list features well-known classics such as Harry Potter and Peter Rabbit but also more unusual choices from the town's children looking for inspiration.

Readers aged 9 – 12 chose Rosario +Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda, a Japanese manga series, as well as Terror Kid by Benjamin Zephania, a teen frustrated at the injustices he sees happening around the world.

Anish Harrison, manager of the National Literacy Trust Hub inSwindon, said: "It's been such fun seeing the suggestions that have been made by children across the town. There are lots of new titles on the list, but some classics always prevail!

"It's great to have a list of books tailored to the local area; we are always asked for recommendations and it's really nice to introduce children to books that their peers have enjoyed.

"We hope the list will inspire hundreds of local children to discover new books and fall in love with reading, which will help them to succeed at school and lead happy live."

Deborah Lamb, librarian at Old Town library, told the Adver: "Since we became more children-focused on December borrowing has gone up massively. In the summer reading challenge we exceeded our target, we had over a hundred children sign up. There's lots of children in Old Town into their reading.

"The boys all seem to love Diary of Wimpy Kid, they never stay on the shelves.

"The biggest at the moment is the Andy Griffiths Treehouse series. They're really popular, a really big genre is fantasy.

"It's about these children that go up a tree house and on each level there's a different fantasy land.

"But they're definitely still into the classics, Enid Blyton, and the Famous Five are really popular."

The library in Old Town, on Devizes Road, is also due to launch a new early-reading challenge to ask parents to read a thousand books with their children before they reach primary school.

The list of the top 100 books has been published and can be found at local libraries, or downloaded from swindonstories.org.uk, for children to tick off.