It amazed me that they would imagine I would never walk again. I knew what I was going to do. I was going to break in wild horses and yell 'Ho! Ho!' and wave my hat in the air, and I was going to write a book like The Coral Island.

Every so often, there comes a story so brilliant and lively and moving that it cannot be left in the past. Rediscover the magic of our country's most memorable children's books in the Penguin Australia Children's Classics series of stories too precious to leave behind.