I noticed that Puffin have produced new editions of 12 classic children's in time for World Book Day on Thursday.
They include Black Beauty, The Call of the Wild, The Wind in the Willows and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Another title on the list, the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, got me thinking about a slightly shameful episode from my past.
Back in the 1980s, when I was kicking my heels through the long vacation, I would try to find a job in Brighton, and reside with my grandparents in neighbouring Hove.
One summer, I worked on the Palace Pier, but the following year I decided to move slightly upmarket by signing on as an events organiser for a language school catering for Italian teenagers.
All went swimmingly until I was told to help out with a trip to the village of Rottingdean near Brighton.
First on the agenda was a visit to village locations linked with Kipling, where he wrote many of the Just So Stories.
Alas, we never made it to the interesting places including The Elms, a delightful house preserved by the Rottingdean Preservation Society.
It was a hot day on the south coast — the sweat was pouring off me — and the young Italians, all aged about 14, stumbled across an outdoor pool.
They asked me if we could go for a swim and I couldn't see the harm in it but a couple of hours sped by and then there was no time for our Kipling hunt.
The Italians loved splashing about but their teacher complained afterwards to my boss and I was given a tongue-lashing.
Ever since the Rottingdean incident I have always avoided Kipling, but a quick search of my library revealed a Penguin Classics copy of the author's memoirs, Something of Myself, and a handsome 1950s copy of Stalky & Co, the story inspired by his school days.
In Something of Myself, Kipling reveals that he was a pretty good swimmer in his schooldays, so perhaps he would not have thought too badly of my faux pas.
After ignoring the writer for the past 20 years, I have now decided to make up for lost time.