If you think the Gruffalo sounds like a band debuting at Glastonbury, you either don't have kids, or you never read to them. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's charming children's book has sold more than 4m copies since it was published in 1999. It tells the tale of a quick-witted little mouse who wards off several predators, including the monster of the title. The superb illustrations and inventive rhyming couplets work in harmony to produce a cracking story.

If there is one reason to wish away summer, it's the BBC's adaptation of this contemporary classic. The Gruffalo will be this year's Christmas treat, catering to that all-important niche market: toddlers. The idea of children as young as two being targeted like this can send some parents into a moral tailspin (the real world will pale in comparison: darling child will become obese, drool relentlessly, and be expelled from nursery for mimicking the acts of extreme banality they've accidentally witnessed during commercial breaks). But we need to exercise some judgment here. Not all TV is the same.

If we watch too much Judge Judy, our brain cells turn to space dust. Ergo, don't watch it. Be your own inner parent and switch to BBC4. I'm not a media effects expert but I suspect the Gruffalo TV experience won't turn your kid into a big, fat, hairy Gruffalo or even a tween slacker. They'll probably love the TV version so much that they'll want you to read the book to them for the next 365 days until another Christmas special arrives. And if you're going to be reading the same story that often, you'll need vocal inspiration from the best. Luckily, Helena Bonham Carter, John Hurt and Robbie Coltrane are doing the voiceovers.

The Gruffalo is a coup for the BBC: there can't be many children's bestsellers that haven't already had their day on TV or film. Of course, there are some favourites that would make terrible TV. Or so you would think. In our house, we love Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd's 1947 classic, Goodnight Moon, which gives the reader the opportunity to say goodnight to everything in an aristocratic bunny's slightly creepy house. I can't get through it without falling asleep, so the dramatic potential can't be great. But then I found out that HBO have already turned it into animation.

My question today is, if the thought doesn't fill you with horror, which children's classics would you like to see on the small or big screen?