I very much liked the book lists you put out last year during the Guardian and Observer books season, but wondered if you could provide a definitive library which would include the classics and the best books published today. I'd like 25 titles for each year of the first decade of life - Mashhour A. Al-Ibrahim

I'm delighted that you liked the lists in the 2011 Reading with Kids supplements. Getting the right balance of recommendations, from wel-known old favourites to books that are representative of what is currently captivating children, is always a complicated juggling act.

It is always easy to know which of the 'old' titles work - recent comments on the enormous impact Maurice Sendak's Where's the Wild Things has had on so many people since its publication has been a striking example of that – but adding the right news books is trickier.

But there are other difficulties about lists, too. While I very much enjoy putting together recommendations, because it allows me to reflect on the books that matter to me, I would be anxious about making a definitive library. Choosing books is a very subjective process so each list will be reflective of the tastes and experience of whoever has drawn it up. Users of it should always bear that in mind!

Every list will also reflect the audience for whom it has been devised. For example, book lists for use in schools tend to be more cautious than lists for parents to browse themselves as a school has to be sure not to offend any of its pupils or their parents.

To build your own perfect library I suggest you use the whole of this website as a resource. Start with Lucy Mangan's Book Corner: a book lover's guide to building a brilliant children's library for your classics, and then add to it from the reviews of new books which will lead to you to best books of today, and the excellent Top Ten lists, which provide an eclectic and sometimes idiosyncratic themed-based selection of titles.