Potter's magic no match for Charlie's chocolate

Outpolling Harry: Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Twits" were named the two favorite books in a survey of British schoolchildren

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Harry Potter may have cast his spell all over the world, but the boy wizard's magic has not ousted Roald Dahl's quirky wit as the literary must-have of British schoolchildren.

Over three-quarters of children questioned in a survey named Dahl's books "The Twits" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" their favorite reads, while "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" came in fourth.

The results of the survey of 500 children aged 11 to 16 in a Dorset secondary school, carried out by online book retailer Amazon.co.uk, showed that timeless classics such as A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh," C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit" still remained firm favorites.

"We've asked kids not what their favorites are right now, but what their favorites are overall -- it could be a book they read when they were four," Amazon's Lisa Ramshaw told Reuters.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, became one of Britain's highest-paid women after Potter-mania swept across the globe.

The tales of the boy wizard with broken spectacles have sold more than 57 million copies in 200 countries.

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Scholastic: Harry Potter
The Official Roald Dahl Web Site
Beatrix Potter Society
C.S. Lewis
The Hundred Acre Wood (A.A. Milne)

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