Introduction: Probing the problem of 'the classic' Complexities and critiques of 'the classic' 'The classic' in children's literature Classics and canons Prizing and reading practices Serialising children's classics: A room of not so familiar friends Studying British series of children's classics at a distance and up close Compiling the corpus Precursors to the classic series A study of presence, pruning and product Chapter 1: Presence Analysing the corpus Core classics Outliers in series The move towards homogenisation Variation in series of modern classics Transitioning titles Trends in authorship Chapter 2: Pruning Adaptations in children's literature Statistical data: On counting words and measuring sentences Genette's Palimpsests: On reading contraction A case study of a classic Ladybird: Generating series of classics for younger readers Longman: Turning the children's classics into a reading scheme Distilling a sense of a classic style Chapter 3: Product Repackaging the children's classics The publisher's paratext A Ladybird story Puffin's 'complete and unabridged' classics Walker's illustrated classics: 'The classics have never looked so good' Conclusions: What does serialisation mean for the children's classics? Appendix Appendix A: Accessing the dataset online Appendix B: Series of classics and modern classics listed chronologically by start publishing date Appendix C: Books in series listed numerically by book ID Appendix D: Authors in series listed numerically by author ID Appendix E: Series that books appear in listed numerically by Book ID References Index.