Harry Potter emerged winner of the Best Character in children's books at a poll for International Children's Book Day.

Harry Potter beat popular children's book character Gruffalo to be voted as the Best Character in a poll for International Children's Book Day. Potter, the fictitious character of  JK Rowling's famous "Harry Potter" series, won 38 percent of kids' votes in a survey of 1,037 parents and their children, with Julia Donaldson's monster winning 34 percent of the votes and the Cat in the Hat picking up 28 percent. Unfortunately, Rowling missed out in the competition to be named best ever children's author, with kids voting instead for Roald Dahl. Dahl took half of children's votes, with Rowling voted for by just 30 percent. A surprise success for Beatrix Potter saw the Peter Rabbit creator come in third, with 20 percent of the votes from children.

The survey was carried out by discount book chain "The Works" to mark International Children's Book Day. "It's great to see classic children's books and characters are still holding favour with kids throughout Britain, with parents' own preferences presumably swaying their little ones' reading habits," said chief executive Kevin Keaney. "More than half (51%) of the parents polled said their children read the same books as they did, showing tastes haven't changed and classics remain popular."

Keaney revealed that 29 percent of parents surveyed said their children owned e-readers, but 88 percent still read paper books. "It's also great to see that ebooks aren't taking over," said Keaney.