Top 100 Children's books

School Library Journal did a poll of the top 100 children's books and Crowinator of Trapped Inside My Huge Chattering Head made a list of the books she's read. (link above) Here's mine- Bolded titles have been read.



100. The Egypt Game - Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard - Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe - Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches - Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking - Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons - Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn - Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted - Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall - MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father - Cleary (1977)
88. The High King - Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday - Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse - Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief - Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three - Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book - Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family - Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain - Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember - DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust - Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog - Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers - Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain - George (1959)
72. My Father's Dragon - Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning - Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy - Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart ( 2007)
68. Walk Two Moons - Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins - Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes - Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago - Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake - Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock - Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl - Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart - Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars - Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG - Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows - Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
51. The Saturdays - Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell (1960)
49. Frindle - Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks - Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy - Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass - Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest - Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me - Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson's Go to Birmingham - Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach - Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic - Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh - Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising - Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess - Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II - Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet - Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women - Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux - DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief - Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting - Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda - Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee - Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy - Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit - Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game - Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden - Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes - Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 - Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte's Web - White (1952)


The Westing Game

I loved this book as a kid. A millionaire has died and a group of specially chosen individuals move into Sunset Towers. They include 12 year older Turtle Wexler, her parents and older sister Angela, the Hoo family, the Theodorakis family, and several others. One of the people in the towers took the millionaire's life but before the book reveals the answers the reader must puzzle through tons of clues and each character's back story. This is a highly sophisticated children's book and richly deserved the Newberry Medal.

A Child's Garden of Verses

I think this collection of poems by Robert Louis Stevenson was the first book I remember reading. By reading, I'm pretty sure I just had most of my favorite poems memorized. I was recovering from a surgery and had nothing to do in bed but read and I remember reading this one over and over and my aunt helping me to follow along in the text. The poems reflect the wonderment of childhood. We had the Little Golden Book version and I loved the illustrations as well.

Just Me and My Dad

I've bought a lot of books for my niece and nephews over the years and it always amazes me which ones seem to be the most popular with them. The Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer are probably the most read ones, especially by my niece. The books are told from a child's perspective and in many of these books the child character is allowed to take on grown-up roles and make decisions (and mistakes). This book is about the adventures of a boy and his dad on a camping trip. It is a nice bonding story between a dad and child that is appropriate for both boys and girls--my niece loves it.

A Wrinkle in Time

I have been entering my kids books into blogger and I came across this book, I favorite of mine in the junior high era. Meg Murray and her little brother Charles Wallace don't fit in very well. They appear to the town as either idiots or genius and everyone thinks they are strange. Plus their father is mysteriously missing. One dark and stormy night they travel through time via tesseract (the wrinkle in time) as well as space to rescue their father from where he is being held. A popular boy from Meg's grade -Calvin O'Keefe joins them and find he fits in better with Meg's family than his own. The story it great, exciting and fun, but as a kid, Nerdy Meg finding a a person who likes her and feeling useful on the hunt for her father were the highlights of the book for me. This book is a Newberry award winner.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The post that has been almost ten years in the making! Deathly Hallows is a worthwhile finale to the series. Many, many elements from the preceding six volumes reappear making the book very satisfying to a careful reader. The final battles with He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named are exciting, although maybe not as scary as some of the ones in Order of the Phoenix. Almost every character we've met joins the fight one side or the other which makes from some unexpected situations. I felt Rowling was a bit heavy handed comparing Voldemort to Hitler (the whole mudblood/pure blood thing) and the final chapter was a bit too cute. A great book, a great series, a few flaws, but what can you do?

Family Shoes

Noel Streatfield wrote lots of kids books, mostly with kids who had some sort of occupation, i.e. Ballet Shoes. This book is the story of a more ordinary family, the Bells- a family of four kids who's father is a minister. Along with the sequel, New Shoes, it was one of my favorite books growing up because of the relationship the family has with their grandparents and other extended family. Usually families in kids books are either cruel and heartless or wonderful every moment of the day. Here there is true tension in the family (grandfather disapproves of the father's decision to become a minister and to consequently have much less money than the rest of the family. Nobody is a bad guy, but everyone is constantly frustrated by each other. The book is very funny, as the younger daughter is constantly scheming to get things to go her way and the younger son is a dreamer and always saying something outrageous.

These Happy Golden Years

In some strange way, I identify so strongly with Laura Ingalls Wilder, that it's hard to keep in mind she was a real, separate person. This is the last book in the Little House Series (The First Four Years doesn't count) and I think it, and the other latter books in the series get short shrift, despite their excellence. This book covers Laura's job teaching in a prairie school and boarding with a family where the wife is clearly mentally ill (although the book never uses that phrase). She is being courted by Almanzo Wilder, a much older farmer, who comes to drive her home EVERY weekend, even when the weather really should forbid it. A lot of my ideas about romance seem to stem from their relationship, which is probably a little weird. This book and the others in the series really transport you away to Laura's life and draw you in completely.

Kristy's Great Idea

I was a big series reader as a kid and the series I particularly loved was The Babysitter's Club. This is the first book in the series. Kristy decides to form a club with her friends Claudia, Mary Ann, and Stacy to attract babysitting clients. The books were more about the girls' friendships than babysitting. I embarrassed my brother by making him order these from Scholastic book order forms when they were no longer distributed in my class. These books, along with a handful of many others, turned me into the reader I am today.

Homecoming

This should have been up last night, oops! Homecoming by Cynthia Voight is the story of the four Tillerman children, Maybeth, the pretty, quiet, almost other-worldly youngest, Sammy, solid and stubborn, James, smart but with a chip on his shoulder, and Dicey, the oldest, who is charged with looking out for her siblings when their mentally ill mother abandons them in a mall parking lot. Somehow she keeps them safe and together as they travel by themselves with few resources to their great aunt's house and then their grandmother's. The sequel, Dicey's Song, about Dicey's adjustment to her new, more stable life, won the Newberry, and there are several other books about the Tillerman's and their friends.

What Will Happen In Harry Potter 7?

This book, put out by the website Mugglenet is an entire volume of speculation about what will happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. I just read it this weekend and it has me quite excited about July 21. Each chapter focuses on a different topic, such as whether or not Dumblebore is really dead and what the title might refer to. The book is carefully researched citing tons of interviews with J.K. Rowling, mythology associated with the word "hallows", and lots and lots of evidence from the novels to back up their speculation. It's well written and lots of fun.

Tickle the Duck

This is another nephew-inspired pick. Ethan Long's Tickle the Duck is a fun book for toddlers. The duck in question begs the reader not to tickle him and he helpfully points out which areas the reader should NOT tickle. The tickle spots are of various textures such as a rubbery foot. The following page then has the duck laughing uproariously as the toddler has inevitably not heeded the duck's warnings not to tickle him. Very fun and interactive. I just saw that Long will have another book, Stop Kissing Me, due out in August that will probably go on the list for Christmas presents.

Dog

One of the best parts of having nieces and nephews is getting to buy them books for birthdays and holidays. I just got this very cute board book by Matthew van Fleet for my nephew who's turning two and is obsessed with dogs at the moment. The book features dogs of all breeds and features opposites, synonyms, and action words. There are also lots of different textures to feel from soft ears to a sticky tongue. Pull tabs make tails wag and ears shake after a bath and one dog even lifts his leg up by a tree on his walk. I have a few more books in mind for my nephew but am always looking for more suggestions--what are your favorite books for toddlers? I also have a new nephew on the way, so suggestions for baby showers and newborns also welcome!

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Since Angstrat's post yesterday was a NYC tribute, I went with a book that opened my eyes to New York. Nine year old Peter Hatcher has his hands full. Not only is he dealing with normal fourth grade stuff, like friends, schoolwork, his pet turtle and a girl he's constantly bickering with, but his three year old brother Farley Dexter Hatcher, nicknamed Fudge is a holy terror getting into trouble all over New York City. Not only is this a funny story of sibling rivalry, the parents are hilarlous too. The chapter where the mom gets rid of one the kids' friends who is always inviting himself over for dinner by cooking every food he hates is hilarious (and kind of a forerunner to the mom's cooking inThe Corrections, if you think about it). As a kid in suburban Chicago, I was surprised to learn that grown-ups with kids lived in apartments, even ones that seemed rich. And they were always eating stuff like egg creams, that I'd never heard of. This book has several sequels, but I haven't read the more recent ones.