The 116 Best Kids Books of All Time

Here are Parade’s 116 Best Kids books of all time, according to indie booksellers from across the country; acclaimed authors like Brian Selznick, Rita Williams-Garcia, Dav Pilkey, Katherine Paterson, M.T. Anderson, Kate DiCamillo, Lemony Snicket, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jeff Kinney and more; and the team at Parade.

In compiling this list, I also studied other lists compiled over the years, Goodreads and BookTok and Amazon customer reviews (all of which is how you influenced the list), just to make sure I’d considered the titles everyone else mentions again and again. I include only one book from each author, so the list can introduce as many talented writers as possible into the mix. Whenever possible, I include some ringers, books that have fallen out of fashion for no good reason (they’re still great!) and books that haven’t quite reached critical mass yet but deserve to be on these sorts of lists too. In other words, books I love. Which raises a question.

What’s a kid’s book? Is it a book marketed to kids? A book about kids? (Surely not, or The Tin Drum by Günter Grass would be a kid’s book.) A book written “down” to kids, avoiding anything messy or complicated or real, just pablum for the brain? (Zzzzzz.) Well, it’s whatever you make of it. 

Parade is offering two best of all time lists that overlap, one for the Young Adult genre and one for the Kids genre. Over the years, some books clearly for Young Adults became Kids books, because times change and unthinkably mature topics are now old hat. And of course what book is appropriate for which reader can’t be determined by age. Some 10 year olds will read years above their age and are ready for sad endings and challenging ideas. Some 15 year olds much prefer gentler reads. 

So here’s what I did: I winged it. Some books could easily appear on both lists. But if it felt a little more Young Adult, there it went. If it felt a little Kids, so be it. Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl? That’s been a middle school classic for generations. But a new edition (that reinstates some mild passages censored by her family) and a graphic novel adaptation have some insisting it’s only for high school students. Yet to me, it still feels right for someone in middle school to tackle. So it remains on our list of the Best Kids Books of All Time.

First, here are the other Best of All Time lists we've done so far!

• Parade's 222 Best Books of All Time

• Parade's 125 Best Romance Books of All Time

• Parade's 116 Best Kids Books of All Time

• Parade's 110 Best Thriller, Crime & Suspense Novels of All Time

• Parade's 101 Best Mystery Books of All Time

• Parade's 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time

• Parade's 32 Best Romantasy Books of All Time

• Parade's 30 Best Serial Killer Books of All Time

• Parade's 23 Best Shark Books of All Time

• Parade's 22 Best Taylor Swift Books of All Time

• Parade's 13 Best Passover Books of All Time

But where, you ask, are the picture books? Oh, they deserve their own list, don’t you think? And here’s a promise: if a book on this list intrigues you, read it. I bet you’ll think it’s very good, whatever age you may be. Let’s get reading! At the head of the Parade (in no particular order) are…

The 116 Best Kids Books of All Time

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Writers dream of creating a character their readers will identify with. Katherine Paterson, the author of the classic Bridge To Terabithia (also on this list) is no exception, since she had that same experience herself as a kid. “When I first read The Secret Garden, I totally identified with Mary Lennox. We had both come from the countries where we were born to an alien land where we had no friends,” says Paterson, whose newest book is Jella Lepman and Her Library of Dreams with illustrator Sally Deng ($21.99; Chronicle Books; out Feb 5; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org).

“We both had terrible tempers,” Paterson continues. “But unhappy and unworthy as she was, Mary was given a key to a secret garden. The book not only gave me hope, it filled me with wonder for the natural world. My aim as a writer has always been to write a book that will do for a young reader what The Secret Garden did for me when I was nine.”

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett ($15.99; Wordsworth Edition) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

New Kid by Jerry Craft

Jerry Craft’s book New Kid was the first (and so far only) graphic novel to win the prestigious Newberry Award, doing so for 2020. (They’ve got great taste. Quite a few of the books and authors on this list have been nominated for or won a Newberry.) That’s very cool for Craft and graphic novels in general. (More have been nominated since, like the excellent MexiKid by Pedro Martin.) Inventive in its presentation, New Kid is both very familiar in its storyline (about, duh, a new kid at school) and bold. Our hero Jordan is a Black kid at a predominantly white school and deals with making new friends, being forced to play a sport and navigating the cafeteria all while dealing with the tiny moments that make up your day when you’re “different” from most everyone around you. It’s smart, accessible, funny and real.

New Kid by Jerry Craft ($15.99; Quill Tree Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe

“Listen, this book by James Howe STILL makes me laugh out loud,” says Charlie Schumann, assistant manager and resident children’s lit enthusiast at City Lit Books in Chicago. “You’ve got a paranoid cat who reads Edgar Allen Poe, the silly dog who writes the story, and of course, a vampire bunny. This book has a goofy premise, but it’s incredibly clever in its delivery. I recommend this to families all the time, and more than a few kids have come back to show me their favorite one liners, or talk theories. Bunnicula forever!”

Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe ($10.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Holes by Louis Sachar

Okay, adults make you do some really stupid things when you’re a kid. In the back of your mind, you might sometimes think, “Are they just messing with me?” In Holes by Louis Sachar, our hero Stanley Yelnats–a regular kid and a fan of palindromes–is sent to a bizarre boot camp for wayward misfits. The cruel, almost sadistic head of the camp makes Stanley and the other kids dig holes in a dry riverbed...and then dig some more holes. It’s the most pointless, “character-building” exercise imaginable. Or is it? Is there something more going on here? Stanley’s story and the mystery of Camp Green Lake intertwine with some of Stanley’s family history back in Latvia, the origins of Camp Green Lake and the story of "Kissin’ Kate Barlow" in the late 1800s. It’s a surprisingly complicated plot for a book that enthralled kids with a mysterious camp and the endless series of holes. The book proved a sensation, led to a hit Disney film starring Shia LaBeouf and now they’ve just announced plans to turn it into a TV series. That’s a lot of Holes! 

Holes by Louis Sachar ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

For such a beloved kids book, Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh has a lot of sharp elbows. Our heroine falls into a depression and becomes isolated from all her pals just for yearning to be a writer! Actually, her friends don’t like it when they read what Harriet wrote about them in her journal. But the moral is not that Harriet was wrong to write such thoughts; it was wrong of everyone else to read them. Duh! If you read someone else’s diary, you’re bound to be hurt. Generations of mystery lovers, novelists and even real-life C.I.A. spies credit Harriet The Spy as their gateway drug. Author Rita Williams-Garcia–whose One Crazy Summer is also on this list–is no exception. 

"Harriet the Spy gave me permission to not like its main character and yet follow her with rapt interest from page to page,” says Williams-Garcia, whose latest novel is A Sitting In St. James ($12.99; Quill Tree Books; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org), which is on our list of The 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. “It blew the lid off the notion that a child protagonist must be virtuous at her core. Although Fitzhugh showed us Harriet’s pain, she didn’t beg us to love or like her. And the notebook! I spent my birthday and lunch money on notebooks. I still have a few."

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

It’s easy to say, oh the Wimpy Kid franchise is popular and it’s great kids are reading anything, isn’t it? And that’s true. But we should also appreciate the boldness of the book and its origin. Author Jeff Kinney published the whole thing online as a diary (of course) and created a sensation, with the entries read some 20 million times before they published the book. Our hero is Rowley, a wimpy kid, not the smart kid or likable Harry Potter-like kid with magical powers or special in some way or a secret superhero. He’s just a kid, the middle brother picked on by his older brother and annoyed by his little brother who gets away with murder. (I mean, not literally.)

In the first book, Rowley fights with his best friend Greg, ruins a school play and doesn’t mind and messes up almost everything he tries to achieve (though School Patrol goes pretty well, until he’s suspended). He’s a kid, he screws up and sometimes he’s jealous. He’s not bad; he’s not good; he’s not gonna become loved for his great comic skills or suddenly become a sports star. He’s just a kid. And thank goodness he never learns morals or turns over a new leaf or how could we still identify with him, those of us who aren’t the football quarterback or head cheerleader or valedictorian? And this tale of a misfit, regular ole kid is told in winning, comic book style that was pretty revolutionary. Unlike Rowley, that’s pretty impressive! (Kidding! Rowley’s not so bad, really.)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney ($14.99; Amulet Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Some novels reveal their pleasures immediately. Others need careful attention, re-reading and perhaps a little life under the reader’s belt before they can be fully appreciated. Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece is different. Its pleasures are immediate and clear–the fantastical tale is hilarious, satirical, intellectually playful, has a lot on its mind and is above all fun. Even a child senses this. Yet the more you read it and the more you think about it and what it says and means, the curiouser and curiouser it becomes. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is hilarious and satirical and intellectually playful and all that, but far more than you realized. If it’s been a while since you went down the rabbit hole, all I can say is don’t hesitate to DRINK ME and EAT ME and indeed READ ME.

Author Maxine Hong Kingston of The Woman Warrior (on our list of the 101 Best Young Adult Novels Of All Time) agrees. "I read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass twelve times when I was twelve,” says Kingston, most recently honored with a Library Of America release titled Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Hawai’i One Summer and Other Writings ($45; Library of America; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “Now, at the age of 82, I am partly Alice, and my world is often a wonderland."

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll ($12.65; Macmillan Collector’s Library) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

People in rooms in Las Vegas stare at screens while manipulating joysticks. They are flying planes or drones, attacking people or monitoring the skies far overseas or even waging war by acting as spotters for soldiers on the ground and so on. This is happening right now. So anyone who saw kids playing First Person Shooter video games and thought they might be warriors of the future was dead right. Everything is believable in Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel about kids (I mean, kids!, not 18 year olds) being trained via video simulations to battle an alien species that will soon attack Earth. Any child who has played “war” or waged battle on a carpet using toy soldiers can understand the appeal of being a real fighter–right now–and saving the world. But Ender’s Game has one more fundamental aspect that makes it a classic. It tells kids what they’ve secretly always believed, at least now and then: adults are lying to them.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card ($18.99; Tor Trade) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

We could fill an entire list with great summer camp novels and movies. Camp is such an intense, away from your family, figure out who you are just as puberty strikes moment in time. It’s no wonder artists turn to it again and again as a setting. Author Lisa Jenn Bigelow makes the most of camp with her heroine Melly, a quiet sort of girl…until she gets behind a drum kit. Then she rocks out with gusto! Melly would thank her best friend for making her join the band. But they’ve gone to music camp, her friend ditches Melly for new friends and Melly doesn’t mind so much, maybe, because another girl has caught her eye. Wait, what? As Melly embraces change and figuring out who she really is, Drum Roll, Please redefines what it means to be a middle grade novel.

Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow ($7.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

For Rhianna Walton, managing editor at Powell’s Books, The Westing Game is easily the cleverest mystery on the market—for kids or adults. “Ellen Raskin sends 16 intriguing characters on a wild goose chase to win a multimillion-dollar inheritance from tycoon Sam Westing,” she says. “A send-up of the American obsessions with bootstrap capitalism and financial windfalls; a brilliant character study; and a compulsive riddle that’ll confuse you as much as the characters (no cheating!), The Westing Game is sheer brilliance." 

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin ($9.99; Puffin Modern Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Annotated Arabian Nights edited by Paulo Lemos Horta; translated by Yasmine Seale

Everyone knows about The Arabian Nights aka One Thousand and One Nights, featuring the tales of "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" and "Aladdin and the Lamp" and so on. Even its framing device is famous! The new bride Scheherazade spins out tale after tale, ending at dawn on a cliffhanger so her cruel husband will let her live one more day. You can make a career out of studying them and the ways they’ve been bastardized and transmogrified as they flew around the world, presumably on a magic carpet. Or you can just read and enjoy them. But which version should you read? I started as a kid with Ricard Burton’s fine version. But since Scheherazade–a smart and inventive woman–is the narrator, it makes sense to treasure the recent and first complete translation done solely by a woman, namely Yasmine Seale. If this deluxe annotated hardcover is too heavy and fancy for the child in your life, you can certainly get them Husain Haddaway’s excellent recent version already in paperback ($17.95; W.W. Norton & Company).

The Annotated Arabian Nights edited by Paulo Lemos Horta; translated by Yasmine Seale ($41.85; Liveright) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling

“I was an avid reader,” says Sharon M. Draper, the author of Out Of My Mind (also on this list), Copper Sun (on Parade’s list of The 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time and most recently Out Of My Dreams ($18.99; Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “By the time I was eleven years old, I had read just about every book on the elementary side of my local library. One day my librarian gave me a copy of a book called Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling. Of the thousands of books I’d read, that one was the very first book I’d ever seen that had a picture of an African American girl on the cover. I finished it in one night and hurried back for more like that, but none existed. I’m thankful that today, young readers of every ethnicity and origin can now see themselves on the covers and in the pages of books written with everyone in mind. In my own writing, I now strive to write stories that reflect the lives of children everywhere.”

Mary Jane by Dorothy Sterling (Out of print; scour your local used bookstores or head to the library)

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond; illustrations by R.W. Alley

Is it the marmalade sandwiches? The genial endorsement of the late Queen Elizabeth II? The good manners? The exotic appeal for some of the phrase “darkest Peru”? Surely, the brilliant two feature films with a third (lesser film) on the way help. Whatever the reason, the well-intentioned, accident-prone Paddington has finally graduated in the U.S. from “not Winnie the Pooh, but the other one” into a beloved bear in his own right. It helps when the original novel by Michael Bond is so gently embracing of the chaos that follows Paddington everywhere. Lessons are most assuredly not learned. Paddington will always make a situation worse, thank goodness, when he lends a helping paw. And the comfort of seeing things set aright, Paddington unconditionally forgiven and home always offering a warm embrace (as it always will) is exactly what children and bears savor about it.

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond; illustrations by R.W. Alley ($19.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

“‘Roller derby is the best!!” says Karlee Nussbaum, Director of Partnerships who also manages the Kids Book Group at Women and Children First bookstore in Chicago. “This graphic novel by Victoria Jamieson beautifully demonstrates what can happen as friends move apart and find new interests. It is also about confidence, supporting others and being YOU! One of our absolute favorites to put in the hands of young readers.”

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson ($13.99; Dial Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; Illustrated by Jules Feiffer

All the books on this list are classics of one sort or another. Some are very familiar classics, the coming-of-age story of a kid, for example, or focused on the trials of going to school. Others are so popular, so “classic” and so beloved for so long that we just accept them. Yet if you actually look at a book like The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, you start to appreciate how radical and offbeat it is, how unlikely to ever be popular at all, much less become a classic.

First of all, it involves a tollbooth? That’s pretty odd, especially for a kid’s book. (I mean, we’ve all clambered inside a closet or wardrobe so imagining a door to Narnia is easy. But most kids have not played with or around or near a tollbooth.) The philosophizing and moralizing, the idioms (there’s practically a quiz on idioms!), the wordplay, the championing of education and so on are all front and center, not embedded in the story or hidden behind humor (as in Lewis Carroll), though there’s humor a-plenty. The great Maurice Sendak approvingly cites someone who compares it to John Bunyan’s turgid and dull Pilgrim’s Progress, but who in their right mind would want a kid’s version of Pilgrim’s Progress? And yet here it is, amusing, weird, delightful and graced with fantastic illustrations by the inimitable Jules Feiffer. A classic.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster; Illustrated by Jules Feiffer ($8.99; Bullseye Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

A plucky young orphan girl with spunk? Check! Ornery old people who turn out to be endearing? Check! Some “disasters” and setbacks that loom large for our heroine but prove surmountable? Check! A boy who is infuriating but proves to be rather handsome and kind once you get to know him? Check and check! Yes, this 1908 classic was not the first of its kind (hello, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), but the red-haired Anne with an “e” is special. This inspired five sequels, though writer Margaret Atwood insists this first novel is the best and I'm not about to disagree with Margaret Atwood. Author Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising (also on this list) agrees with her too. 

“When I think about children's books that have consciously influenced me, the titles that come to mind are the ones I read so many times I have lost count,” says Ryan, whose latest is El Niño ($18.99; Scholastic Press; out May 6, pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “One is Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, an homage to indefatigable wonder and imagination and the yearning to belong. The other is Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan [also on this list], a primer in deft writing, and spare powerful prose—a story about moving from the ocean to the prairie to create a new family, that is every bit as much about the landscape of the heart.”

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery ($15.99; Wordsworth Editions) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

In the 1960s, when J.R.R. Tolkien hadn’t quite conquered college campuses yet, Lloyd Alexander crafted a fantasy series for kids that satisfied on its own and prepared them for The Lord of The Rings. It began with an Assistant Pig-Keeper named Taran. That self-deflating title for a boy who would be king is typical of Alexander. He never spoke down to his audience, he embraced the strange Welsh names that inspired him (knowing their oddness would be compelling to kids), he liked a good joke and he let his imagination expand. A trilogy became a five-part series called The Chronicles Of Prydain and middle grade fantasy will always owe him a debt. The fact that Alexander also helped launch the magazine Cricket–a New Yorker for kids–is just one more feather in his cap. Maybe one day Disney will remake its animated film The Black Cauldron (loosely based on this and the second book in the series) and do right by him.

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander ($8.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Is there a Crossover-verse? Indeed, there is. Poet and essayist Kwame Alexander’s breakthrough novel about basketball-loving Josh Bell launched a sequel (about soccer), a prequel (about Josh’s dad, when he was a kid), a graphic novel, a guide to life companion book and a TV series on Disney+. But it begins with this rollicking and sweet novel-in-verse about twin brothers (Josh and Jordan) who grapple with life off and on the basketball court thanks to girls (distracting!), Dad (he likes you best!) and the fact that twins don’t always stay in sync (they don’t want to do everything together…or even pass the ball to each other). A great example of the book that kids who don’t like to read will like to read.

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander ($10.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Newberry Award winner Avi has so many different books that demand your attention: the Poppy series, the Crispin adventures in the 14th century, the Beyond The Western Sea duology and the fable The End Of The Beginning, which really belongs alongside The Little Prince and Oh, The Places You’ll Go! for inspiring people. And yet, when deciding which one of Avi’s works to press into the hands of a friend or a friend’s child, inevitably I reach for the thrilling tale of Charlotte Doyle. She's a 13 year old girl in the early 1800s who takes a perilous ship voyage from Liverpool to Rhode Island. Terri M. LeBlanc of Swamp Fox bookstore in Marion, Iowa, feels just as strongly about it. “I first read this book in seventh grade and it was the first book I recall reading with a strong female protagonist who defies the social norms and family expectations to go after her heart's desire,” says LeBlanc, the co-owner and operations manager of Swamp Fox. “Like Charlotte, I have had many grand adventures and I'm almost certain a tiny bit of her lives on in me.”

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi ($9.99; Scholastic Paperbacks) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Fortunately by Remy Charlip

Author and illustrator Brian Selznick–on this list with The Marvels–well knows the impact a great book can have on a child. “Fortunately, by Remy Charlip, was my favorite book as a kid,” says Selznick, whose latest is Run Away With Me ($24.95; Scholastic Press; out April 5; pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org.) “With a bright pink background the first page reads, ‘One day Ned got a letter that said “Please come to a surprise party.”’ Turning the page reveals a bleak black and white cityscape with the text. ‘Unfortunately the party was in Florida and he was in New York.’ The reader quickly picks up the pattern when the next spread bursts with color and announces, ‘Fortunately a friend loaned him an airplane.’ The story continues from there, with the reader themselves in charge of the propulsive movement of the narrative. A minimalist dissertation on the power of the page turn and the capacity for narrative excitement in a picture book, Fortunately is an endless joy, and necessary addition to every bookcase.”

Fortunately by Remy Charlip ($8.99; Aladdin) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry

You have to like a man like Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry, a pilot in the early days when flying a plane was inherently dangerous. He managed to both read and write while up in the air alone, driving the people on the ground nuts with worry. Once, he even circled an airport for an hour so he could finish the book he was reading! Saint-Exupéry encouraged the US to enter the war, published The Little Prince in 1943 and was so famous and beloved around the world, that it’s just possible the Nazis shot him down and–realizing it was Saint-Exupéry they’d killed–kept mum so no one would know what they’d done. You certainly know The Little Prince. It’s been translated into more than 500 languages, making it one of the most translated books of all time, as well as one of the best-selling (with 140 million copies and counting). It’s for kids. Or adults. It’s fiction. Or philosophy. It’s simple. Or complex. (And do yourself a favor: also read Night Flight, his novel about delivering mail by plane. It’s a marvel.)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry ($12.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

You want fireworks? Go somewhere else. You want a quiet, thoughtful, slow-paced book where small details and close observations rock your world? You’ve come to the right place. Alissa Redmond of South Main Book Company loves this spare work by Patricia MacLachlan, which led to four more sequels and award-winning TV movies starring Glenn Close. But I’m getting ahead of myself. It’s the late 1800s and spinster Sarah has to do something to shake up her life. So she answers an ad for a bride and heads off to the Midwest to see if she can find her way into the home and heart of the Witting family, a father and two children who’ve lost their mother. It’s a delicate dance and everyone tries not to presume on everyone else. But the second chance at happiness for all involved makes this as thrilling as any action-packed adventure. Author Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising (also on this list) agrees with her too. 
 
“When I think about children's books that have consciously influenced me, the titles that come to mind are the ones I read so many times I have lost count,” says Ryan, whose latest is El Niño ($18.99; Scholastic Press; out May 6, pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “One is Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery [also on this list], an homage to indefatigable wonder and imagination and the yearning to belong. The other is Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, a primer in deft writing, and spare powerful prose—a story about moving from the ocean to the prairie to create a new family, that is every bit as much about the landscape of the heart.” 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan ($7.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

When did the last book of poetry for kids break out to a wide audience? I feel like poems for kids have fallen out of favor, which is just...wrong. This list might include all sorts of books of poetry. The great writer Avi chose Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and since I only include one book per author, that left no room for Stevenson's classic A Child’s Garden of Verses. (I did sneak in A.A. Milne’s two books of indispensable poetry by choosing a boxed set for my ode to Winnie The Pooh. I never promised to play fair.) Americans are barely aware of the great British poet Charles Causley, so his marvelous Collected Poems for Children is quite unknown in the US. And Mother Goose and...and...and...sigh. So let Shel Silverstein’s blockbusters–as exemplified by Where The Sidewalk Ends–stand in for these and so many more. His own drawings are as indelible as the silly poems Silverstein tosses off with ease. Even if a child isn’t in sight, you simply have to read them out loud or you’ll miss half the fun. 

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein ($22.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati

The famed but reclusive writer Lemony Snicket, whose own book A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning is also on this list, rarely grants interviews. But through his spokesperson and fellow author Daniel Handler (whose book All The Dirty Parts is on The 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time), Snicket offers this brief, but impassioned statement. 

“Mr. Snicket’s favorite children’s book is The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati, which contains kidnapping, giant boars, a magic wand, a sea serpent, and the appearance of a werewolf who does not appear. Anyone who wants anything more from a book ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily by Dino Buzzati ($11; Alma Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Author Tae Keller’s Newberry Award-winning novel feels timeless, even though it just came out in 2020. If you told someone it came out in 1980 or 1960, they wouldn’t doubt you for a second. In this contemporary story, our hero Lily and her family move in with her dying grandmother. But something’s not right; riding in a car to her new home, Lily spots a tiger nearby. A tiger? And then she sees the tiger again. And it speaks to her. Lily’s grandmother loves to recount Korean folktales and now she knows why: the magic in those old stories is real. So is the danger, for her grandmother once stole something from the tiger and the tiger wants it back. Is it safe to make a deal with a talking tiger? Lily’s heard enough stories to know it sure isn’t easy. So Lily has to figure out what she can do, what she should do and then be brave enough to do it. Is Lily fantasizing about saving her grandmother? (She only sees the tiger when she’s alone and it’s night.) Should her grandmother even be saved? Those are some of the complications in this assured novel by Keller, who forever traps a tiger quite neatly by the net of her words.

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is famous for his dystopian novel about book-burning titled Fahrenheit 451. He’s acclaimed for his eerie tales of space colonization called The Martian Chronicles. But those who love him best gravitate to his nostalgic stories of childhood in Dandelion Wine. Tinged with magical realism, these evocations of small town life dipped in honey are beguiling because they capture a perfect past that never really existed…except for every little boy and girl with a little imagination and a lot of heart.

Bookseller Jim Reed of Jim Reed Books in Birmingham, Alabama always has a few copies on hand to press on lucky browsers. “This book stands alone, at the top of the heap,” says Reed. “It is R.L. Stine's favorite novel. It is my favorite novel. And through the years I've encountered dozens of other avid fans, from Stephen King to Christopher Isherwood. It is remarkable how Bradbury has written his childhood life as both fact and magic simultaneously. Watch for the moment young Ray–aka the main character Douglas Spaulding–suddenly realizes he is alive and planet-bound, the moment he decides to pay close attention to everything life has to offer. Everything. ‘I’m really alive! he thought. I never knew it before, or if I did I don’t remember!’”

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury ($9.99; Bantam Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl? That’s been a classic kids book for generations, a title you probably first read in middle school that helps people understand life during wartime and begin to grasp the horrors of the Holocaust. You can read it at any age, but 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade felt about right. 

Then they put out the unexpurgated edition, one that reinstates passages Anne Frank’s relatives censored out of prudishness. Imagine a 7th grader who is having their first period reading that Anne Frank had her first period while in hiding. Shocking. A graphic novel adaptation has also been banned and/or censored around the country. Should it now only be read by seniors in high schoolers or adults? Nonsense. So it remains on our list of the Best Kids Books of All Time.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank ($8.99; Bantam) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

“Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!” Those words at the end of Treasure Island echo in the mind of anyone who reads it long after they’ve closed the book. Author Avi is no exception. And it’s no coincidence his classic The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (also on this list) is another sea-bound adventure.

“Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), first published serially under the title The Sea Cook, has enormously impacted me since I first read it as an adolescent,” says Avi, whose most recent book is Lost in the Empire City ($19.99; Quill Tree Books; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “Written, as the original subtitle had it, 'for boys,' it has been the hallmark of all pirate tales, and many other adventure stories since it first appeared. It was not, curiously, highly successful as a serialized story, but when it appeared with a new title (the current one) in book format, it established Stevenson’s high reputation. It makes for an altogether, non-stop read, with enormous energy, and brilliantly depicted characters. It is also great fun.”

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson ($10; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Do you want to live forever? Stories about immortality will always be with us (irony alert!) but not because immortality is so wonderful. These stories appeal because they help us confront the one inescapable fact of life: death. Fans of Tuck Everlasting know the romantic, dangerous allure of a fountain of youth. They also know the bittersweet beauty of not drinking from it. Winnie is just ten years old when she stumbles across a handsome teenage boy named Jesse who insists he’s actually 104 years old. His family is hiding in a forest near her home, worried the world will discover the magical spring they drank from and thus face the curse of eternal life. A man in a yellow suit–presumably no friend of the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George–wants to trap the family, gain the spring and sell off its miraculous powers to the highest bidders. Winnie trusts these people and their strange story. So she listens as the 17 year old–or rather 104 year old–Jesse proposes she drink from the spring when she’s 17 and marry him. All too quickly, Winnie must figure out how best to help them and herself. They’ve made two movies and a stage musical out of Natalie Babbitt’s classic, but the magic really only exists in this slim novel.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt ($8.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson; Illustrated by Gerald L Holmes

“A Western for kids? You betcha,” says Kelcie Mattson, bookseller at Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri. “Hank the Cowdog is every one of the Western genre’s singular delights distilled and filtered through the perspective of Hank, a very good boy dog who’s ‘head of security’ for his little Texas ranch. Hank, surrounded by a cast of inventively clever animal characters, considers himself ‘stronger, braver, and tougher’ than all the rest; a natural genius, if you will. Spoiler: he ain’t. That fact leads to uproarious story disasters that remain as delightful for adults as children. Growing up with my mom reading these aloud to me, I attest to that shared joy.”

The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson; illustrated by Gerald L Holmes ($6.99; Maverick Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich by Alice Childress

Alice Childress is not messing around. Young Black kids yearned to see themselves in books and in the early 1970s, they started to find those books. But Childress cared for kids too much to just pat them on the head and say isn’t life grand. She showed them the respect of depicting Harlem the way it was. In A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich, 13 year old Benjie is adrift now that his mom and dad have broken up. She’s remarried but Benjie doesn’t let his new stepdad into his heart. Instead he is lured by friends into trying heroin, which soon becomes an addiction that threatens his mom’s marriage, his schooling and indeed his life. Everyone needs positive representation. And Black Panther is cool. But a children’s books that reflects real life with all its complications? A children’s book that won’t just hand out a pat, Afterschool Special happy ending? That’s necessary, too. The novel is often pitched as Young Adult, but middle school kids who are about to turn 13 and face the temptations life always offers? They’re ready for it.

A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich by Alice Childress ($7.99; Puffin Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Watership Down by Richard Adams

This novel is about rabbits and was inspired by stories that author Richard Adams told to his daughters on long road trips. So that explains why Watership Down is often slotted in the children’s section. But it might just as easily be put in the fantasy section or fiction or nature or “books you didn’t think you’d care about, but the second you start reading them you can’t stop” section. That’s a category, right? In this beguiling adventure, a group of rabbits listen to the prophet-like Fiver, who has a vision their warren is about to be destroyed. They break away from the only world they’ve ever known and head off into uncharted territory. The group struggles to overcome dangers like cars, dogs, snares, mutiny and more, with only the vague idea of a destination–a hilltop where they might live in peace. These aren’t rabbits with pocket watches and they don’t live in some fantasy world. This is our world and the rabbits behave very much like rabbits do. And yet, they’re us, too. Gripping, frightening, inspiring. Plus, it taught me how to curse in rabbit talk, which made me laugh at the time and is a skill I possess to this day.

Watership Down by Richard Adams ($19.99; Puffin Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Giver by Lois Lowry

You know this novel takes place in a dystopia, because it’s set in a community where no one can read any books except school books they’ve been assigned and the rule book given to everyone. Yikes. Anyone actually reading a book and hearing this knows they want no part of it. And no surprise. Not only are books generally forbidden, so are memories and strong emotions and even color. Everyone is equal and everyone is the same and everyone is unburdened by the past or imagining any future, other than more of the same. Paradise? Hardly. Our young hero Jonas is assigned the prestigious role of Receiver of Memory. This is a burden as much as an honor and Jonas slowly learns the truth about what has been sacrificed to maintain the bland, tranquilness of his home. Lois Lowry’s story of a not-so-brave new world struck a nerve, became a sensation and led to three more books in the Giver Quartet.

The Giver by Lois Lowry ($11.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Perhaps the greatest honor a children’s author can receive is the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award to honor a career writing for kids and young adults. That’s fitting since Lindgren’s creation Pippi Långstrump aka Pippi Longstocking is one of the greatest characters in fiction. Writer Janne Teller agrees. “Since early childhood, Pippi, the superstrong, independent, wild yet good hearted nine-year old girl, has been my hero, making everything–even the impossible–possible,” says Teller, the author of Nothing (on our list of the Best Young Adult Books of All Time) and most recently War ($6.95; Simon & Schuster). “And having myself a spotted white horse a bit like Pippi's Lilla Gubben, I'm daily reminded of Pippi's humour, courage and free thinking that keep inspiring me to hold on to my own ideals even when up against convention and mass tides of the moment. Pippi's ability to see the absurd in every situation is also a great way for surviving our crazy tech-driven world that can be recommended to everyone, old as well as young.”

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren ($17.99; Viking Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Swan Lake by Mark Helprin; illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Author Mark Helprin insists he belongs to no school of writing. But surely “old-fashioned” (meant as a compliment) is a school? Surely, Dickens and Tolstoy and the like belong to a school. Surely writers striving for beauty and truth (or even Beauty and Truth, because why be afraid of the occasional Capital Letter?) belong to a school and writers ready to tell grand, sweeping tales with historical sweep belong to a school as well? Novels like A Soldier of the Great War and the piercing, diamond-sharp short stories that first made his name prove Helprin belongs to a grand tradition. But I think fantasy and fairy tale allow him a particular freedom in his writing. His classic Winter’s Tale is a Dickensian fantasy that soars. (It's on our list of The 222 Best Books of All Time.) After that breakthrough, Helprin collaborated on three books with the artist Chris Van Allsburg, who provided gorgeous artwork perfectly suited to Helprin’s sensibility. All three are lovely, but it began and perhaps peaked with Swan Lake. It’s a bold enlargement of the ballet, with Helprin crafting a story within a story, unafraid to be open-hearted in his philosophizing and celebration of love and freedom. (If you can’t rhapsodize for children, when can you?) It’s a tricky book (a novella, really), by no means for small children but seemingly such a pretty keepsake it might be overlooked by adults. It's for everyone of course. Find it and cherish it.

Swan Lake by Mark Helprin; illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg ($25; Houghton Mifflin) Buy now on Amazon or check your local library. It's hard to find but they might have a copy of the complete Swan Lake trilogy titled A Kingdom Far and Clear.

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

“Out of My Mind is sure to be considered an instant classic as it provides a unique perspective and point of view,” says Karlie Martens of Novel Bay Booksellers in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. “One major reason why people like to read is because of the desire to learn, and it is not every day an author provides a unique perspective written in such a brilliant way, as Sharon Draper does here. You are instantly brought into the mind of Melody, an eleven year old girl with cerebral palsy. Melody’s view of the world she has to live in is honest and heartbreaking. On top of navigating the trials and tribulations of middle school, throw in a dash of cerebral palsy and you have a point of view to learn from and that will humble you.”

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper ($9.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

It’s a curious fact that movies and tv shows about the American Revolution are almost always commercial flops. Why? Because we already know the ending? Feel it might be rude to our friends, the British? Who knows? But the same is not true of novels. In the midst of World War II, Esther Forbes published Johnny Tremain, which became a massive bestseller and remains one of the best-selling kids books of the century. Our hero is Johnny, of course, skilled at silversmith until another boy intentionally causes an accident and Johnny’s hand is crippled. He’s forced to seek other work, accused of burglary, becomes politicized by a Whig teen who befriends him, takes part in the Boston Tea Party and more. It’s quite a journey for a lad who was a bit too cocksure of himself at the start. Walt Disney made a film version in 1957…and it didn’t do very well. Go figure!

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes ($9.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Sure, it’s “just” a modern updating of Tom Brown’s School Days with a dollop of fantasy. But the magic isn’t just in the spells and potions. It’s found in J.K. Rowling’s remarkable gift for naming (Dumbledore, Hagrid, Ravenclaw…), plotting and humor. From the butterbeer on tap to Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the invention never flags. Rowling’s expansive vision grew and grew along with the books in this seven-volume series. An entire generation simply had to read them. People lined up at midnight all over the world when the latest one came out. The movies and games and plays and merchandise are good and sometimes great, but still stand in the shadow of the books. And it all began with this debut, which is nigh on perfect and magical in every way that matters.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling ($26.99; Scholastic Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

“American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang was the first graphic novel to win the Printz Medal, and to be named a finalist for the National Book Award,” says writer Linda Sue Park, whose A Single Shard is also on this list.

“Bringing together traditions as diverse as American superhero comics and ancient Chinese folklore, this book made me laugh and it made me think, and the art is a great pleasure to look at,” says Park, whose latest novel is Gracie Under The Waves ($18.99; Alidda; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “As a member of the NBA panel in 2006, I championed the book's inclusion on the finalist list, and to this day, I feel honored and gratified to have played a modest role in its success.”

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang ($14.99; First Second) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Which Dahl shall I call the best? Not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. (The Gene Wilder movie is better than the book and much, much better than the book's threadbare sequel.) Witches? The BFG? Maybe, maybe. But no, it has to be Matilda, that indomitable kid who takes on her indifferent parents and the villainous Miss Trunchbull with the help of kind teacher Miss Honey, a love of literature and a bit of Stephen King’s Carrie thrown in for good measure. (A little telekinesis never hurts, does it?) My gosh, this was published in 1988? I would have guessed 1938 or 1888, it feels that timeless. It must be Roald Dahl’s most popular book, having enjoyed three starry audiobook versions (read by Joely Richardson, Miriam Margolyes and Kate Winslet), the very good film by Danny DeVito and a smashing musical that is still playing in the West End of London and was made into a film itself. (There’s probably a video game and a radio play and more on the way from Netflix, which bought the rights to his estate, but I can’t keep track of everything, can I?)

Matilda by Roald Dahl ($8.99; Viking Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

Many books on this list are bold, adventurous in topic and unimaginable a few decades ago. We can talk about that issue now? Yes, we can. But other books–books like The Penderwicks–are classics because they feel timeless. In the best possible sense, they might have been written ages ago or years in the future. Some things never change, even as the world changes around us. That’s the appeal to bookseller Amy Andrews. “I fell in love with The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall when I first read it at age twelve, and what a joy to read it again as an adult and find it just as effortlessly winsome now as it was then,” says Andrews, the Children’s Book Buyer at East City Bookshop in Washington, D.C. “In many ways an homage to Little Women (another of my all-time favorites), this middle-grade novel features four of the most charming, distinctive, and delightful sisters in the history of literature, as well as the lonely, sweet boy next door—and let us not forget Hound, the beloved family dog! Practical Rosalind, impulsive Skye, dreamy Jane, and shy Batty feel as real and precious to me as if they were my own sisters. This is one of my go-to recommendations for kids of all ages, and it makes just as fabulous a family read-aloud as it does an independent read. To me, The Penderwicks is the absolute epitome of a modern classic.”

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

I actually prefer The Golden Age, Kenneth Grahame’s 1895 ode to childhood, with adults cast as the gods/Olympians who have quite forgotten what it’s like to be a kid. Though it captures childhood as well as A.A. Milne or anyone else, The Golden Age is probably more appreciated by adults. (And if saying that doesn’t convince a kid to become stubborn and read it for themselves, I don’t know what will.) Besides, I might have a riot on my hands if I exclude Moley and Mr. Toad from this list. They really are delightful companions and the many tales about them in The Wind in the Willows are rightfully cherished. Still, people forget how strange the book is at times, with the god Pan intruding in on things. It’s all quite fearsome and paganistic and odd.

Christopher Robin Milne (yes, that Christopher Robin, the real one), said his family loved The Wind in the Willows. But his mother especially enjoyed the strange interludes with Pan like “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” while his father (A.A. to you and me) preferred the nonsense of Mr. Toad and Moley. I’m with A.A. on this one, though any passages that can inspire Pink Floyd and Van Morrison can’t be all bad.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame ($24.99; Union Square Kids) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

When you see a picture of author Gary Paulsen, you think, “Yep, that’s exactly what I imagined the writer of the outdoor adventure Hatchet would look like.” His best-selling book is the story of a 13 year old boy who survives a plane crash in the isolated wilds of Northern Canada. The boy–named Brian–must survive with only a windbreaker and hatchet at his disposal. He learns how to set a fire and hunt and fend off everything from mosquitoes to bears, along with countless practical means of getting by. As with Robinson Crusoe, a smart person taking notes will think, “You know, I bet I could survive too on my own for months at a time in the isolated wilds of Northern Canada!” Me, I thought, “You know, I wouldn’t last a week!”

It came out in 1987 and has been popular ever since, being one of those books (like Ender’s Game and the Ranger’s Apprentice series) that somehow get kids who really don’t like reading to become caught up in the action and turn pages. Hollywood made a movie out of it in 1990. For some bizarre reason, instead of calling it Hatchet (the name of the wildly popular book), they called it A Cry in the Wild, which sounds plaintive and sad, rather than tough and strong. So don’t discount the importance of finding the right title. Paulsen wrote around 200 books so he knew what he was doing. But if this one was called A Cry in the Wild, I’ll bet it would have sold maybe ten copies and we wouldn’t be talking about it today.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen ($8.99; Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Think of your favorite author. Now think of them as children when they’re sinking into a book, enthralled and inspired to write their own stories down. That’s the power of books, a power author Kate DiCamillo knows well. Her novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is also on this list.

“I read Mary Norton's The Borrowers (for the first time) when I was eight years old,” says DiCamillo, whose latest book is Orris and Timble: Lost and Found ($16.99; Candlewick; out April 29; pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “Borrowers (if you have never met one) are small people who live in the floorboards of houses and borrow items from us larger people. Mary Norton's book is beautifully written, entertaining and heartfelt, and it also taps into something powerful–the magic of paying attention and wondering about the mysteries of the world.”

The Borrowers by Mary Norton ($18.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Marvels by Brian Selznick

Undoubtedly the work of Brian Selznick has its antecedents, which he himself will happily and gladly praise and detail at length. Nonetheless, his particular merging of text and illustrations feels quite special and unique to him. The way his stories might begin with wordless pages of imagery and then slowly text begins to appear alongside the (gorgeous, enthralling) pictures and then at some point the text takes over for entire sections...and then the imagery comes back in brief flashes or in full force. I don’t know anything quite like it, which is why his breakout book The Invention of Hugo Cabret became a sensation. (It’s also a great way to trick reluctant readers into a novel; they think it’s a bunch of pictures and by the time the text takes over they’re so engrossed in the story, you just try and take it away from them.) I’m going to tout The Marvels because its found family is heartwarming and the century spanning tale with storms at sea and shipwrecks and orphans and a mysterious almost fantastical London home (which really and truly exists! I mean, really. You can visit it and take a tour) and life in the theater is everything I want and more. Selznick’s work is its own special category and you’ll be wonderstruck.

The Marvels by Brian Selznick ($32.99; Scholastic Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is one of the major forces in literature today, delivering vibrant work in picture books, books for kids, books for young adults and books in the literary section where the high falutin’ people go to read. She has shone in all of those categories and indeed transcended them. (You’ll find her brilliant recent novel Another Brooklyn on both our 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time and on our list of the 222 Best Books of All Time. Arguably, she’s written the most books that fall comfortably in the kids section and choosing just one was hard. But I plunked for her 2001 novel Miracle’s Boys, the moving story of three brothers living in Harlem and doing their best after both parents died in separate tragedies. Layfatte is 12 and blames himself for their mom’s death. Charlie is 15 and being lured into joining a gang after some trouble with the law. Ty’ree is 22 and gave up his dream of attending M.I.T. to be there for his little brothers. Drama ensues but the emotional core is not some plot twist or outside event but the relationship between these boys becoming men and what sort of men they choose to be. Director Spike Lee made a fine miniseries out of it (directing two episodes) and actor Dulé Hill of The West Wing and Psych recorded an excellent audiobook version but you need to start here.

Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson ($8.99; Nancy Paulsen Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Booksellers talk about “handselling” a book, which means putting a title they love into the hands of readers and explaining why they have to read such-and-such a book. That passion may well be strongest when sharing their favorite kids books. And few kids books inspire as much devotion as A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Just ask Kate Larson, the owner of Ballast Book Company in Bremerton, Washington. “This book took up so much headspace when I was a kid,” says Larson. “Having a female main character who doesn't fit in at school, gets in fights, yet has a supportive parent was so lovely, and to go on and explore themes of fitting in perfectly on the planet Camatoz being a bad thing? This book changed my life. I spent hours staring at my dark bedroom ceiling, trying to imagine how to describe people in my life to a creature like Aunt Beast, who has no eyes so only knows people by who they really are and not by any physical characteristics. It taught me to see people for who they are and not for any external criteria.”

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle ($8.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen, the jester of Florida, has a blast writing kid’s books. Indeed, his books for adults are so comical and funny and outrageous, I’m sure lots of kids have fun reading them when adults aren’t looking. Still, Hiassen wanted to write a book his nieces and nephews could read when adults were looking. That’s when he discovered a writer can really let loose when their audience is kids. A writer can be as silly as they want and they can be as impassioned as they want. Hiaasen does both with this novel about a boy who is bullied, another boy who is trying to protect some endangered owls from destruction, an evil pancake restaurant chain ready to wipe those owls off the face of the earth so it can open one more location, parents who understand and parents who really don’t understand or even care. It’s funny, suspenseful and a great introduction to Hiaasen. Sadly, there’s no Skink to be seen, but you can’t have everything.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen ($9.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

You might expect an author who writes one genre of books to invariably name a book similar in style as their absolute favorite/biggest influence. Surely a mystery writer will name a mystery novel and so on? You would be wrong quite often, actually. Just ask Jeff Kinney, the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (on this list) and most recently Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Hot Mess ($14.99; Harry N. Abrams; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). 

“‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’” quotes Kinney. “Those words whisked me away to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, which felt as real and vivid as our own world. The Hobbit made me love fantasy and invited me to take my first step in realms of the imagination.”

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ($18.99; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

This best-selling novel turned massive hit film clearly strikes a nerve. A kid named Auggie with a condition that’s disfigured his face attends class with other kids after years of homeschooling. It ain’t easy. He’s bullied. Even new friends sometimes cave into pressure and make jokes behind his back. His sister wishes she could just enjoy high school without being the “sister of….” On the plus side, Auggie actually has a friend now, even if said friend isn’t perfect and can disappoint him sometimes. Auggie wins people over, not through being remarkable at some athletic skill or boasting an amazing talent but just by being a decent kid. Oh, lessons are learned, even by Auggie. (Nobody’s perfect, for example.) Some folk want the book to be more complex or Auggie to be in charge of his destiny rather than an "issue" others react to and learn from. And sure, you feel good for accepting Auggie and wanting him to win. But geez, it’s a start. Maybe that’s ok; maybe that’s enough sometimes. 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio ($17.99; Knopf Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten; new translation by Jack Zipes; illustrated by Alenka Sottler

When I read Bambi many years ago, I was blown away, immediately understanding why it was a sensation and turned generations of kids against hunting. (Hunters really don’t like Bambi.) I’d already seen the gorgeous Disney film, which is easily a peak of classic hand-drawn animation and does the novel justice, I thought. Still the book is even better.

Imagine my surprise when I found out the great Jack Zipes–a giant in the world of fairy and folk tales–was doing a new translation. He said the original English version softened or eliminated too much of Felix Salten’s novel, with its underlying message of anti-fascism. Salten’s realization as a Jew in Vienna that life is always precarious and dangerous informs the work; knowing this adds a new layer of meaning. It’s still a profound and marvelous look at nature and creatures in the wild, a dangerous place for everyone, not just Bambi’s mother. But Zipes as always urges us to look deeper and, as always with the best books, that’s an effort that rewards. 

The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten; new translation by Jack Zipes; illustrated by Alenka Sottler ($24.95; Princeton University Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln; illustrated by Claire Powell

“I finished this truly un-put-downable book in a single day after being completely drawn in by the first line,” says Emily Autenrieth of A Seat At The Table Books in Elk Grove, California. As Publishers Weekly said, it’s Knives Out circa Lemony Snicket. The Swift family reunion is upended by murder and Shenanigan Swift is the young heroine ready to solve the crime, discover Uncle Vile’s long-lost loot and transcend her trouble-making name. Autenrieth insists it’s an instant classic.

“Then I read it to my 13-year-old and laughed harder than the first time,” she says. “During the third read, to my 8-year-old, I enjoyed it more than ever. Beth Lincoln's deep affection for language and irreverent yet loving approach to her characters are endearing, while the book's deliciously suspenseful murder mystery storyline would make it perfect for a classroom read-aloud with interactive student sleuthing. It’s also ideal for reluctant readers who need a highly engaging story to pull them in and for parents to experience with their kids. The queer representation is multifaceted and ranges from incidental to pivotal, and the rebellious but caring main character gives kids a new way to see themselves in fiction.”

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln; illustrated by Claire Powell ($9.99; Dutton Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

It’s the Middle Ages. The Black Death ravages the land. And the boy Robin is alone in the world. His noble-born parents are away, servants are either dead of the plague or afraid of it and run off and to top it all Robin is now lame, with little use of his legs. Thanks to battles and derring-do, this 1949 winner of the Newberry Medal sounds like a breathless adventure. But the strength of Marguerite de Angeli’s classic is its gentle patience. Robin is taken in by a monk who embodies kindness as he molds the boy’s character as much as his body. Learning to swim, sing and carve wood are the main actions here, though not surprisingly this all pays off for Robin when given a chance to be brave. Sure, it’s a natural fit for kids who are challenged in one way or another. But really it’s for anyone ready to let go of who they imagine they should be and embrace who they are.

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli ($7.99; Laurel Leaf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell; Illustrations by Maurice Sendak

You know how some books mean so much to you? The authors of those classics feel just as strongly about their favorite books. Just ask Dav Pilkey for the kids book that means the most to him. The creator of The Adventures of Captain Underpants (on this list and on our list of The 222 Best Books of All Time!) immediately names The Animal Family, a classic by Randall Jarrell with illustrations by the great Maurice Sendak that is currently out of print.

“This book will fit easily into the hands of most children, yet it holds a universe of beauty, poetry and wisdom in its tiny pages,” says Pilkey, whose latest book is Dog Man: Big Jim Begins ($14.99; Graphix; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “The story of a gentle hunter, a curious mermaid, and the family they build together with a bear, a lynx and a child has haunted me for nearly forty years. It celebrates the role that kindness and acceptance play as we find solace in the connections we forge.”

The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell; Illustrations by Maurice Sendak (out of print; scour used bookstores and check your local library)

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

I think this was the first book for kids that I saw written in free verse. Not quite poetry, certainly not a novel. What was this? The Odyssey? It surely wasn’t the first written in that style, but this story of a family fighting off disaster in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression proved hugely influential. Nowadays, novels written in verse (or rap! Same thing!) are happily commonplace, alongside so many other innovations like graphic novels. But Karen Hesse's work remains a touchstone, with that photograph of a young girl on the cover which immediately makes clear to you: this is real.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse ($8.99; Scholastic Inc.) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Those button eyes! This creepy little classic is a modern fairy tale. Not the "singing protagonists" and "amusing sidekick" fairy tales of the movies. But the Grimm fairy tales of old, stories told to everyone (not just children), stories that captured the dangers of the outside world, the forest at night, the lure of an "easier" life, the Other. Be careful of what you want, they say. Or maybe the message is more direct. If you move into a rambling old house with multiple residents and you discover a bricked up door and one of the neighbors reads your future in tea leaves and sees danger and another neighbor is training a mouse circus and gives you a warning from the mice to not go through the door, well, listen to the mice. Coraline, of course, does not, discovering a mirror world to her own where everything seems nicer. Uh-huh. The 2009 film version is fantastic, one of the best uses of 3-D in any movie ever and does this book justice. And that's saying something.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman ($9.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

This is it: The gateway drug that turns generations of children into mystery addicts. Two kids run away from home and take residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That leads them to obsess over a new acquisition, a statue that may or may not be attributed to Michelangelo. They begin researching the mystery and their conclusions lead them to the home of the wealthy Mrs. Basil. Before you know it, with her blessing the kids are digging into her files to investigate even further and prove the truth once and for all. Innocently read this as a kid, and you’re led to Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and The Westing Game and before you know it, you’re hooked for life and taking up residence at 221-B Baker Street. Let this be a warning!

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg ($8.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Watsons go on a road trip in 1963 from Flint, Michigan to Birmingham, Alabama. That alone is enough to signal to most Black people that this book won’t be a simple romp. They know Birmingham and 1963 the way others know Christopher Columbus and 1492. It's not a documentary, but sensitive 10 year old Kenny will come face to face with history. It turned reluctant readers into fans and readers into writers. Writers like Kate DiCamillo, whose own book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is also on this list and says this one sparked her career. 

“Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 is the story of a family vacation,” says DiCamillo, whose latest book is Orris and Timble: Lost and Found ($16.99; Candlewick; out April 29; pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “It's warm and laugh-out loud funny, and also profoundly moving. It's a book that made me want to try and write a book of my own.”

The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

Notice the title is The Jungle Books, plural. This combines the two different collections penned by Rudyard Kipling. In all, they offer up stand-alone stories, poems, folktales and a series of adventures that follow the boy Mowgli from a child raised by wolves to young man. Endless pieces have analyzed it to death, but at its heart The Jungle Books offer up morals and fables akin to the oldest known to humans; the tales are fanciful and fun and sometimes offer a lesson at their core.

It’s certainly inspired by India’s classic animal tales known as the Panchatantra (also on this list!). You can probably make them mean anything, since the stories are complex and contradictory and violent and funny and don’t always tie up in a neat bow. But you’d be hard pressed to see it as making a case that humans are superior to animals (numerous examples of the opposite being true abound) or that some animals are superior to others. Stronger, yes; but superior? Not really.

The law of the jungle it evokes is not a brutal struggle where the strong deserve to always win, but an understanding. The law says no killing at the watering hole because it’s a sacred, safe space. After all, everyone needs water. And no one should kill for the sake of killing, only out of necessity. (Mind you, lunch counts as a necessity, but still.) Mowgli is drawn back to the village he is from towards the end but isn’t really sure if he belongs there anymore. Will he be happier in the village? Is that the best place for him? It’s a credit to the books that we aren’t sure either. It’s perhaps inevitable Mowgli will rejoin humans, but the overwhelming feeling Kipling leaves you with is that Mowgli might well be the poorer for it.

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling ($5.95; Signet) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Mister Max Trilogy by Cynthia Voigt

You can’t go wrong with Cynthia Voigt. Should I champion her Tillerman family saga, led by 1981’s award-winning book Homecoming? Her “Bad Girls” series about friends in the fifth grade? One of her many acclaimed stand-alone books? No, I’m going to tout the Mister Max historical trilogy. Max is a child actor living in a city when his parents unaccountably head off on a tour, leaving him behind and all alone. Wha? Something is wrong and Max senses he needs to keep a low profile. So he fends for himself. To make some money, Max takes to solving problems for people. He’s sort of a detective but calls himself a "Solutioneer" and proves quite successful at it. The first book is filled with mini-mysteries that are the main driver of the story and satisfying each in their own way. 

Over the course of three books, Max develops his business, connects with his grandmother, puzzles out clues sent by his parents, helps out the mayor and in the final book sets out for South America to help rescue his parents, the newly crowned rulers of a country being set up for a lethal fall.

I read the first book and really enjoyed it. The second book deepened the story and showed Max maturing (and taking on an eager assistant named Pia). But it wasn’t until the third book that the true ambition of this series was revealed. Voigt shows Max growing up right before our eyes. But just like in real life, you almost don’t realize it. You see someone every day, you take them for granted and then out of nowhere you are shocked to realize your friend Max isn’t a kid anymore. He’s a young man! When did that happen? It’s a breathtaking achievement wrapped up in a rollicking period adventure.

Mister Max 1: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voigt ($10.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

“Growing up as a girl who didn't like getting dressed up, cried about getting my hair curled, and generally disagreed with anything society told me I should do or feel, this book was a balm to my soul,” says Kate Larson, owner of Ballast Book Company in Bremerton, Washington. “Harry Crewe was the first female character I read that I related to. She makes herself fit into social structures because she has to, is shuffled off to live with strangers, is bored out of her skull, gets swept away by the King of the neighboring nation because of innate magical abilities, doesn't have to suppress her true self anymore, learns to fight, and falls in love. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley proved to me that I could have adventures and be the romantic heroine, even if I didn't try to make myself more feminine.”

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley ($9.99; Viking Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Zipes

Including this collection of fairy tales serves two purposes. First, it’s a tribute to all fairy tale collections, of which there are hundreds and hundreds of good ones. The brothers Grimm did important work gathering and preserving and sharing stories like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “The Frog Prince” and so on. Naturally, these are the original tales, both violent and scary, not the watered-down ones that became the sad standard for many years. Kids like these better, by the way. Second, it’s a tribute to translator and fairy tale authority Jack Zipes, who has spent a lifetime gathering and preserving and sharing folk tales and the like, just as the brothers Grimm did some 200 years ago. (Zipes is also on this list for his fresh translation of Bambi.) Buy this and Hans Christian Anderson and Bambi and the Lang Fairy Books and read them aloud to your kids! The work (and fun) continues.

The Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Zipes ($25; Bantam) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

“I came from a large family where money was short,” says Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge To Terabithia, also on this list. “But when I was 12, my mother gave me a book that she had bought just for me. It happened to coincide with the gift of a puppy from a friend.

“My dog and I became Jody and Flag as we turned the woods behind our house into the Everglades,” says Paterson, whose newest book is Jella Lepman and Her Library of Dreams with illustrator Sally Deng ($21.99; Chronicle Books; out Feb 5; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “When I reread the book a few years ago I was startled to see how much it had influenced my own work. It is a tale of friendship and tragic loss. But there is the wise Penny, the parent who has known how hard life can be and whose deep love for his child redeems what would otherwise have been a book my 12 year old soul could not have borne.”

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ($9.99; Aladdin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

Sometimes just the structure of a book can delight. Nicholson Baker thrilled with The Mezzanine, the story of a man on his lunch hour, looking to buy a spare shoelace and going up one fight on an escalator. David Mitchell stunned with Cloud Atlas, a novel within a novel within a novel (etc.) with each section written in the style of a different genre. (And then halfway through, he pulls off one more fantastic structural stunt.) Even something as simple as the letter writing presentation in the epistolary charmer 84 Charing Cross Road can please.

The wildly talented Jason Reynolds has fun like that with Look Both Ways. The school bell rings and kids walk home. That’s it. He follows all sorts of kids as they each take their own path back to wherever they’re headed. The stories are funny (often), silly, sometimes scary, surprising, sweet and so on. Each kid has a different adventure, each path reveals a little something about their lives and the city they live in. And once you realize what Reynolds is doing, you feel very, very pleased at discovering the structure of the book and wondering what spin he can put on it next when a new chapter and a new story begins. Pure pleasure.

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds ($8.99: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

When a parent is desperate to see their kids embrace reading, any book they will actually read, indeed demand to read as soon as the latest one comes out, is immediately one of the greatest books of all time. And that’s why the silly, punny, juvenile humor of the Captain Underpants series is here. Two boys turn their school principal into a superhero? Professor Poopypants? Bionic Boogie Boy? Relax; they're reading! Bookseller Kathy Doyle Thomas of Half Price Books (headquartered in Dallas, Texas), knows that well. “My dyslexic son was obsessed with Captain Underpants and his crazy adventures,” says Doyle Thomas. “He was not a strong reader, but could easily read and comprehend the books and relate to the character. Most importantly, he felt good about himself!” As long as they’re giggling and reading, it’s good, whether it’s Captain Underpants or Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series or anything else offering smart/silly/funny jokes galore that they love. Read them yourself and you'll appreciate how smart/silly these books really are.

The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey ($12.99; Scholastic Inc.) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Everyone secretly likes a rebel, cause or no cause. Rebels against authority or rebels against conformity or rebels against pointless rules or rebels against boredom or more seriously rebels because the things really harming them can’t be fought (or so they seem) so the rebels lash out in any way they can. Is Stargirl–the mic drop of a personality in Jerry Spinelli's novel–a rebel? Sure. But she’s an unconscious one, just a free spirit being herself, which is about the most “rebel” thing you can do when most people around you worry about sticking out and some people do everything they can to stick out just cause, which in in its own way just as conforming. But Stargirl, who is naturally, happily, easily different and isn’t trying to be and doesn’t mind? That’s special.

Stargirl is the new kid at school who thinks our hero Leo is cute, carries around a ukulele so she can sing happy birthday whenever possible and cheers for both teams at school games. She’s shunned, then popular then shunned again. And she’s only human, which is what makes the novel special. Even Stargirl has to learn that trying to fit in gets her nowhere. She breezes in and out of Leo’s life, not without pain on both sides, and everyone–even Stargirl–is better for it.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli ($10.99; Ember) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Books are dangerous! If a kid reads Charlotte’s Web, they might just become vegetarians. If they read Bambi, hunting might become verboten to them. And if they read Black Beauty, cruelty to animals becomes vivid and unacceptable. That’s precisely what author Anna Sewell intended with her first and only novel, written while she was seriously ill and published just five months before Sewell died. (But not before seeing it become a big success.) The story is narrated by the horse Black Beauty herself as she grows up and passes from owner to owner, some kind, some cruel and some indifferent. Even for one not smitten by animals, it’s a captivating work. The entire genre of “pony books” springs from this singular success, not to mention novels by Jack London and most any book narrated by a creature living in the world of humans. Few titles are as influential and enduring as this.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell ($15.99; Wordsworth Editions) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Abel’s Island by William Steig

In real life, I don’t chat with mice very often. Indeed if a mouse popped up, I might just squeak and clamber onto a chair. (No offense, meese.) But in books? In books, mice are delightful, intelligent, friendly and quite the talkers. Why do they rival rabbits for appearances as characters in kids books? Well, they’re small (like kids) and vulnerable (like kids) and really not causing any harm even if they get into some mischief (like kids). Yet cats chase them and traps are laid for them and humans often squeak and clamber onto chairs if a mouse makes the mistake of being seen. Abel is a wonderful example of the sort, a mouse living a human-ish sort of life, but better and more mouse-y. He’s a dapper fellow and takes his wife on a picnic one day. A fierce storm erupts, her scarf flies away and when chasing it Abel is blown into a river and swept away. As you might expect by the title, he lands on an island and spends a season or two fending for himself. Think Robinson Crusoe, but not so ponderous. William Steig’s novel is charm itself and really I’d be happy to have Abel and his wife Amanda over for tea anytime.

Abel’s Island by William Steig ($7.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

M. T. Anderson is the author of The Astonishing Life Of Octavian Nothing, Traitor To A Nation Parts I and II (on our list of The 101 Best Young Adult Novels Of All Time and indeed our list of The 222 Best Novels Of All Time, full stop), as well as numerous other genre-defying works. So it’s no surprise he would recommend a similarly bold title. “In Shaun Tan's wordless graphic novel The Arrival, an immigrant from an unnamed country arrives at a port that looks like New York as seen in a dream, a city filled with workaday wonders and odd customs,” says Anderson, the author most recently of Elf Dog and Owl Head, illustrated by Junyi Wu ($18.99; Candlewick; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “The book movingly forces us, as readers, into the experience of a stranger in a strange land: everything looks half-familiar, but half incomprehensible, and we can't understand the language, and we, like the book's main character, are trying to understand how things work. It's brilliant and beautiful and it's an incredibly strong argument for the fact that a book literally without words can absolutely be literary.” 

The Arrival by Shaun Tan ($21.99; Arthur A. Levine Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

How remarkable to imagine two fuddy duddy academics at Oxford. One (J.R.R. Tolkien) is a master of languages, famed for delivering erudite lectures on etymology and declaiming Beowulf in Old English. The other (C.S. Lewis) is a fussy bachelor who loved Norse and Greek mythology but somehow became wildly famous for chatting away on the radio about faith during World War II. Those talks became Lewis's hugely popular book Mere Christianity. There they were, fast friends, discussing work, having a pint at their local The Bird and Baby and forming a group called The Inklings. That was a gathering for them and others to share bits of poetry and other creative writing done to amuse themselves. With encouragement, they each focused on children’s books. Tolkien of course wrote The Hobbit (also on this list), at first just so he could make use of the Elvish language he’d created for fun. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, not to spawn a franchise of world-spanning proportions, but to present his Christian faith in a way that might appeal to the young. Well, it worked and that first book led to The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the most popular series of all time. Now that’s fantastical indeed.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis ($69.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

It’s the 1100s in Korea. Our hero Tree-ear is an orphan living under a bridge. His village is becoming famous for the celadon glaze of their pottery. And Tree-ear is lucky enough to observe Min, the town’s best artisan, at work when most of the craftsmen do their jobs in private. Every day Tree-ear watches Min perform his magic of turning clay into beautiful art, slowly absorbing some of the basics of the craft. He jumps at the chance to do any menial task for Min if it means getting closer to this beautiful art form. Slowly, a bond is formed and Tree-ear becomes tasked with a journey that may make or break (get it?) Min’s fortunes. Author Linda Sue Park won over Rose of Ballast Books, among a legion of fans. Its attention to historical detail, description of pottery making and memorable characters make this unlikely tale of a potter in 12th century Korea absorbing for kids and adults alike. Truly anything will hold your attention when it’s created with the care of an artist like Min or Park. 

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (($10.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Fairy Books by Nora Lang; credited to Andrew Lang

The Blue Fairy Book. The Red Fairy Book. The Green Fairy Book. Yellow, Pink, Grey, Violet, Crimson, Brown, Orange, Olive and Lilac. Yes, the twelve Fairy Books of Leonora Lang (Nora to her friends) are credited to her husband Andrew. But he casually admits in one introduction that the series is almost entirely her work (and other women, who worked with her)! There’s a story in that alone, of course. The tales are wonderfully translated, fierce and uncompromising. The sheer range of countries and languages Lang drew upon also make her Fairy Books remarkable. Everyone from J.R.R. Tolkien to Margaret Atwood have sung their praises. You begin with the Blue Fairy Book and if you’re adventurous (or just a completist like me), you soon find yourself reading the strangest stories from countries you’ve barely heard of and your mind and imagination expand with each new color. The tales are exotic and familiar, unexpected and unnerving all at once. Comforting? No, but there’s comfort in that, as every child instinctively knows.

The Fairy Books by Nora Lang; credited to Andrew Lang (public domain; lots of dodgy copies available online, but check your library!)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

This autobiographical novel about a young girl who loves reading and dreams of something…more speaks to immigrants and would-be writers and adolescents everywhere. But authors like Kristy Woodson Harvey hold it especially dear. “I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the first time in the fourth grade,” says Harvey, whose upcoming book is Beach House Rules ($28.99; Gallery Books; out May 27; pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org), “and have read it almost every year since. Every time, every page, I find something new to love, some different piece of wisdom to grasp onto, something truer and more real about humanity than I did before. The brilliance of Betty Smith was her ability to transform the ordinary moments of our lives into something bright and shining, to find that morsel of goodness that connects us across circumstance and time. And, of course, ‘The world was hers for the reading,’ is a quote that still, all these years later, can’t help but make my book-loving heart race.”

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith ($18.99; Harper Perennial Modern Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

Any book that gets a reluctant reader to actually read is by definition a great book. I was horrified when one nephew said “books are for girls.” Wha? His dad read all the time and yet somehow this kid had such an absurd, depressing notion. What might get his attention? Ender’s Game didn’t do the trick (I guess he wasn’t a big video game player) and other titles didn’t click. Then I gifted him the first two books in the Ranger’s Apprentice series. Bingo! Maybe it’s no surprise since author John Flanagan first began writing this book as a series of short stories to get his own son Michael to enjoy reading. Best of all, if a kid gets hooked there are 20 books in the series and counting. (Plus, no movie or tv show–yet–to give them an easy out.) And if you want to enjoy these books together or just enjoy them in a new way, give yourself a treat and listen to the audiobooks narrated by the great stage, screen and voice actor John Keating.

Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan ($9.99; Viking Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

Life is not easy for sixth grader Merci Suárez, a Cuban American girl growing up in South Florida in this novel by Meg Medina. (Hey! I grew up in South Florida too.) Merci is on a scholarship program so she has to maintain good grades. She’s trying to save up for a bicycle, but bicycles are really expensive. There’s a mean girl picking on the boy Merci is tutoring. Her grandfather is dealing with Alzheimer’s. Oh and that’s right, Merci is a tutor, which is also a big responsibility. I mean, that’s a lot! Sandie Chen of Loyalty Bookstore in DC and Maryland warmly endorses it because who can’t help but root for Merci?

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina ($8.99; Candlewick) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Winnie the Pooh Boxed Set by A.A. Milne; illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard

Yes, but have you read it as an adult? Have you read it lately? A.A. Milne captures children to perfection–the way they interrupt your storytelling, their pleasure at seeing themselves included in it and their desire to learn more without quite admitting they don’t understand everything just yet. Any adult who’s made up a story for a small child will purr with pleasure when reading the opening chapters of Winnie The Pooh. It has charm to spare, thanks to timeless tales about friends and pranks and accepting people for who they are, like the dour Eeyore or the over-excitable Tigger. Not accepting them despite their quirks, but because of them. And oh, The House At Pooh Corner. The sad encroachment of school and Growing Up and time away from play and the need to Learn Things. Long before the Toy Story film trilogy tore your heart out, Milne did it here.

Winnie the Pooh Boxed Set by A.A. Milne; illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard ($67.99; Dutton Children’s Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

I’ve linked to a terrific paperback edition, terrific because it includes The Call of the Wild and White Fang and some other stories that offer peak Jack London. Some people love the outdoors, so no wonder they thrill to the idea of surviving while mining for gold in the Yukon or fighting off a pack of wolves and making a wolf pup their own friend and companion. Other people, like me, aren’t really animal people and get nervous if we’re more than 100 yards away from concrete. We like the jungle of the big city, thank you. So what’s the eternal appeal of a novel like The Call of the Wild, in which we follow the 140 lb dog Buck from owner to owner, some good and some bad (just like in Black Beauty)? Well, of course, the writing. Any story will enthrall if it’s well told. There’s magic in seeing the world from the point of view of another creature and London does that very well both here and in White Fang. And adventure experienced in an armchair is delicious. You get a visceral thrill and the pleasure of knowing you're safe and warm. Ohh, the Yukon is harsh and brutal and I’ll turn the page as soon as I have another sip of cocoa. What could be more enjoyable than that?

The Call of the Wild by Jack London ($10; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

This list features so many wonderful books with pleasing main characters, villains who are defeated and guaranteed happy endings. So whatever you do, do not read A Series of Unfortunate Events. I’m being ironic, which is a fancy word for joking without actually being funny. These books are tasty fun. Even the packaging for the 13(!) novels featuring the lexiconic legerdemain of Lemony Snicket is delicious. (The small hardcover format! The handsome embossed images rather than dust jackets! The dire warnings! Heck, even his website is funny!) Snicket begs you not to read his books, filled as they are with dreadful happenings. And who could resist this ploy? No one.

A phenomenon at the time and an enduring staple for kids, these gothic tales of woe feature the Baudelaire children who are orphaned just as the novel begins. Was it perhaps (picnic, lightning)? Alas, just an ordinary fire. Then things get progressively worse. You will not find happy endings. You will not see villains vanquished and certainly not reformed. And throughout this blackly humorous series, Snicket shares his love for reading, kids who think for themselves and moustache-twirling bad guys. He also toys with language and definitions in ways that are amusing and indeed informative, though surely that is an unhappy side effect best left unmentioned.

These books may have roots in Victorian novels, gothic tales, serial cliffhangers and the black humor of Edward Gorey (among other wellsprings), but this series is its own unique self. So far, it’s been adapted into a movie (not so good), a tv series (much better) and surely someday we’ll get a stage production with practical effects harkening back to the theater of yore and it will all be great fun. I mean, miserable and much to be avoided. Especially–horrors– a musical.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket ($15.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

I looked for good stories to read when I was a kid. I certainly wasn’t looking for a role model or ideas for future careers. I just wanted to enjoy a book! But role models–or at least ideas on different character traits that are pretty appealing and worth trying out–abound in kid’s books. And so do all sorts of lives to live, whether it’s the work the parents do in a story or the jobs and hobbies a kid is pursuing. You’ll find plenty of terrific role models in these stories, but not so many scientists.

So say hello to Calpurnia Tate, a girl turning 12 and frustrated by her mother’s desire for Callie to sew and play the piano and do all the other lady-like things she’s expected to master. Instead, Callie would rather go tramping into the mud of her family’s pecan farm in Texas, scooping up insects and other specimens for her naturalist granddad and taking care of the pets around her as handily as any ole vet. It’s the turn of the century as the 1800s become the 1900s and new inventions like the telephone and Coca-Cola rock Callie’s world. But none so much as the wonders right in front of her, at least right in front of her when she lies down on the ground watching ants and the like.

Callie is a strong-minded, curious kid in both this book and its equally strong sequel, both warmly endorsed by author Julia Quinn, whose latest novel is Queen Charlotte, cowritten by TV titan Shonda Rhimes ($18.99; Avon; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). I can’t imagine author Jacqueline Kelly is done with Callie yet. Any writer brave enough to write a sequel to Wind in the Willows (Kelly published Return To The Willows in 2012) surely won’t be daunted by the high standards she’s set in these first two books.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly ($9.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

Stories by Hans Christian Andersen–“The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and so many more–sit comfortably on the shelf next to collections of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and the Fairy Books of Nora Lang. By choosing, translating and adapting varied folk tales, those authors showed tremendous creativity. But Andersen didn’t adapt or translate or transmute preexisting folk tales. He summoned his enduring tales out of thin air, an act of imagination so astonishing it’s easy to forget he did it at all. Surely, you assume, these stories always existed. No, but now they always will.

Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales ($21; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

This is a sneaky sort of book by Rebecca Stead published in 2009. It’s set in the late 70s when our hero Miranda’s mom is preparing to go on a game show (The $20,000 Pyramid). Miranda is in the sixth grade and deals with school and her friends and a strange sort of homeless man and her mom’s new boyfriend and the usual stuff. Yet it’s all presented so tightly and concretely, these familiar events are immediate and alive. But what’s this? Miranda receives a mysterious note and soon this realistic bit of (I guess?) historical fiction feels more like a mystery. And then without any fuss or bother maybe there’s time travel? And somehow the whole thing still feels grounded and believable? If nothing else, that makes it a magic trick of the best sort.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead ($8.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

“This novel–and the whole trilogy–is just an absolute action-packed blast!” says Christine Bollows, the co-owner of Loyalty Bookstores in Washington DC and Silver Springs, Maryland. “The worldbuilding with Black American folklore heroes and West African gods and mythology is incredibly immersive and the story is a captivating page turner. Author Kwame Mbalia's writing is a master class in creating a truly memorable story that doesn't shy away from weightier topics like grief and trauma. This book is so much fun to read and a huge part of that is the incredible and hilarious character that is Gum Baby. Trust me, you need Gum Baby in your life! Tristan is a hero you will root for wholeheartedly throughout his adventures as he learns the magic and importance of storytelling and friendship and a deeper sense of what it means to be part of the diaspora. This is one of those books that I will forever hold dear to my heart and I wish I could put it into the hands of every Middle Grade reader. It really is THAT good!”

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia ($8.99; Rick Riordan Presents) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Judy Blume changed everything for young adult fiction, though Blume would be the first to highlight those who paved the way for her. But if Blume were just an Important Figure, she wouldn’t be so beloved. Kids still read her fiction, still get caught up in the drama and still find themselves in it. First among equals in her admirable body of work? It has to be Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. A girl on the cusp of puberty is worried when all her friends get their period before her; will her's ever come? Buying bras, worrying about breast size, spreading rumors about girls who seem a little faster when it comes to boys? This might be an episode of HBO’s Euphoria, though with less drugs and no actual sex. Margaret also spends the book exploring different faiths. Kids quickly learned they could always have faith in a book with Judy Blume’s name on it. A classic.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume ($9.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Once and Future King by T.H. White

In some versions of the legend of King Arthur, Merlin the magician is trapped in a cave by an enchantress. And authors sometimes find themselves trapped in their own stories, creating worlds or characters so vivid and appealing they keep returning…or fans force them to do so. Think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Philip Pullman and the world of His Dark Materials. Or T. H. White and King Arthur. Like me, he read Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. Unlike me, he wondered about Arthur’s life as a boy and wrote The Sword in the Stone, a book about that kid grabbing the sword, thus fated to be king and his training for the job by Merlin. The original version is apparently humorous and silly and fun, proving a huge success.

|But White couldn’t let go. His vision expanded. He wrote three more books about Arthur and worked on a fifth and final one until his death. The story became progressively darker and more complex, with the final unfinished volume denouncing the lunacy of war. White went back and rewrote The Sword and the Stone to make it a little darker and hint at the challenges to come. (Tolkien once proposed to do the same thing for The Hobbit, which is very different in tone and style from The Lord of the Rings.)

And so we have The Once and Future King, which brings the first four books together in one volume. It’s a grand retelling of the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable that any kid will embrace. The first section remains the most fun. But it now fits alongside all the stories to come, what with Arthur’s dream of Camelot, friendship with Sir Lancelot, faithlessness and so on. The kids who read it start off in a world they can fantasize about, with Arthur turned into other creatures like fish to see and appreciate the world from a different point of view. Before they know it, the reader is watching Arthur deal with politics and war and the bother of running a kingdom. You undoubtedly grow up a little just by reading it.

The Once and Future King by T.H. White ($26; Ace Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill; illustrated by Ronni Solbert

“Jean Merrill does what I like best,” says Chris Raschka, author of The Doorman’s Repose (also on this list) and most recently That Curious Thing ($21.99; Michael di Capua Books; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “She takes a few things we’ve heard of: trucks, push-carts, and city streets, and puts them together in a way that we’ve never heard of—a pushcart war. She tells it all through mundane means: meetings, memos, and mayoral declarations, in a dead-pan way that makes the absurdities all the funnier. Her exquisite taste and humor are summed up in the first character we meet, Morris the Florist. I loved him as a child, and I love him still. Did I mention Ronni Solbert’s illustrations? They’re perfect.” 

The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill; illustrated by Ronni Solbert ($12.99; NYRB Kids) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

Dave Shelton’s A Boy and a Bear in a Boat is simplicity itself, from the words he uses to the illustrations peppered throughout. A boy comes across a bear (in a boat), gets in…and they’re off. It’s not a parable, because Shelton would never stoop to parable. It’s not laden with a message, because messages can be ignored or forgotten or misconstrued. But it’s certainly strange and beguiling and unforgettable.

The boy and the bear (in a boat) face storms and waves and danger and develop an unspoken bond. We don’t know where either of them came from and we don’t know where they will go, either together or alone. But the journey they make, this elemental journey, is everything. I can’t explain why (and trying would spoil it) but I find this book moving. The way some people feel about The Little Prince? That’s how I feel about A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. I can imagine an animated film (a short really, I think), but only if Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement (again!) since only he could do it justice. I can imagine Laurie Anderson creating a fantastic work of theater built around it. But do I really want that? Maybe not. What I really want is for everyone to read it and share it with their kids and their friends and place it on the shelf of classics we return to again and again.

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton ($7.99; Yearling) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton

Anyone foolish enough to imagine kid’s books are just safe pablum or anyone scared enough to believe kid’s books should only be safe pablum should read M.C. Higgins, the Great. M.C. is a young man growing up in Appalachia on Sarah’s Mountain. Their home is precarious in every way due to strip mining, with a landslide forever threatening to wipe it–and their way of life–away. M.C. balances on top of a 40 foot pole, his mother can sing (I mean, really sing) and maybe there’s more to life for M.C. than the small but precious world he’s desperate to preserve. Then two strangers arrive…. It’s a rich, complex novel and no wonder Virginia Hamilton became the first African American to win a Newberry Medal for this gem.

M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton ($7.99; Aladdin) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

“A childhood classic,” says a bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. “I had just as much fun reading this book at 25 as I did at 8. Princess Cimorene, the daughter of a very proper king, runs away to live with a very powerful dragon, Kazul and in doing so turns every fairytale rule you know on its head. Perfect for precocious elementary schoolers who love reading and to be right, or adults who were once precocious elementary schoolers who loved reading and to be right. Princess Cimorene belongs in the same category as middle grade heroines like Sophie Hatter from Howl's Moving Castle and Ella of Frell from Ella Enchanted.”

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede ($9.99; Clarion Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Smith: The Story of a Pickpocket by Leon Garfield

I could make a list of the 100 Best Kids Books That Everyone Once Loved But Are Now Quite Forgotten. They haven’t disappeared because the books are dated or out of fashion or the like. They’ve just become lost in the shuffle. Take Leon Garfield. He always enjoyed a higher profile in the UK, but still, his books were read and appreciated in the US. Garfield had several distinct periods. First, he delivered historical fiction a la Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. Books like Smith, set in London during the late 1700s. It’s the story of a 12 year old pickpocket who lifts a gentleman’s wallet and then sees the man murdered in cold blood, presumably for whatever Smith just purloined. What has he stolen? Will they track the boy down? What will happen next?? Later, Garfield had a run adapting myths and legends and finally a long run adapting Shakespeare’s plays into stories for kids and then turning those into scripts for an animated series. For good measure, he wrote an ending to the unfinished book The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens. Whew. And yet, the novels Smith or Jack Holborn or Devil-in-the-Fog or The Gods Beneath The Seas will draw blank stares even from lovers of kids books, rather than the smiles of delight they deserve. So thank goodness for NYRB Kids, one of the great imprints for reissuing books of all sorts. They are hopefully kicking off a Leon Garfield revival with Smith out in April.

Smith: The Story of a Pickpocket by Leon Garfield ($14.99; NYRB Kids) Out April 22; pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater

“Eric Linklater wrote during WW II what probably couldn’t be written now,” says Chris Raschka, author of The Doorman’s Repose (also on this list) and most recently That Curious Thing ($21.99; Michael di Capua Books). “Two sisters, Dinah and Dorinda take revenge on absent parents (due to the war) by eating until they are round enough to roll down the street, where nasty village boys shoot arrows at them. A witch gets them out of this jam by turning them into kangaroos. After that, the story gets a little hard to believe, but you do, and you love it. The last wonderful characters are sappers, military engineers, happening to be tunneling by, who save the day. It is fantastical, escapist humor, perfect, I suppose, for a time of great stress. Really it’s perfect any time.”

The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater ($14.99; New York Review Children’s Collection) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

People often wrongly say that Disney’s animated movies sanitize fairy tales. True, Cinderella’s step sisters don’t chop off toes in a desperate attempt to make their feet squeeze into that glass slipper in the film version. (Those fairy tales got pretty grimm, after all.) But Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has an extremely scary villain, Bambi is heartbreaking right at the start and that forest fire is nerve-wracking, etc. Disney’s early masterpiece is Pinocchio, with the story of the puppet who wants to be a real live boy beautifully drawn, filled with sly humor, frightening scenes (like the transformation of boys into animals at the theme park) and being inside the whale. It’s not exactly a soothing story. Yet, I will happily admit the novel by Carlo Collodi is stranger, more out-there and satirical than you’d expect. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (which is also very good) isn’t crazy for emphasizing Collodi’s anti-fascism. Some of the best kids books have unexpected depths; kids read them and sense those depths and they may not be ready to dive down and explore but it adds to the excitement of the book. If you’re an adult, grab the latest translation you can find, take a deep breath and go back in.

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi ($15; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

A landmark kids book in the stories it tells, an ambitious entry in what would become author Mildred D. Taylor’s sprawling family saga and an award winner. That’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Preceded by a novella, it’s the first novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in 1930s America, the rare Black family that owns their own land. Microaggressions? The Logans mostly deal with macro-aggressions: humiliations large and small, the threat of lynching, school bullies, unfair firings, the police as oppressors and much more. But the Taylors are decent and strong and seeing the choices they make and the work they do under these circumstances is stirring. Taylor’s masterwork now includes three novellas and seven novels in all. Covering the post-Civil War era to the Civil Rights period of the 1960s, it’s the kids book equivalent to August Wilson’s cycle of ten plays known as the American Century.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor ($9.99; Puffin Modern Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Is there any more exciting time to read than after your bedtime, when you absolutely must turn off the light and go to sleep, but somehow sneak in a few more pages anyway? Charlie Schumann, assistant manager and resident children’s lit enthusiast at City Lit Books in Chicago knows the feeling well. 

“I still remember reading Edward Tulane past my bed time,” says Schumann, “curled up under covers, holding the book close because the glow of my book light just wasn’t cutting it, turning pages quietly and holding my breath to make sure no one woke up, no one ruined this magic. Kate DiCamillo writes books that are both intimate and grand, that are universal and, also, made just for you. I love all of DiCamillo’s work, but something that makes Edward Tulane so special to me is its message about growth. Edward Tulane’s journey takes him to the sea and the sky, but the miraculous part is how he changes, how he learns to love and be loved in return.”

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo ($8.99; Candlewick) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Ramona The Pest by Beverly Cleary

This is the book where Ramona took center stage…and never left. She’s an irresistible force of nature, sometimes annoying, often unintentionally annoying, always getting into trouble but really not meaning to (usually), funny, clever, endearing, hapless…you know, a kid! We watch her enter kindergarten in this book and Beverly Cleary does a marvelous job capturing Ramona’s desire to accomplish this or that goal with fierce determination. Ramona yearns to be named Wake-Up Fairy, which immediately made me flash back to kindergarten when I and another boy would rush to the play area at the first chance we got to claim the obviously superior toy crane for our own. Who wanted a dump truck? Not either of us. We’d each tug it around all day or the other boy would seize it in triumph. (I’d even take it into the bathroom.) Ramona? I can identify. Cleary magically writes in a way a small child can understand and yet an adult can smile over. That is no mean feat.

Ramona The Pest by Beverly Cleary ($9.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter taught me about the importance of the shape and feel of a book, its overall size and heft. Know this: if you don’t read a book in the right edition, it may never work its magic. For example, I love the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and I proudly own a massive, gigantic, slipcovered, two volume set featuring every single strip. I never read it, not once and if some poor kid tried to read it they’d probably be crushed underneath its weight until some adult came along and–using a construction crane–moved the book off of them and dragged the child to safety. But recently they’ve released The Portable Calvin and Hobbes, a series of compact paperbacks ideal for reading and sharing. Unlike that fancy, imposing hardcover, you’ll actually read them. 

Long ago, I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I think it was a nice oversized hardcover edition containing several stories by Potter. It contained text and multiple images in color on every page and it was all beautifully done. And boring. Not for me, I thought.

Then, one day I happened upon a tiny sort of boxed set of Beatrix Potter. It contained all 23 of these stories, each little hardcover book mimicked the original shape and size of the ones she self-published all those years ago. The books sat in the palm of my hand. The text was short and spare, with one accompanying illustration perhaps on the opposite page, just as Potter intended. It was a delight! I loved it. Seven paragraphs on a giant page with illustrations scattered here and there? Bleh. But this tiny little book with well-chosen breaks in the text and just the right illustration just when it was wanted? Perfect. So by all means read her stories. And if you can track down the sort of edition I’m talking about in your library or can buy the whole set yourself, do! This one is The World of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter ($175 but often heavily discounted to around $70, which is only about $3 a book; Warne; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org).

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter ($8.99; Warne) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

This is a thrilling story about a young girl abandoned and alone in the world. But Julie of the Wolves is also the first time I learned that “Eskimo” is rude and the better word to say was “Inuit.” (And now it’s smarter to say perhaps “Inuk” or just ask the person or people you're talking to. Time marches on!) Author Jean Craighead George was too smart to make her books “educational.” Raised by naturalists, she just naturally infused a love of nature and the outdoors into everything she wrote, like My Side of the Mountain or this classic about a young girl whose mother dies and then her father dies. An aunt makes her feel none too welcome so she marries at 13, only to discover her new husband is abusive. Desperate, she heads out to the tundra alone, mistakenly thinking she can somehow go live with a penpal in California. Instead, Miyax aka Julie learns to live with a wolf pack by following the old ways and manages to survive and even flourish. Will she stay with the wolves or head back to her people when the opportunity arises? You’ll have to read it to find out. 

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George ($9.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Little Grey Men by B.B.

Let’s be honest: the British have a gift for children’s books and gentle fantasy. They punch above their weight, just as they do in music (hello, Beatles!) and the arts. But not all British classics make the leap across the Pond and become part of the fabric of childhood for children in America. The Little Grey Men by B.B. is one good example. Actor Julie Andrews–no slouch herself when it comes to books for kids–is a tireless advocate for this gem. Yet it remains a secret shared by few in the U.S. Published in the midst of World War II, it’s about four gnomes who live in the countryside. They might well be the last four gnomes in the world and when one of them goes missing the others take off on a bold journey to track their friend down. Quietly observant of the change of seasons, The Little Grey Men has just the right, pint-sized perspective on the world, with all its dangers and beauties and promise. Surely, you trust Julie Andrews? You’ve read Mary Poppins, so give this one a go.

The Little Grey Men by B.B. ($12.99; NYRB Kids) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

What’s the first book that made you cry? For generations of kids who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond, that book might be Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Its power is surely one reason booksellers like Sandie Chen of Loyalty Bookstore in DC and Maryland recommend Katherine Paterson’s classic again and again.

In it, Jess is a poor, but smart ten year old. He wants to be an artist, but his dad won’t hear of it. You can’t pay the bills by being an artist! Leslie is a wealthy tomboy who beats Jess at a footrace on the first day of school. They become friends when Jess defends her from a bully. Soon, the two of them develop an elaborate world of the imagination called Terabithia and have fun when they’re isolated from everyone else. But Jess worries since Leslie isn’t a true believer in his Christian faith. And neither of them really fits in at school. Terabithia is the only place they’re happy, but of course you can’t hide in a fantasy forever.

This simple story of friendship is devastated by tragedy, the sort of thing that can happen anytime, anywhere but isn’t supposed to happen in a story you’re reading as a kid. I mean, Nancy Drew never dies! The first time that happens in a book for a kid can prove a shock. It wouldn’t matter in a bad book, because the characters don’t come alive for you. But when the characters are real and you’re used to a safe space when reading, that first tragedy is life-altering. Which describes Bridge to Terabithia for so many.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson ($9.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

Surely the best play ever turned into a novel, Peter and Wendy by. J.M. Barrie charms at every age. It has two blemishes: a bizarre reference to an Indian tribe using a slur for Black people and said Indians, who are stereotypical noble savages. That’s plenty for anyone to say no thanks, but it’s also very brief and a useful opportunity to discuss with children. (Plus, the real villain is Captain Hook, while the Indians–more the imaginings of a child than real Indians–play fair.) Otherwise, the story is marvelous.

As a kid, it’s pure adventure, what with shadows that slip away, the chance to fly through the night sky, pirates, dogs as nanny and an open window patiently waiting for your return home. As an older kid or young adult, the sly humor that courses through the novel about the Boy Who Never Grew Up is a minor revelation. As a parent? Well, as a parent the book is almost painfully moving at the end.

Who wants to grow up? No kid with a lick of sense. But Barrie reveals the trap he’s set: the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up suspects he’s missing something, the child eager to grow up doesn’t quite know what they’re getting into and the adult who has grown up knows all too well what they’ve left behind. A bittersweet classic.

Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie ($12; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

It’s 1968 and three girls head from Brooklyn to Oakland, California to stay with their estranged mother for the summer. Toss in the Black Panthers, an informant, free meals for those who need them, a daughter annoyed by the fact her mom will never call her by her name (but instead says things like “little girl”), a raid by police and more and you’ve got one crazy summer. Yes, the kids learn about the struggle and politics and a wider world in this novel by Rita Williams-Garcia. But it happens so naturally–this is the world their mother lives in–that it feels as natural as breathing. Just like the tentative steps towards a closer relationship. Not forcing a sunny finale on a complicated story makes the quiet progress in love and understanding all the more moving.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia ($9.99; Quill Tree Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Anyone who sets out to write a bestseller is on a fool’s errand. (Unless your name is James Patterson.) And almost no writers try to do that. They just want to tell a story and they hope it gets published and they hope maybe someone will read it and like it. But they have to write it or they’d never be a writer in the first place. So sure Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came out in 1997 and in two or three years the series was becoming such a phenomenon that every publisher said, “Find me the next Harry Potter!” and every writer with dreams of success thought, “Gee, I’ll bet I could come up with the next Harry Potter!” Almost none of them did.

Author Rick Riordan enjoyed great success with his first mystery for adults, Big Red Tequila back in 1997. Awards! Sales! Great reviews! More followed. One night, instead of trying to come up with a new mystery or the next Harry Potter, Riordan just wanted to entertain his son, who had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. So Riordan came up with the idea of a 12 year old kid in New York City named Percy Jackson who is hyperactive and has dyslexia…and suddenly finds himself fighting off creatures from Greek mythology because Percy is actually a demi-god! Woah! And that’s how you come up with the next Harry Potter. By telling a story you have to tell with details that resonate with you, a story that means everything to you because you hope it means everything to the person you’re telling it to. And it does.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ($8.99; Disney Hyperion) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck

The man wrote some 40+ books and most every one I’ve read is a lot of fun. But you need to start with Richard Peck's A Long Way From Chicago and its sequel A Year Down Yonder, which finally scored him a much-deserved Newberry Medal. Long Way is a novel in stories about kids from Chicago who spend the summer downstate with their no-nonsense, kind of wild grandmother. The stories are set from 1929 to 1942 and range from funny to very funny and lump-in-your-throat but still pretty funny as well. Grandma shoots up a coffin when it seems to move (wouldn’t you?), steals a sheriff’s boat so she can feed some hungry folk, battles her enemy Effie Wilcox (when she isn’t helping out Effie, that is, because neighbors are neighbors) and so on. Irresistible.

A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck ($8.99; Puffin Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma, translated by Rohini Chowdhury

I’ve peppered this list with folk and fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm. Uncle Remus. The Fairy Books by the Langs. But I could include so many more, like Aesop’s fables and Charles Perrault and La Fontaine. All delightful. Indeed, I could name collections of stories from every corner of the globe! So let me choose one to represent them all. And since I do include The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling, the least I can do is include another book of stories from India to balance that out. The stories in Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma are told to to spark the imagination of a king’s three, dull-witted sons. If you spot echoes of Aesop and other fairy tales, well this one came first. Like Aesop, they often have explicit moral lessons about how to make friends, defeat enemies and live a good life. But the animal characters are so entertaining and vivid, you won’t really mind learning something along the way. And your kids will barely notice as they listen, wide-eyed or giggling or both. (You are planning to read them out loud, aren’t you?) One of the most popular, widely traveled and imitated collections in the world.

Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma, translated by Rohini Chowdhury ($20.99; Puffin Classics) Buy now on Amazon

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

Jim Reed of Jim Reed Books in Birmingham, Alabama loves the opening line. "”Even if you were the mighty Zorn of Zorna, you could not escape the fury of the Duke. He’ll slit you from your guggle to your zatch….’ One of the most memorable fantasy novels ever,” says Reed. “James Thurber's tale is funny, dark, delightfully wicked, and just plain fun. You'll never forget these finely-drawn characters. And you'll always wonder whether this is one of the books William Goldman read in childhood, before The Princess Bride occurred to him.”

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber ($16; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

If you want children to read and think about what they’re reading, you have to take chances. Sometimes they’ll read something a little too old for them. Sometimes they’ll read something they don’t agree with at all. Sometimes they’ll read something and really like it but maybe question it a little.

Little House in the Big Woods and all the other books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are beloved titles that have endured for generations and understandably so. Simple pleasures, a love of nature, kind parents and a hardscrabble fight just to survive are a lot more fun to read about than endure and sure to make a kid feel lucky they have electricity and running water and food in the fridge.

Mind you, if you’re a Native American, the Ingalls moving into a new territory and “fending off” Indians always read quite differently. Nowadays, we can all see a novel like this in its proper context, appreciate the good in it (great writing, great characters), question some of its assumptions and enjoy what we can in perhaps a wiser, smarter fashion than before. Great books can teach you; give you something to think about. And sometimes the flaws in great books are just as important and just as useful to ponder.

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder ($10.85; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The classic Judy Garland film, the reimagining of the story in The Wiz and the blockbuster novel/musical/movie prequel Wicked loom so large that the original creation of L. Frank Baum is sometimes lost in the shuffle. That’s not surprising, since Baum’s American-set fantasy was immediately seized upon by others. It inspired numerous stage shows, silent movies, comics and merchandise in the early 1900s and never stopped. Yet this strange book remains hugely influential thanks to its innovative use of color, new typography and the illustrations of W.W. Denslow, which are as indelibly linked to Oz as John Tenniel’s to Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. Stranger and thus more wonderful than you remember, especially the deeper you dive into the thirteen primary sequels.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum ($20; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Kids are tough. Young, single mothers need to be even tougher. Our hero LaVaughn gets a job babysitting for a 17 year old named Jolly who has two small children. The old phrase says when life gives you lemon, make lemonade. But Jolly sure gets a lot of lemons: she’s sexually harassed by her boss at work and fired when she fights back. LaVaughn’s mother even chides her when helping out. Jolly wants to get her GED but is afraid her children will be taken away. She takes a chance and later writes to a billionaire who hands out cash to needy folk. He sends $5 for a treat for her kids and promises more once she gets her G.E.D. Like I said, Jolly could make gallons of lemonade by the time this book is over! The first in a trilogy by Virginia Euwer Wolff, this award winner manages the trick of tackling all these adult topics by seeing them from the point of view of LaVaughn. Which is exactly what other kids do every day of the week. Just not always in a novel written in free verse they can savor as much as a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day: slowly and sweetly and gone all too soon.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff ($10.99; Square Fish) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Asterix and the Soothsayer by Rene Goscinny; Illustrations by Albert Uderzo

Like many kids in Europe, Dave Shelton–also on this list with A Boy and a Bear in a Boat–was besotted with the nutty, funny epic French comics starring Asterix, a tiny but clever warrior in 50 B.C. who lived in Rome-occupied Gaul. “There must be at least a dozen volumes from the adventures of Asterix that I might have chosen instead of this one, but Asterix and the Soothsayer was the first,” says Shelton, whose latest book Monster in the Woods is not out yet in the US, which is a dreadful shame. (It's a droll, comic adventure in the Python-esque/Douglas Adams vein and you can get it on import! (£8 from David Fickling Books, buy now on Amazon.co.uk.) “My older brother had a copy in a cheap, undersized edition, and thus it became the first comic story from mainland Europe that I ever read. In due course this opened up a whole world of possibility, but at the time it was simply a brilliantly realised comedy packed full of slapstick and (via Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge’s translation) hilariously creative puns. Admittedly, some of those puns I wouldn’t understand for another decade or more, but no matter, that was just one of the ways in which it rewarded (and continues to reward) frequent rereading.”

Asterix and the Soothsayer by Rene Goscinny; Illustrations by Albert Uderzo ($16.99; Orion) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield

Well, if it’s good enough for Meg Ryan in the film You’ve Got Mail, it’s good enough for me. That movie–an updating of the 1940 classic The Shop Around The Corner–features a battle between big bookstore chains and independents. (Nowadays, Barnes & Noble is one of the underdogs against Amazon. How times change.) In one scene, Ryan is suggesting a book for a kid and immediately clutches a copy of Ballet Shoes to her chest, a look of rapture on her face. “I’d start with Ballet Shoes, it’s my favorite–although Skating Shoes is completely wonderful.” Sales skyrocketed for this 1936 bestseller.

In this story by Noel Streatfield, three unrelated little babies are adopted by an eccentric explorer who drops them off at his huge, rambling home filled with fossils and other finds and then heads off again for years at a time. They are dubbed the Fossils, with Pauline soon yearning for the stage, Pretrova loving all things mechanical and Posy almost unnervingly focused on ballet dancing. The novel is both a fantasy of little children exploring their passions and casually realistic. (Money problems are never far off.) Kids get to help out in practical ways and follow their dreams. What more could one want? It’s beguiling, funny, fascinating and especially in the character of Posy, a convincing look at a budding artist and the laser-like focus it takes to be among the best in the world.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield ($8.99; Streatfield) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales as Told by Julius Lester; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

The stories of Uncle Remus have a…complicated past. Happily, you don’t have to dive deep into the life of the original collector of them, Joel Chandler Harris and decide where you stand on cultural appropriation. Nor do you have to hunt down a bootleg copy of Disney’s Song of the South. (It really is silly of the studio to keep it under lock and key, though.) Now, thanks to two supremely talented Black artists, you can enjoy Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales with a light heart and eventually a smile, a guffaw and deep, deep pleasure.

Julius Lester was a scholar, an activist, a photographer, a musician and a novelist. Anyone who does everything from take part in the Freedom Summer to hosting a radio show called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to writing a book about the Black Power movement called Look Out, Whitey! Black Power’s Gon’ Get Your Mama! and create dozens of award-winning kids books is pretty awesome in my book. I think his work on Uncle Remus might be Lester’s peak in this area.

You know about Br’er Rabbit and how he outsmarts greedy Fox and pretty much everyone around. These Remus tales are not sanitized for kiddies. Hailing from an era long before the radio, these are meant for everyone, so the allusions only adults will get, the constant trickster fooling, the sometimes violent climaxes are in a way more akin to Deadpool than Disney. The artwork by the esteemed illustrator Jerry Pinkney is also outstanding. At first, I didn’t like that Br’er Rabbit looks too much like Peter Rabbit with his red vest. But since Beatrix Potter herself was inspired by Uncle Remus, it’s only fair. Br’er came first.

Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales as told by Julius Lester; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney ($50; Dial Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Doorman’s Repose by Chris Raschka

The publisher New York Review of Books (NYRB) puts out the best finds a book lover could hope for. They track down out of print and long-forgotten titles and give them handsome new paperback editions. These books are in every genre and I’ve never–I repeat, never–read a single one that wasn’t delightful, gripping and wonderful. When they launched NYRB Kids, I was thrilled. Soon they began putting out new editions of beloved titles that were unjustly out of print and I was discovering gems I’d never heard of before. Here’s a typical one which from the looks of it was originally published in the 1940s or 1950s.

The Doorman’s Repose takes place in the mythical New York City of Eloise and children’s books in general, a marvelous place filled with eccentric adults, nervy kids and imbued with an aura of mystery, excitement and safety. Adventures will be had, but they will be fun. The setting is 777 Garden Avenue (I went to track it down; alas, it’s not there anymore) and each chapter reveals a new aspect of the building, like its new doorman, an abandoned room, jazz playing mice, a chatty elevator and the like. Just…delightful. The sort of book they don’t write anymore, because who today would ever use the word “repose” in a kid’s book?

And then.... And then I realized to my surprise that The Doorman’s Repose–despite its flavor of a bygone era, despite its perfect illustrations, despite its unquestionable vibe of a long lost classic–was in fact a new book, written by the marvelous author and Illustrator Chris Raschka. At least, it was new in 2017 when NYRB Kids first put it out in a delightful little hardback edition. You could have knocked me down with a feather. So in 30 or so years, I can call it a gem from back in the day, but right now I can say it’s by the talented Raschka and I can’t wait to see what he’ll deliver next.

The Doorman’s Repose by Chris Raschka ($13.99; NYRB Kids) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams; illustrated by William Nicholson

I’ve actually never read The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. It’s slightly more than a picture book but certainly not a novel. So I imagine I just graduated quickly to “real” books and couldn’t be bothered with something this short. Hardly worth checking out of the library and certainly not worth buying! I’d finish it before my mom and I reached the car in the parking lot! But it’s time I read it, isn’t it? Hold on a second….

Ok, I’ve just gone to Hatchard’s bookstore (I’m in London while I write this) and hid behind a display so I could quietly read The Velveteen Rabbit for the first time, finishing just moments before the store closed foror the night. It came out in 1922 and still charms. I was especially thrilled by the possibility of total disaster, for our hero is threatened with being burnt alive! Now, kids don’t necessarily want disaster, but it’s lovely to think disaster is a possibility. That’s exciting, whereas most stories you are safe in assuming won’t include actual tragedy, not in a story for kids. So yes, the Toy Story angle of watching playthings come alive and the promised revelation of learning how toys become real are all well and good. But don’t overlook the appeal of Margery Williams convincing us the Velveteen Rabbit was indeed in real danger of facing his demise. Oh and the illustrations by William Nicholson are a treasure.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams; illustrated by William Nicholson ($19.99; Doubleday Books for Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

It’s 1930 and the Great Depression is rocking the world in this novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan. But none of that is noticed by Esperanza. She lives on a vineyard in Mexico and the 13 year old Esperanza’s favorite job is making plans for her lavish quincearera. True, that won’t take place for two years, but there are so many details to think about! The Mexican Revolution, tragedy and cruel relatives change everything and suddenly Esperanza and her mother must flee to California and work on a farm just to survive. As you can imagine, that’s not so easy for our hero, who faces hard work, fellow employees who taunt little Miss Princess and a mother making the best of it, even when they’re making home in little more than a horse stall! Then her mother gets sick, Okies flood into California from the Dust Bowl and times get really tough. Esperanza is rising, eventually, but not because of any magic realism or an ability to rise above her situation. She accomplishes it by staying rooted on the ground and (finally) accepting both the reality of her life and understanding what really matters.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan ($7.99; Scholastic) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine

Boo! Adults have Stephen King. Teens have…Stephen King! And kids who aren’t quite ready for Stephen King love to get Goosebumps. R.L. Stine hit that sweet spot of pretty darn scary but not pee your pants scary or oh my gosh I can’t get to sleep and what’s that sound scary. Plus he brought the funny; think Ghostbusters. (The first book came out in 1992, just eight years after that iconic film.) Then Stine hit that sweet spot again and again and again. If there’s anything some kids love more than being scared, it’s a book series. And Stine gives them Goosebumps and many spin-offs and then the slightly scarier still Fear Street series and then he pats them on the back saying, “job well done” as they head off to Kingland.

Goosebumps #1: Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine ($7.99; Scholastic) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Every word is perfect. You expect no less from the man who updated and perfected that guide to writing, Elements of Style. Like many of the authors on this list (but perhaps more so), E.B. White has a gift for delivering complex stories in prose that speaks directly to kids and yet plumb depths of emotion and insight adults will appreciate too. His sentences are simple, clear and strong. Charlotte’s Web is the story of a pig on a farm. His name is Wilbur and as is the way with farms he inevitably faces slaughter–where exactly did you think bacon comes from? Then his friend Charlotte the spider takes matters into her own legs. It’s charming, deals with death in a matter of fact fashion and will last forever.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White ($10.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Children’s Section of the Annapolis Public Library by the Librarians of the Annapolis Public Library

“It wasn't a book that led me to writing for kids,” says author Cynthia Voigt of the Mister Max trilogy (on this list) and most recently When Wishes Were Horses ($18.99; Greenwillow; buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org). “Rather it was the Children's Section of the Annapolis Public Library where I went to create a reading list for a fifth grade class. I started at A and was delighted at the quality and variety of what was being published. Who knew? Libraries led me to writing, which only buttresses my opinion that they are among the best of our national institutions. If that suits your purposes, please feel free to make use of it. If your purposes include urging members of a society to understand the importance of this institution (books, free for the reading!) I am even more honored to be found on your list.” 

Support and volunteer at your local public library. Become a member of the Public Library Association, an offshoot of the American Library Association.

Related: The 101 Best Young Adult Books of All Time