100 Best Books for Children - A list by Anita Silvey

Anita Silvey is an editor of The Horn Book Magazine and works for Houghton Mifflin as a publisher of children's books. This list is from her book: 100 Best Books for Children, 2004 Click on the title of the book to see if it's available @ the library!

Board Books (Birth - 2 years) | Picture Books (2-8) | Beginning Readers (5-7) | Young Readers (7-9) | Middle Readers (8-11) | Older Readers (11-12)

Board Books (Birth - 2 years)

• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Freight Train by Donald Crews
• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss

Picture Books (Age 2 - 8)

• Miss Nelson is Missing by Henry Allard
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
• Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus
• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
• John Henry by Julius Lester
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr
• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
• Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
• Curious George by H.A. Rey
• The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka
• Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendack
• Caps for Sale by Esphyre Slobodkina
• Doctor De Soto by William Steig
• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
• Tuesday by David Wiesner
• A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
• Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

Beginning Reader Books (Age 5 - 7)

• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
• Little Bear by Else Holmelund Miniarik
• Henry and Mudge by Cynthia Rylant
• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Young Reader Books (Age 7 - 9)

• Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
• Morning Girl by Michael Dorris
• The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
• My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
• Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
• Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
• Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
• Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
• The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelustsky
• Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Middle Reader Books (Age 8 - 11)

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
• Half-Magic by Edward Eager
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
• Humbug Mountain by Sid Fleischman
• Lincoln: a Photobiography by Russell Freedman
• Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
• The New Way Things Work by David Macauley
• Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
• Rascal by Sterling North
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
• The Westing Game by Ellen Rasking
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Older Reader Books (Age 11 - 12)

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
• Behind the Atti Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
• Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
• Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt

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