The overwhelming output of new books for children each year tends to obscure some of the significant books of former years. The following are a few books too good to be forgotten.
(Books are listed alphabetically by Title, followed by Author and usually age-group)
ADVENTURE
Adventures of Tom Sawyer — by Samuel Clemens 10-14
Dolphin Island — by Arthur C. Clarke 12-15
Gulliver’s Travels — by Jonathan Swift
Huckleberry Finn — by Mark Twain 8-up
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table
Kon-Tiki — by Thor Heyerdahl
Men of Iron — by Howard Pyle
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood — by Howard Pyle 10-13
Robinson Crusoe — by Daniel DeFoe 12-16
Swiss Family Robinson — by Johann Wyss 12-up
The Black Arrow — by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Marvelous Misadventures of Sabastian — by Lloyd Alexander
The Prince and the Pauper — by Mark Twain
The Three Musketeers
Treasure Island — by Robert Lewis Stevenson 9-16
ANIMAL STORIES
Bambi – by Felix Salten
Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear – by Christine Weston
Black Beauty – by Anna Sewell 8-12
Black Stallion series – by Walter Farley
Brighty of the Grand Canyon – by Marguerite Henry
Gentle Ben — by Walt Morey
King of the Wind — by Marguerite Henry 9-14 — Newbery 1949
Lassie, Come Home — by Eric Knight
Misty of Chincoteague — by Marguerite Henry 9-14
My Friend Flicka — by Mary O’Hara 12-up
Ring of Bright Water — by Gaven Maxwell
Smoky, the Cow Horse — by Will James 11-16 — Newbery 1927
The Incredible Journey — by Sheila Burnford 1l-up
The Yearling — by Marjorie Rawlings
ANIMAL FABLES
Aesop’s Fables 10-14
Chanticleer and the Fox — by Geoffrey Chaucer — Caldecott 1959
Fables of LaFontaine — by DeLaFontaine 5-8
The Jungle Book Series — by Rudyard Kipling
The Ugly Duckling — by Hans Christian Anderson
BIOGRAPHIES
Abe Lincoln Grows Up — by Carl Sandburg 11-16
Amos Fortune, Free Man — by Elizabeth Yates 10-13 — Newbery
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl 12- up
Buffalo Bill — by Ingri d’Aulaire 7-9
Chief Geronimo — by Edgar Wyatt 11-14
Daniel Boone — by James Daugherty 12—15 — Newbery 1940
Drake, the Man they called a Pirate — by Jean Lee Latham
Frederick Douglass, Slave-Fighter-Freeman — by Arna Bontemps 12-up
Freedom Train — The story of Harriet Tubman 10-12
Gandhi: Fighter without a Sword — by Jeannette Eaton 13-15
Invincible Louisa — by Cornelia Meigs 12-14 — Newberv 1934
Ivanhoe — by Walter Scott
Joan of Arc — by Nancy Wilson Ross 8-up
Little Britches — by Ralph Moody
Maria Tallchief — by Tobi Tobias 7-9
Peter the Great — by Nina Brown Baker 12-un
Sam Houston, Tallest Texan — by William Johnson 10-12
Snow Treasurer — by Marie McSigan
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — by Benjamin Franklin
The Life of George Washington — by Washington Irving (5 vol.)
The Little House on the Prairie Series — by Laura Ingalls Wilder 10-14
The Story of My Life — by Helen Keller
The Story of Johnny Appleseed — by John Chapman 7-8
The World of Marco Polo — by Walter Buehr
The von Trapp Family Singers — by Maria von Trapp
They Were Strong and Good — by Robert Lawson — Caldecott 1941
Winged Moccasins; The Story of Sacajawea — by F. J. Fransworth 12-15
FANTASY
Around the World in Eighty Days — by Jules Verne
Back of the North Wind — by George McDonald 9-12
Ben and Me — by Robert Lawson 11-14
Chitty Chitty-Bang-Bang — by Ian Fleming 10-11
Curious George — by Hans A. Rey 4-8
500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins — by Maurice Sendak
Many Moons — by James Thurber 7-10 — Caldecott 1944
Mr. Popper’s Penguin — by Florence & Richard Atwater 8-10
Mrs. Pickerell Goes to Mars — by Ellen MacGregor
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series — by Betty MacDonald
Rabbit Hill — by Robert Lawson 6-12 — Newbery 1945
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm — by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Rootabago Stories — by Carl Sandburg 8-12
The Cat Who Went to Heaven — by Elizabeth Coatsworth 10-14 — Newbery 1931
The Cricket in Times Square series — by George Seldon 9-12
The High King — by Lloyd Alexander 11-13 — Newbery 1969
The Little Lame Prince — by Dinah Medock Craik
The Little Prince — by Antoine de Saint Exupery 12-up
The Velveteen Rabbit — by Margery Williams Bianco 4-7
The Wonderbook and Tanglewood Tales — by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tuck Everlasting — by Natalie Babbett
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea — by Jules Verne 12-up
Winnie the Pooh — by A. A. Milne 8-10
HISTORICAL FICTION
Anne of Green Gables series — by L. M. Montgomery
Caddie Woodlawn — by Carol Ryrie Brink 10-14 — Newbery 1936
Carry on Mr. Bowditch — by Jean Lee Latham
Johnny Tremain — by Esther Forbes 10-14 — Newbery 1944
Moccasin Trail — by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Pocahontas and Her World — by Frances Carpenter 7-10
Pollyanna — by Eleanor H. Porter
Rifles for Watie — by Harold Keith — Newbery 1958
Roller Skates — by Ruth Sawyer — Newbery 1937
Sarah, Plain and Tall — by Patricia MacLachlan — Newbery 1985
Strawberry Girl — by Lois Lenski 9-12 — Newbery 1946
The Bronze Bow — by Elizabeth Speare 12-up — Newbery 1962
The Courage of Sarah Noble — by Alice Balgliesh 8-9
The Door in the Wall — by Marguerite de Angeli 8-11 — Newbery 1950
The Last of the Mohicans — by James Fenimore Cooper
The Matchlock Gun — by Walter D. Edmonds 10-12 –Newbery 1942
The Red Badge of Courage — by Stephen Crane 14-up
The Trumpeter of Krakow — by Eric P. Kelly 12-up — Newbery 1929
MODERN FICTION
A Bear Called Paddington — by Michael Bond 8—10
A Wrinkle in Time — by Madeleine L’Engle 11-14 — Newbery 1963
Charlotte’s Web — by E. B. White 8-10
Dr. Dolittle: A treasury — by Hugh Lofting
Homer Price — by Robert McCloskey 7-12
Jungle Book — by Rudyard Kipling 9-13
Just So Stories — by Rudyard Kipling 8-12
Mary Poppins series — by Pamela Travers 8-12
Old Mother West Wind — by Thornton W. Burgess 8 and under
Peter Pan — by Sir James Barrie 9—12
Pippi Longstocking — by Astrid Lindgren 9-12
Rabbit Hill — by Robert Lawson 9—12
The Adventures of Pinocchio — by Carlo Collodi 9—12
The Five Chinese Brothers — by Claire Huchet Bishop 5-10
The Narnia series — by C.S. Lewis 8—12
Twenty-One Balloons — by William Pene du Bois 10-12 — Newbery 1948
Wind in the Willows — by Kenneth Grahame 10-12
REALISTIC FICTION
A Certain Small Shepherd — by Rebecca Caudill 9-11
Amahl and the Night Visitors — by Gina-Carlo Menotti
…And Now Miguel — by Joseph Krumgold 13-17 — Newbery 1954
Call it Courage — by Armstrong Sperry 10-13 — Newbery 1941
Hans Brinker, and the Silver Skates — by Mary Maples Dodge 10-12
Heidi — by Johanna Spyri 9-12
Laddi — by Jean Stratton Porter
Little Lord Fauntleroy — by Frances Hodgsen Burnett
Little Women — by Louisa May Alcott 10-15
Miracles on Maple Hill — by Virginia Sorenson 10-12 — Newbery 1957
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm — by Kate Douglas Wiggin
Roller Skates — by Ruth Sawyer 12-13 — Newbery 1937
The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew — by Harriet Mulford Lothrop
The Moffats — by Eleanor Estes 10-14
The Secret Garden — by Frances Hodgson Burnett 9-11
The Silver Sword — by Ian Serrailhier
Up a Road Slowly — by Irene Hunt 11-14 — Newbery 1967
SHORT STORIES
Christmas Carol — by Charles Dickens
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court — by Mark Twain
Hiawatha — by Longfellow
Rip Van Winkle — by Washington Irving
The Gift of the Magi — by O. Henry
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — by Washington Irving
The Night Before Christmas — by Clement Clark Moore 4-7
The Other Wiseman — by Henry Van Dyke
The Ransom of Red Chief — by O. Henry
The Selfish Giant — by Oscar Wilde 9-11'
POETRY
A Child’s Garden of Verses — by Robert Louis Stevenson 5-9
Complete Poems of Robert Frost — by Robert Frost 11-up
Famous Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Frog Went A-Courtin — by John Langstaff 4-6 — Caldecott 1956
Poems of Childhood — by Eugene Field 8-12
Poems of Emily Dickinson — by Emily Dickinson 11-up
Poems of William Shakespeare — by William Shakespeare
Poems of Tennyson — by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Rhymes and Verses — by Walter De La Mare 5-up
Sing-Song — by Christina Rossetti 4-10
Tales of Shakespeare — by Charles and Mary Lamb
The Cruise of the Aardvark — by Ogden Nash 7-9
The Pied Piper of Hamelin — by Robert Browning
The Portable Emerson — by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Sandburg Treasury — by Carl Sandburg 10-14
The World of Christopher Robin — by Alan A. Milne 8-10
Under the Willow — by Kate Greenway 4-7
101 Famous Poems — by Roy J. Cook
TALL TALES
Davy Crockett — by Irwin Shapiro 10-14
Gullivers Travels — by Johnathan Swift
Paul Bunyan — by Esther Shephard 10-14
Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Times — by James Lloyd Bowman 9-12
The Peterkin Papers — by Lucretia Hale 10-up