Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Fizzy brain, so here's a list:

My list of the best children's literature, in no particular order.

A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy all by Frances Hodgsen Burnett
Anne of Green Gables (and most of the other books by L.M. Montgomery)
Little Women
Jane Eyre (what? you don't think of this as Kid's Lit.? She's nine when the book begins!)
The Borrowers
All the Harry Potter books
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
All-of-a-Kind-Family (the whole series)
Five Children and It
Half Magic
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Shoes Books by Noel Streatfeild (all of 'em. Heck, anything she wrote. Don't ask questions, just go to Amazon.co.uk and buy them all.
All of Paula Danziger's books - but my favorite is The Pistachio Prescription.
Nancy Drew (the earlier, the better)
Judy Blume, natch. But I think my favorite is Then Again, Maybe I Won't.
All of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Indian Captive and Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Everything ever written by E.L. Konigsberg.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - and the rest of the series.
Heidi
S.E. Hinton's stuff.
The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, and Beauty all by Robin McKinley
Eva, and King and Joker by Peter Dickinson (he's married to Robin McKinley)
Dragonsinger, Dragonsong & Dragondrums by Anne McCaffery
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Diary of Anne Frank
4.50 From Paddington (also known as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!) by Agatha Christie
The Boggart
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck (his other books are good too!)
Happy Endings Are All Alike (older readers - contains some hard themes like rape).
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
The Windmill Summer


Younger Readers:
Maurice Sendak. Who needs to say more? Anything he writes or illustrates is worth reading.
Lyle, Lyle the Crocodile (the whole series)
When Ira Sleeps Over
Katy No-pocket
Olivia
Corduroy
Blueberries for Sal
One Morning in Maine
Make Way for Ducklings
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
The Snowy Day
Goodnight Moon
The Going to Bed Book
Peter's Chair
Many Moons
If you can find them, One Eighth of a Muffin and Apple Pigs are excellent.
Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.
Anything Dr. Seuss.

Well, that's it for tonight. I know I left some fantastic ones out. I'll worry about it later.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have read all of these. Excellent list! I can't pick just one favorite. I loved introducing them to my children.

allison said...

At least half of your first list are my favourites too. I really have to go find All-of-a-Kind-Family and read them! And I first read Jane Eyre at age 12!

I recommend, in addition to your most excellent list:

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
A Dog on Barkham Street
and The Bully of Barkham Street {same story, different perspectives} by Mary Stolz
Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
and all of the Edward Eager books, not just Half Magic!

allison said...

Oh! I totally forgot Harold and the Purple Crayon!!

Liz Miller said...

I KNEW I left stuff off.

I didn't read Daddy Long Legs until the Christmas of my senior year in High School...

I didn't know she wrote another book. Amazon wish list, here I come.

Yankee, Transferred said...

OOOH, what a list. A list even the mother of an (soon to be) 18-year old would love.

Anonymous said...

Lloyd Alexander, baby!

Liz Miller said...

(head smack) Of course! How could I have forgotten him (Taran Wanderer was my favorite of his)

I also left out L. Frank Baum (if you haven't read his non-Oz books, please do so right now!)

And E.B. White.

Liz Miller said...

And A Wrinkle in Time!

Anonymous said...

Great list. I would add (reminded by your previous post) Go Dog, Go to the little kids' list.

Anonymous said...

Which non-Oz books besides Queen Zixi of Ix? That's the only one we have (and that I read as a kid).

SM said...

Hey! this is handy. Thank you. And that picture (below) of your son is adorable. Oh, and not sure if you left out tolkien hobbit and trilogy intentionally but i first read it somewhere between ages of 10 adn 12 I think and then again every year after....

Suburban Turmoil said...

I love your book lists, particularly this one since I think I read every children's book in existence.

Did you read any Zilpha Keatley Snyder? She was my favorite author. The Egypt Game and a bunch of other books.

Also The House with a Clock in Its Walls- Forgot the author. Deliciously creepy and well-written and Edward Gorey did the illustrations.

Also, ROALD DAHL! Hello?!

;)

Suburban Turmoil said...

Oh and From the Mixed Up Files of I always forget her name.

Heather said...

I second (third, fourth?) that this is a great list. I whole-heartedly agree...

And respectfully add:
To the pre-teen list "You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye" by Patricia Hermes. I had to track this down and buy it a few months ago from a used book dealer as it's out of print. I've remembered the book since I read it as a pre-teen and it still made me cry as an adult.

To the little kids list:
Anything by Debi Gliori, particularly "Tickly Under there" and "Can I Have a Hug?" Also anything by Sandra Boynton, in our family, particularly "Moo, Baa, La, La, La."

Great list.