American Reading List: Children's Literature

image from here

A few years ago, I presented an American Reading List (ARL) in several parts (due to its size). I realized today that I did not adequately cover children's literature. I amend that error here, and moved titles from those earlier lists (literature, history and everything else) as needed.

Most of the ~60 titles below were taken from the 2012 "Top 100 chapter books" poll frequently cited as representative of the opinions of educators. Expect this list to evolve.

Louisa May Alcott         Little Women

Lloyd Alexander             The Book of Three

Tom Angleberger           The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Avi                                  The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Natalie Babbitt                Tuck Everlasting

Lynne Reid Banks         The Indian in the Cupboard

L. Frank Baum                The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Jeanne Birdsall                The Penderwicks

Judy Blume                     Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Meg Cabot                 The Princess Diaries

Beverly Cleary                Ramona and her Father

Andrew Clements           Frindle

Sharon Creech                Walk Two Moons

Christopher Paul Curtis  Bud, Not Buddy

Kate DiCamillo             Because of Winn-Dixie

Edward Eager                 Half Magic

Elizabeth Enright           Gone-Away Lake

Louise Fitzhugh             Harriet the Spy

Esther Forbes                 Johnny Tremain

Sid Fleischman         The Whipping Boy

Ruth Stiles Gannett        My Father's Dragon

Jean Craighead George    My Side of the Mountain

Fred Gipson                 Old Yeller

Norton Juster                 The Phantom Tollbooth

Jeff Kinney                 Diary of a Wimpy Kid

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

Jane Langton                 The Diamond in the Window

Madeliene L'Engle         A Wrinkle in Time

Gail Carson Levine        Ella Enchanted

Grace Lin                        Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Maud Hart Lovelace       Betsy-Tacy

Lois Lowry                 The Giver

Lois Lowry                 Number the Stars  

Robert C. O'Brien          Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Scott O'Dell                 The Island of the Blue Dolphin

R.J. Palacio                    Wonder

Katherine Paterson         Bridge to Terabithia

Gary Paulsen                  Hatchet

Richard Peck                  A Long Way from Chicago

William Pene du Bois    The Twenty-One Balloons

Sara Pennypacker         Clementine

Dav Pilkey                 The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Ellen Raskin                 The Westing Game      

Wilson Rawls                 Where the Red Fern Grows

Barbara Robinson           The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Louis Sachar                 Holes

Gary D. Schmidt            The Wednesday Wars

George Selden                The Cricket in Times Square

Brian Selznick                The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Lemony Snicket             The Bad Beginning

Zilpha Keatley Snyder    The Egypt Game

Elizabeth George Speare    The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Jerry Spinelli                   Maniac Magee

Rebecca Stead                When You Reach Me

R. L. Stine                 Goosebumps

Mildred Taylor                Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Sydney Taylor                All-of-a-Kind Family

Megan Whalen Turner    The Thief

Wendelin Van Draanen    Flipped

Gertrude Chandler Warner    The Boxcar Children

E. B. White                 Charlotte's Web

Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie

Deborah Wiles                Each Little Bird That Sings