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.

Andrew Clements           Frindle

Avi                                  The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Barbara Robinson           The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Beverly Cleary                Ramona and her Father

Brian Selznick                The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Christopher Paul Curtis  Bud, Not Buddy

Dav Pilkey                 The Adventures of Captain Underpants

Deborah Wiles                Each Little Bird That Sings

E. B. White                 Charlotte's Web

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

Edward Eager                 Half Magic

Elizabeth Enright           Gone-Away Lake

Elizabeth George Speare    The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Ellen Raskin                 The Westing Game         

Esther Forbes                 Johnny Tremain

Fred Gipson                 Old Yeller

Gail Carson Levine        Ella Enchanted

Gary D. Schmidt            The Wednesday Wars

Gary Paulsen                  Hatchet

George Selden                The Cricket in Times Square

Gertrude Chandler Warner    The Boxcar Children

Grace Lin                        Where the Mountain Metes the Moon

Jane Langton                 The Diamond in the Window

Jean Craighead George    My Side of the Mountain

Jeanne Birdsall                The Penderwicks

Jeff Kinney                 Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jerry Spinelli                   Maniac Magee

Judy Blume                     Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Kate DiCamillo             Because of Winn-Dixie

Katherine Paterson         Bridge to Terabithia

L. Frank Baum                The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie

Lemony Snicket             The Bad Beginning

Lloyd Alexander             The Book of Three

Lois Lowry                 The Giver

Lois Lowry                 Number the Stars

Louis Sachar                 Holes

Louisa May Alcott         Little Women

Louise Fitzhugh             Harriet the Spy

Lynne Reid Banks         The Indian in the Cupboard

Madeliene L'Engle         A Wrinkle in Time

Maud Hart Lovelace       Betsy-Tacy

Meg Cabot                 The Princess Diaries

Megan Whalen Turner    The Thief

Mildred Taylor                Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Natalie Babbitt                Tuck Everlasting

Norton Juster                 The Phantom Tollbooth

R.J. Palacio                    Wonder

R. L. Stine                 Goosebumps

Rebecca Stead                When You Reach Me

Richard Peck                  A Long Way from Chicago

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

Ruth Stiles Gannett        My Father's Dragon

Sara Pennypacker         Clementine

Scott O'Dell                 The Island of the Blue Dolphin

Sharon Creech                Walk Two Moons

Sid Fleischman         The Whipping Boy

Sydney Taylor                All-of-a-Kind Family

Tom Angleberger           The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Wendelin Van Draanen    Flipped

William Pene du Bois    The Twenty-One Balloons

Wilson Rawls                 Where the Red Fern Grows

Zilpha Keatley Snyder    The Egypt Game