Top 100 Children’s Books on Goodreads

Recently Goodreads released a list of the Top 100 Children’s Books on Goodreads.  They had a few stipulations: the rating had to be over 4.0 (which is a high bar and ruled out quite a few good books), and it had to be a chapter book or middle grade book.  So I believe easy reader chapter books were excluded, but graphic novels were included.

I looked through the list and have read about 40, which was a little bit disappointing considering all the chapter books I’ve read to my children over the years.  I thought I might be around 50, but that’s okay.  I had 16 of the books already marked on my “To Read List.”  So I should probably focus on those 16 over the next year.

  1. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
  2. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
  3. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
  4. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
  5. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
  6. The Complete Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
  7. The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine
  8. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  9. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  10. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  11. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
  12. So B. It by Sarah Weeks
  13. The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
  14. Watership Down by Richard Adams
  15. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
  16. The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Some of my favorite books on this list are:

  1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
  2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
  3. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
  4. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
  5. Matilda  by Roald Dahl
  6. The Giver by Lois Lowry
  7. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
  8. The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
  9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  10. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
  11. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
  12. Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
  13. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
  14. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

If you haven’t read any of these 14 books, you should definitely move them to the top of your list.  (Apparently if you use initials you’ll end up with good books – 5 of these authors just use initials for their first name!)

A few books that I’m really surprised didn’t make it:

  1. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
  2. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
  3. Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
  4. Ramona or Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
  5. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
  6. Holes by Louis Sachar

What books would you want to add or take off this list?  Which ones are your favorites?