100 Books for Kids

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

I have a friend, father of three, who has recently posted a list of classic books for kids. That list was originally in Russian, so, with his permission, I translated it, added links and here it is — a small library for kids.

1. Chronicles Of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
2. The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
4. Jingo: Discworld: The City Watch Collection by Terry Pratchett
5. The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
6. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
7. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
9. Dandelion Wine / We’ll Always Have Paris / Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury
10. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
11. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
12. Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
13. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
14. Hitchhiker series by Douglas Adams
15. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
16. The Stainless Steel Rat Omnibus by Harry Harrison
17. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
18. Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
19. Dune by Frank Herbert
20. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
21. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
22. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
23. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
24. Solaris by Stanisław Lem
25. The Solar Queen by Andre Norton
26. In Search of the Castaways by Jules Verne
27. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
28. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
29. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
30. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
31. The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid
32. The Boy Tar by Thomas Mayne Reid
33. Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini
34. White Fang by Jack London
35. Love of Life by Jack London
36. 100 Selected Stories by O. Henry
37. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
38. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
39. Ivanhoe by Walter Alva Scott
40. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
41. The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea by James Fenimore Cooper
42. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
43. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
44. Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
45. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
46. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
47. The Best Of Poirot by Agatha Christie’s
48. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
49. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
50. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
51. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
52. Karlsson on the Roof by Astrid Lindgren
53. The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
54. The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson
55. Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie
56. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf
57. The Captain’s Daughter by Alexander Pushkin
58. Childhood by Leo Tolstoy
59. The Heart Of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
60. Kashtanka by Anton Chekhov
61. Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin
62. The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov
63. King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak
64. The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
65. Firestarter by Stephen King 16+
66. Joyland by Stephen King 16+
67. I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
68. The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson
69. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
70. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 16+
71. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 16+
72. Three Comrades by Erich Maria Remarque 16+
73. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
74. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
75. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
76. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
77. Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
78. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
79. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
80. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
81. Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot by Robert Arthur Jr., Mary Virginia Carey
82. Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr
83. The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev
84. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
85. The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
86. Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
87. Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
88. Toby Alone by Timothée de Fombelle
89. A Rabbit’s Eyes by Kenjiro Haitani
90. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
91. Pax by Sara Pennypacker
92. Herman by Lars Saabye Christensen

Also, while I’ve been searching all these books on Amazon I found a BookTrust — the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. Here is their book collection sorted by age and genre:

BookTrust picks, ages 3–5

• Animals
• Adventure and Fantasy
• Humour
• Family and Friendship
• Non-Fiction and Activities

BookTrust picks, ages 6–8

• Adventure and Fantasy
• Humour
• Family and Friendship
• Non-Fiction and Activities

BookTrust picks, ages 9–12

• Humour
• Adventure and Fantasy
• Family and Friendship
• Non-Fiction and Activities

If you haven’t found your favourite children book — add a comment and I’ll add it to the list.