Top 100 Novels for Children and Teens

First posted 2/19/2019; updated 6/29/2020.

Novels for Children and Teens: The Top 100 of All Time

This is a consolidation of two previous lists: “The Top 50 Children’s Novels” and “The Top 50 Young Adult Books.” It aggregates a dozen lists specific to young adult books, more than 25 general children’s book lists, and another 50+ general book lists. J.K. Rowling Harry Potter (series, 1997-2007) E.B. White Charlotte’s Web (1952) C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia (series: 1950-1956) J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit (1937) Madeleine L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time (1962) Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) Lois Lowry The Giver (1994) Katherine Paterson The Bridge to Terabithia (1977) A.A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) / The House at Pooh Corner (1928) Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games (trilogy: 2008-10) Louis Sachar Holes (2000) Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) (1943) S.E. Hinton The Outsiders (1968) Philip Pullman His Dark Materials (trilogy: 1995-2000) Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden (1987) L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables (1908) Norton Juster The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) E.L. Konigsburg From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) Lois Lowry Number the Stars (1990) Elizabeth George Speare The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1959) Gary Paulsen Hatchet (1987) Astrid Lingren Pippi Longstocking (1945) Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket A Series of Unforunate Events (series: 1999-2006) Louisa May Alcott Little Women (1869) Roald Dahl Matilda (1988) Mildred D. Taylor Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1977) Louise Fitzhugh Harriet the Spy (1964) Judy Blume Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (1972) Natalie Babbit Tuck Everlasting (1975) Markus Zusak The Book Thief (2005) Scott O’Dell Island of the Blue Dolphins (1961) John Green Looking for Alaska (2005) Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House (series: 1932-1971) Frank L. Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) Kate DiCamillo Because of Winn-Dixie (2000) Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) Robert C. O’Brien Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1970) William Grahame The Wind in the Willows (1908) J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings (trilogy: 1954-55) William Golding Lord of the Flies (1954) J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye (1951) E.B. White Stuart Little (1945) Wilson Rawls Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons (1994) Ursula K. Le Guin The Earthsea Cycle (series: 1968-2001) Sherman Alexie The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach (1988) Rick Riordan Percy Jackson & the Olympians (series: 2005-2009) Ellen Raskin The Westing Game (1978) Esther Forbes Johnny Tremain (1943) Beverly Cleary Ramona (series: 1955-1999) Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book (2010) Jack London The Call of the Wild (1903) Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) Stephen Chbosky The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) John Green The Fault in Our Stars (2012) Kate DiCamillo The Tale of Despereaux (2003) Orscon Scott Card Ender’s Game (1968) Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl (aka The Diary of Anne Frank) (1947) Patricia MacLachlan Sarah, Plain and Tall (1985) Richard Adams Watership Down (1972) Jerry Spinelli Maniac Magee (1990) Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island (1883) Michael Bond A Bear Called Paddington (1960) Anna Sewell Black Beauty (1877) Mary Norton The Borrowers (1953) William H. Armstrong Sounder (1970) Pam Munoz Ryan Esperanza Rising (2000) J.M. Barrie Peter Pan (aka Peter and Wendy) (1911) Roald Dahl The BFG (1982) Meg Rosoff How I Live Now (2004) Judy Blume Forever… (1975) R.J. Palacio Wonder (2012) Judy Blume Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972) Diane Wynne Jones Howl’s Moving Castle (1986) Laurie Anderson Speak (2011) Lynne Reid Banks The Indian in the Cupboard (series: 1980-1998) Christopher Paolini Inheritance (series: 2003-2011) Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book (1894) Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) William Goldman The Princess Bride (1973) Richard Atwater Mr. Popper’s Penguins (1938) Jean Craighead George Julie of the Wolves (1972) Gene Luen Yang American Born Chinese (2006) Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) Johanna Spyri Heidi (aka Heidi’s Years of Wandering and Learning) (Heidis Lehr - und Wnaderjahre) (1880) T.H. White The Sword in the Stone (1938) P.L. Travers Mary Poppins (1934) Jeff Kinney Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series: 2007-) Sheila Burnford The Incredible Journey (1984) Shaun Tan The Arrival (2006) Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813) Parick Ness A Monster Calls (2011) Veronica Roth Divergent (series: 2011-2013) Janette Sebring Lowrey The Poky Little Puppy (1942) Christopher Paul Curtis Bud Not Buddy (2000) anonymous Go Ask Alice (1976) Resources and Related Links: young adult book lists general children’s book lists general book lists top children’s picture books

Children’s Novels: Top 50

First posted 2/19/2019.

This list has been moved. It has been consolidated with the list of top young adult novels to create a new list, "The Top 100 Novels for Children and Teens."

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J.K. Rowling Harry Potter novels released as a box set

First posted 6/24/2020.

Harry Potter Series J.K. Rowling

First Publication: July 1, 2009 (box set of all seven) Category: youth fantasy novel Sales: 500 million (all 7 books)

Accolades for the Entire Sieres (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Books: “J.K. Rowling is the author of the record-breaking, multi-award-winning Harry Potter novels. Loved by fans around the world, the series has sold over 500 million copies, been translated into over 80 languages, and made into eight blockbuster films.” AZ Harry is an orphan who “learns he is a wizard on his 11th birthday when Hagrid escorts him to magic-teaching Hogwarts School. As a baby, his mother’s love protected him and vanquished the villain Voldemort.” GR The series then follows Harry and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley as students at Hogwarts and “Harry’s struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people).” WK The books in the series are: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) (1997) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007) Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon GR Good Reads WK Wikipedia

BBC’s “The Big Read”: Top 100

Posted April 2003; updated 2/16/2019.

image from readandsurvive.com

In April 2003 the BBC asked for nominations for the nation’s best-loved novels. The results of “The Big Read” were originally posted here, but are also listed here.

1. J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings (trilogy: 1954-1955)
2. Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813)
3. Philip Pullman His Dark Materials (trilogy: 1995-2000)
4. Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
5. J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
6. Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
7. A.A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)
8. George Orwell 1984 (1949)
9. C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1970)
10. Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre (1847)

11. Joseph Heller Catch-22 (1961)
12. Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights (1847)
13. Sebastian Faulk Birdsong (1993)
14. Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca (1938)
15. J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
16. William Grahame The Wind in the Willows (1908)
17. Charles Dickens Great Expectations (1861)
18. Louisa May Alcott Little Women (1869)
19. Louis DeBernieres Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1994)
20. Leo Tolstoy War and Peace (1869)

21. Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind (1936)
22. J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) (1999)
23. J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
24. J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
25. J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit (1937)
26. Thomas Hardy Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)
27. George Eliot Middlemarch, a Study of Provincial Life (1872)
28. John Irving A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)
29. John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
30. Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

31. Jacqueline Wilson The Story of Tracy Beaker (1991)
32. Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
33. Ken Follet The Pillars of the Earth (1989)
34. Charles Dickens David Copperfield (1850)
35. Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
36. Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island (1883)
37. Nevil Shute A Town Like Alice (1950)
38. Jane Austen Persuasion (1818)
39. Frank Herbert Dune (1965)
40. Jane Austen Emma (1816)

41. L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables (1908)
42. Richard Adams Watership Down (1972)
43. F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby (1925)
44. Alexandre Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
45. Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited (1945)
46. George Orwell Animal Farm (1954)
47. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol (1843)
48. Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
49. Michelle Magorian Goodnight Mister Tom (1981)
50. Rosamunde Pitcher The Shell Seekers (1987)

51. Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden (1987)
52. John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men (1937)
53. Stephen King The Stand (1978)
54. Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina (1877)
55. Vikram Seth A Suitable Boy (1993)
56. Roald Dahl The BFG (1982)
57. Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons (1930)
58. Anna Sewell Black Beauty (1877)
59. Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl (series: 2001-2012)
60. Fyodor Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment (1866)

61. Malorie Blackman Naughts and Crosses (2001)
62. Arthur Golden Memoirs of a Geisha (1997)
63. Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
64. Colleen McCullough The Thorn Birds (1977)
65. Terry Pratchett Mort (1987)
66. Enid Blyton The Magic Faraway Tree (1943)
67. John Fowles The Magus (1965)
68. Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman Good Omens (1990)
69. Terry Pratchett Guards! Guards! (1989)
70. William Golding Lord of the Flies (1954)

71. Patrick Süskind Perfume (1985)
72. Robert Tressell The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914)
73. Terry Pratchett Night Watch (2002)
74. Roald Dahl Matilda (1988)
75. Helen Fielding Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996)
76. Donna Tartt The Secret History (1992)
77. Wilkie Collins The Woman in White (1860)
78. James Joyce Ulysses (1922)
79. Charles Dickens Bleak House (1853)
80. Jacqueline Wilson Double Act (1995)

81. Roald Dahl The Twits (1980)
82. Dodie Smith I Capture the Castle (1948)
83. Louis Sachar Holes (1999)
84. Mervyn Peake Gormenghast (series: 1946-1956)
85. Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things (1997)
86. Jacqueline Wilson Vicky Angel (200)
87. Aldous Huxley Brave New World (1932)
88. Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm (1932)
89. Raymond E. Feist Magician (1982)
90. Jack Kerouac On the Road (1957)

91. Mario Puzo The Godfather (1969)
92. Jean M. Auel The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980)
93. Terry Pratchett The Colour of Magic (1983)
94. Paulo Coelho O Alquimista (The Alchemist) (1987)
95. Anya Seton Katherine (1954)
96. Jeffrey Archer Kane and Abel (1979)
97. Gabriel García Márquez Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)
98. Jacqueline Wilson Girls in Love (1997)
99. Meg Cabot The Princess Diaries (2000)
100. Salman Rushdie Midnight’s Children (1981)

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