Top 100 List of the All Time Best Classic Literature for Children and Young Adults

 While it would be nearly impossible to list all the best books in classic literature for children and young adults, we have created a compilation based upon selections from our staff, reviewers and fans of Literary Classics.  Our list of top 100 books for children and young adults is sorted by recommended reading age.


Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown -  Age 2 and up


Love You Forever by Robert Munsch - Age 2 and up


On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman - Age 2 and up


The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle - Age 2 and up


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault - Age 3 and up


Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss - Age 3 and up


The Giving Tree by Shell Sliverstein - Age 3 and up


Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson Age 3 and up


The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper - Age 3 and up


Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney - Age 3 and up


Oh the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss - Age 3 and up


The Saggy Baggy Elephant by K. Jackson and B. Jackson - Age 3 and up


The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter - Age 3 and up


Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne - Age 3 and up


Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good ,Very Bad Day by  Judith Viorst - Age 4 and up


Curious George by H.A. Rey - Age 4 and up


George and Martha by James Marshall - Age 4 and up


Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr Seuss - Age 4 and up


If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff - Age 4 and up


The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn - Age 4 and up


Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes - Age 4 and up


The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell - Age 4 and up


Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth - Age 4 and up


The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen - Age 4 and up


The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams - Ages 4 and up


Matthew and the Sea Singer by Jill Paton Walsh - Age 5 and up


Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner - Age 5 and up


The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats - Age 5 and up


Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg - Age 6 and up


A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein - Age 6 and up


The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Age 7 and up


Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume - Age 7 and up


Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis - Age 8 and up


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl Age 8 and up


Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White - Age 8 and up


Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh - Age 8 and up


Holes by Louis Sachar - Age 8 and up


The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards - Age 8 and up


The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - Age 8 and up


My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George - Age 8 and up


The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White - Age 8 and up


Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls - Age 8 and up


A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle - Age 8 and up


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - Age 9 and up


Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - Age 9 and up


Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis - Age 9 and up


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling - Age 9 and up


Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell - Age 9 and up


The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Age 9 and up


Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - Age 9 and up


Watership Down by Richard Adams-  Age 9 and up


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - Age 10 and up


The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - Age 10 and up


Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Age 10 and up


Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt - Age 10 and up


The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank - Age 12 and up


Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - Age 12 and up


The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - Age 12 and up


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Age 12 and up


The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - Ae 12 and up


The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - Young Adult


Emma by Jane Austen - Young Adult


Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Young Adult


The Giver by Lois Lowry - Young Adult


Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - Young Adult


Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Young Adult


Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - Young Adult


To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Young Adult


The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - Young Adult


A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - Young Adult


Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - Young Adult

This top 100 list of best books for children and young adults has been created as a reading guide to help parents and young readers gain exposure to some of the most highly respected works of literature of all time.
(Feel as though our list is lacking?  Let us know. We'd love to hear your comments.)  


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