Over at School Library Journal, Betsy Bird blogs about books in Fuse#8 productions. According to her profile on SLJ, "Elizabeth Bird is currently a children's librarian at the Children's Center at 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of NYPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name." Her blog is one of my favorites.
Since February, she's been gradually revealing the results of a poll in which I happily participated, along with many other booksellers and librarians. That was a tremendous amount of work, and I want to thank her for her amazing efforts. Counting down from 100, she's just finished announcing #1 which was my pick for #1. Yay!).
Here are the top ten:
1. Charlotte's Web
2. A Wrinkle in Time
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (original title, of course)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
6. Holes
7. The Giver
8. The Secret Garden
9. Anne of Green Gables
10. The Phantom Tollbooth
If you want to see a straightforward list of all 100 titles, click on over to Six Boxes of Books, where Wendy, Laurie and Kathleen have diligently added them as they've been announced (extremely helpful; thanks, Laurie).
If you want to read longer, more detailed descriptions of each book and why it was chosen, and see all of the various covers for each title over the years, go to Fuse #8. Her April 1st post almost gave us all heart attacks. Before she changed it to Secret Garden, she had listed... The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. AAGGHH!
Here were MY top ten:
1. CHARLOTTE'S WEB
2. THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH
3. HOLES
4. FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS BASIL E. FRANKWEILER
5. THE SECRET GARDEN
6. THE DARK IS RISING
7. SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL
8. JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
9. HARRIET THE SPY
10. MANIAC MAGEE
I'd love to hear from readers. What would YOUR top ten kids' books be?
TUCK EVERLASTING wasn't in the top ten?! Blasphemous! lol
ReplyDeleteMy top picks (in no particular order):
1. Tuck Everlasting
2. A Wrinkle In Time
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
5. Peter Pan
6. The Giver
7. Island of the Blue Dolphins
8. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
9. Where the Red Fern Grows
10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
There's no way I could come up with a list of just ten. As it were, Sarah Dessen would fill up a number of those spots. Plus I'd have to make a MG list and a YA list. I was just amazed I've read 35 from the 100 and five from yours (six from KM's). :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not even going to pretend I will make a list... and I'd probably start an uproar if I did, because I was never too obsessed with the classics of children's literature. Besides The Giver. Can't get enough of that one! But I loved seeing yours, and thanks for the top 100 links!
ReplyDeleteThanks, all.
ReplyDeleteKM, I love Tuck Everlasting too. But it was REALLY hard to come up with only 10 books. Oh, and yes to Prisoner of Azkaban being better than the first Harry Potter book.
Stina, this was supposed to be just MG. We weren't supposed to include any YA in our submitted lists (interestingly, here in the bookstore, we shelve The Giver and Golden Compass, etc in YA). I'd wager that Betsy will do a YA list next (she already did picture books last year).
Ha ha, Donna. Well, at least you'd put The Giver in the top ten. I didn't, and I love the book! What's interesting to me is how many of the top ten are classics of kidlit and have been around for many years. I was obsessed with The Secret Garden and the Phantom Tollbooth as a child (and that was many moons ago...)