Children's Classics

A Booklist for Parents

Compiled by Mary M. Burns, reviewer for the Horn Book Magazine. The Horn Book Magazine celebrates notable achievements in the writing and illustrating of books for children.

For the Very Young | Picture Books | For Beginning Readers | Stories

Ancient Days through 18th Century | 19th Century through 1920

Myths, Legends, and Folklore | Nonfiction

For the Very Young

	Wanda Gag. The ABC Bunny A bunny scampers through the alphabet.
	Ruth Krauss. The Carrot Seed Despite everyone's dire predictions, a little boy has faith in the carrot seed he plants.
	Donald Crews. Freight Train Traces the journey of a colorful train as it goes through tunnels, by cities, and over trestles.
	Margaret Wise Brown. Goodnight Moon Goodnight to each of the objects in the great green room: goodnight chairs, goodnight comb, goodnight air.
	Rosemary Wells. Max's First Word
	John Burningham. Mr. Gumpy's Outing Mr. Gumpy accepts more and more riders on his boat until the inevitable occurs.
	Pat Hutchins. Rosie's Walk Although unaware that a fox is after her as she takes a walk around the farmyard, Rosie the hen still manages to lead him into one accident after another.
	Raymond Briggs. The Snowman When his snowman comes to life, a little boy invites him home and in return is taken on a flight high above beautiful cities and strange lands.
	Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Follows the progress of a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way through a varied and very large quantity of food until, full at last, he forms a cocoon around himself and goes to sleep.

Picture Books

	Shirley Hughes. Alfie Gets in First Alfie accidentally locks his mother and baby sister Annie Rose outside and can't reach the latch to let them in. Soon the whole neighborhood is involved in getting the door open.
	James Daugherty. Andy and the Lion In this retelling of Androcles and the Lion, Andy meets a lion on the way to school and wins his friendship for life by removing a thorn from his paw.
	Mitsumasa Anno. Anno's Alphabet: An Adventure in Imagination Each letter of the alphabet accompanies a full-page picture puzzle of an object whose name begins with that letter: anvil, bicycle, etc.
	Esphyr Slobodkina. Caps for Sale A band of mischievous monkeys steals every one of a peddler's caps while he takes a nap under a tree.
	Don Freeman. Corduroy A toy bear in a department store wants a number of things, but when a little girl finally buys him he finds what he has always wanted most of all.
	Tomi Ungerer. Crictor Crictor is a boa-constrictor, helpful and affectionate. His mistress, an elderly village school-teacher, knits him a long, a very long, pullover. One night this quiet domesticity is shattered. A burglar breaks in. But Crictor's quick wit and gallantry save the day.
	H. A. Rey. Curious George The curiosity of a newly-captured monkey gets him into continual trouble.
	William Steig. Doctor DeSoto Dr. DeSoto, a mouse dentist, copes with the toothaches of various animals except those with a taste for mice, until the day a fox come to him in great pain.
	James Marshall. George and Martha Relates several episodes in the friendship of two hippopotamuses.
	Gene Zion. Harry, the Dirty Dog When a white dog with black spots runs away from home, he gets so dirty his family doesn't recognize him on his return as a black dog with white spots.
	Dr. Seuss. Horton Hatches the Egg When a lazy bird hatching an egg wants a vacation, she asks Horton, the elephant, to sit on her egg --which he does through all sorts of hazards until he is rewarded for doing what he said he would.
	Bernard Waber. Ira Sleeps Over A little boy is excited at the prospect of spending the night at his friend's house but worries how he'll get along without his teddy bear.
	Muriel Feelings. Jambo Means Hello: Swahili Alphabet Book Presents a word, with English translation, for each of the twenty-four letters in the Swahili alphabet. Brief explanation of each word introduces an East African custom.
	Virginia Lee Burton. The Little House A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her.
	Ludwig Bemelmans. Madeline Madeline, smallest and naughtiest of the twelve little charges of Miss Clavel, wakes up one night with an attack of appendicitis.
	Robert McCloskey. Make Way for Ducklings Mr. and Mrs. Mallard love their home in the Boston Public Garden, and once they get there, so do the Mallard's children.
	Wanda Gag. Millions of Cats How can an old man and his wife select one cat from a choice of millions and trillions?
	Chris Van Allsburg. The Polar Express A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus.
	Barbara Cooney. Miss Rumphius Great-aunt Alice Rumphius was once a little girl who loved the sea, longed to visit faraway places, and wished to do something to make the world more beautiful.
	Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day A young black boy spends an adventurous day in the city when it snows.
	Munro Leaf. The Story of Ferdinand Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers, but one day he gets stung by a bee and his snorting and stomping convince everyone that he is the fiercest of bulls.
	Beatrix Potter. The Tale of Peter Rabbit Peter disobeys his mother by going into Mr. McGregor's garden and almost gets caught.
	Jon Scieszka. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs The wolf gives his own outlandish version of what really happened when he tangled with the three little pigs.
	Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are A naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things where he becomes their king.

For Beginning Readers

Dr. Seuss. The Cat in the Hat

Two children sitting at home on a rainy day are visited by the Cat in the Hat who shows them some tricks and games.

Arnold Lobel. Frog and Toad Are Friends

Five tales recounting the adventures of two best friends - Frog and Toad.

Else Holmelund Minarik. Little Bear

Little Bear's four adventures include taking a trip to the moon and having a birthday party.

Stories

	Dick King-Smith. Babe: The Gallant Pig A piglet destined for eventual butchering arrives at the farmyard, is adopted by an old sheep dog, and discovers a special secret to success.
	Barbara Robinson. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever The six mean Herdman kids lie, steal, smoke cigars (even the girls) and then become involved in the community Christmas pageant.
	Lloyd Alexander. The Book of Three Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper to a famous oracular sow, sets out on a hazardous mission to save Prydain from the forces of evil.
	Mary Norton. The Borrowers Miniature people who live in an old country house by borrowing things from the humans are forced to emigrate from their home under the clock.
	Katherine Paterson. Bridge to Terabithia The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.
	E. B. White. Charlotte's Web Wilbur, the pig, is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte, decides to help him.
	Louise Fitzhugh. Harriet the Spy Eleven-year-old Harriet keeps notes on her classmates and neighbors in a secret notebook, but when some of the students read the notebook, they seek revenge.
	J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobbit: or, There and Back Again The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering wizard granted his wish.
	Sid Fleischman. Humbug Mountain A young boy and his wandering family foil villains and rout nasty varmints as they make a home for themselves in a beached boat on the banks of the Missouri.
	Eleanor Estes. The Hundred Dresses None of her classmates pay much attention to Wanda Petronski until she announces she has 100 dresses in her closet. Everyone laughs and teases her so much that she stops coming to school. Then, her classmates discover she really does have 100 dresses and discover something about teasing and themselves.
	Sheila Burnford. The Incredible Journey A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family.
	Scott O'Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
	Esther Forbes. Johnny Tremain Johnny Tremain, a silversmith's apprentice, takes part in the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
	C. S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.
	Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little House in the Big Woods A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father's stories and singing, and share special occasions when they get together with relatives or neighbors.
	James Thurber. Many Moons Though many try, only the court jester is able to fulfill Princess Lenore's wish for the moon.
	P. L. Travers. Mary Poppins An extraordinary English nanny blows in on the East Wind with her parrot-headed umbrella and magic carpetbag and introduces her charges, Jane and Michael, to some delightful people and experiences.
	Robert C. O'Brien. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long lived.
	Elizabeth Marie Pope. The Perilous Gard In 1558 while imprisoned at Elwenwood Hall, a remote castle in northern England, teenaged Kate Sutton finds herself involved in a series of mysterious events that eventually bring her to an underground labyrinth peopled by the last practitioners of druidic magic.
	Astrid Lindgren. Pippi Longstocking Escapades of a lucky little girl who lives with a horse and a monkey--but without any parents--at the edge of a Swedish village.
	Beverly Cleary. Ramona the Pest Ramona enters kindergarten and, in her own way, makes her presence known.
	Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry A black family living in Mississippi during the Depression of the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which its children do not understand.
	Patricia MacLachan. Sarah, Plain and Tall When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.
	Florence P. Heide. The Shrinking of Treehorn A boy discovers he is shrinking but does not know the cause or cure.
	T. H. White. The Sword and the Stone A retelling of the Arthurian legend.
	Natalie Babbitt. Tuck Everlasting The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing any older.
	A. A. Milne. Winnie-the-Pooh The adventures of Christopher Robin and his friends in which Pooh Bear uses a balloon to get honey, Piglet meets a Heffalump, and Eeyore has a birthday.
	Elizabeth G. Speare. The Witch of Blackbird Pond In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler, feeling out of place in the Puritan household of her aunt, befriends an old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly finds herself standing trial for witchcraft.
	Ursula LeGuin. A Wizard of Earthsea A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

Echoes of Times Past: Ancient Days through the 18th Century

	Rosemary Sutcliff, retold by. Black Ships before Troy: The Story of the Illiad Retells the story of the Trojan War, from the quarrel for the golden apple, and the flight of Helen with Paris, to the destruction of Troy.
	Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales The nun's priest's tale -- The pardoner's tale -- The wife of Bath's tale -- The franklin's tale. Adapted by Barbara Cohen.
	Colin Eisler, ed. David's Songs: His Psalms and Their Story A selection of psalms, retold, chosen because they reflect David's life and faith.
	Margaret Hodges, retold by. Gulliver in Lilliput On a voyage in the South Seas, an Englishman finds himself shipwrecked in Lilliput, a land of people only six inches high.
	Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe During one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island. Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.
	Margaret Hodges, adapted by. St. George and the Dragon Retells the segment from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, in which George, the Red Cross Knight, slays the dreadful dragon that has been terrorizing the countryside for years and brings peace and joy to the land.
	Geraldine McCaughrean, retold by. Stories from Shakespeare With striking, full-color pictures, an abundance of familiar quotations alongside the text, and a cast of characters for each play, these retellings of ten of Shakespeare's best-known plays display all the verve, excitement, and variety the Bard has to offer.

Echoes of Times Past: 19th Century through 1920

	Carlo Collodi. The Adventures of Pinocchio A wooden puppet full of tricks and mischief, with a talent for getting into and out of trouble, wants more than anything else to become a real boy.
	Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The adventures and pranks of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town on the early nineteenth century.
	Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters.
	Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.
	Jules Verne. Around the World in Eighty Days In 1872 Phileas Fogg wins a bet by traveling around the world in seventy-nine days, twenty-three hours, and fifty-seven minutes.
	Anna Sewell. Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters.
	Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.
	E. Nesbit. The Enchanted Castle Four English children find a wonderful world of magic through an enchanted wishing ring.
	Joanna Spyri. Heidi A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city.
	Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories Selected stories from Kipling's two "Jungle Books" chronicle the adventures of Mowgli, the boy reared by a pack of wolves in an Indian jungle. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
	Louisa May Alcott. Little Women Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England.
	James M. Barrie. Peter Pan The adventures of the three Darling children in Never-Never Land with Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up.
	Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Secret Garden Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.
	Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads to a pirate fortune as well as great danger.
	Erik Blegvad, translated by. Twelve Tales The steadfast tin soldier -- The princess on the pea -- The little match girl -- The shepherdess and the chimney sweep -- The emperor's new clothes -- The tinderbox -- The sweethearts -- The fir tree -- The pixie at the grocer's -- Twelve by coach -- What father does is always right -- The swineherd.
	Kenneth Grahame. The Wind in the Willows The escapades of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside -- Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger.
	L. Frank Baum. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz After a cyclone transports her to the land of Oz , Dorothy must seek out the great wizard in order to return to Kansas.

Myths, Legends, and Folklore

	Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. About Wise Men and Simpletons Translated by Elizabeth Shub.
	Fritz Kredel, illustrator. Aesop's Fables
	Kate Wiggin and Nora Smith, eds. The Arabian Nights Ten stories from the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, including the well-known ones of Aladdin and the lamp, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, and Sinbad the sailor.
	Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths A collection of Greek myths.
	Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire. D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants A collection of Norse myths describing the exploits of the gods and goddesses of the Aesir beginning with the creation and ending when the gods and giants destroyed each other in battle.
	Virginia Haviland, retold by. Favorite Fairy Tales Told around the World A compendium of stories from the author's previous books, with several tales from each of sixteen countries.
	Howard Pyle. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood The adventures of the outlaw Robin Hood and his merry men as they evade the King and overcome many a foe in Sherwood Forest.
	Judy Sierra, retold by. Nursery Tales around the World Presents eighteen simple stories from international folklore, grouped around six themes, such as "Runaway Cookies," "Slowpokes and Speedsters," and "Chain Tales."
	Virginia Hamilton. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales Retold Afro-American folktales of animals, fantasy, the supernatural, and desire for freedom, born of the sorrow of the slaves, but passed on in hope.
	Laurence Yep, retold by. The Rainbow People A collection of twenty Chinese folk tales that were passed on by word of mouth for generations, as told by some oldtimers newly settled in the United States.
	Julius Lester, retold by. Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales Brer Rabbit is causing trouble again for his fellow creatures Brer Fox, Brer Wolf, and the rest--this time in an omnibus edition that brings together all the stories from Tales of Uncle Remus, More Tales of Uncle Remus, Further Tales of Uncle Remus, and Last Tales of Uncle Remus.

Nonfiction

	Jean Fritz. And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? Describes some of the well-known as well as the lesser-known details of Paul Revere's life and exciting ride.
	Anne Frank. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describes both the joys and torments of daily life, as well as typical adolescent thoughts, throughout two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
	Ruud and Rian Verhoeven. Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary Photographs, illustrations, and maps accompany historical essays, diary excerpts, and interviews, providing an insight to Anne Frank and the massive upheaval which tore apart her world.
	David Macaulay. Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction This richly illustrated book shows the intricate step-by-step process of a cathedral's growth.
	Tomie dePaola. "Charlie Needs a Cloak" A shepherd shears his sheep, cards and spins the wool, weaves and dyes the cloth, and sews a beautiful new red cloak.
	Esther Hautzig.