Anita Silvey's '100 Best Books For Children'
Anita Silvey, formerly editor of the Horn Book and publisher of Houghton Mifflin, shares her favorites in 100 Best Books for Children. Following are her 100 picks:
Board Books: Birth to Age 2
- Goodnight, Moon / Margaret Wise Brown
- Mr. Gumpy's Outing / John Burningham
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar / Eric Carle
- Freight Train / Donald Crews
- The Carrot Seed / Ruth Krauss
Picture Books: Ages 2 to 8
- Miss Nelson Is Missing / Harry Allard
- Madeline / Ludwig Bemelmans
- The Snowman / Raymond Briggs
- Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel / Virginia Lee Burton
- Millions of Cats / Wanda Gág
- Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse / Kevin Henkes
- Swamp Angel / Anne Isaacs
- The Snowy Day / Jack Ezra Keats
- Leo the Late Bloomer / Robert Kraus
- The Story of Ferdinand / Munro Leaf
- John Henry / Julius Lester
- Swimmy / Leo Leonni
- Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom / Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
- Snowflake Bentley / Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- Make Way for Ducklings / Robert McCloskey
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit / Beatrix Potter
- Officer Buckle and Gloria / Peggy Rathmann
- Curious George / H. A. Rey
- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs / Jon Scieszka
- Where the Wild Things Are / Maurice Sendak
- Caps for Sale / Esphyr Slobodkina
- Doctor DeSoto / William Steig
- The Polar Express / Chris Van Allsburg
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day / Judith Viorst
- Tuesday / David Wiesner
- A Chair for My Mother / Vera B. Williams
- Seven Blind Mice / Ed Young
- Harry the Dirty Dog / Gene Zion
Books for Beginning Readers: Ages 5 to 7
- Frog and Toad are Friends / Arnold Lobel
- Little Bear / Else Holmelund Minarik
- Henry and Mudge / Cynthia Rylant
- The Cat in the Hat / Dr. Seuss
Books for Young Readers: Ages 7 to 9
- Ramona the Pest / Beverly Cleary
- Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes / Eleanor Coerr
- Morning Girl / Michael Dorris
- The Hundred Dresses / Eleanor Estes
- My Father's Dragon / Ruth Stiles Gannett
- Stone Fox / John Reynolds Gardniner
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs / The Brothers Grimm
- Misty of Chincoteague / Marguerite Henry
- Babe: the Gallant Pig / Dick King-Smith
- Betsy-Tacy / Maud Hart Lovelace
- Sarah, Plain and Tall / Patricia MacLachlan
- The New Kid On The Block / Jack Prelutsky
- Grandfather's Journey / Allen Say
- Little House In The Big Woods / Laura Ingalls Wilder
Books for Middle Readers: Ages 8 to 11
- The Secret Garden / Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Incredible Journey / Sheila Burnford
- The Dark Is Rising / Susan Cooper
- The BFG / Roald Dahl
- Because of Winn-Dixie / Kate DiCamillo
- Half Magic / Edward Eager
- Harriet the Spy / Louse Fitzhugh
- Humbug Mountain / Sid Fleischman
- Lincoln: A Photobiography / Russell Freedman
- Julie of the Wolves / Jean Craighead George
- The Wind In the Willows / Kenneth Grahame
- The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales / Virginia Hamilton
- Redwall / Brian Jacques
- The Phantom Tollbooth / Norton Juster
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler / E. L. Konigsburg
- Rabbit Hill / Robert Lawson
- A Wrinkle in Time / Madeleine L'Engle
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe / C. S. Lewis
- Pippi Longstocking / Astrid Lindgren
- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson / Bette Bao Lord
- The New Way Things Work / David Macaulay
- Winnie the Pooh / A. A. Milne
- Anne of Green Gables / Lucy Maud Montgomery
- The Great Fire / Jim Murphy
- Rascal / Sterling North
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH / Robert C. O'Brien
- Island of the Blue Dolphins / Scott O'Dell
- Bridge to Terabithia / Katherine Paterson
- Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
- Tom's Midnight Garden / Philippa Pearce
- The Westing Game / Ellen Raskin
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / J. K. Rowling
- Holes / Louis Sachar
- The Cricket In Times Square / George Selden
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond / Elizabeth George Speare
- Mary Poppins / P. L. Travers
- Charlotte's Web / E. B. White
Books for Older Readers: Ages 11 to 12
- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle / Avi
- Tuck Everlasting / Natalie Babbitt
- Behind the Attic Wall / Sylvia Cassedy
- Catherine, Called Birdy / Karen Cushman
- Johnny Tremain / Esther Forbes
- The Diary of a Young Girl / Anne Frank
- Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
- A Wizard of Earthsea / Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Giver / Lois Lowry
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry / Mildred D. Taylor
- The Hobbit / J. R. R. Tolkien
- Homecoming / Cynthia Voigt
(Cover from 100 Best Books For Children by Anita Silvey. Copyright © 2004 by Anita Silvey. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.)