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

​​A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead - Age 2 and up


​Corduroy by Don Freeman - Age 2 and up


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


I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenth - 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


Stellaluna by Janell Cannon - Age 4 and up


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


The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack


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


The Green Children  by Kenny Chumbley & Jim McGuiggan - 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


Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - Age 6 and up


Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater - Age 7 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


Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume - Age 8 and up


Black Beauty by Anna Sewell  - Age 8 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


Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - Age 8 and up


The One and Only Ivan, K.A. Applegate - Age 8 and up


The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - Age 8 and up


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


Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson - 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


Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery  - Age 9 and up


Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - Age 9 and up


Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick - Age 9 and up


Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift  - 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


Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor


Watership Down by Richard Adams-  Age 9 and up


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


The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill - 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


The Giver by Lois Lowry - 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


That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton - Age 12 and up


The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - Age 12 and up


The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - Age 12 and up


Animal Farm by George Orwell  - Young Adult


Beauty & the Beast by Rebecca Hammond Yager - Young Adult


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


Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra - Young Adult


Emma by Jane Austen - Young Adult


Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon - Young Adult


Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Young Adult


Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - Young Adult


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - Young Adult


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - Young Adult


Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - Young Adult


Lord of the Flies by William Golding  - Young Adult


Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Young Adult


​Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - 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
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.
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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All Time Classic Literature for Children.  
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