List of children's classic books
This is a list of children's classic books published no later than 1990 and still available in the English language.[1][2][3]
Books specifically for children existed by the 17th century. Before that, books were written mainly for adults – although some later became popular with children. In Europe, Gutenberg's invention of the printing press around 1440 made possible mass production of books, though the first printed books were quite expensive and remained so for a long time. Gradually, however, improvements in printing technology lowered the costs of publishing and made books more affordable to the working classes, who were also likely to buy smaller and cheaper broadsides, chapbooks, pamphlets, tracts, and early newspapers, all of which were widely available before 1800. In the 19th century, improvements in paper production, as well as the invention of cast-iron, steam-powered printing presses, enabled book publishing on a very large scale, and made books of all kinds affordable by all.
Scholarship on children's literature includes professional organizations, dedicated publications, and university courses.
Before 18th century[]
Title | Author | Year published | References and Brief Introduction |
---|---|---|---|
Panchatantra | Vishnu Sharma | c. 800 BC | Ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. Similar stories are found in later works including Aesop's Fables and the Sindbad tales in Arabian Nights.[4] |
Aesop's Fables | Aesop | c. 600 BC | [5][6] |
Kathasaritsagara | Somadeva | 11th Century AD | Collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva. Generally believed to derive from Gunadhya's Brhat-katha, written in Paisachi dialect from the south of India.[citation needed] |
Arabian Nights | Unknown | before 8th century AD | [7][8] |
Orbis Pictus | John Amos Comenius | 1658 | Earliest picture book specifically for children.[9][10] |
A Token for Children. Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children | James Janeway | 1672 | One of the first books specifically written for children which shaped much eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writing for children.[citation needed][11] |
18th century[]
Title | Author | Year published | References |
---|---|---|---|
Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | 1719 | [1][3][12] |
Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan Swift | 1726 | [1][13] |
Tales of Mother Goose | Charles Perrault | 1729 (English) | [3][2][14] |
Little Pretty Pocket-book | John Newbery | 1744 | [15] |
Little Goody Two Shoes | Oliver Goldsmith | 1765 | [16] |
Lessons for Children | Anna Laetitia Barbauld | 1778-9 | The first series of age-adapted reading primers for children printed with large text and wide margins; in print for over a century.[17] |
The History of Sandford and Merton | Thomas Day | 1783-9 | A bestseller for over a century, it embodied Rousseau's educational ideals.[18] |
19th century[]
Title | Author | Year published | References |
---|---|---|---|
The Swiss Family Robinson | Johann Rudolf Wyss | 1812-3 | [1] |
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King | E. T. A. Hoffmann | 1816 | [19] |
Ivanhoe | Walter Scott | 1819 | [20] |
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Washington Irving | 1819 | [1][21] |
Rip Van Winkle | Washington Irving | 1820 | [1][22] |
Grimm's Fairy Tales | Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm | 1823 (English) | [3][23] |
A Visit From St. Nicholas | Clement Clarke Moore | 1823 | [3] |
Tales of Peter Parley About America | Peter Parley (pseudonym) | 1827 | [3] |
Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | 1838 | [1] |
Nicholas Nickleby | Charles Dickens | 1839 | |
A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | 1843 | [1][2] |
The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas, père | 1844 | |
Fairy Tales | Hans Christian Andersen | 1846 (English) | [3] |
The Children of the New Forest | Frederick Marryat | 1847 | |
Slovenly Peter | Heinrich Hoffmann | 1848 (English) | |
David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | 1850 | [1] |
The Wide, Wide World | Elizabeth Wetherell (pseudonym) | 1850 | [3] |
The King of the Golden River | John Ruskin | 1851 | [3] |
A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | 1853 | [1] |
The Coral Island | R. M. Ballantyne | 1857 | |
Tom Brown's Schooldays | Thomas Hughes | 1857 | [3] |
Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | 1861 | [1][24] |
The Water Babies | Charles Kingsley | 1863 | [3] |
A Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne | 1864 | [1] |
Little Prudy | Rebecca Sophia Clarke | 1864 | [25] |
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | 1865 | [1][2] |
Max and Moritz | Wilhelm Busch | 1865 | |
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates | Mary Mapes Dodge | 1865 | [1] |
Little Women | Louisa May Alcott | 1868 | [1][3][2] |
Ragged Dick | Horatio Alger, Jr. | 1868 | [3] |
Lorna Doone | R. D. Blackmore | 1869 | |
Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances | Juliana Horatia Ewing | 1869 | [26] |
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea | Jules Verne | 1870 | [1] |
At the Back of the North Wind | George MacDonald | 1871 | [1] |
The Brownies and other Tales | Juliana Horatia Ewing | 1871 | |
The Princess and the Goblin | George MacDonald | 1871 | [3] |
Through the Looking-Glass | Lewis Carroll | 1871 | [1][3] |
Around the World in Eighty Days | Jules Verne | 1872 | [1] |
A Dog of Flanders | Ouida | 1872 | |
What Katy Did | Susan Coolidge | 1873 | [3] |
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | 1876 | [1][3][2][27] |
Black Beauty | Anna Sewell | 1877 | [1][3] |
The Prince and the Pauper | Mark Twain | 1881 | |
The Adventures of Pinocchio | Carlo Collodi | 1883 | [1][3][2][27] |
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood | Howard Pyle | 1883 | [2][27] |
Nights with Uncle Remus | Joel Chandler Harris | 1883 | |
Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1883 | [1][3][2][27] |
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1884 | [1][27] |
Heidi | Johanna Spyri | 1884 (English) | [3] |
King Solomon's Mines | H. Rider Haggard | 1885 | |
Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1886 | [1][2] |
Little Lord Fauntleroy | Frances Hodgson Burnett | 1886 | [1][3] |
The Happy Prince and Other Tales | Oscar Wilde | 1888 | |
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | Mark Twain | 1889 | |
The Blue Fairy Book | Andrew Lang | 1889 | |
The Jungle Book | Rudyard Kipling | 1894 | [1][3][2][27] |
Seven Little Australians | Ethel Turner | 1894 | [3] |
The Second Jungle Book | Rudyard Kipling | 1895 | [1] |
Moonfleet | J. Meade Falkner | 1898 | |
The Black Corsair | Emilio Salgari | 1898 | |
The Reluctant Dragon | Kenneth Grahame | 1898 | |
The Story of the Treasure Seekers | E. Nesbit | 1899 | |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum | 1900 | [1][3][2][27] |
The Tigers of Mompracem | Emilio Salgari | 1900 |
20th century[]
Title | Author | Year published | References |
---|---|---|---|
Five Children and It | E. Nesbit | 1902 | [3] |
Just So Stories | Rudyard Kipling | 1902 | [1][3][2] |
The Tale of Peter Rabbit | Beatrix Potter | 1902 | [3][2] |
King Arthur and His Knights | Howard Pyle | 1902-3 | |
The Call of the Wild | Jack London | 1903 | [1] |
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm | Kate Douglas Wiggin | 1903 | [1] |
A Little Princess | Frances Hodgson Burnett | 1905 | [1][3] |
The Railway Children | E. Nesbit | 1906 | |
White Fang | Jack London | 1906 | |
Anne of Green Gables | Lucy Maud Montgomery | 1908 | [1][3] |
The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | 1908 | [1][3][27] |
The Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett | 1909/1911 | [1][3][2] |
Peter and Wendy | J. M. Barrie | 1911 | [2] Based on the author's play Peter Pan (1904) |
Tarzan | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1912 | |
The Lost World | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 1912 | |
Pollyanna | Eleanor H. Porter | 1913 | [3] |
The Magic Pudding | Norman Lindsay | 1918 | [28] |
Raggedy Ann | Johnny Gruelle | 1918 | |
Lad: A Dog | Albert Payson Terhune | 1919 | [1] |
The Story of Doctor Dolittle | Hugh Lofting | 1920 | [1][3][2] |
Juan Bobo | Puerto Rican school children | 1921 | [29] |
The Velveteen Rabbit | Margery Williams | 1922 | [1] |
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle | Hugh Lofting | 1922 | [1] |
The Dark Frigate | Charles Boardman Hawes | 1923 | [1] |
Smoky the Cowhorse | Will James | 1926 | [1] |
Winnie-the-Pooh | A. A. Milne | 1926 | [1][3][2] |
The House at Pooh Corner | A. A. Milne | 1928 | [1][3] |
Bambi | Felix Salten | 1928 | [1] |
The Trumpeter of Krakow | Eric P. Kelly | 1928 | [1] |
Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories | Joyce Lankester Brisley | 1928 | |
Emil and the Detectives | Erich Kästner | 1929 | [30] |
Swallows and Amazons | Arthur Ransome | 1930–1931 | [3] |
Babar | Jean de Brunhoff | 1931 | |
Little House in the Big Woods | Laura Ingalls Wilder | 1932 | [1] |
Mary Poppins | P. L. Travers | 1934 | |
Ballet Shoes | Noel Streatfeild | 1936 | |
The Story of Ferdinand | Munro Leaf | 1936 | |
The Hobbit | J. R. R. Tolkien | 1937 | [1][3][2][27] |
The Sword in the Stone | T. H. White | 1938 | |
Madeline | Ludwig Bemelmans | 1939 | |
My Name Is Aram | William Saroyan | 1940 | Children's immigrant experience in the US |
Curious George | H. A. Rey | 1941 | |
Five on a Treasure Island | Enid Blyton | 1942 | |
Johnny Tremain | Esther Forbes | 1943 | [1][2] |
The Little Prince | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | 1943 | [1][31] |
Pippi Longstocking | Astrid Lindgren | 1945 | [1][32] |
Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog | Ward Greene | 1945 | |
The Little White Horse | Elizabeth Goudge | 1946 | |
Thomas the Tank Engine | Wilbert Awdry | 1946 | |
Goodnight Moon | Margaret Wise Brown | 1947 | [2][33] |
I Capture the Castle | Dodie Smith | 1948 | |
Finn Family Moomintroll | Tove Jansson | 1949 | [34] |
Noddy Goes To Toyland | Enid Blyton | 1949 | |
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis | 1950 | [1][3][2][27] |
Charlotte's Web | E. B. White | 1952 | [1][35][36] |
The Borrowers | Mary Norton | 1952 | |
The Children of Green Knowe | Lucy M. Boston | 1954 | |
Beezus and Ramona | Beverly Cleary | 1955 | |
Eloise | Kay Thompson | 1955 | It was first published in 1955, but was aimed at adults. It was re-published in 1969, this time marketed to children. |
The Hundred and One Dalmatians | Dodie Smith | 1956 | |
Harry the Dirty Dog | Gene Zion | 1956 | |
The Silver Sword | Ian Serraillier | 1956 | Known in the US as Escape From Warsaw. |
The Cat in the Hat | Dr. Seuss | 1957 | First high quality limited-vocabulary book, written for early readers[citation needed] |
Little Bear | Else Holmelund Minarik | 1957 | |
Tom's Midnight Garden | Philippa Pearce | 1958 | |
A Bear Called Paddington | Michael Bond | 1958 | |
The Rescuers | Margery Sharp | 1959 | |
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen | Alan Garner | 1960 | |
James and the Giant Peach | Roald Dahl | 1961 | [1] |
The Phantom Tollbooth | Norton Juster | 1961 | [1] |
The Big Honey Hunt | Stan and Jan Berenstain | 1962 | |
A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L'Engle | 1962 | |
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase | Joan Aiken | 1962 | |
Stig of the Dump | Clive King | 1963 | |
Where the Wild Things Are | Maurice Sendak | 1963 | |
Clifford the Big Red Dog | Norman Bridwell | 1963 | |
Amelia Bedelia | Peggy Parish | 1963 | |
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Roald Dahl | 1964 | [1] |
Flat Stanley | Jeff Brown | 1964 | |
The Giving Tree | Shel Silverstein | 1964 | |
Harriet the Spy | Louise Fitzhugh | 1964 | |
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car | Ian Fleming | 1964 | |
The Fox and the Hound | Daniel P. Mannix and John Schoenherr | 1967 | |
The Owl Service | Alan Garner | 1967 | |
A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | 1968 | With its sequels, it broke ground for epic fantasy in several ways: the first book had a non-white hero, the later books explored the role of gender in fantasy and power, and the quest structure is not good vs. evil but balance.[citation needed] |
The Iron Man | Ted Hughes | 1968 | |
The Tiger Who Came to Tea | Judith Kerr | 1968 | |
The Very Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | 1969 | |
Charlotte Sometimes | Penelope Farmer | 1969 | |
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret | Judy Blume | 1970 | Approached puberty more openly than children's books had in the past.[citation needed] |
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit | Judith Kerr | 1971 | |
The Lorax | Dr Seuss | 1971 | |
Watership Down | Richard Adams | 1972 | |
A Taste of Blackberries | Doris Buchanan Smith | 1973 | Taboo-breaking children's book (Grades 4–6) concerning a child's first grief experience. HarperCollins. 19th edition published 2005.[37][38] |
The Worst Witch | Jill Murphy | 1974 | |
Bridge to Terabithia | Katherine Paterson | 1977 | |
Each Peach Pear Plum | Janet and Allan Ahlberg | 1978 | |
The Snowman | Raymond Briggs | 1978 | |
The Neverending Story | Michael Ende | 1979 | |
The Indian in the Cupboard | Lynne Reid Banks | 1980 | |
The Paper Bag Princess | Robert Munsch | 1980 | |
Jumanji | Chris Van Allsburg | 1981 | |
Goodnight Mister Tom | Michelle Magorian | 1981 | |
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ | Sue Townsend | 1982 | |
War Horse | Michael Morpurgo | 1982 | |
The Sheep-Pig | Dick King-Smith | 1983 | Filmed as Babe in 1995. Known as Babe, the Gallant Pig in the US. |
The Castle in the Attic | Elizabeth Winthrop | 1985 | |
Howl's Moving Castle | Diana Wynne Jones | 1986 | Made famous because of the Studio Ghibli movie. |
Franklin | Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark | 1986 | |
The Little Polar Bear | Hans de Beer | 1987 | |
Madame Doubtfire | Anne Fine | 1987 | Published as Alias Madame Doubtfire in the US. Made famous because of the film adaptation (Mrs Doubtfire) starring Robin Williams. |
Matilda | Roald Dahl | 1988 |
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd Nesbit, Eva Marie. "Classic novels". Cullinan & Person 2003. pp. 171–175.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Silvey 1995, pp. xi–xvi
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am Hunt 2001, p. xvi–xxii
- ^ Vijay Bedekar (27 December 2008). "Seminar on 'Suhbashita, Panchatantra & Gnomic Literature in Ancient & Medieval India'". Institute for Oriental Study, Thane. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
- ^ Silvey 1995, p. 3
- ^ Temple, Olivia; Temple, Robert K. G. (translators) (1998). Aesop, The Complete Fables. New York: Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044649-4.
- ^ Silvey 1995, p. 25,86
- ^ Lyons (2008). Three tales from the Arabian nights. translated by Malcolm C. Lyons, Robert Irwin, and Ursula Lyons ; with an introduction by Robert Irwin. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-84614-158-4.
- ^ Epstein, Connie C. (1991). The Art of Writing for Children. Archon Books. p. 2. ISBN 0-208-02297-X.
- ^ Comenius, John Amos (1999). Orbis Pictus : [Orbis Sensualium Pictus. A world of things obvious to the scenes drawn in pictures] ([Faks.Repr.] ed.). Kessinger. ISBN 978-0-7661-0825-7.
- ^ Janeway, James (1994). A token for children : being an exact account of the conversion, holy and exemplary lives and joyful deaths of several young children in two parts. To which is added, A token for the children of New England / by Cotton Mather. Pittsburgh, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications. ISBN 978-1-877611-76-6.
- ^ Defoe, Daniel (2001). Robinson Crusoe (Modern Library paperback ed.). New York: The Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-375-75732-7.
- ^ Swift, Jonathan (2002). Rivero, Albert J. (ed.). Gulliver's travels. Based on the 1726 text : contexts, criticism (1st ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-95724-2.
- ^ Perrault, Charles (1963). The complete fairy tales of Charles Perrault. Illustrated by Sally Holmes ; newly translated by Neil Philip and Nicoletta Simborowski ; with an introduction and notes on the story by Neil Philip. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0-395-57002-9.
- ^ Newbery, John, ed. (2009). A Little pretty pocket-book. Dodo Press. ISBN 978-1-4099-4974-9.
- ^ Welsh, Charles (2010). Goody Two Shoes (reprint ed.). Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-162-75622-6.
- ^ Pickering, Samuel F., Jr. John Locke and Children's Books in Eighteenth-Century England. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1981. ISBN 0-87049-290-X.
- ^ Darton, F. J. Harvey. Children's Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life. 3rd ed. Rev. Brian Alderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1982), 146.
- ^ Hoffman, E.T.A. (2003). The Nutcracker : the heirloom edition. Illustrated by Don Daily. Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-7624-1668-4.
- ^ Scott, Sir Walter (2000). Ivanhoe (1st Tor ed.). New York: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 978-0-8125-6565-2.
- ^ Irving, Washington (1990). The legend of Sleepy Hollow. Introduction, afterword by Charles L. Grant] (1st Tor ed.). New York: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN 978-0-8125-0475-0.
- ^ Irving, Washington (1993). Rip Van Winkle and other selected stories (1st Tor ed.). New York: TOR. ISBN 978-0-8125-2332-4.
- ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (2006). Owens, Lily (ed.). The complete Brothers Grimm fairy tales (Deluxe ed.). New York: Gramercy Books. ISBN 978-0-517-22925-5.
- ^ Nesbit gave an incorrect date of 1863 for the publication. See, for example, Robert L. Patten (1978), Charles Dickens and His Publishers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 288–293, ISBN 0198120761
- ^ "Little Prudy". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
- ^ Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature by Humphrey Carpenter, 1985, Part II, Chapter 1: "It seemed to open the door to a new way of writing for, and about, children"
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Baskin, Barbara H.; Harris, Karen. "Classics". Silvey 1995, pp. 140–142.
- ^ Hunt 2001, p. 36
- ^ Journal of American Folklore, Vol.34, p. 143; by J. Alden Mason & Aurelio M. Espinosa, ed.; 1921 Retrieved 2013-05-31.
- ^ Hunt 2001, p. 361
- ^ Hunt 2001, pp. 569–570
- ^ Hunt 2001, pp. 406–407
- ^ Hunt 2001, p. 97
- ^ Silvey 1995, p. 350
- ^ Introducing Children's Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism by Deborah Cogan Thacker, Routledge, 2002, page 123
- ^ 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004, page 131
- ^ "Doris Buchanan Smith". St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers. Gale Biography In Contex. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
- ^ Trelease, Jim (2006). The Read-Aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-14-303739-2.
Further reading[]
- Kay E. Vandergrift. "Traditional Classics in Children's Literature". Rutgers University. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
- Baker, Franklin Thomas; Abbot, Allan (2008) [1908]. A bibliography of children's reading (digitized ed.). Teachers College.
- Cullinan, Bernice E.; Person, Diane G., eds. (2003). The Continuum encyclopedia of children's literature (Reprinted ed.). New York, NY: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1516-5.
- Hunt, Peter (2001). Children's literature (1st ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-21141-9.
- Hunt, Peter, ed. (1996). International companion encyclopedia of children's literature. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780203168127.
- Lundin, Anne (2004). Constructing the canon of children's literature : beyond library walls and ivory towers. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-8153-3841-4. A scholarly examination of canons of children's literature.
- Silvey, Anita, ed. (1995). Children's books and their creators. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-65380-7. Includes a basic reading list on pp. xi–xvi.
- Spitz, Ellen Handler (2000). Inside picture books. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300084764.
- Thwaite, Mary F. (1972). From primer to pleasure in reading : an introduction to the history of children's books in England from the invention of printing to 1914 with an outline of some developments in other countries (1st American ed.). Boston: The Horn book. ISBN 978-0-87675-275-3.
- Zipes, Jack, ed. (2006). The Oxford encyclopedia of children's literature. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0195146565.
- Lists of children's books