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The 22 Greatest Children's Books of All Time

by YPB Team

Picture books read a thousand times sit next to novels that swallowed a whole summer. The age of the reader was never really the point.

  1. Charlotte's Web — ranked #11
    Charlotte's Web
    E.B. White's 1952 story of a pig saved by a spider who writes in her web.
  2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar — ranked #22
    The Very Hungry Caterpillar
    Eric Carle's 1969 picture book with holes punched through the fruit.
  3. Where the Wild Things Are — ranked #33
    Where the Wild Things Are
    Maurice Sendak's 1963 book in which a boy in a wolf suit sails off to rule the monsters.
  4. Goodnight Moon — ranked #44
    Goodnight Moon
    Margaret Wise Brown's 1947 bedtime book that says goodnight to everything in the great green room.
  5. Matilda — ranked #55
    Matilda
    Roald Dahl's 1988 novel about a gifted girl, a monstrous headmistress and a quiet act of revenge.
  6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — ranked #66
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
    Dahl's 1964 tale of a golden ticket and five children who mostly deserve what they get.
  7. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — ranked #77
    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    C.S. Lewis's 1950 novel in which four siblings walk through a wardrobe into an endless winter.
  8. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — ranked #88
    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
    The 1997 novel that sent an eleven-year-old to a school for wizards and changed publishing.
  9. The Tale of Peter Rabbit — ranked #99
    The Tale of Peter Rabbit
    Beatrix Potter's 1902 story of a rabbit who ignores his mother and raids Mr McGregor's garden.
  10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — ranked #1010
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    Lewis Carroll's 1865 descent down a rabbit hole into logic turned inside out.
  11. Winnie-the-Pooh — ranked #1111
    Winnie-the-Pooh
    A.A. Milne's 1926 collection of stories about a bear of very little brain.
  12. The Wind in the Willows — ranked #1212
    The Wind in the Willows
    Kenneth Grahame's 1908 riverbank novel with Mole, Ratty, Badger and the insufferable Mr Toad.
  13. The Cat in the Hat — ranked #1313
    The Cat in the Hat
    Dr. Seuss's 1957 book written to make learning to read something children actually wanted to do.
  14. The Gruffalo — ranked #1414
    The Gruffalo
    Julia Donaldson's 1999 picture book about a mouse who invents a monster and then meets it.
  15. A Wrinkle in Time — ranked #1515
    A Wrinkle in Time
    Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel that folds space to send children across the universe after their father.
  16. The Secret Garden — ranked #1616
    The Secret Garden
    Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel about a sour orphan and a walled garden nobody has opened in years.
  17. Anne of Green Gables — ranked #1717
    Anne of Green Gables
    L.M. Montgomery's 1908 novel about a talkative red-haired orphan sent to Prince Edward Island by mistake.
  18. The Little Prince — ranked #1818
    The Little Prince
    Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 1943 fable about a pilot, a small prince and a rose worth returning to.
  19. Pippi Longstocking — ranked #1919
    Pippi Longstocking
    Astrid Lindgren's 1945 novel about a girl with a horse on the porch and no adults in charge.
  20. The Magic Faraway Tree — ranked #2020
    The Magic Faraway Tree
    Enid Blyton's 1943 novel in which children climb a tree into a different world every week.
  21. Peter Pan — ranked #2121
    Peter Pan
    J.M. Barrie's 1911 novel about the boy who refuses to grow up and the family he takes with him.
  22. The Hobbit — ranked #2222
    The Hobbit
    Tolkien's 1937 adventure that sends a comfortable hobbit out of his door and toward a dragon.
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