The 22 Greatest Children's Books of All Time

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

E.B. White's 1952 story of a pig saved by a spider who writes in her web.

2

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Eric Carle's 1969 picture book with holes punched through the fruit.

3

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

Margaret Wise Brown's 1947 bedtime book that says goodnight to everything in the great green room.

5

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

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

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

The 1997 novel that sent an eleven-year-old to a school for wizards and changed publishing.

9

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

Lewis Carroll's 1865 descent down a rabbit hole into logic turned inside out.

11

Winnie-the-Pooh

A.A. Milne's 1926 collection of stories about a bear of very little brain.

12

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

Dr. Seuss's 1957 book written to make learning to read something children actually wanted to do.

14

The Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson's 1999 picture book about a mouse who invents a monster and then meets it.

15

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

Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel about a sour orphan and a walled garden nobody has opened in years.

17

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 1943 fable about a pilot, a small prince and a rose worth returning to.

19

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

Enid Blyton's 1943 novel in which children climb a tree into a different world every week.

21

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

Tolkien's 1937 adventure that sends a comfortable hobbit out of his door and toward a dragon.