Children's Books to Inspire Reading and Foster Imagination
Generally best enjoyed by children between five and eight years old; but every child is unique, so only you know best.
Published: 1987
Theme: Inner Courage
Best for: 8 – 10 years old
“A truly courageous person is one who must first conquer fear within himself.” A great mixture of fantasy and realism, this book is loving and enjoyable from start to finish. Perfect for younger readers, it is very satisfying.
Published: 1902
Theme: Be Careful What You Wish for!
Suitable for: all ages
Five Stars
From the very opening pages, Nesbit has us, the reader, firmly in her grip. Right away, you picture the children so eager to be free of the confines of their city life, and you know something interesting will happen…
Published 1970
Theme: Friendship; Easy Reader
Best for: 5- 8
This is one of those books that is important not because it is great literature, but because it is possible for children to read it on their own, love it, remember it, imitate it, and feel the magic that comes from learning to read…
Published 1922
Theme: Power of Love
Best for: ages 5 to 9
Five Stars
That night, he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst.” I feel any list of great children’s literature which omitted this book would be quite remiss.
Published 1952
Theme: Friendship
Best for: Ages 8 and up
“After all, what’s a life anyway? We’re born, we live a little, we die…By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle.” A simple and moving story of friendship and humane treatment of animals…
Published 1886
Theme: Power of Love and Kindness
Best for: Ages 6 and up, especially boys
Five Stars
“His greatest charm was this cheerful, fearless, quaint little way of making friends with people. Finding this children’s book, the first ever written by Burnett, was like going to the pure, unpolluted, ancient source of story itself…
Published 1908
Theme: Friendship
Best for: Any Age
Five Stars
“At last over the rim of the waiting earth, the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of moorings…”The lyrical nature of the writing alone would be enough to rave about the book. But that’s just the beginning…
Published 1992
Theme: Expectations
Best for: 5-6 years old
“There was a man called the Thinking Man of Moha, and there was a woman called the Writing Woman of Maho, and they were friends.” Thus begins this very small, simple book by Le Guin, combining fantasy and reality seamlessly…
Published 2000
Theme: Fairies
Best for: 5 – 8 years old
I love the Fairy Realm series, stepping from our human world into the world of the fairies, where magic, beauty, goodness, and yes, also a bit of evil, mingle together…
Published 2009
Theme: Nature
Best for: ages 5 – 8
This small little children’s book has the best elements of combining fiction and non-fiction into a little tale. It is lyrical, it is sensitive, it is keenly accurate, and it is accompanied by the most delicate illustrations one could find in a children’s book…
Published 1988
Theme: Animal Intelligence
Best for: ages 6 and up
Five Stars
“Mrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings.”In four small children’s books, Ursula Le Guin has created a very endearing set of cat characters with personality, adventure, and wisdom. This set of stories…
by E. B. White, published 1945. “Very good advice, Albert, but advice and law are not the same. Law is much more solemn than advice. Law is extremely solemn. Anybody else thing of a law for the world?”It’s not hard to believe that E. B. White started as a contributor of humor to the New Yorker. His writing style even in his children’s books is filled with that New Yorker sly humor that makes you chuckle. That’s for the adults. For the children, he’s just downright silly and gets away with it in great style. Stuart Little is a smiling, chuckling book all the way to the unexpected end. A great piece of writing by an iconic writer…
Published 1955
Theme: Imagination
Best for: Under 11
The series of five children’s books by Norton, beginning with The Borrowers, and continuing with the Borrowers Afield, Aloft, Afloat, Avenged…, are in a group by themselves. The imagination that Norton brings to the tales of these little people that live in houses, off the the lost items of humans, is so creative, that it seems like it must be true…
by E. B. White, published 1970. What could be more fantastical than a swan who can’t make his trumpeting sounds and so carries a trumpet. This wonderful image seems to real because E. B. White makes it so. The wonderful descriptions of nature, the lovely relationship between the boy Sam and the swan, and the feeling of life in the wild all create such a vivid experience that one forgets that perhaps a swan carrying a trumpet is make-believe..
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published 1905. “Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it.” A Little Princess is one the best children’s books I’ve read so far. It turns out I’m not alone in my assessment, as it continually rates in the top 100 lists among teachers, education associations, and others. Illustrating through example the power of kindness and good thoughts, this book is a masterpiece…
first published 1957
“When he was about two years old, and had been a Cat About Town for some time, glorious in conquests, but rather too thin for comfort, the Fur Person decided that it was time he settled down.”When a friend loaned me this book by May Sarton, my first reaction was “I didn’t know Sarton wrote children’s books.” After reading it, my first thought was, “Is this really just for children?” as I loved it as an adult, especially a cat-loving adult. However, there is no doubt that it does meet the needs of children…
by Edward Eager, published 1954 “This summer, the children had found some books by a writer named E. Nesbit, surely the most wonderful books in the world. They read every one that the library had, right away…” If the children …
Published: 1957
Theme: Imagination
Best for: 8 to 10
“After a while, when he saw that nothing was going to pounce on him and that he probably wasn’t going to be struck by lightning, he allowed his sobs to die down and turn into hiccups.” The first of several books about three children and their summer adventures, is an unusual children’s book, delighting in flights of fancy…
by E. Nesbit, first published 1906. “Very wonderful and beautiful things do happen, don’t they? And we live most of our lives in the hope of them.” While the brilliant author Edith Nesbit may be best known for her liberal use of magic and fantasy, not all her books include magic. In this very likeable book, The Railway Children, we discover something even more important than magic…We discover that even in difficult situations, there is magic to be found right in daily life, if we only have eyes to see it…
Published: 1941
Theme: Growing Up in the City
Best for: 6 to 12
“The room in which they were sitting might have been called a playroom, schoolroom or nursery to most people. But to the Melendys, it was known as the Office.” In The Saturdays, the first children’s book in the series known as The Melendy Quartet, we are introduced to the four Melendy children, ranging in ages from six to thirteen…
by E. Nesbit, first published 1907 “There is a curtain, thin as gossamer, clear as glass, strong as iron, that hangs forever between the world of magic and the world that seems to us to be real.” The quote for …
by A. A. Milne, first published 1927 “I found a little beetle, so that Beetle was his name, And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same” This second children’s book of poetry by Milne is actually my …
by A. A. Milne, first published 1924 “A bear, however hard he tries, Grows tubby without exercise…” At first glance, one might think that this, the very first children’s book by A. A. Milne, would be more appropriate for much …
by Shelley Davidow, published 2006 “Wisdom is fading in the world. Words are disappearing. The brightness in the sky is vanishing and the dark Cloud of Ignorance has grown suddenly dense.” If I could use only one book to introduce …
The Wise Enchanter: A Journey Through the Alphabet Read more »
by A. A. Milne, First published 1926. “Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear! Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear”Who among us doesn’t know the world of Winnie-the-Pooh? To read it is to be a child again, seeing the world with utter innocence and simplicity.
by P.L. Travers, first published 1935 “It was one of those mornings when everything looks neat and bright and shiny, as though the world had been tidied up over night.” If the way that your children know about Mary Poppins …