Children's Books to Inspire Reading and Foster Imagination
Children’s books which are generally suitable for children age nine to twelve
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…
By Edward Eager, first published 1956 “Their father always said how could he be sure there was magic, and besides, even if there weren’t any such thing as magic, wasn’t it pleasant to think that there might be?” It’s always …
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 Arthur Ransome, first published 1931. No author of children’s books gives children’s imagination the place of honor in the same way that Arthur Ransome does. Throughout the entire book, we live within the imaginative world that the four children (and their two friends) have created for themselves…
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: 1942
Theme: Country Life
Best for: 9 to 12
“Wasn’t it a miracle to live in the country in spring? And to have a wonderful family that she was crazy about, and a house with a secrect room and a cupola…?” The second of four books about the Melendys, these four very street-savvy children are now quite at home roaming the forest…
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 Jeanne Birdsall, published 2005 “This is what made a book great, she thought, that you could read it over and over and never get tired of it.” The Penderwicks is another children’s book recommended by my young friend Meera. It …
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 …
Published: 1973
Theme: The Value of Time
Best for: ages 10 to adult
“There’s a place like the one you visited in every living soul, but only those who let me take them there can see it, nor can it be seen with ordinary eyes.” If there was only one children’s book I could put on the list of must-read, yet hardly known, children’s books, it would have to be Momo. I fell in love with the book, despite the fact that when I first went to read it…
by Gerald Morris, published 2005 “To have arrived for an indefinite stay in this luxurious castle, where she would wear the finest clothes and most of all get to know a real enchantress, was more than Luneta could ever have …
by Padraic Colum, first published 1920 Here’s a children’s book that not every young child will read, but having read it, I feel compelled to give it a place in the list of great children’s books. For sure, it is …
By Gerald Morris, published 1998 “To forgive the unforgivable is the breath of life in this world.” A brilliant retelling of some of the stories from Le Morte D’Arthur, author Morris begins his series of children’s books about knights with this …
by Gerald Morris, published 2001 “As you have now learned, the things you achieve by your own mighty deeds have no value until they are thrown away. But the things worth keeping—those things are yours for the asking.” Parsifal’s Page …