Via one of my favourite bookshops, just found the '100 books every child should read' list, originally published in the Telegraph. Although I'm sure it was commissioned by someone else, I can't find the original ownership, and the article referenced doesn't exist on the Royal Society for Literature website. Here's my take on it, bold are ones I've read, with some commentary alongside.
Early years
The Twits, by Roald Dahl (this is early years? Really?)
Burglar Bill, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (no, why on earth this one and not Peepo or Each Peach Pear Plum or The Baby Catalogue?)
The Tiger Who Came To Tea, by Judith Kerr
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter
Yertle the Turtle, by Dr Seuss
Fungus the Bogeyman, by Raymond Briggs
The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business, by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr Seuss
Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson (yes, but why on earth this rather than The Gruffalo?)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
Charlotte’s Web, by EB White (surely not an early years book?)
The Story of Babar, by Jean de Brunhoff
Winnie-the-Pooh, by AA Milne, illustrated by EH Shepard
Middle years
Stig of the Dump, by Clive King
Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild
Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones (of course, but not sure why this one. Because it was made into a film? It's not her best writing...)
Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
Struwwelpeter, by Heinrich Hoffman
The Magic Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton (why this and not Famous Five? Mallory Towers?)
Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
George’s Marvellous Medicine, by Roald Dahl
Underwater Adventure, by Willard Price
Tintin in Tibet, by Hergé
The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
Erik the Viking, by Terry Jones, illustrated by Michael Foreman
When the Wind Blows, by Raymond Briggs
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by TS Eliot
The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes
The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
The Worst Witch Collection, by Jill Murphy
Peter Pan, by JM Barrie
Mr Majeika, by Humphrey Carpenter (nevererdovit)
The Water Babies, by Charles Kinglsey
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I’m The King of the Castle, by Susan Hill
The Wave, by Morton Rhue (nevererdovit)
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
Bambert’s Book of Missing Stories, by Reinhardt Jung (nevererdovit)
The Firework-maker’s Daughter, by Philip Pullman
Tom’s Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce (see here for wonderful words by Philippa on her experience)
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
The Silver Sword, by Ian Serrallier
Cue for Treason, by Geoffrey Trease
The Sword in the Stone, by TH White
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K LeGuin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling
The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set, by CS Lewis
His Dark Materials Box Set, by Philip Pullman
The BFG, by Roald Dahl
Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now, by Lauren Child
The Railway Children, by E Nesbit
The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
Just William, by Richmal Crompton
Jennings Goes to School, by Anthony Buckeridge
Comet in Moominland, by Tove Jansson
The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket
Teen Years
Call of the Wild, by Jack London
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll
The Outsiders, by SE Hinton
I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
The Owl Service, by Alan Garner
The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, by Mildred D Taylor
A Kestrel for a Knave, by Barry Hines
The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo (no but I saw the play. Didn't love it)
Beowulf, by Michael Morpurgo (Michael Morpurgo gets two? Really? And E Nesbit/Noel Streatfield/Rosemary Sutcliffe only get one? Ah, just seen he was the cover guy for the article. That explains it)
King Solomon’s Mines, by H Rider Haggard
Kim, by Rudyard Kipling
The Road of Bones, by Anne Fine
Frenchman’s Creek, by Daphne Du Maurier
Treasure Island, by RL Stevenson
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Anne of Green Gables, by L M Montgomery
Junk, by Melvin Burgess
Cider With Rosie, by Laurie Lee
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
The Song of Hiawatha, by H W Longfellow
Watership Down, by Richard Adams
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain (why not Huckleberry Finn, surely the better book?)
True Grit, by Charles Portis
Holes, by Louis Sachar
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
Carrie’s War, by Nina Bawden
The Story of Tracy Beaker, by Jacqueline Wilson
The Lantern Bearers, by Rosemary Sutcliffe
So, IMO, most of the right authors are here, with notable exceptions for Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising), Susan Coolidge (What Katy Did), Nick Sharratt (You choose), Malorie Blackman (Noughts and Crosses), Helen Oxenbury (Ten little fingers), Philip Reeve (The mortal engine series), Eva Ibbotson (Journey to the River Sea). I'm sure you can find others. And a few I would not have bothered with, I never liked the Borrowers that much, for example. And odd selections for some authors, particularly the Ahlbergs and Julia Donaldson, aslo Geoffrey Trease and Rosemary Sutcliffe. Oh, and odd age group placement. Fungus the Bogeyman and Charlotte's Web as 'early years'?
Your thoughts?
Carrie's War is probably middle years, too.
And no Pippi! How dare they!
Posted by: Katie | Monday, 18 October 2010 at 23:00
nope pippi is there!
Posted by: Thalia | Monday, 18 October 2010 at 23:07
Oooo! Lovely, lovely list! Had forgotten some of these, will put on Santa's list.
But...
I’m The King of the Castle by Susan Hill is SO NOT MIDDLE years! Christ! The kid pisses himself and then commits suicide!
Posted by: Hairy Farmer Family | Monday, 18 October 2010 at 23:13
I agree that they've misclassified some, but overall a good list (and I'm kinda surprised at how many I'd read... and looking forward to reading some of those I haven't with the kids).
Posted by: Nico | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 at 01:58
My thought is whoever compiled the list is 26 and never read much as a kid, so is just taking what other people said without much checking. Hence the occasional unfortunate categorisation.
I have read pretty much most of it, and it is an excellent list and a grand starting-point. I loved Burglar Bill with a passion when I was wee, and thought Each Peach Pear Plum pretty, but slightly dull. Dian Wynne Jones, I'd put on the teenage list as well, with Deep Secret and The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land (which is a good remedy for woolly thinking, as well as bloody funny). And my life would have been so much poorer without Susan Cooper. Why no Susan Cooper?
And my own middle years reading focussed very much on the Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology (because I always was a COLOSSAL geek), so my opinion on suitable books is bound to be... off. But I think most kids can handle things a tad more grown-up than their parents have bargained for. Even so, 'I'm the King of the Castle' I'd reserve for the over-twelves.
Posted by: May | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 at 08:55
Book lists make me weary, for some reason.
I've always liked to saunter into the library and pick up something that takes my fancy.
I'm probably missing some essentials that way, but oh well.
Linnea loves to 'read' books, so I don't have make much effort to encourage her.
Posted by: LutC | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 at 12:03
I'm the King of the Castle buggered my head up for YEARS. I'm a bit Capslocky about it still!
Posted by: Hairy Farmer Family | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 at 17:37
If Capslocky isn't an Adjective - IT IS NOW!
Posted by: Hairy Farmer Family | Tuesday, 19 October 2010 at 17:48
Good list but some odd things missing. Susan Cooper definitely and I liked Cynthia Hartnett's Wool Pack books too. I never touched Wynne Jones so I'd leave her out. Elizabeth Enright's The Saturdays started an obsession with New York for me. Where is When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit too.
Posted by: Betty M | Saturday, 23 October 2010 at 11:37
It's a pretty inspiring list. Even so, not one thing by Jules Verne? No? Mem Fox? Linley Dodd? Ah, dear.
I also agree with a lot of your notes re: categorisation errors, choice of titles from specific authors. Still, a very inspiring list, and one to borrow ideas from, for sure.
Bea
Posted by: Bea | Wednesday, 27 October 2010 at 23:11