Monday, January 20, 2014

The Best List of the 100 Best Children’s Books in the Last 100 Years


When the New York Public Library published its 100 Top Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years, many of the Friends of Freddy were shocked: not a single Freddy book could be found on the list.  Members wrote in on the listserv: 

“It’s a travesty.”

“Methinks it’s time for a protest.”

Others offered their opinion (not always favorable) on books that made the list, and suggested other books that should have been on it.  In response, the Friends of Freddy has decided to create our own 100 Best Children’s Books list! And we are turning to you, our august readers, for help.

Send us your list of the top 10 children’s books of the last 100 years. Do it right now!
Don’t put it off until tomorrow. Quick!  Without overmuch thought, what are the best 10 children’s books you have ever read?  Enter them in the comments below and let us know.

Here are the rules:

1) You can submit only ten.

2) Of your ten, no more than five can be Freddy books. (This is called playing fair.)

3) Deadline for submissions:  March 1, 2014 at midnight.

We will compile the results, weighting them in some mysterious mathematical way that I don’t understand, but Kevin Parker does, and we will publish the list in the next issue of the Bean Home News. If you would like to see the New York Public Library’s List it can be found at this link:


Thank you in advance for your participation in creating our own list!

13 comments:

  1. Freddy:
    Freddy and the Ignormus
    Freddy the Detective
    Wiggins for President
    Freddy the Cowboy

    Not Freddy:
    Charlotte's Web
    The Mad Scientist's Club
    The Wind in the Willows
    Watership Down
    A Wrinkle in Time
    The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe/Narnia Chronicles

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  2. Freddy Books:
    Wiggins for President
    Freddy the Detective
    To and Again
    The Clockwork Twin
    Freddy Goes Camping

    Non-Freddy:
    The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Grahame
    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum
    Where the Wild Things Are. Maurice Sendak
    Smith. Leon Garfield
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll

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  3. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
    The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
    Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
    The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
    A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
    Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
    The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
    Curious George by H. A. Rey
    Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
    The Giver by Lois Lowry

    (With apologies for bruising any tender feelings, though I am fond of Freddy books, none makes my top ten list of children's books, but of the Freddies, Freddy the Detective comes closest.)

    Best regards,
    Your friend Mr. Eha

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  4. Hmmm: if we're limited to the last 100 years, I'll need to revise my list on non-Freddies, removing Alice, Wind, and Oz. Instead, I offer: The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, Charlotte's web by E. B. White, and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

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  5. Following Michael's lead, I'll withdraw Wind in the Willows from my list for the same reason and add Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes in its place.

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  6. Bradbury, Ray - Dandelion Wine
    Brinley, Bertrand R. - The Mad Scientists' Club
    Brooks, Walter R. - Freddy the Detective
    Brooks, Walter R. - Freddy the Politician (Wiggins for President)
    Jones, Diana Wynn - Dogsbody
    Juster, Norton - The Phantom Tollbooth
    Leaf, Munro - The Story of Ferdinand
    Lobel, Arnold - Grasshopper On the Road
    Trez, Denise & Alain - Rabbit Country
    Wiesner, David - Tuesday

    I am assuming that with "Children's books," picture books and readers are allowed, both of which are represented in my list. Mine are listed in no order other than alphabetical by author.

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  7. Freddy 5:
    1. Freddy and the Ignormus
    2. Freddy goes to the North Pole
    3. Freddy goes to Florida
    4. Freddy's Cousin Weedly
    5. Freddy and the Bean Home News
    Other 5:
    Wizard of Oz
    Land of Oz
    The Yearling
    Treasure Island
    Winnie the Pooh

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  8. Compiling your own list is a very good idea! Here's my contribution:

    1. The LIttle House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder
    2. Mr. Pine's Purple House, Leonard Kessler
    3. Pickle-Chiffon Pie, Roger Bradfield
    4. The Mad Scientists' Club, Bertand R. Brinley
    5. Miss Suzy, Miriam Young and Arnold Lobel
    6. TWIG, Elizabeth Orton Jones
    7. Miss Twiggley's Tree, Dorothea Warren Fox
    8. The Blueberry Pie Elf, Jane Thayer and Seymour Fleishman
    9. Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
    10. The Witch of Blackbird Pond tied with Anne of Green Gables

    Sorry if my book list seems a bit slanted, there's a reason I chose to republish many of these titles. I love the Freddy books too, but I never had the pleasure of reading them as a child. I discovered and read the Freddy books as an adult between 10-15 years ago.

    Many other favorites of mine are on the NYPL list so I didn't include them here.

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  9. I'm so glad you decided to do this!
    1. Freddy the Detective
    2. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet Eleanor Cameron
    3. Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians Mary Nash
    4. The Pink Motel Carol Ryrie Brink
    5. David and the Phoenix Edward ormondroyd
    6. The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle Hugh Lofting
    7. The Children of Green Knowe Lucy Boston
    8. The Animal Family Randall Jarrell
    9. Half Magic Edward Eager
    10. The Moffats Eleanor Estes

    I love ALL five of the Mushroom Planet books and ALL 3 of the Mrs. Coverlets, and ALL 7 Edward Eagers and Everything by Estes and Lucy Boston, I have every single Freddy and the Dr. Dolittles and I've given at least 25 copies of The Animal Family to members of MY animal family. These are all books that kept me alive during my stressful childhood and I still go back to them now for reassurance when the madness of our world reaches into my deliberately sheltered reality. Freddy fan forever! Gabrielle Silva

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  10. My list, in no particular order, is:

    A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
    Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
    The Borribles Go for Broke by Michael de Larrabeiti
    The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
    We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by Arthur Ransome
    The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
    A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
    The Little Grey Men by 'BB' (D.J. Watkins-Pitchford)
    Doctor Dolittle's Post Office by Hugh Lofting
    Watership Down by Richard Adams

    I excluded picture books, otherwise I would have had to choose a Dr Seuss book, and possibly a few other things...

    I had a hard time choosing between We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and Secret Water, and choosing between Doctor Dolittle's Post Office, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, Doctor Dolittle's Circus, Doctor Dolittle's Garden, and Doctor Dolittle and
    the Secret Lake.

    Sadly I had to leave out:
    Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
    The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
    The Box of Delights by John Masefield
    The Borrowers by Mary Norton
    — and many other books!

    Some of those I read as a child, while others weren't published until I was in my teens or later.

    I count Watership Down as a children's book as it was written for the author's children. My younger sister read it and loved it when she was ten, on my recommendation. It was published for children in the UK and for adults in the USA. An edition for adults came out later in the UK.

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  11. Top 10 Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years

    I am including only one book from each author; otherwise, I would include more Freddy books, and I would include both Runaway Alice and Ready-Made Family by Francis Solomon Murphy. As I was quite an avid reader when I was a child and an adolescent, I found it rather difficult to choose only ten books, and am omitting several books which I truly enjoyed. In addition, as we can list only books from the last 100 years, I had to leave out several favorites, such as Little Women, and its sequels such as Little Men and Jo’s Boys, and others written by Louisa May Alcott, such as Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, and An Old-Fashioned Girl. Because we were limited to the last 100 years, I also had to leave out the Anne of Green Gables books, Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Further Chronicles of Rebecca, The Birds’ Christmas Carol, and Mother Carey’s Chickens, Peter Rabbit, the Fairy Caravan, and others by Beatrix Potter, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and The Wizard of Oz books.

    1. Freddy the Detective by Walter R. Brooks. I also liked Freddy and the Bean Home News, Freddy the Pied Piper, Freddy Goes to Florida, and Freddy Goes to the North Pole.
    2. All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor. (I chose All-of-a-Kind Family, the first book in the series, although I also liked All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown. What I liked about this book was that the children went to their local public library every week, just as I did. They went every Friday afternoon, after school, while I went every Saturday morning.)
    3. The Golden Name Day by Jennie D. Lindquist. (I enjoyed reading this book as well as its two sequels. I especially enjoyed The Little Crystal Tree, although I also liked The Little Silver House.)
    4. B for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood. (I think that my favorite books in this series are Betsy and the Circus, Eddie and Gardenia, and Penny and Peter.)
    5. Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. (Actually, my favorite books in this series are Betsy and Joe, where Betsy finally won the essay contest, Betsy Was a Junior, where Betsy decides not to join a sorority, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown because of the opera.)
    6. Bonifacius the Green by Karin Anckarsvard. (I also liked the sequel to this, which is Bonifacius and Little Bonnie. Before reading this book, I hadn’t thought of a dragon having a spouse and children. I also liked the three mystery adventures of Michael and Cecelia, and Doctor’s Boy by this author.)
    7. The Seven Stone which was also published as Maggie in the Middle by Mary Frances Shura. In this book, a new girl named Tillie, who has long, dark hair and wears long skirts, joins a classroom. She performs better in the class than the other classmates, who mostly have short blond hair, and wins a spelling bee, which annoys the teacher. Maggie feels caught between the girls of her class and Tillie, but eventually stands up for her.
    8. Runaway Alice by Frances Solomon Murphy. I also enjoyed Ready-Made Family by this author. Alice is an orphan who keeps running away from the homes in which she has been placed because she is often abused. In one home, a woman has a daughter who is the same age as Alice, and this woman tells Alice to make this girl’s bed every morning. Alice is expected to be a personal servant in some of the homes in which she has been placed.
    9. Stars for Cristy by Mabel Leigh Hunt. This was another book about a girl who went to the library frequently. She received a star for each book from the library that she read. Most people are familiar with The Girl with Seven Names or Lucinda, a Girl of 1860 by this author, but I liked Stars for Cristy best of all.
    10. Amy Moves In by Marilyn Sachs. I enjoyed all of this author’s books, including Laura’s Luck, Amy and Laura, and the books about Veronica Ganz, Peter, Marv, and Mary Rose. I especially liked The Bears’ House and Fran Ellen’s House.

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    Replies
    1. Yesterday evening, when I was posting this, I became rather enthusiastic about creating a list of my favorite books. I created a list of The Top 50 Children's Books of the Last 100 Years. After I wrote the list, I perused it carefully, and realized that I had omitted a couple of my favorites, even though I selected fifty books. I tried to post the list here on the blog, but it contained too many characters. I could probably create a list of my favorite one thousand children’s books from the last 100 years, and still not include every book which I truly enjoyed. Here on the blog page, the deadline for creating a list of The Top 10 Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years is listed as being March 1, while in the printed version of The Bean Home News which I received in the mail, the deadline is listed as April 1.

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    2. Technically, these books are not really listed in any specific order, although my list is numbered.

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