Wednesday 13 March 2013

50 Must Read Kids Books

I love a good (book) list me, although I'm not a list maker in real life.

This list appeared last weekend in my Sunday paper, these 50 books were selected from the titles of the NSW Board of Studies for the K-10 Syllabus.



Books I've read are in red.


Kindy to Year 6 (roughly ages 5 - 12)

Koala Lou - Mem Fox

Outside over There - Maurice Sendak

Possum Magic - Mem Fox

The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr Seuss

The Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Boy - Roald Dahl

Matilda - Roald Dahl

The BFG - Roald Dahl

Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

The Magic Pudding - Norman Lindsay

13/14 93% (best result ever in a booklist for me!)



Years 5 to 7 (roughly ages 10-12)

The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig

Hiroshima - John Hersey

I Can Jump Puddles - Alan Marshall

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank (see my review)

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien (see my review)


1/5 20%

Jan 2014 now 2/5 40%


Years 7 to 10 (roughly ages 12-16)

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

For the Term of his Natural Life - Marcus Clarke

Ring of Bright Water - Gavin Maxwell

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (see my review)

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Silas Marner - George Eliot

My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin

A Fortunate Life - Albert Facey

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Watership Down - Richard Adams (see my review)

The Kon-Tiki Expedition - Thor Heyerdahl

Z for Zachariah - Robert C O'Brien

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh - Robert C O'Brien

Goodnight Mr Tom - Michelle Magorian

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O'Dell (see my review)

The Cay - Theodore Taylor (see my review)

Storm Boy - Colin Thiele

Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park (see my review)

Lord of the Flies - William Golding (see my review)

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (see my review)

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

My Brother Jack - George Johnston

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S Lewis

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Getting of Wisdom - Henry Handel Richardson

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Animal Farm - George Orwell


16/ 31 51%
making a somewhat respectable 29/50, or 58% overall, which is vastly better than I usually do with a list.

Jan 2014 now 17/31 55% (31/50, 62% overall)

As with any list there are some controversies. 4 Roald Dahl? He is a genius, it's true. And I think The BFG is one of my favourite books ever. But still 4? I do like that there are a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Some I haven't heard of before, most notably The Endless Steppe, Hiroshima and Ring of Bright Water.

Of the books that I've read, I'm not sure that I'd include Wind in the Willows, Watership Down or The Old Man and the Sea in a top 50. There aren't really any recent Australian titles for the older children, which is shameful. Some books of these books are also in my 1001 quest, so I shall be reading them anyway. But otherwise I guess my TBR just swelled by 21 more titles.

Sunday Telegraph 10/3/2013

6 comments:

MedicatedMoo said...

Mine: 13/14; 2/5; 19/31

Louise said...

That's mighty impressive Kath, although somewhat demoralising at the same time.... I should remember reading is not a competitive sport shouldn't I?

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Love to see lists of books we must read. Always prompts me to add a couple of books to my wishlist and then to my TBR. Sigh.

bermudaonion said...

You definitely must read The Diary of a Young Girl before visiting Amsterdam. That book had a huge impact on me when I read it as a youngster.

Susan said...

I did better on the older kids' books than on the young ones. I wonder what criteria they used to choose when there are so many wonderful kids books out there. So many more to add to my list- I'm going to need some grandkids to read to.

Swan Pond said...

It'd be a very literary Aussie 12 year old who has read Silas Marner! Rebecca seems ambitious for that age group as well. Interesting collection. I wish I had time for fiction...

Megan