SLJ's Top 100 Chapter Books 2012

Readers always love checking off book lists. Well, I certainly do. Fuse # 8 is a fabulous blog about children's books coming out of New York. Each year for the past few years Elizabeth Bird has organised polls of readers, and created Top 100 Chapter Book and Top 100 Picture Book Lists. 

My take on last years list can be found here. I'd only read 28/100 when it first came out, which is a bit demoralising. I've clawed my way up to 34/100 now. 

This years list looked somewhat different and I was hopeful for a better result. 


The books I've read are in RED.

#1 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White (1952)

#2 A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle (1962)

#3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling (1997)

#4 The Giver - Lois Lowry (1993) (see my review)

#5 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (1950)

#6 Holes - Louis Sachar (1998) (see my review)

#7 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg (1967) (see my review)

#8 Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery (1908)

#9 The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin (1978)

#10 Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson (1977)

#11 When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead (2009)

#12 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling (1999)

#13 The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner (1997)

#14 The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (1938) (see my review)

#15 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911) (see my review)

#16 Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt (1975) (see my review)

#17 Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh (1964) (see my review)

#18 The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander (1964)

#19 Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932)

#20 Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo (2000)

#21 The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster (1961)

#22 The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper (1973)

#23 Hatchet - Gary Paulsen (1989) (see my review)

#24 Ramona the Pest - Beverly Cleary (1968)

#25 The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)

#26 Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne (1926)

#27 Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1935)

#28 The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman (1995)

#29 The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy - Jeanne Birdsall (2005)

#30 Matilda - Roald Dahl (1988)

#31 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1865)

#32 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred Taylor (1976) (see my review)

#33 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O’Brien (1971)

#34 Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls (1961)

#35 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume (1972)

#36 The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare (1958)

#37 The Wednesday Wars - Gary D. Schmidt (2007)

#38 Frindle - Andrew Clements (1996)

#39 The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick (2007) (see my review)

#40 Maniac Magee - Jerry Spinelli (1990)

#41 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum (1900)

#42 Gone-Away Lake - Elizabeth Enright (1957)

#43 Jacob Have I Loved - Katherine Paterson (1980)

#44 Okay for Now - Gary D. Schmidt (2011)

#45 Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O’Dell (1960) (see my review)

#46 The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990)

#47 Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (1868)

#48 The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket (1999)

#49 My Father’s Dragon - Ruth Stiles Gannett (1948)

#50 Number the Stars - Lois Lowry (1989)

#51 The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, A Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread - Kate DiCamillo (2003) (see my review)

#52 Betsy-Tacy - Maud Hart Lovelace (1940)

#53 The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (2008) (see my review)

#54 Half Magic - Edward Eager (1954)

#55 All-of-a-Kind Family - Sydney Taylor (1951)

#56 A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)

#57 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (1962) (see my review)

#58 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome (1930) (see my review)

#59 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo (2006)

#60 Bud, Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis (1999)

#61 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (1964)

#62 Clementine - Sara Pennypacker (2006)

#63 The Great Gilly Hopkins - Katherine Paterson (1978)

#64 The Twenty-One Balloons - William Pene du Bois (1947)

#65 Wonder - R.J. Palacio (2012) (see my review)

#66 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate - Jacqueline Kelly (2009)

#67 A Long Way from Chicago - Richard Peck (1998)

#68 The High King - Lloyd Alexander (1968)

#69 The Ruins of Gorlan - John Flanagan (2006)

#70 Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech (1994)

#71 Each Little Bird That Sings - Deborah Wiles (2005)

#72 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Grace Lin (2009)

#73 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Barbara Robinson (1972)

#74 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret - Judy Blume (1970) (see my review)

#75 The Saturdays - Elizabeth Enright (1941)

#76 Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney (2007)

#77 My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George (1959) (see my review)

#78 Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild (1936) (see my review)

#79 The Egypt Game - Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1967)

#80 The Four-Story Mistake - Elizabeth Enright (1942)

#81 The Witches - Roald Dahl (1983) (see my review)

#82 The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden (1960)

#83 Ozma of Oz - Frank L. Baum (1907)

#84 The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940)

#85 Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine (1997)

#86 Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie (1911)

#87 The Strange Case of Origami Yoda - Tom Angleberger (2010)

#88 The BFG - Roald Dahl (1982)

#89 The Mouse and the Motorcycle - Beverly Cleary (1967)

#90 The Children of Green Knowe - L.M. Boston (1954)

#91 Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren (1950) (see my review)

#92 Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen (2001)

#93 Journey to the River Sea - Eva Ibbotson (2001)

#94 Ramona and her Father - Beverly Cleary (1977)

#95 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)

#96 The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis (1954)

#97 The Diamond in the Window - Jane Langton (1962)

#98 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling (2000)

#99 The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner (1942)

#100 Love That Dog - Sharon Creech (2001)

36/100
Getting better, but still plenty of room to improve. 

March 2013 update, have surged forward to 38/100. Clearly Holes is a large gap, dare I say hole in my reading. 

September 2014 40/100, I have plugged my Holes hole, and now have only 60 more to go. 

September 2015 42/100.

December 44/100

October 2016 46/100

May 2017 47/100

June 2017 48/100