Friday, 6 March 2015

50 Books That Every Child Should Read by 16

Another excellent list of must read books, this one generated by a survey of 2,000 readers by Sainsburys for World Book Day 2015.

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

2. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

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

4. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

5. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell



6. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

7. The BFG - Roald Dahl

8. A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond (see my review)

9. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

11. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

12. Matilda - Roald Dahl

13. The Railway Children - E. Nesbit

14. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

15. Five on a Treasure Island - Enid Blyton

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

17. The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

18. The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

19. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

20. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

21. Watership Down - Richard Adams (see my review)

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

23. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

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

25. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend

26. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens



27. The Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss

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

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

30. The Twits - Roald Dahl

31. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

32. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

33. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

34. The Tiger Who Came to Tea - Judith Kerr

35. Green Eggs and Ham - Dr Seuss

36. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

37. Bambi - Felix Selten

38. Tom's Midnight Garden - Phillipa Pearce (see my review)

39. Little House on the Prairire - Laura Ingalls Wilder

40. Funny Bones - Janet and Allan Ahlberg

41. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

42. Carrie's War - Nina Bawden

43. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

44. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

45. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

46. The Story of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting

47. The Story of Tracy Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson



48. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (see my review)

49. Curious George - Margaret and H.A. Rey

50. Each Peach Pear Plum - Janet and Allan Ahlberg

32/50 not bad, although I'm just past 16.

I think it's delightful that Roald Dahl has 5 entries- i.e. 10% of the books. It seems only fitting.

July 2015 33/50.

June 2018 34/50

4 comments:

  1. I love your lists Louise, although I still can't believe you haven't read Winnie the Pooh!!

    Black beauty & Railway Children & Little House on the Prairie are treats to look forward too :-)

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  2. I know Brona- I have some rather large gaps in my reading. I do suspect that I may have read Black Beauty as a child, and maybe Winnie the Pooh too, but I really don't remember them, so I don't count them. I have so much left to read- we all do.

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  3. I enjoyed looking at the list of books for children and adolescents, but it does not look very diversified, as the authors are mostly Anglophone? I like my grandchildren to already read books translated from the French, Italian, German or Chinese even though the oldest is 8 years old. I am surprised that Le Petit Prince of St Exupery is not included in the list, as the fairy tales by Perrault or Grimm, and even Balzac and Victor Hugo wrote for children. What about Jules Verne or Alexandre Dumas? I believe by age 16 a child should have read at least a fantastic tale by Jules Verne, but maybe I am wrong, and only English writers should be on the list. Although it seems to me that for growing adolescents (and even adults) foreign literature should be included to obtain a well-rounded view of the world.

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  4. You're quite right Vagabonde, it's really not a diverse list. It's a British list, and rather Anglophone centric. I think Anne Frank and Bambi are the only translations that I recognise. I agree that children should read as diversely as they can. I just like book lists- they can't all be perfect, but I do find them fascinating.

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