I am putting together a list of 42 excellent children’s books (one for each student) for my Child Studies course next semester.

I am looking for books suitable for children between the ages of 8 and 12 – “chapter books” rather than picture books.  I’d also like them to be less contemporary books, books that my students are not likely to have encountered on their own – so no Harry Potter or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

I’m particularly interested in books that will appeal to boys.  Most books that spontaneously come to my mind are ones that I enjoyed, and my interests were not boyish.  (Don’t get all up in my grill about gender stereotypes, please; anyone who teaches teenagers knows that these things matter.)

Here’s my list so far:

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (possible candidate for the whole-class reading)
• Anne of Green Gables
• Little House on the Prairie
• A Wrinkle in Time
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
• Bridge to Terebithia
• Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing
• Harriet the Spy
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• Swallows and Amazons
• The Railway Children
• The Secret Garden

Do you have suggestions for great kids’ books, especially books that my (mostly non-reading) students are unlikely to have encountered by themselves or through elementary-school reading assignments?  What books did/do you feel kids really must read?

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