Rarest Kind of Best

Classic Books: for Ages 8+

Again, this is an ongoing list, so keep checking back for updates. And again, like the 5+ version, this list has an arbitrary cut-off date of 1970.

c550 – Aesop’s Fables, Aesop
c1400 – Arabian Nights, unknown
1812 – The Swiss Family Robinson, Johann D. Wyss
1843 – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
1865 – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll – Also: Through the Looking-Glass
1876 – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain – Also: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1877 – Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
1883 – Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson – Also: Kidnapped
1883 – Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi
1899 The Story of the Treasure Seekers, E. Nesbit – Also: Five Children and It
1908 – The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
1908 – Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maude Montgomery
1911 – Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
1911 – The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett – Also: A Little Princess
1920, 1922 – The Story of Doctor Dolittle and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting
1934 – Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers
1937 – The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
1937 – The Red Pony, John Steinbeck
1938 – The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White (this later became part of the longer book The Once and Future King)
1943 – The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1945 Stuart Little, E. B. White
1950 – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis – Also: rest of Chronicles of Narnia series
1952 The Borrowers, Mary Norton
1958 – Tom’s Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
1961 – James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl – Also: Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG
1961 The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
1962 – A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
1964 – Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
1968 – The Iron Man, Ted Hughes

additional titles

1807 Tales from Shakespeare, Charles & Mary Lamb
1816 The Nutcracker and Other Tales, E. T. A. Hoffmann
1863 The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley
1872 The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
1881 Uncle Remus Stories, Joel Chandler Harris
1887 The Canterville Ghost, Oscar Wilde – Also: The Happy Prince
1907 Cautionary Tales for Children, Hilaire Belloc
1907 Arséne Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar, Maurice Leblanc
1924 The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner
1929 Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kästner
1930 Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
1935 The Box of Delights, John Masefield
1936 Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfeild
1937 The Adventures of the Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
1939 Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T. S. Eliot
1941 The Black Stallion, Walter Farley
1942 The Little Grey Men, B.B.
1944 The Hundred Dresses, Eleanor Estes
1944 Rabbit Hill, Robert Lawson
1946 Mistress Masham’s Repose, T. H. White
1950 The Thirteen Clocks, James Thurber
1954 Half Magic, Edward Eager
1954 A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas
1955 Little Bookroom, Eleanor Farjeon
1956 Old Yeller, Fred Gipson
1956 The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Dodie Smith
1960 The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden
1961 The Incredible Journey, Sheila Burnford
1962 D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire – Also: D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Gods
1964 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Fleming
1964 Nurse Matilda, Christianna Brand
1967 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E. L. Konigsburg