Showing posts with label must-reads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label must-reads. Show all posts

Thursday, January 14, 2010

What Are Your Numbers?

In a post with the label, "I'm So Going to Hell", Editorial Anonymous a year ago (December 2008, actually) outlined a number of must-reads for each category of children's writing. I'm reprinting the list, because I'm curious how my numbers stack up. Each line is worth one book (sometimes she mentions a series). Here's the list:

PICTURE BOOKS

1. All the fairy tales (Grimm, Anderson, etc),
2. and you wouldn't go wrong reading the works of the Opies.
3. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
4. Amelia Bedelia
5. The Big Orange Splot
6. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See
7. The Cat in the Hat
8. Click Clack Moo
9. Curious George
10. Dr. De Soto
11. Fancy Nancy (Ed. Anon. says: I choke on this book, but you must know about it)
12. Frederick (or possibly Swimmy; something by Lionni)
13. Frog and Toad (Lobel)
14. The Giving Tree
15. Love You Forever
16. Good Night Gorilla
17. Goodnight Moon
18. Harold and the Purple Crayon
19. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
20. Knuffle Bunny (and frankly you wouldn't go wrong reading the whole Willems oeuvre)
21. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse
22. Little Bear (Minarik)
23. The Little Engine That Could
24. Madeline
25. Make Way for Ducklings
26. Miss Nelson Is Missing
27. No, David!
28. The Polar Express (and maybe some more Van Allsburg)
29. The Seven Silly Eaters
30. Show Way
31. The Stinky Cheese Man (and Other Fairly Stupid Tales)
32. The Story of Babar
33. Strega Nona
34. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
35. The Tale of Peter Rabbit
36. The Three Pigs
37. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
38. We're Going on a Bear Hunt
39. Where the Wild Things Are
40. William's Doll
41. Winnie the Pooh


MIDDLE GRADE

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
2. Alabama Moon
3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
4. Anne of Green Gables
5. Are You There God It's Me Margaret
6. The Bad Beginning
7. The Black Cauldron
8. The Bridge to Terabithia
9. Catherine Called Birdy
10. Charlotte's Web
11. (and probably also The Trumpet of the Swan
12. and Stuart Little)
13. Coraline
14. Danny Champion of the World (or maybe The Witches-- at least something by Dahl)
15. Ender's Game
16. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler
17. The Giver
18. Harry Potter
19. Hatchet
20. Holes
21. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
22. Island of the Blue Dolphins
23. Julie of the Wolves
24. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
25. Little House in the Big Woods
26. A Long Way From Chicago
27. Ordinary Jack
28. Out of the Dust
29. Over Sea, Under Stone
30. Penderwicks
31. The Phantom Tollbooth
32. Ramona Quimby, Age 8
33. Saffy's Angel (or something by McKay, dammit)
34. The Search for Delicious (or maybe Tuck Everlasting)
35. The Tale of Despereaux
36. The Toys Go Out
37. The Watsons Go to Birmingham
38. The Wee Free Men
39. The White Mountains
40. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
41. The Westing Game

YOUNG ADULT

1. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
2. American Born Chinese
3. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
4. The Book Thief
5. Catcher in the Rye
6. The Diary of Anne Frank
7. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
8. Dreamhunter
9. The Ear The Eye and the Arm
10. The Golden Compass
11. The Hero and the Crown
12. Homecoming
13. I Am the Cheese
14. King Dork
15. The King of Attolia
16. Looking for Alaska
17. Lord of the Flies
18. The Lord of the Rings
19. Monster
20. A Northern Light
21. The Outsiders
22. The Rules of Survival
23. Sold
24. Speak
25. To Kill a Mockingbird
26. Ok, Twilight, but for reference purposes. Feel free to read half of it.
27. Watership Down
28. A Wrinkle in Time

My numbers?

Picture Books: 30 out of 41
Middle Grade: a sad 15 out of 41
Young Adult: 9 1/2 out of 28 (I'm halfway through The Book Thief)


And, my must-read list grows and grows...


So, what are your numbers, and what books would you add/remove to/from her list?