Essential Girl’s Book List

• House that Jack Built, by J.P. Miller
• Mr. Pine’s Purple House, by Leonard P. Kessler
• A is for Annabelle, by Tasha Tudor
• Little Red Hen, by Diane Muldrow
• The Gingerbread Boy, Paul Galdone
• Little Drummer Boy (all song books), by Ezra Jack Keats
• The Mitten, by Jan Brett
• Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney
• Officer Buckle and Gloria, by Peggy Rathmann
• The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
• The Golden Egg Book, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Home for Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
• First Prayers and First Graces, by Tasha Tudor
• Corduroy, written and illustrated by Don Freeman,
• Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
• Baby Dear, by Esther and Eloise Wilkin
• The Sunflower Garden, by Janice May Udry
• The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton
• Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney
• Maybelle the Cable Car, by Virginia Lee Burton
• Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton
• The Quilt Story, by Tony Johnston and Tomie dePaola
• The Story of Old Befana, by Tomie dePaola
• Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola
• The Seven Silly Eaters, by Mary Ann Hoberman
• Madeline books, by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Peter and Lotta’s Adventures, by Elsa Beskow
• A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Cautionary Tales and Other Verses (includes Bad Child’s Book of Beasts and More Beasts for Worse Children), by Hilaire Belloc
• The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear
• Just Plain Fancy, by Patricia Polacco
• Flicka, Ricka and Dicka series, by Maj Lindemann
• Chester’s Way, by Kevin Henkes
• How to make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman
• Pancakes, Pancakes!, by Eric Carle
• Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban
• Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen
• Roxaboxen, by Alice McLerran
• Hubert’s Hair Raising Adventure, by Bill Peet
• House is a House for Me, by Mary Ann Hoberman
• Sarah Somebody, by Florence Slobodkin
• Nurse Matilda, by Christianna Brand
• A New Coat for Anna, by Harriet Ziefert
• The Wounded Duck, by Peter Barnhart
• Marguerite Makes a Book, by Bruce Robertson and Kathryn Hewitt
• Christina Katerina and the Box, by Patricia Lee Gauch
• Amelia Bedeila books, by Peggy Parish
• Raggedy Anne and Andy books, by Johnny Gruelle
• Marcella: A Raggedy Anne Story, by Johnny Gruelle
• Mrs. Twiggly’s Tree, by Dorothea Warren Fox
• Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, by Bernard Waber
• Katy. No Pocket, by Emmy Payne
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss
• Pickle Chiffon Pie, by Jolly Roger Bradfield
• Doctor DeSoto, by William Steig
• Monkey and the Crocodile, by Paul Galdone
• Ant and the Elephant, by Bill Peet
• One Morning in Maine, by Robert McCloskey
• Cinderella (Galdone), by Paul Galdone
• Frances books, by Russell Hoban
• Rumplestiltskin (Galdone), by Paul Galdone
• Mother Goose, by Tomie DePaolo
• Chanticleer and the Fox, by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Prairie School, by Avi
• Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
• Nutcracker, by E. T. A. Hoffman
• Rapunzel, by Paul O. Zelinsky
• The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong
• King Midas and the Golden Touch, by Charlotte Craft and Kinuko Y. Craft
• Christmas Oranges, by Linda Bethers and Ben Sowards
• Little House series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
• The Children of Noisy Village, by Astrid Lindgren
• A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes
• The Cabin Faced West, by Jean Fritz
• Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild
• Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
• Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
• Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
• Dog Diaries series, by Kate Klimo
• Happy Hollisters series, by Jerry West
• Boxcar Children series (originals), by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• The Wizard of Oz, by Frank L. Baum
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
• Mary Frances books, by Jane Fryer
• The Green Ember, by S. D. Smith
• Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White
• The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen
• Heidi, by Johanna Spyri
• The Blue Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang
• Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary and Jacqueline Rogers
• The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen and Vladyslav Yerko
• The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit
• The Story of the Treasure Seekers, by Edith Nesbit
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson
• The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright
• Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by T.S. Eliot
• The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie, by George MacDonald
• The Mitchell series and The Bantry Bay series, by Hilda van Stockum
• Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Gone Away series, by Elisabeth Enright
• Stuart Little, by E. B. White
• Lady Grace Mysteries, by Patricia Finney and Jan Burchett
• Elsie Dinsmore series, by Martha Finley
• Cherry Ames series, by Helen Wells and Julie Campbell Tatham
• Nancy Drew Mysteries (originals), by Carolyn Keene
• The Light Princess, by George MacDonald
• Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
• Mary Poppins, by Robert Stevenson
• Good Queen Bess, by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
• Strawberry Hill, by Mary Ann Hoberman
• The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by Julie Andrews Edwards
• Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo
• Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
• Lad (and all his other collie stories), by A Terhune
• When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, The House at Pooh Corner, and Winnie-the-Pooh, by AA Milne
• Treasury for Children, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All by James Herriot
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Allan Dwan
• The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
• Betsy Tacy series, by Maud Hart Lovelace
• Daughter of the Mountains, by Louise S. Rankin
• Blue Willow, by Doris Gates
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
• Milly-Molly-Mandy, by Joyce Lankester Brisley
• Texas Tomboy, by Lois Lenski
• The Search for Delicious, by Natalie Babbitt
• Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien and Zena Bernstein
• Rare Treasure, by Don Brown
• Little Mommy, by Sharon Kane
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
• Young Pioneers, by Rose Wilder Lane
• Mother, by Kathleen Norris
• Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare
• The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, by Maria von Trapp
• Silas Marner, by George Eliot
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• Middlemarch, by George Eliot
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
• My Antonia, by Willa Cather
• The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom
• Great Expectations, Hard Times, by Charles Dickens
• Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens

To find titles geared towards the boy, Martin’s Essential Boys books list will do the trick!