The Best Children’s Books of All Time

This beautifully poetic book shows children all about the power and history of names, and how names can be magical. In the back of the book there’s even a glossary with the meaning and origin of the names mentioned in the story. We all can remember the first time we saw our name in a book — and if we never have, we remember that, too. This book reminds us why our names matter.

This was the first color picture book to have a Black main character, and Keats did come under fire for doing so, since he is a white Jewish man. Prior to this book, the children’s books that hade a Black main character many times had negative stereotypes in them. First published in 1962, this book still makes countless children’s winter reading lists.

I first learned about this book via Instagram, and since then, have seen it on more and more accounts. It won the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award, was a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, and has won countless other honors and awards. The illustrations are gorgeous, and this is a touching story based on Morales’ story about coming to the U.S.

Ruby dreams of going to university when she grows up, not of getting married. Because her family encourages both boys and girls to follow their dreams, she gets to do so — and becomes the first Chinese woman in her generation to go to college. Based on Bridges’s own grandmother, this is an inspiring story of breaking stereotypes and following one’s dreams.

Disability rep in children’s books has long been lacking, and this picture book is a recent one that is also gaining popularity. It was a NYT Best Children’s Book of the Year and won the Schneider Family Book Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. This story about a boy who stutters is quietly powerful and accepting, with an author’s note about his own experience.

This book has quickly grown in popularity, and for good reason given the beautiful illustrations, the timely message about water and the environment, and the accessible way it’s written. It won the 2021 Caldecott Medal as well. I can see this in the children’s canon for a long time to come.

I didn’t remember my teacher ever telling me that this was a quintet, so when I found that out when I worked in a children’s bookstore during grad school nearly 25 years later, I was ecstatic to read the others. Is the religion a bit heavy-handed? Yes. But who doesn’t love reading that first line, “It was a dark and stormy night…?” This is a classic children’s lit title, and I wonder how many fantasy readers it has inspired.

I will always, always, always suggest this first book in the series about a young Ojibwa girl and her family to people as an alternative to Little House books. They’re better written, more engaging, and have similar themes of family, work, and survival. (And it’s more historically accurate.) It was a finalist for the National Book Award for young people’s fiction in 1999.

This book was the first book from a mainstream publisher that highlighted Jewish children and a Jewish family. This is the first book in the series, which details the adventures of a group of siblings and their parents in New York shortly before WWI. Penny candy, cleaning games, trips to the library — what could be better?

This book, a Pura Belpré Award winner and an ALA Notable Children’s Book, among other honors and awards, tells the story of a young boy, Neftalí, who later became Pablo Neruda. A beautifully crafted book threaded with magical realism, this is a great introduction to Muñoz Ryan’s writing, as well as to Neruda.

This Newbery Honor novel is a sweet book without being too saccharine, about a young girl, Opal, who meets a dog in a grocery store one day. But that dog — named Winn-Dixie because of said grocery store — helps Opal in ways she never expected, including encouraging her to ask her dad about the mother who left when she was just a toddler.

This National Book Award winner and Newbery Honor novel is the story of Woodson’s childhood in the ’60s and ’70s, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement. Told in verse, this engaging book also shares her struggle with reading and her love of writing and stories. It’s a story about figuring out who you are, and one that children will love for years to come.

Okay, this is a really recent book on this list, how can it be one of the best kids books of all time? This is one of the books that, to me, signifies hope for the future of children’s literature. It won the Newbery, as well as the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature. It’s a beautiful story inspired by Korean folklore about the power stories hold and what we will do for those we love.

Okay, I mean, who didn’t read and reread this book, and then pretend to spy on people when they were little? No? Just me? This classic story illustrates the impact that words can have, and fellow Rioter P.N. Hinton wrote an excellent piece about it here.

This was one of the series to read when I was a kid, and they’ve been reprinted, which brings me a lot of joy. The first book was originally published in 1979, set in contemporary Boston, and finds precocious 10-year-old Anastasia writing in her journal about her life and daily struggles. I can see how the stories of Anastasia’s everyday life influenced subsequent middle grade and YA books about characters’ ordinary lives where nothing special happens, but they’re fascinating to read nonetheless.