Kitoba's Favorite Childrens' Books

• "Where the Wild Things Are" - Maurice Sendak. Max gets sent to his room without supper, so he escapes to a fantastic land where he can be king of the wild things.
  
  
• "The Snowy Day" - Ezra Jack Keats. Peter takes a walk through the snow. The first mainstream picture book with a black hero.
  
  
• "Bread & Jam for Frances" - Russell & Lillian Hoban. Frances knows what she likes, and likes what she knows.

• "A Visit to William Blake's Inn" - Nancy Williard, Alice & Martin Provensen. This book received the Newbury Medal AND a Caldecott Honor Award back in 1982.
  
  
• "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" - T.S. Elliot

• "My Side of the Mountain" - Jean Craighead George. You can't really enjoy this one as much after you grow up, but when you're the right age it's an all-time adventure classic.
  
  
• "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" - E.L. Konigsburg. What's not to love in a book about hiding out in a museum?

• "Higglety Pigglety Pop" - Maurice Sendak. A fable about a dog, a mop and a lion. Oh, and a whole lot of sandwiches.
  
  
• "Sylvie & Bruno" - Lewis Carroll. This is one of the most oddest and most inventive books ever written.
  
  
• "The Snarkout Boys & the Avocado of Death" - Daniel Manus Pinkwater. Pinkwater is the king of bizarre. Here is one of his most satisfying stories, about two friends who sneak out after dark in order to fight -- well -- an avocado.
  
  
• "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" - Joan Aiken. If you like the Lemony Snicket stories, I suggest you keep an eye out for this dark and spooky novel set in an alternate-universe England.
  
  
• Son of Interflux - Gordon Korman. This book is for teenagers. It's about a guy who wants to be an artist, but his dad wants him to be a businessman. Meanwhile, he's secretly started an organization at school to fight against his dad's corporation. I didn't describe it very well, but it's a truly funny book. Keep an eye out for Querada.
  
  
• "The Phantom Tollbooth" - Norton Juster. How does Milo end up in an odd world filled with belligerent letters, emotional numbers & obnoxious figures of speech? And why do they keep fighting? Never mind, just go along for the ride.
  
  
• "The Mouse and His Child" - Russell Hoban. A mouse will rise, a rat will fall, and Hoban will make my list again (in a second category) with this epic myth about two clockwork mice.
  
  
• "Figgs & Phantoms" - Ellen Raskin. Words can't explain how odd this book is. The author also wrote "The Westing Game".

• "Harry Potter" - J.K. Rowling Of course, these world-famous books about a young wizard hardly need any introduction (or additional publicity, for that matter) but there's no denying their magical appeal and page-turning addictiveness.
  
  
• FEATURED AUTHOR -E. Nesbit: Children's literature owes a big debt of thanks to Nesbit, who invented the modern British children's fantasy, where realistic children interact with magical objects in an everyday world. She did it first, and she may have done it best. Without her, there would be no C.S. Lewis, no "Mary Poppins", no DWJ and no J.K. Rowling.
  
  
  • "The Magic City". This is my favorite, about an unhappy boy who escapes into a magical world of his own creation.
    
    
  • "Five Children & It ".
    
    
  • "The Phoenix and the Carpet".
  
  
  
• FEATURED AUTHOR -Diana Wynne Jones: DWJ is one of my most favorite authors. Her books are imaginative, full of magic, and often hilarious. She's written about a hundred books. Not all of them are good... but you can't go wrong with the ones on this list!
  
  
  • "Archer's Goon". A hysterically funny book about a boy who slowly realizes that his town is being controlled by seven egocentric wizards.
    
    
  • "Cart & Cwidder". One of DWJ's most poetic books, about a fantasy land split by a civil war.
    
    
  • "Witch Week". Like at Hogwarts, the children at this school all have magic powers. But in this book, they're all desperate to hide their secret!
    
    
  • "Homeward Bounders". A dark book for older readers. An outcast dimensional traveler fights against the evil gamers that control the worlds.
    
    
  • "Power of Three". Unusual, in that the human characters only play minor roles. The story features young nature spirits trying to stop the war between their clans, and to heal the curse on the surrounding land in the process.
    
    
  • "The Ogre Downstairs". The first DWJ I ever read. Three children try to cope with the mayhem caused by a magic chemistry set, while battling it out with their new stepfather and stepbrothers.
  
  
  
• "The Silver Chair "- C.S. Lewis. This is my favorite out of the Narnia series: honorable mentions going to "The Horse & His Boy" and "The Magician's Nephew".
  
  
• "The Vanishing Garden" AKA "Travelling Magic" - Elisabeth Beresford This one isn't in print any more, which is a shame. It's about a garden with the ability to move people through space and time, and the time-traveling wizard who visits from the past. An unusual combination of lighthearted fantasies and sorrowful realities. The author is better known (at least in the UK) for her popular "Wombles" series.
  
  
• "The Neverending Story" - Michael Ende. It's too bad that most people know this book only through the terrible movie. This is one of the most deep and most true books that I know. I reread this one often and it keeps telling me new things about life.

• "The Arabian Nights" AKA "A Thousand And One Nights" If you've read my book "How the Fisherman Tricked the Genie" then you know that I'm a big fan of the Arabian Nights, the best ever collection of magical stories. Includes "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", "Dhuban the Doctor" and "Sindbad the Sailor."
  
  
• "Ears and Tails and Common Sense" - Sir Phillip Sherlock. A lighthearted look at some funny and some spooky tales from the Caribbean, with an original frame story.
  
  
• "The Little Swineherd and other Stories" - Paula Fox. Fox is best known for her award winning book "The Slave Dancer", but this collection is her real underrated gem. The individual stories are moving, thought-provoking and completely entertaining, and the frame story --featuring a storytelling swan and a duck who thinks he's a talent agent --is completely unforgettable.
  
  
• "Myths and Legends of the Swahili" - Jan Knappert. Master storytellers from the east coast of Africa tell Arab-influenced stories, as collected, edited and translated by premiere folklorist Jan Knappert. Hard to find in the U.S.A.

• "This Boy Cody" - Leon Wilson.This one is hard to find, but worth it. The sunny adventures of a boy growing up in the Appalachian mountains.
  
  
• "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" - Betty Smith. Even though teachers love it, it's still a great book.
  
  
• "Bud, not Buddy" - Christopher Paul Curtis. This is the newest book on my list. It's a Newbury and Coretta Scott King award-winner about an orphan searching for his musician father.
  
  
• "The Secret Garden" - Frances Hodgson Burnett. A genuine classic about two unhappy children and the garden that redeems them.
  
  
• "The Great Brain" series - John Fitzgerald. Gently comic stories about an underaged con-man and his hapless victim/brother. Set in the late 1800's and based on the author's real-life brother.
  
  
• "Little House in the Big Woods" - Laura Ingalls Wilder. I hesitated to include the "Little House" series on this list because it's already so well known. But of course, the reason it's well known is because it's very good. The real-life story of a pioneer family.

• "Dustland" - Virginia Hamilton. This trilogy ("Dustland" is the middle book) is the only children's science fiction series (that I know of) written by a black author and featuring black characters. Justice (and her brothers) travel to a strange future universe and fight against a mysterious evil. Hamilton was the most honored American children's book author ever --and a fellow Ohioan.
  
  
• "Dragonsong" / "Dragonsinger"- Anne McCaffrey. A lyrical pair of books about a young girl who wants to be a musician on a planet full of dragons. NOTE: The other books in the same series were not written for children.
  
  
• "A Wrinkle In Time" - Madeline L'Engle. Awkward teenager Meg, child prodigy Charles Wallace, and school outcast Calvin O'Keefe warp time and space to save Meg's dimension-hopping father -- and maybe the universe.