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Best Children's Books Most People Haven't Heard of...

Top 10 Best Children's Books Most People Haven't Heard of... : The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, The Children of Green Knowe, Emil and the Detectives, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, The Reluctant Dragon, Paddle-to-the-Sea, Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Vol. 1, The Good Master, Gone-Away Lake

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
AuthorAstrid Lindgren
ISBN0670876127
An enticing, newly illustrated collection of the enduringly popular Pippi stories. Since Pippi Longstocking was first published in 1950, the escapades of the incomparable Pippi,the girl with upside-down braids and no parents to tell her what to do, have delighted boys and girls alike. Now, for the...
The Children of Green Knowe
AuthorLucy M. Boston
ISBN0152024689
L. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century.

There are three children: Toby, who rides the majestic horse Feste; his mischievous little sister, Linnet;...
Emil and the Detectives
AuthorErich Kästner
ISBN0099413124
If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go.

Unfortunately, when his seven pounds goes missing on the train, Emil is determined to get it back - and when he teams up with the detectives he meets in Berlin, it's just the start of...
The Phoenix and the Carpet
AuthorE. Nesbit
That evening, Mother read to them from a book called The Phoenix and the Carpet, which she had had since she was a little girl. Like all the best children's books, it was written to be read aloud; you immediately knew that Mrs. Nesbit had read it aloud to her own children, and every now and then she had put in...
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
AuthorEleanor Cameron
ISBN0316125407
David and Chuck, two young boys living in California, build a backyard spaceship and jet off to the Mushroom Planet to help save that world, with the help of a rather strange but engagingly enthusiastic scientist in their town. Basidium, the so-called Mushroom Planet (because of, yes, all the giant...
The Reluctant Dragon
AuthorKenneth Grahame
In this beloved classic story, a young boy befriends a poetry-loving dragon living in the Downs above his home. When the town-folk send for St. George to slay the dragon, the boy needs to come up with a clever plan to save his friend and convince the townsfolk to accept him. This story first appeared as a...
Paddle-to-the-Sea
AuthorHolling Clancy Holling
ISBN0808551515
I don't think this would make a great bedtime story as it would take about 30-45 minutes to read it aloud at least. It is a full page of text with a full picture. It would make a great first reader book for someone who wants to read a story if they enjoy more history things.

I really enjoyed this book....
Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Vol. 1
AuthorTove Jansson
ISBN1894937805
Moomin Book One is the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly’s publishing plan to reprint the entire strip drawn by Jansson before she handed over the reins to her brother Lars in 1960. This is the first time the strip will be published in any form in North America and will deservedly place Jansson among...
The Good Master
AuthorKate Seredy
Jancsi is overjoyed to hear that his cousin from Budapest is coming to spend the summer on his father's ranch on the Hungarian plains. But their summer proves more adventurous than he had hoped when headstrong Kate arrives, as together they share horseback races across the plains, country fairs and...
Gone-Away Lake
AuthorElizabeth Enright
ISBN0152022724
Summer has a magic all its own.

When Portia sets out for a visit with her cousin Julian, she expects fun and adventure, but of the usual kind: exploring in the woods near Julian's house, collecting stones and bugs, playing games throughout the long, lazy days.

But this summer is different.

On...
The Four-Story Mistake
AuthorElizabeth Enright
ISBN0805070613
Following on from the first book, the Melendy family move from the city to the countryside to live in a house called The Four-Story Mistake. Some of the family were sad to leave New York but soon they all discover the space and the freedom and a whole new load of adventures.

We loved following the...
The Story of the Amulet
AuthorE. Nesbit
ISBN0140367527
At the end of Five Children and It the five children promised not to ask the Psammead for another wish as long as they lived, but expressed a half wish to see it again some time. They find 'it' again in a pet shop in Camden Town, and their magic adventures start over again. 'It' leads them to a magic amulet - half...
Georgie
AuthorRobert Bright
ISBN1890008133
Full of old-fashioned, cozy, Halloween-y wonderfulness! The illustrations remind me so much of Shepherd's for "Whinnie the Pooh" (I think the kitty is a relative of Tigger!) This is a story of sweet ghosts who have a happy and gentle purpose in houses; and of one ghost in particular who is temporarily...
What Do You Say, Dear?
AuthorSesyle Joslin
ISBN0064431126
Oh, this is some great comedy. This had us all laughing at the absurdity of it. The whole set up is some strange things is happening, say someone is giving away baby elephants, what would you say to introduce yourself to the elephant. The response is always polite and things we are taught to say, but the situation...
Linnets and Valerians
AuthorElizabeth Goudge
ISBN0142300268
The four Linnet children: Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy are sent to live with their strict grandmother while their father travels to Egypt. Locked away in separate rooms as punishment by their ruthless grandmother, the Linnets feel at once that their new life is unbearable—and decide to make their...
The 13 Clocks
AuthorJames Thurber
ISBN0440405823
How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story, or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber.

There are only a few reasons why...
D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths
AuthorIngri d'Aulaire
The Caldecott medal-winning d'Aulaires once again captivate their young audience with this beautifully illustrated introduction to Norse legends, telling stories of Odin the All-father, Thor the Thunder-god and the theft of his hammer, Loki the mischievous god of the Jotun Race, and Ragnarokk,...
Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
AuthorRachel Field
ISBN0689822847
Hitty is a doll of great charm and character. It is indeed a privilege to publish her memoirs, which, besides being full of the most thrilling adventures on land and sea, also reveal her delightful personality. One glance at her portrait will show that she is no ordinary doll. Hitty, or Mehitable as she...
The Magic City
AuthorE. Nesbit
ISBN1587170248
The first real book I ever read on my own; "real" in the sense of having a couple of hundred pages, not very many pictures, a plot, and some character development. I remember being puzzled by the switches between the everyday world and the fantasy world, and not understanding what was going on until about...
Das doppelte Lottchen
AuthorErich Kästner
ISBN3791530119
Luise, neun Jahre alt und ziemlich frech, muss den Sommer fern von Wien in einem Ferienheim verbringen. Dort staunt sie nicht schlecht, als sie die brave Lotte aus München trifft: Denn die sieht genauso aus wie sie! Die Mädchen beschließen, dem Geheimnis ihrer Ähnlichkeit auf den Grund zu gehen,...
Leo the Late Bloomer
AuthorRobert Kraus
“Captivating and rollicking.” —The Horn Book

Leo isn't reading, or writing, or drawing, or even speaking, and his father is concerned. But Leo's mother isn't. She knows her son will do all those things, and more, when he's ready.

This heartwarming story of how a little tiger...
The Borrowers Aloft
AuthorMary Norton
ISBN1858815940
Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock -- the family of tiny Borrowers -- think they have at last found an ideal home. They've moved into a house in a miniature village built as a hobby by a retired railroad man. The village is the perfect size for the Borrowers, and after the hardships they've faced, the Clocks...
The Wouldbegoods
AuthorE. Nesbit
ISBN0140367519
Edith Nesbit’s life was certainly unconventional by late Victorian and Edwardian standards, and it’s not surprising that her own childhood experiences and adult observations find themselves thinly fictionalised in her novels, particularly those written for children. Typical is her re-use...
The Water Babies
AuthorCharles Kingsley
ISBN1853261483
Tom, a poor orphan, is employed by the villainous chimney-sweep, Grimes, to climb up inside flues to clear away the soot. While engaged in this dreadful task, he loses his way and emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, the young daughter of the house who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and, hot and bothered,...
Miffy
AuthorDick Bruna
ISBN1592260004
This is an extremely strange book. Maybe my Dutch is even worse than I imagine, but the story appears to be roughly the following. I translate into a more familiar idiom:

The Gospel According to Dick Bruna

1. And it came to pass in those days that there were two rabbits, and they did live...
Snow Treasure
AuthorMarie McSwigan
ISBN0142402249
In the bleak winter of 1940, Nazi troops parachuted into Peter Lundstrom's tiny Norwegian village and held it captive. Nobody thought the Nazis could be defeated--until Uncle Victor told Peter how the children could fool the enemy. It was a dangerous plan. They had to slip past Nazi guards with nine...
The Velvet Room
AuthorZilpha Keatley Snyder
ISBN0595321836
Robin was always wandering off (her mother's words) to get away from the confusion she felt inside her. It was not until Robin's father found a permanent job at the McCurdy ranch, after three years as a migrant worker, that Robin had a place to wander to. As time went by the Velvet Room became more and more...
A Traveller in Time
AuthorAlison Uttley
ISBN0140309314
*** 4 ***

I love the way this author tells a children's story! It has the feel of a fairy tale, but using time travel as a means to connect a girl living in the 1930's Chelsea, England with the 16th century Tudor period. The book itself was published in 1939 and the author was one of J. R. R. Tolkien's...
Diary of a Wombat
AuthorJackie French
ISBN0618381368
Wombats are cuddly-looking, slow-moving Australian animals. Their favorite activities are eating, sleeping, and digging holes. Here, in the words of one unusually articulate wombat, is the tongue-in-cheek account of a busy week; eating, sleeping, digging holes . . . and training its new neighbors,...
The House of Arden
AuthorE. Nesbit
ISBN1590172027
The famous Arden family treasure has been missing for generations, and the last members of the Arden line, Edred, Elfrida, and their Aunt Edith, have nothing to their names but the crumbling castle they live in. Just before his tenth birthday, Edred inherits the title of Lord Arden; he also learns that...
The Big Orange Splot
AuthorDaniel Pinkwater
ISBN0590445103
This was my very, very favorite book as a...oh, who am I kidding. This IS my very, very favorite book!! It about creativity! It is about expression! It is about going against the grain, but not just for the sake of rebellion, but rather to remain true to yourself--even if you've been hiding it for much of...
The Little Bookroom
AuthorEleanor Farjeon
ISBN1590170482
In The Little Bookroom, Eleanor Farjeon mischievously tilts our workaday world to reveal its wonders and follies. Her selection of her favorite stories describes powerful—and sometimes exceedingly silly—monarchs, and commoners who are every bit their match; musicians and dancers who live...
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit
AuthorJulius Lester
ISBN0142407208
I loved this book! The narrator and all the animals talk like deep South African Americans. It's great. The narrator uses lots of great similes. So far the stories (no more than 2 pages long at a time) are little tales of Brer Rabbit outsmarting, tricking, and causing mischief with all the other animals,...
Return to Gone-Away
AuthorElizabeth Enright
ISBN0152022635
A wish come true. That's what Portia thinks when her parents buy Villa Caprice, a tumbledown Victorian house along the swampy edge of Gone-Away Lake. A new house is always full of surprises, but Porcia is completely unprepared for the extraordinary things that happen when her family moves into a new...
Jenny and the Cat Club: A Collection of Favorite Stories about Jenny Linsky
AuthorEsther Averill
ISBN1590170474
In Greenwich Village an orphaned black cat lives happily with her master, a sea captain. Still, the gentle Jenny Linsky would like nothing more than to join the local Cat Club, whose members include Madame Butterfly, an elegant Persian, the high-stepping Macaroni, and stately, plump Mr. President....
The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night
AuthorPeter Spier
ISBN0440408296

This is an old Folk song that Peter set to a story. It’s also a Nursery Rhyme. I remember just reading it in that huge volume previously. Peter Spier wrote this in ’61 when they would do every other page in black and white to save money. Peter went back in his later years and colored the rest of the book...
Enchantress from the Stars
AuthorSylvia Engdahl
ISBN0802787649
The Federation Anthropological Service would never officially have allowed Elana to be on this mission to the medieval planet Andrecia. If Youngling peoples found out that a supremely advanced and enlightened society like the Federation existed, it would irreparably damage their evolution. Stowing...
Rabbit Hill
AuthorRobert Lawson
ISBN0142407968
It has been a while since Folks lived in the Big House, and an even longer time has passed since there has been a garden at the House. All the animals of the Hill are very excited about the new Folks moving in, and they wonder how things are going to change. It's only a matter of time before the animals of the Hill...
Lentil
AuthorRobert McCloskey
ISBN0140502874
Lentil can’t sing or whistle and he loves music, so he plays the harmonica. The story is set up so that Lentil can save the day with his harmonica. How can someone playing a harmonica save the day, well, it's a great story and you should read it.

I love Robert’s drawings in this story and it’s...
Little Fur Family
AuthorMargaret Wise Brown
ISBN0060518987
There was a little fur family
warm as toast
smaller than most
in little fur coats
and they lived in a warm wooden tree.

The Little Fur Family tells the story of a little fur child's day in the woods. The day ends when his big fur parents tuck him in bed "all soft and warm," and sing...
Charlotte Sometimes
AuthorPenelope Farmer
ISBN1590172213
A time-travel story that is both a poignant exploration of human identity and an absorbing tale of suspense.

It's natural to feel a little out of place when you're the new girl, but when Charlotte Makepeace wakes up after her first night at boarding school, she's baffled: everyone thinks she's...
The Borrowers Avenged
AuthorMary Norton
I think that Mary Norton just lost it by this point. Great borrower hijinks, fun descriptions and imagery, and then a seriously bonkers literary structure. Ghosts are set up quite deliberately and then never actually enter the plot. Why are there the horrifying ghosts of a murder-suicide in the middle...
The Little Ghost
AuthorOtfried Preußler
ISBN3522174402
I wanted to revisit this with my kids because I remember liking it as a 9-year old in the 80s. It’s about a ghost who lives in a German castle and, for reasons which become clear at the end of the book, temporarily becomes a day-time ghost and starts to cause disruption in the local town.

Cute story...
Grandfather Twilight
AuthorBarbara Helen Berger
ISBN0613004108
When day is done, and shadows begin to deepen, it is time for Grandfather Twilight to close his book, put on his jacket, and go for a walk through the forest. Little birds hush as he walks by, and the rabbits and other small woodland creatures watch in silence as he performs his very special evening task and...
The Wonder Clock or, Four and Twenty Marvelous Tales, Being One for Each Hour of the Day
AuthorHoward Pyle
It is rare indeed when a writer's original stories are regarded as masterpieces on a par with the great folkloristic fairy tales that have been handed down through the ages. But Howard Pyle's absorbing tales have for generations enjoyed such overwhelming popularity with boys and girls that they have...
Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man
AuthorRobert McCloskey
This is a longer story with beautiful artwork. Robert uses repetition well in this story. Each person or thing is associated with a sound or a color and whenever that thing is mentioned, he gives the sound or color with it. It makes for a fun and dynamic story when reading aloud. It was easy to get into the...
The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
AuthorJoyce Lankester Brisley
The stories of Milly-Molly-Mandy and her family and friends have charmed generations of children since they first appeared in 1925. This collection of twenty-one classic tales about this resourceful and thoughtful little girl reflect with accuracy the dilemmas and challenges of a child's world....
The Scarecrow and His Servant
AuthorPhilip Pullman
ISBN0440863767
One night there was a thunderstorm. A tattered scarecrow stood in the wind and rain, taking no notice . . . until a bolt of lightning struck his turnip head. The scarecrow blinked with surprise and came to life.

So begins the story of the Scarecrow, a courteous but pea-brained fellow with grand...
I, Juan de Pareja
AuthorElizabeth Borton de Treviño
ISBN0374435251
**3.5 stars**

Juan de Pareja's portrait by Velázquez is my favorite painting (every time I see it, it makes me cry) so it was with trepidation and excitement that I started this audio.

The book follows the story of Juan de Pareja and his life as the slave of Diego de Velázquez, the leading...
The Selfish Giant
AuthorOscar Wilde
ISBN0399224483
Don't you tell me that you have not read this one!



The sign that got trapped in the labyrinth of my 3rd grade mind reading his English Gulmohar was this :



Got burnt into my memory. And that is how I dug this books out of my pensive to add it here on Goodreads - by searching...
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story
AuthorGloria Houston
ISBN0140558772
This is a sweet story that children will love at Christmas time, and the illustrations are really great.

A little girl named Ruthie is picked to be the angel at the Christmas play, but she has no angel costume to wear. Her father is away from home in a war that is across the sea, which has created a...
Otto of the Silver Hand
AuthorHoward Pyle
ISBN0486217841
A rich and engrossing thread of Romance runs through this tale of the motherless son of a valiant robber baron of Medieval Germany. Young Otto, born into a warring household in an age when lawless chiefs were constantly fighting each other or despoiling the caravans of the merchant burghers, is raised...
The Duchess Bakes a Cake
AuthorVirginia Kahl
ISBN1930900147
A long time ago there lived over the waters, a Duchess, a Duke and their family of daughters.
Everything went smoothly and happily in this large family, until one day the Duchess decided to make:
A lovely light luscious delectable cake
Would she take the cook's advice? No, she would not....
Outside Over There
AuthorMaurice Sendak
ISBN0064431851
this is the only thing my summer class was useful for: it tipped me off that this book existed. for future reference, if there are books that exist that were the source material for childhood favorite movies of mine, i need to be informed. in a timely manner. not twenty years later, thats just humiliating....
A is for Annabelle
AuthorTasha Tudor
ISBN0689828454
This is a rhyming alphabet book about two little girls playing with their grandmother's doll, Annabelle. The letters are for her accessories, such as cloak, dresses, earrings, fan, etc. Color spreads alternate with black-and-white ones.

I love Tasha Tudor and her old-fashioned charm....
Tanglewood Tales: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys
AuthorNathaniel Hawthorne
ISBN1402166516
1853. Hawthorne wrote these stories for children based on Greek myth and legend. They are incomparable retellings of themes which the Greek dramatists used in creating their immortal plays and literature. Contents: The Gorgon's Head; The Golden Touch; The Paradise of Children; The Three Golden...
Fables
AuthorArnold Lobel
ISBN0060239743
I just ♡ Arnold Lobel's books and this is a fav. Anyone can enjoy it. My favorite fable in this book is The Pig and the Candy Store. 5*****.
The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport
AuthorLaura Lee Hope
While most books in the 1001
childrens books series are timeless, The Bobbsey Twins is definitly of a time. Unfortunately this time is one of segregation and racism.

For example: The twins sort their dolls- the best doll had blond hair and blue eyes, the worst doll is black and dirty and named...
Ask Mr. Bear
AuthorMarjorie Flack
ISBN0020430906
A sweet picture book where Danny teams up with the animals to find his mother the perfect gift.

Trying to find the perfect birthday present for his mother isn’t easy for Danny. The hen offers eggs, the goose feathers, and the sheep wool. But mother already has those things. Then the cow suggests...
The Return of the Twelves
AuthorPauline Clarke
ISBN0698201175
Beneath a floorboard in the old farmhouse into which his family has just moved, eight-year-old Max Morley discovers twelve time-worn wooden soldiers. Under his careful watch, the "Twelves" come to life, each possessing a name and a distinct personality. As Max soon learns, they share a history filled...
The Singing Tree
AuthorKate Seredy
ISBN0140345434
Life on the Hungarian plains is changing quickly for Jancsi and his cousin Kate. Father has given Jancsi permission to be in charge of his own herd, and Kate has begun to think about going to dances. Jancsi hardly even recognizes Kate when she appears at Peter and Mari's wedding wearing nearly as many petticoats...
The Witch Family
AuthorEleanor Estes
This book is sheer perfection. It has many of the same qualities as Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner -- young children who live out tremendous adventures in their imagination with characters who are typically treated by the author as though they are also real, though every once in a while perspective...
The Case of the Missing Marquess
AuthorNancy Springer
ISBN0399243046
When Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared—on her 14th birthday nonetheless—she knows she alone can find her. Disguising herself as a grieving widow, Enola sets out to the heart of London to uncover her mother’s whereabouts—but...
A Hole is to Dig
AuthorRuth Krauss
A wonderful book with humorous definitions for words. A dog is to kiss is a wonderful double page showing children with their dog friends, there are some beautiful illustrations of dogs accompanying children in their play throughout the book. Sendaks illustrations are wonderful and the illustrations...
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