Top 100 Children’s Novels (#100-91)

In short, rate your love for me.

So as we embark on this massive countdown, I would like to remind all of you that there will be many emotional humps and surprises along the way. There are heroes and villains here. I guarantee the in the course of the countdown you will see one book that makes you boo, and another that makes you cheer, perhaps in the same post. This is a passionate list. There are books included here that I adore and there are definitely books here that I abhor. My job is to never show the difference. So sit back and get ready to complain or cheer in turns. It’s totally within your rights.

When I was a kid, I loved mysteries. As with anything else you read a lot of, some were forgettable, some were okay, some were great. Only one (The Ghost in the Swing by Janet Patton Smith) creeped me out so much I couldn’t finish it. (Still haven’t.) And only Egypt Game was so perfectly calibrated, at that particular moment in time, to my personal sense of the possible and the impossible, that I still have a sense memory of the mounting tension and then the sheer mental relief at the end. – Melissa Depper, Youth Services Librarian, Arapahoe Library District CO

When I went back to read this a couple year ago, I didn’t imagine for a second that it would live up to my memories – particularly the elements of mystery and mysticism. I was wrong. Though I can think of several other Snyder books that are deserving, this is the one that has stuck with me through the years. – Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

A striking contrast between an imaginary world and the dangers in the real one. – Michele Gawenka

There are eighteen books on the Top 100 list that I have not read.  The Egypt Game is the first of these.  How I missed the works of Zilpha Keatley Snyder, I’ll never know since she continues to be prolific to this very day (her most recent work William S. and the Great Escape came out in 2009). 

Ms. Snyder was a writer from day one, or at the very least a storyteller.  Growing up she says of her childhood, "And then there were games. Some were secret, some less so, and most of them grew out of a compulsion to endow everything animal, vegetable and mineral with human characteristics. I suspect that all very young children are naturally given to anthropomorphism, but with me it must have been almost a full-time occupation. Not only animals, but also trees, plants, toys, and many other inanimate objects had personalities, and sometimes complicated life histories. Often these creatures seemed to have been in need of a helping hand. I built leafy shelters for homeless insects, doctored demons, most of whom haunted closets and the dark corners of rooms. Although they really frightened me, I don’t think I would have wanted to be talked out of them. They were my demons and we had a working relationship."

The Egyptian Game was her fourth book and came out in 1967.  The Simon & Schuster website describes the plot of the book this way: "The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. One look at April’s upswept hair, false eyelashes, and ragged fox-fur collar is enough to convince Melanie that April won’t have an easy time fitting in with the sixth graders at Wilson School.  But April has some surprises in store, like the fact that she enjoys reading and playing imagination games just as much as Melanie does. The two even discover that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt! In a storage yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop, Melanie and April start to play the Egypt Game. Before long, there are six Egyptians instead of two. They meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone enjoys the game until strange things begin to happen. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?  With a touch of charm and a whole lot of imagination, Zilpha Keatley Snyder transforms an abandoned junkyard into an Egyptian court in this Newbery Honor-winning mystery."

The book won a Newbery Honor in 1968 alongside Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum), The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell (Houghton), and The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner).  The ultimate winner?  A little title by the name of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Says Ms. Snyder of the story, "the beginning seeds of The Egypt Game were sown during my early childhood, as is true of a great many of my books. A fifth grade project on ancient Egypt started me on my "Egyptian period," a school year in which I read, dreamed and played Egyptian. But my dream of Egypt was private and it was my daughter, many years later, who actually played a game very like the one in the story, after I had turned her on to the fascinating game possibilities of a culture that includes pyramids, mummies, hieroglyphic writing and an intriguing array of gods and goddesses. However, the actual setting and all six of the main characters came from my years as a teacher in Berkeley. The neighborhood described in the story, the ethnic mix in the classroom, as well as the murder, were all taken from realities of our years in Berkeley. So, as I tell children who ask me if I ever write "true" stories, all of my stories have bits-and-pieces of truth–true events, true people, true facts, as well as true memories and even true dreams (the real sound-asleep kind). But the fun comes from what goes on in-between and around and over the bits-and-pieces, tying them together and making them into a story. The inbetween substance is woven of imagination and that is what makes fiction fascinating, to write as well as to read."

The sequel The Gypsy Game came out a good thirty years after its predecessor (1997, to be precise) and Horn Book said of it, "while the sequel is less well constructed and more meandering than the first book (and does not stand on its own), it will nevertheless be of interest to fans of the first book."  Alas it did not receive any votes on this Top 100 Children’s Novels poll.

Horn Book gave it a passive, "[ The Egypt Game ] moves with suspense and humor. . ."

From Booklist, "Tailor-made for children who love the thought of rambling mansions, garden mazes, and hidden treasure."

And Kirkus liked it, saying, "An increasingly captivating story, which builds to a risky and daring climax."

My third grade teacher read this one to the class. Three years later I remember scraping my birthday money together to order the 3 book set from Scholastic. I read these books until the covers came off. Rereading this brought me right back to those childhood days when I would challenge myself to read all three in a weekend (cold central NY winters made such feats a necessity). – Eric Carpenter

Well it’s certainly cold in New York right now, so what better time to crack open a copy of this best known Banks title?

The plot, from The Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books reads, "In a fresh and vivacious fantasy [The Indian in the Cupboard], two English boys have the exciting and disturbing experience of seeing some toys come to life. Patrick had given Omri the little plastic Indian to add to his collection; Omri’s brother had given him an old wall-cupboard; the key that locked the cupboard had belonged to their mother. At first Omri didn’t tell anyone that the cupboard had endowed the Indian with life. Less than three inches high, domineering and articulate, Little Bear was soon provided with a horse and a tepee (eventually with a wife); when Patrick learned the marvelous secret, he insisted Omri bring a tiny cowboy to life for him–and the battle between Little Bear and Boone was on. There are many minor adventures (taking the Indian and the cowboy to school, with dire results) before Omri decides that he cannot play with the lives of human beings, and that these are human beings who have traveled in time, and he sadly puts all of them in the cupboard and turns them back into plastic, presumably releasing the real Little Bear, Bright Stars, Boone, and two wee horses to return to their own times.

Ms. Banks had three sons, Adiel, Gillon, and Omri.  So when it came to finding the name of the main character of the book, she did not have to look far.  In fact, in the September 2002 edition of Children’s Literature Review Ms. Banks described writing the book in this manner:

"It came from a little bathroom cupboard we had. Omri thought it looked shabby and wanted to throw it away but I told him it was a magic cupboard and told him a story about it instead. Later I wrote it into a book.  And a lot of people liked it and it won some prizes and after that we stopped writing for adults for a long time and just wrote for children and young adults. And we travelled to places like India and Africa and Australia and went to visit schools all over the place and had some terrific times! And our kids grew to man’s estate and turned into lovely people it was great to be the mother of, and we wrote and wrote and now we’ve written more than thirty books!"

The sudden shift into the "we" is because she interviewed herself for the piece.

The book is not without controversy, of course.  From Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children, edited by Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale, some serious objections are raised:

"The object here was not to draw an authentic Native person, but to create an arresting literary device. Although the little ‘Indian’ is called Iroquois, no attempt has been made, either in text or illustrations, to have him look or behave appropriately. For example, he is dressed as a Plains Indian, and is given a tipi and a horse. This is how he talks: ‘I help… I go… Big hole. I go through… Want fire. Want make dance. Call spirits.’ Et cetera. There are characteristic speech patterns for those who are also Native speakers, but nobody in the history of the world ever spoke this way." 

School Library Journal ascribed this in part to "the British authorship," going on to say that, "one doubts that a real Iroquois warrior would behave as Little Bear does."

In spite of this, the book was adapted into a full-length feature film in 1995, directed by Frank Oz.  Today it is not remembered all that often (though it is fun to see that actor Steve Coogan makes an appearance as the Medic, and 2009 Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins is in it as well). 

School Library Journal said, "This is competently constructed fantasy, raised above the average by Omri’s growing conviction that there’s something wrong with manipulating people, whether they’re vivified toys or old friends."

From The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, "This is an adroit mix of realism and fantasy, written with an ingenuously serious acceptance of the miraculous, and quickly building characters and relationships so that the miniature people seem real."

And Horn Book said, "Direct and to the point, the story moves along quickly and absorbingly to its logical denouement. The pages are full of dialogue, the boys oscillate between friendship and bickering, and the Indian and the cowboy are depicted as distinct individualities. … [T]he book captures the intense emotion felt by children in their moments of imaginative play."

Probably no one else will vote for the little known and quiet gem of a book, but it was a lovely not too scary fantasy with a lot of British charm to it. – Clarissa Cooke

I missed this series somehow when I was a kid but it’s a beautiful connecting of past and present and I love that the grandmother never stopped believing. – Kristen M. from WeBeReading.com

The mix of stories within the plot and the idea that three of the main characters were ghosts…they had actually died of the Plague…is amazing. – Schuyler Hooke

I suppose I should have slapped a Spoiler Alert before that last quote, but I wouldn’t worry about it.  You pretty much figure something of a supernatural nature is happening when you read the book.

As Publishers Weekly describes the plot: "Young Toseland (Tolly for short) isn’t sure what to expect when he is sent to spend a holiday with his Great-grandmother Oldknow in her huge castle of a house in England. He arrives in the middle of a flood, and feels as if he is climbing aboard Noah’s Ark, which sets the stage for this unusual adventure. Soon Granny is telling Tolly about Toby and the other children (and animals) who sometimes come to the house, ‘when they want to.’ Listeners and Tolly learn that Toby and his full-of-energy siblings Linnet and Alexander are ghosts; they died during the Great Plague. Magic, mystery and fun will bring listeners along for an entertaining ride, even if they may not always be sure where the ghosts begin and real-life leaves off."

The story behind the book is also of note.  According to Janet Crane Barley in Children’s Literature, "Lucy Boston bought, Hemingford Grey, a venerable, time worn manor house near Cambridge, England in 1935. She lovingly restored the house, now thought to be the oldest, continuously inhabited home in England, for her home, and used it as the evocative setting for her books in the ‘Green Knowe Chronicles.’ After 20 years of living there, she began writing her first book, the now classic Children of Green Knowe, set very firmly in and around her wonderful old home."

Should one wish to visit the Manor where Ms. Boston wrote the books, it is possible.  Writing for The Human Flower Project, one John Levett says, "It was at the Manor that Lucy Boston wrote her first novel The Children of Green Knowe and found a publisher for it in 1954 when she was in her 60s; five other books set in Green Knowe followed. She died in 1990 at the age of ninety-eight. The Manor is the place to be for a child of any age."  He goes on to explain how to get there (it’s in England so good luck, Yanks) and what you will find in the gardens.  The website for The Manor is here.  And to be precise about it, Ms. Boston was 62 when she wrote this book.  This places the author in sharp contrast to book #91 on this list.

In 2009 the book was adapted into a movie called From Time to Time and starred folks like Maggie Smith, Dominic West (could he have gotten any further from his role on The Wire?), and Timothy Spall (not playing a villain, for once).  Looks like they took more than one book in the series, though I’m not sure.

My guilty pleasure? Some people don’t love this book and I just don’t get why. I seen claims that this book was "award bait" or "manipulative" but I just see a great story told in an extremely beautiful way. Andrew Sarris wrote that "cynicism is often more naïve than passion" there is no finer example of passionate storytelling than DiCamillo. – Eric Carpenter

I first read this as an adult, read it aloud to my classes (and cried, yes, I cried). I also read it aloud to my sensitive son, and we both cried. This is a deceptively little book with huge ideas. – Tess Alfonsin, Fifth Grade Reading Teacher, Roosevelt Alexander Elementary

I would like to say that this is the newest book on the Top 100 list, but that (as you will soon see) this is simply not the case.

In Publishers Weekly, Katherine Paterson said of this book, "Even in the galley stage, this is a beautiful book. Ibatoulline’s illustrations are simply wonderful, and the high quality of the design incorporates luxurious paper and spaciously arranged blocks of text. But a story for today about a toy rabbit? Okay, I thought, Kate DiCamillo can make me cry for a motherless child and a mongrel stray. She can wring my heart following the trials of two lonely children and a caged tiger, and bring tears to my eyes for a brave little lovesick mouse, but why should I care what happens to an arrogant, over-dressed china rabbit? But I did care, desperately, and I think I can safely predict you will, too."

There were alternate takes on the book as well.

The starred review in School Library Journal said, "This achingly beautiful story shows a true master of writing at her very best."

Kirkus also gave it a star saying, "Somewhere between fairy tale and fable, DiCamillo spins the tale of Edward, transformed by the lives he touches. The reader will be transformed too."

And Booklist (with a star) said, "The story soars because of DiCamillo’s lyrical use of language and her understanding of universal yearnings. This will be a pleasure to read aloud."

It was a struggle to decide between this and Danny the Champion of the World. Plus, if I had been trying to sway the vote towards Dahl, I might have picked James, since I have a feeling more voters will go for him. But in the end I had to go with this, my favorite book of 4th grade (or so). – Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

Now here then is a book that I remember very well from my old childhood.  It’s strange that when kids ask me for books that are scary (but not too scary) that this doesn’t immediately pop into my brain.  It wasn’t just that The Witches had frightening elements to it.  It was blissfully distuuuuurbing.  What these witches did to innocent little children was by turns grotesque as hypnotic.  You want to look away.  You just can’t figure out how.

The plot from the publisher reads, "Real witches don’t ride around on broomsticks. They don’t even wear black cloaks and hats. They are vile, detestable creatures who disguise themselves as nice, ordinary ladies. This spine-chilling story will tell you all you need to know about the cunning masqueraders, and bring you face-to-face with a true hero, a wonderful old grandmother who smokes cigars."

In the article Spell-Binding Dahl: Considering Roald Dahl’s Fantasy (found in Change and Renewal in Children’s Literature) Eileen Donaldson draws a fascinating parallel between this book and Dahl’s own life.
"This book seems to be the closest to Dahl’s own life in that he spins much of the anxiety and the growing up of his own younger years into it; the grandmother is very old and when she catches pneumonia, there is the panic of memory tacked onto it. In Boy, Dahl describes his own grandmother’s bout of pneumonia and the echoes in The Witches are remarkable. (Perhaps it is also interesting that this particular character does not have a name of his own; he could just as easily be named Roald.)"

It’s true that the boy in this book is merely . . . the boy.  Most Dahl characters not only get names but their names are in the titles of the books.  Not this kid.

Speaking of titles, at my last ALA Convention I spoke with a fellow librarian who knew Dahl when he was writing this book.  "He wanted to call it The Mouse and the Witches", she said, "and I tried to talk him out of it.  We already had The Mouse and the Motorcycle and The Mouse and His Child, after all.  He later just named it The Witches."  And she shrugged.  Maybe she had something to do with that?  We may never know.

The Witches came it at #27 on ALA’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.  The reasons?  Witchcraft, of course.  No word yet on how it’ll fare on the list of books from 2000-2010.  My suspicion, however, is that in the era of Harry Potter bans, The Witches may not seem to be quite as subversive as it once was.

Finally, here is a poor quality trailer for the film.  Somebody please explain to me why the heck you’d make the surprise ending of the film (which is not in the book) the beginning of a trailer for that same film?

Like Tommy and Annika, I marveled at Pippi Longstocking and her extraordinary life. I mean, she lives with a horse and a monkey instead of parents! As a kid, reading Pippi is imagining a world without limits. – Amy @ Media Macaroni

The current crop of audacious female elementary school students has NOTHING on Pippi – Jennifer Rothschild

Sweden’s best known children’s book import, I dare say.  I like to call her the original child superhero.  She can pick up horses and thieves and live on her own with a monkey.  Though I don’t know how you’d be able to fit a name like Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim’s Daughter Longstocking into a comic book balloon.  Likewise its Swedish equivalent Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump.

The description of the book from the publisher reads, "The beloved story of a spunky young girl and her hilarious escapades.  Tommy and his sister Annika have a new neighbor, and her name is Pippi Longstocking. She has crazy red pigtails, no parents to tell her what to do, a horse that lives on her porch, and a pet monkey named Mr. Nilsson. Whether Pippi’s scrubbing her floors, doing arithmetic, or stirring things up at a fancy tea party, her flair for the outrageous always seems to lead to another adventure."

The world of children’s literature owes a debt of gratitude to sick children everywhere.  Without them we might not have half the books that grace our shelves today.  Certainly we wouldn’t have Pippi Longstocking, had it not been for the fact that Astrid Lindgren’s daughter got sick in 1941 and insisted on stories about Pippi.

As The Christian Science Monitor puts it, "Pippi was a hit in the Lindgren household, but although Mrs. Lindgren told the stories regularly at bedtime, she didn’t even bother writing them down. It wasn’t until a few years later that she finally put them on paper. She had wanted the manuscript to be a gift for Karin’s 10th birthday, but she also sent it to a large publishing company. It was rejected."  When it was accepted by a smaller press Ms. Lindgren wrote books for them and then went to work for them as an editor.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if that happened today?  Step One: Get book contract.  Step Two: Sign book contract.  Step Three: Work for your own publisher and edit other folks and translate books like Curious George into Swedish.

Ms. Lindgren was actually inspired by a different heroine, however.  A Ms. Anne of Green Gables.  Perhaps you’ve heard of her?

According to 100 Best Books for Children by Anita Silvey, the most famous attack on Pippi said of it, "Pippi is something unpleasant that scratches the soul."  She was the Junie B. Jones of her day, and folks didn’t appreciate her casual disregard for society’s conventions.

At least two books on this Top 100 list have helped inspire their own theme parks.  I doubt you would have guessed off the top of your head that one of them was Astrid Lindgren’s World in Vimmerby, Sweden, though.

I don’t like to recommend that one look at Wikipedia for much, but the collection of different Pippi Longstocking names from around the globe is more than a little amusing.  You can find it here near the bottom.  Nice touch with the pig latin.

Also, be very careful of the translation you receive.  Donna Cardon in School Library Journal considered a recent reissue with illustrations by Lauren Child and made this excellent point: "Nunnally updates some of Florence Lamborn’s old-fashioned phrases and makes other terms more politically correct. For example, the original English translation calls Pippi’s father a "Cannibal King," while this one calls him a "King of Natives." In Lamborn’s version, Pippi goes for a "morning promenade"; here, she simply goes for a "morning walk." Nunnally’s language flows naturally and gives a fresh, modern feel to the line drawings, filled with color and pattern, to create a Pippi who is full of personality . . . Libraries should consider archiving (or retiring) older editions of this old favorite, and replacing them with this new offering."

This is such a great adventure book. It probably should be introduced as a read aloud book for even the most advanced of middle readers as the vocabulary is often old-fashioned and the sailing terminology could be off putting. But once the children have sailed off on their island adventure (without adult supervision I might add) the fun begins. They meet two sailing sisters from a nearby community and the sailing competitions and exploring commences. What is great about these stories is that they are idyllic, but also perfectly possible. The characters are operating in a very real place (England’s Lake District) and a very real time (between the two World Wars) but what colors the stories even more so is the love of sailing and of the natural world. Living in a rather rural area, I can actually see current day children recreating some of these kinds of adventures. – Christine Sealock Kelly

It makes number one because it influenced [my daughter] strongly for years and really changed the course of her life; I am certain as an adult she will look back and pinpoint this book as her greatest influence. – Sarah Haliwell

“BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON’T DROWN” I spent years wondering why I couldn’t find friends who were like the children in these books.- Greg Holch

Maybe some of you are surprised to see the appearance of Arthur Ransome on this list.  Honestly the thing I knew him best for was his marriage to Trotsky’s secretary (and the fact he was almost prosecuted for treason, but that’s neither here nor there).  Yet he was considered, according to The Guardian, "the 1930s equivalent of JK Rowling."  Prolific and fun all at once.

The description from (sorry) Wikipedia reads: "The story follows the Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger), who sail a borrowed dinghy named Swallow, and the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy), who sail a dinghy named Amazon. The Walkers are staying at a farm near a lake during the school holidays and want to camp on an island in the lake; the Blacketts live in a house nearby. The children meet on the island which they call Wild Cat Island, and have a series of adventures, involving sailing, camping, fishing, exploration and piracy."

In these books (Swallows and Amazons was one of twelve altogether) Ransome took his memories of the English Lake District and used those recollections to conjure up, in Silvey’s words, "endless summer vacation."  Eventually he would settle in that same Lake District, finding time to grumble at tiny tot and future author Diana Wynne Jones (but that is a story for another day, my children).

Fans of this book are found far and wide.  In Anita Silvey’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anthony Lewis selected this book as the one that had the greatest impact on his life.  Says he, "How I got into Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books I cannot imagine . . . But the books had a charm and fascination that captured me despite my lack of acquaintance with many of the subjects."

This was the chapter book that turned me into a reader. – Tina Engelfried

I loved pioneer books (still do), and this is one of the best. So much better (in my opinion) than the Laura Ingalls Wilder ones! It also fulfilled another of my favorite criteria: girls who are the despair of their mothers! – Lori Erokan

It seems unfair to pair two of children’s literature’s most famous redheads in the same post, but though I’d call both Caddie and Pippi "spirited", the similarities pretty much stop right there.  Caddie is also the first Newbery winner to appear on this list.  While we’ve two Honors featured in this post, only Caddie got the pretty gold on her jacket.  She beat Honk, the Moose by Phil Stong, The Good Master by Kate Seredy, Young Walter Scott by Elizabeth Janet Gray, and All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud by Armstrong Sperry

The plot as told by Horn Book says, "Cursed at birth with the gift of obedience by an irresponsible fairy, Ella [in Ella Enchanted] is powerless to resist the commands of others. Witty and willful, Ella has managed to hide her affliction from the rest of the world, but when her beloved mother dies, she is sent to a finishing school by her merchant father and finds herself at the mercy of the despicable Lady Hattie, who has discovered her secret. Determined to reverse the spell, Ella runs away from school in search of the offending fairy. Along the way she encounters elves, ogres, giants (all imaginatively rendered by Levine), and a company of knights led by Prince Charmont, who clearly finds the plucky heroine completely enchanting. But Ella‘s plan fizzles, and her father sends her to live with her new stepmother and stepsisters–one of whom is Lady Hattie–who consign her to the kitchen as a scullery maid. Expert characterization and original ideas enliven this novelization of ‘Cinderella’."