- The Boys’ King Arthur by Sidney Lanier, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
- The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Everett Shinn
- Golden Tales of the Arabian Nights by Margaret Soifer and Irving Shapiro, illustrated by Gustav Tenggren
The Twenty-One Balloons
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Basil of Baker Street
The House at Pooh Corner (narrowly edging out Winnie-the-Pooh, because Tigger)
A Little Princess
Adam of the Road
Runners-up: Anne of Green Gables and the Little House and Bruno and Boots series (can’t pick a favorite book from either of the last two, however)
The Wizard of Oz and its companion books (sequels) - Frank Baum and others
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
Lad, A Dog - Albert Terhune
These were very early reads, as my sister taught me how before I started kindergarten. I was reading ahead of my age ever since I can remember, but these were some of the earliest before I jumped into Tarzan and Alan Quatermain books.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
A Light in the Attic
Bunnicula
(Realizing I don’t remember many children’s books by name, but I’m an Alice fanatic and loved Silverstein from a young age, so there you go. Most of my favorite reading from childhood was comic books, as in Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes, but probably not strictly speaking material intended for children.)
One of my current greatest joys as a parent is watching my son fall in love with Shel Silverstein poetry. When I was in first or second grade I had a special reading tutor who took me out of regular class and I was allowed to sit with her and read any book I wanted. And I picked Shel Silverstein and to my shame and amusement I still have the exact book from the elementary school library and it’s the same dilapidated copy my son is reading now.
That book is currently 36 years overdue. And yes of course I’m going to return it… once it’s 42 years overdue.
Redwall
any Hardy Boys stories
Tintin
Where the Wild Things Are
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
The Monster at the End of This Book
Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets-Dav Pilkey
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog-Mo Willems
Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963- Christopher Paul Curtis
The Wily Witch (Godfried Bomans)
The House With A Clock In Its Walls
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Ghosts and More Ghosts (Robert Arthur)
The Secret Garden
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar & 6 more
Witches, Ghosts, and Goblins (Ruthanna Long)
D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
…oops. 
This one still circulates like crazy.
Little Women
The Hobbit
The Wind In The Willows
I’m hampered by not having read many children’s books until I was an adult. Most of the books I read as a kid were adult books.
Uh…
- Peter Graves, William Pène Du Bois
- The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
- The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex
I guess? Maybe?
Goodnight Moon.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Stick Dog
Mostly, just the three books I’ve most loved reading to my kids.
I gave all of these to my friends and relatives kids when they were born:
Corduroy
Socks for Supper
Someone is Eating the Sun
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr Seuss; you could substitute another Dr Seuss book here
The Portmanteau Book by Thomas Rockwell; I think I only read this one time as a kid, but it blew my mind with its weird nonsense and meta-commentary
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen; blunt and wry descriptions of farm animals with beautiful illustrations
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander
Dear Mr Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
These may not be all time greats, but they’re the ones I remember most fondly. I probably read Watership Down a hundred times as a child.
Definitely a lesser known Dr. Seuss book, but a good one. I considered putting Sleep Book in my top 3. When I was a kid it would have been number 1.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling.
- The Golden Compass - Philip Larkin.
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (and six more) - Roald Dahl.
1: A Wrinkle in Time
2: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3: The Monster at the End of This Book
Kind of a tough comparison, though, since the last one is targeted at a very different age than the first two.
Oh, this is very hard! My list might change day to day, but for now:
-
Where the Wild Things Are. In its genre, I think this book is the only perfect one. Outside of its genre, it’s still perfect. The balance of poetry, imagery, and emotion is sublime.
-
Bud, Not Buddy. Historical fiction about a Black boy growing up in 1939, orphaned and abused by horrible foster parents, has no right to be as funny and warm as this book is. So, so good.
-
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe. I’ve proselytized about this before, and I’ll keep doing it. A modern, sort of magical-realist story about a boy attending a school for the arts, and mourning his dead mother, and stealing chickens from alternate universes, and meeting his match in Gabi, whose picture appears in the dictionary next to “extra”–hilarious, smart, thoughtful, a meditation on death and on life, and just a joy to read.
Many others are close (Golden Compass, Alice in Wonderland, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Knuffle Bunny, and so on), but to keep to the rules pretend those parentheses don’t exist.