The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill.
I think this was the first story I ever read that was set in New York City.
Probably so.
Phantom Tollbooth, Mike Mulligan, Make Way for Ducklings, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Through the Looking Glass, Henry Reed to name a few missing from the list.
Excellent choice. The sequel wasnt quite as good tho.
Oh, and LM Boston and her wonderful Green Knowe series. I believe there are 6,
…where i first heard of the Blunderbuss !!
Also …
The first books i remember reading were from a series called The Three Pirates.
and The Family from One End Street about a working class family in England in
the 1930s.
This is bringing back lots of memories !
Chronos listed the first two I was going to add: The Chronicles of Prydain and Blueberries for Sal (I also read Danny Dunn, but it isn’t on my favorites list)
I’d like to add the works of Zylpha Keatley Snyder, especially The Velvet Room and Black and Blue Magic.
Also All-of-a-Kind Family, which I loved because it’s a Jewish family
I Can’t Said the Ant and the Ant and Bee books, which have no connection, but always went together in my childhood mind
Of the books on this list, how are some of them ‘childen’s books’? Little Women, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia are tough sledding for many adults.
Chronicles of Narnia is absolutely kidlit. LotR is really not. Little Women? I confess I’ve never read it, but I think it is, given the ages at which my kids had it as a readaloud.
A lot more good oldies have been added. My previous post recommended a bunch of recent books by authors of color. Here are some really good recent ones that aren’t:
-The Tale of Despereaux: most of Kate DiCamillio’s works are too twee or too Newbury-bait for my tastes. This book about talking mice in a castle won the Newbury, but I still love it. It’s got some really interesting emotional depth, and its metaphors about storytelling as a light in the darkness resonates with me. Far and away my favorite book by her. Don’t see the movie, dear god.
-The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman’s just magical, and this book is my favorite of his kidlit, narrowly edging out Crazy Hair and Coraline. It’s a very solid adventure. The chapter about the ghouls is some of the best Lovecraftian fiction every written.
-Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: there have been a bunch of interactive picture books, but this one is the best. Mo Willems is the hero we need. Plus, unlike Knuffle Bunny Free, it doesn’t make me cry. I once wrote new lyrics to God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman with the plot of this book (“But this pigeon has failed at every ploy, cumbersome ploy, now this little bird has failed at every ploy”), and now my kids say they can’t hear that song any other way.
I wish I’d had the internet back when I was young (I was always a voracious reader). Example, reading ‘Little Women’, there were some words (charabanc, blancmange) I had to guess at from proximity to the rest of the sentence. (a vehicle and a pudding). I was horse crazed and read ‘National Velvet’, set in England in the 20’s or 30’s, and that, too was puzzling to an American teenager (but it was a wonderful book)
The Little Red Car by Bernice Orawski It’s not a great book, it’s not long, it is just the book that means the most to the small kid still inside Sitnam.
Both of these!
I have read the complete “Great Brain” series to all children under my care as an adult, as I had such fond memories of the shenanigans in the stories when they were read to me by my fifth grade teacher. He would read from the series as a break from the regular classroom grind, and we loved it.
When my daughter was in 4th grade she made a very cool diorama of the Kitchen Scene from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
Yes. This is my favorite Dr. Seuss book. It’s too weird for a lot of people, but I had one student (now in high school) who loved it as much as I do.
Many years ago I managed the library he frequented as a kid in East New York, Brooklyn. No, he was deceased by then. 
Two of my favorite Dr. Seuss books from childhood that I seldom hear mentioned are Bartholomew and the Oobleck (which I now think is a little reminiscent of James Thurber) and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose.
The former (as well as The 500 Caps of Bartolomew Cubbins) are notable for not rhyming.
The King’s Stilts also does not rhyme.
I loved both Cubbins books as a kid; my own kids were fond of them too.
Another book I loved as a child I have NOT seen mentioned is Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzgugh.
Also Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt and One Child by Torey Hayden. (One Child is really not a “children’s” book–there are mentions of severe child abuse and rape)
“Pajama Time” was a BIG hit with my boys. The “I Stink” / “I’m Dirty” books by Kate and Jim McMullan were also huge hits. So were “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” by Sherri Duskey Rinker, and Tom Lichtenfeld, and “No David!” by David Shannon. “Calm Down Boris” by Sam Lloyd was another popular one. “Go Away Big Green Monster” was also a favorite. "Who Said Moo? by Harriet Ziefert, and all the Karen Katz books as well. Byron Barton’s machine books (Planes, Machines at Work, etc…) were fun. Leslie Patricelli has some really fun ones like “Yummy, Yucky”. Tony Mitton’s books about vehicles were must-reads as well.
And of course, the Richard Scarry books. (How could you leave those off?!?)
Once we got out of early childhood, my kids really liked the Chronicles of Narnia, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit books were all much loved.
Yes!!
These, too.
I, too, liked the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. I also liked another book that was illustrated by the same artist: Eloise. And just about any Dr. Seuss book, with the exception of Bartholomew and the Oobleck–that one freaked me out a la The Blob! Hop On Pop made such an impression on me at such a young age, that I still find myself spontaneously remembering, “STOP! Do not hop on pop!” and “Snack, snack, eat a snack/ eat a snack with Brown and Black.”
Our family also had some comic strip collections that I enjoyed such as the Peanuts books, L’il Abner, and MAD Magazine anthologies. There were also some illustrated joke books that I liked, eg, Bennett Cerf’s Book of Laughs. Basically, anything with fun, goofy illustrations, which I enjoyed even more than the stories.