Top 25 Must Have Books by Age Category

Top Titles for Ages 2 to 5

Little Mary; Or, The Picture-Book
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (by Potter, Beatrix)
The House That Jack Built (by Caldecott, Randolph)
Mother Earth's Children; The Frolics of ... (by Gordon, Elizabeth)
Baby's Own Aesop (by Crane, Walter)
The Velveteen Rabbit; Or, How Toys Becom... (by Bianco, Margery Williams, 1881-1944)
The velveteen rabbit; or, How toys becom... (by Bianco, Margery Williams)
The Story of the Three Bears
The Ugly Duckling (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
The Golden Goose Book, Being the Stories... (by Leonard Leslie Brooke)
Mother Goose's nursery rhymes : a collec... (by Crane, Walter)
Tale of Peter Rabbit (by Potter, Beatrix)
Golden Goose Book, The (by Brooke, L. Leslie)
Harrison's New Nursery Picture Book : Co... (by Bewick, Thomas)
Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes : A Collec... (by Crane, Walter)

Top Titles for Age 6

The Adventures of Maya, The Bee (by Bonsels, Waldemar)
Johnny Crow's Garden (by Brooke, L. Leslie)
The Story of Chicken Little: Rhymed and ... (by Kenneth Graham Duffield)
Adventures of Sonny Bear (by Fox, Frances Margaret)
The Wise Gray Cat (by Caroline Hofman, Rachael Robinson Elmer)
The Little Gingerbread Man (by Herbert, Robert Gaston, Ill)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
The Little Red Balloon (by Hofman, Caroline)
Pets and Playmates
Hans Christian Andersen: Fairytales and ... (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Jack and the Beanstalk
Adventures of Maya the Bee, The (by Bonsels, Waldemar)
Aunt Friendly's Gift (by Baker, Sarah Schoonmaker)
The Tale of Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
The Marquis of Carabas Picture Book

Top Titles for Age 7

The Song of Hiawatha (by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth)
The History of Little Goody Two Shoes : ... (by Goldsmith, Oliver)
Raggedy Ann Stories (version 2) (by Gruelle, Johnny)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (by Carroll, Lewis)
A Book of Discoveries (by Masefield, John)
Bambi ṿald mayśele (by Salten, Felix)
Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor H.)
Raggedy Ann stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The Story of Little Jane and Me (by Blatchford, Mary E)
Raggedy Andy Stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
Ozma of Oz (version 3) (by Baum, L. Frank)
Mrs. Peter Rabbit (by Burgess, Thornton W.)
The Dutch Twins (by Perkins, Lucy Fitch)
The First Days of Man, As Narrated Quite... (by Frederic Arnold Kummer)
Stories for Children. First Reader Grade (by Mrs. Charles A. Lane)

Top Titles for Age 8

Dickens' Stories about Children Every Ch... (by Dickens, Charles)
Understood Betsy (by Dorothy Canfield Fisher)
Understood Betsy (by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield)
Rainbows for Children (by Caroline Sturgis Tappan, Lydia Maria Francis Child...)
Heidi (by Spyri, Johanna)
The Happy Prince and Other Tales and a H... (by Wilde, Oscar)
Puss in Boots
Children Stories (by Dickens, Charles)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Bimbi. Stories for Children (by Ouida)
The story of King Arthur and his knights (by Pyle, Howard)
Zanzibar tales told by natives of the ea... (by Bateman, George W)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
The Phantom Rickshaw (by Rudyard Kipling)
The Jungle Book (by Kipling, Rudyard)

Top Titles for Age 9

Hunting of the Snark, The (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver (by Burgess, Thornton Waldo)
The Complete Book of Nonsense (by Lear, Edward)
The Rose and the Ring (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
King Solomon's Mines (by Haggard, Henry Rider)
The Wind in the Willows (by Grahame, Kenneth)
Read it LOUD!, Little Red Riding Hood (by Read it LOUD!)
Tanglewood Tales (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
David Copperfield (by Dickens, Charles)
Blue Fairy Book, The (by Lang, Andrew)
The Hunting of the Snark (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Second Jungle Book (by Rudyard Kipling)
The Blue Fairy Book (by Andrew Lang)
Nature Myths and Stories for Little Chil... (by Flora Juliette Cooke)
The Troll Garden (by McClure, Phillips & Co. Pbl)

Top Titles for Age 10

Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Hor... (by Sewell, Anna)
Under the Lilacs (by Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888)
Dutch Courage and Other Stories (by London, Jack)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington)
A Tale of Two Cities (by Charles Dickens)
Black Beauty (by Sewell, Anna)
The Prince and the Page (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (by Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan)
The Four Million (by O. Henry)
Peterkin Papers, The (by Hale, Lucretia P.)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (by James Matthew Barrie)
Treasure Island (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Winnetou I (by May, Karl)
Raven, The (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
Tale of Two Cities, A (by Dickens, Charles)

Top Titles for Age 11

The End of a Rainbow: An American Story (by Johnson, Rossiter)
The Wide, Wide World (by Warner, Susan)
The Children's Book of Christmas Stories (by Dickinson, Asa Don)
Cricket on the Hearth, The (by Dickens, Charles)
The Flower and the Star and Other Storie... (by William James Linton)
Three Musketeers, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
The thousand and one nights: the Arabian... (by Arabian nights, Jonathan Scott)
Jack, The Young Ranchman; Or, A Boy's Ad... (by Grinnell, George Bird)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, The (by Pyle, Howard)
The Sea Fairies (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
The Three Musketeers (by Dumas, Alexandre)
The Railway Children (by Nesbit, Edith)
The Three Musketeers (by Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870)
Railway Children, The (by Nesbit, E. (Edith))
Invisible Man, The (by Wells, H. G.)

Top Titles for Age 12

A Room with a View (by Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
'Captains Courageous'' (by Rudyard Kipling)
Kidnapped (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
More magic pictures of the long ago; sto... (by Chandler, Anna Curtis)
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (by Irving, Washington)
Room with a View, A (by Forster, E. M.)
Broken Vase and Other Stories, The (by Anonymous)
Kim (by Rudyard Kipling)
Count of Monte Cristo, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
The Prisoner of Zenda : Being the Histor... (by Hope, Anthony, 1863-1933)
More Magic Pictures of the Long Ago; Sto... (by Chandler, Anna Curtis)
The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (by Irving, Washington)
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (by Sidney, Margaret)

Top Titles for Age 13

The story of Jack Ballister's fortunes (by Pyle, Howard)
Robinson Crusoe (by Defoe, Daniel)
Rootabaga Stories (by Sandburg, Carl)
Countess Julie (by Strindberg, August)
The War of the Worlds (by Wells, Herbert George)
Notre-Dame de Paris Aka the Hunchback of... (by Hugo, Victor)
Jane Eyre (by Brontë, Charlotte)
Great Stories of All Nations (by Maxim Lieber)
A Book of Golden Deeds (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
A Narrative of the Life of David Crocket... (by Davy Crockett)
Countess Julie (by Strindberg, August)
Jane Eyre (by Brontë, Charlotte)
Around the World in Eighty Days (version... (by Verne, Jules)
The story of Jack Ballister's fortunes (by Pyle, Howard)
Pygmalion (by Shaw, George Bernard)

Top Titles for Age 14

Frankenstein (dramatic reading) (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
Up from Slavery (by Washington, Booker T.)
Old Curiosity Shop, The (version 2) (by Dickens, Charles)
Fathers and Sons (by Turgenev, Ivan)
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
Frankenstein : Or, The Modern Prometheus... (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
Arms and the Man (by Shaw, George Bernard)
Tom Brown's schooldays (by Thomas Hughes)
House-Boat on the Styx, A (by Bangs, John Kendrick)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
The Oregon Trail (by Parkman, Francis)
The Canterbury Tales (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe (by Edgar Allan Poe)
The Oregon Trail (by Parkman, Francis)
Emma (by Austen, Jane)

Top Titles for Age 15

The Golden Bough (by Frazer, Sir James George)
Poems by Emily Dickinson (by Dickinson, Emily)
The Writings of Mark Twain : Volume 1 (by Mark Twain)
My Man Jeeves (by Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville)
Mansfield Park (by Austen, Jane)
Mansfield Park (by Jane Austen)
Lord Jim (by Conrad, Joseph)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
The sign of the four and other stories (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tempest (by Shakespeare, William)
Collected Stories of William Faulkner (by Faulkner, William)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)

Top Titles for Age 16

The Promised Land, By Mary Antin; (by Antin, Mary)
Prince and the Pauper, The (by Twain, Mark)
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of l... (by Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De)
Shakespeare's King Lear (by Bloom, Harold)
Lorna Doone, a Romance of Exmoor (by Blackmore, Richard Doddridge)
How I Found Livingstone (by Stanley, Sir Henry M.)
Cyrano de Bergerac (by Rostand, Edmond)
Letters from the Earth (by Twain, Mark)
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (by Pyle, Howard)
Shakespeare's King Lear (by Bloom, Harold)
Quo Vadis
The Travels of Marco Polo (by Marco Polo)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
Round the World on a Wheel : Being the N... (by Fraser, John Foster, Sir)
Quo vadis (by Sienkiewicz, Henryk)

Top Titles for Age 17

Ben-Hur (by Lewis Wallace)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous M... (by Defoe, Daniel)
Tartuffe (by Poquelin, Jean Baptiste)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. H... (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
To Have and to Hold (by Johnston, Mary)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. H... (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Scarlet Pimpernel, The (by Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness)
Tartuffe (by Molière)
Wuthering Heights (by Brontë, Emily)
To Have And To Hold (by Johnston, Mary)
Turn of the Screw, The (by James, Henry)
The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
The Thirty-Nine Steps (by Buchan, John)

Top Titles for Age 18

Leaves of Grass (by Whitman, Walt)
Ivanhoe (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
War and Peace, Book 01: 1805 (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Mrs. Dalloway (by Woolf, Virginia)
A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His M... (by William Bligh)
Walden; Or, Life in the Woods : Volume 2 (by Henry David Thoreau)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)
Iliad, The (by Homer)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Wilde, Oscar)
A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His M... (by William Bligh)
The Republic, Score Plato Rep (by Plato)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (by Franklin, Benjamin)
Silas Marner (by Eliot, George)
Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise, The (by Abelard, Pierre)

Top Titles for Ages 18+

Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchause... (by Raspe, Rudolf Erich)
Pilgrim's Progress, Score Chr Bunyan (by John Bunyan)
Bleak House (by Charles Dickens)
Nostromo (by Joseph Conrad)
History of the Decline and Fall of the R... (by Gibbon, Edward)
Nostromo (by Joseph Conrad)
The Dialogues of Plato (by Plato)
The Dialogues of Plato (by Plato)
The Last of the Mohicans : a Tragedy, in... (by Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851. Last of the Moh...)
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Last of the Mohicans, The (by Cooper, James Fenimore)
Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms (by Stein, Gertrude)
Divine Comedy, The (by Dante Alighieri)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)