Top 25 Must Have Books by Age Category

Top Titles for Ages 2 to 5

The Story of the Three Bears
Three Blind Mice (by Ivimey, John William)
Mother Earth's Children; The Frolics of ... (by Gordon, Elizabeth)
Harry's Ladder to Learning
Three Blind Mice (by Ivimey, John William)
The Golden Goose Book, Being the Stories... (by Leonard Leslie Brooke)
Baby's Abc Book
The Little Red Hen
Velveteen Rabbit, The (by Williams, Margery)
The Little Engine That Could (by Lenski, Lois L.)
Little Mary; Or, The Picture-Book
Johnny Crow's Party; Another Picture Boo... (by Brooke, Leonard Leslie)
Golden Goose Book, The (by Brooke, L. Leslie)
Adventures of Goody Two Shoes (by Goldsmith, Oliver)
Little Bo Peep

Top Titles for Age 6

Raggedy Ann's Alphabet Book (by Gruelle, Johnny)
Jack and the Beanstalk
Johnny Crow's Garden; A Picture Book (by Brooke, Leonard Leslie)
Aesops Fables (by Mcloughlin Bros., Inc. Pbl)
Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
The purple cow! (by Burgess, Gelett)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
The Purple Cow! (by Burgess, Galett)
Stories for Little Children (by Doughty, Sarah Parsons)
Adventures of Maya the Bee, The (by Bonsels, Waldemar)
The Curious Adventures of Cinderella, Or...
Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Picture Book Garden
Hans Christian Andersen: Fairytales and ... (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
The Little Red Balloon (by Hofman, Caroline)

Top Titles for Age 7

The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes : ... (by Goldsmith, Oliver)
The Story of Little Jane and Me (by Blatchford, Mary E)
Old King Cole Mother Goose Melodies
Raggedy Andy Stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The Green Fairy Book (by Lang, Andrew, Ed)
Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor Hodgman)
Mrs. Peter Rabbit (by Burgess, Thornton Waldo)
The Children's Book of Stars; (by Mitton, Gerldine Edith)
The Song of Hiawatha (by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth)
The Three Jovial Huntsmen (by Caldecott, Randolph)
Just so Stories (by Kipling, Ruyard)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
The Story of Little Jane and Me (by Blatchford, Mary E)
A Book of Discoveries. Illustrated by Go... (by Masefield, John)
Old King Cole (by Martin, John)

Top Titles for Age 8

Anne of Green Gables (dramatic reading) (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)
Five Children and It (by Nesbit, Edith)
Bimbi : Stories for Children (by Ouida)
The Phantom Rickshaw (by Rudyard Kipling)
Zanzibar Tales (by Bateman, George W.)
The Jungle Book (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Puss in Boots (by Josiah Wood Whymper)
Five Children and It, Version 2 (by Nesbit, E. (Edith))
The story of King Arthur and his knights (by Pyle, Howard)
What Shall We Do Now Over Five Hundred G... (by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield)
Heroes Every Child Should Know : Tales f... (by Hamilton Wright Mabie)
The Phantom Rickshaw (by Rudyard Kipling)
The Cuckoo Clock (by Molesworth, Mary Louisa)

Top Titles for Age 9

Precious things: or, Winning words for y... (by William Wileman)
Read it LOUD!, Little Red Riding Hood (by Read it LOUD!)
The Story of David Copperfield for Child... (by Gleason, Ray)
The History of Little Red Riding Hood
Grimm's Fairy Tales (version 2) (by Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm)
The Troll Garden (by McClure, Phillips & Co. Pbl)
Tanglewood Tales (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
A Christmas Carol, Score Etc Acc Volume Vol. III (by Dickens, Charles)
The Second Jungle Book (by Rudyard Kipling)
The Hunting of the Snark (by Carroll, Lewis)
Peter and Wendy (by Barrie, James Matthew)
Christmas Carol, A (by Dickens, Charles)
Last Fairy Tales (by Booth, Mary Louise)
The Rose and the Ring (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
Swiss Family Robinson, The (by Wyss, Johann David)

Top Titles for Age 10

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (by Barrie, J. M.)
Peterkin Papers, The (by Hale, Lucretia P.)
General Principles of Zoology (by Hertwig, Richard)
Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates : A ... (by Dodge, Mary Mapes)
The Prince and the Page (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
Tale of Two Cities, A (by Dickens, Charles)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
Hans Brinker (by Mary Elizabeth Dodge)
Under the Lilacs (by Alcott, Louisa May)
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates (by Dodge, Mary Mapes)
The Thousand and One Nights, A New Tr. B... (by Arabian Nights)
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (by Barrie, James Matthew)
Dutch Courage and Other Stories (by London, Jack)
Dutch Courage and Other Stories (by London, Jack)

Top Titles for Age 11

The Wide, Wide World (by Warner, Susan)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (by Mark Twain)
Lost in the Jungle
A Journey to the Center of the Earth (by Verne, Jules)
The Mysterious Island (by Verne, Jules)
Wide, Wide World, The (by Warner, Susan)
Railway Children, The (by Nesbit, E. (Edith))
Water-Babies, The (by Kingsley, Charles)
The Cricket on the Hearth (by Charles Dickens)
Eyebright : A Story (by Susan Coolidge)
The King of the Golden River (by Ruskin, John)
The Railway Children (by Nesbit, E.)
Little Princess, A (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Mysterious Island, The (by Verne, Jules)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Twain, Mark)

Top Titles for Age 12

Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Th... (by Irving, Washington)
The Red True Story Book (by Lang, Andrew)
The Making of the Great West, 1512-1883 (by Drake, Samuel Adams)
Kim (by Kipling, Rudyard)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Count of Monte Cristo, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Room with a View, A (by Forster, E. M.)
Kidnapped (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
Secret Garden, The (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Captains Courageous (by Kipling, Rudyard)
The Prisoner of Zenda (by Hope, Anthony)
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (by Sidney, Margaret)
Prisoner of Zenda, The (by Hope, Anthony)
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (by Sidney, Margaret)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)

Top Titles for Age 13

The War of the Worlds (by Wells, Herbert George)
War of the Worlds, The (by Wells, H. G.)
Around the World in Eighty Days (by Verne, Jules)
The monster and other stories (by Crane, Stephen)
A Narrative of the Life of David Crocket... (by Davy Crockett, Thomas Chilton)
Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, T... (by Defoe, Daniel)
A Book of Golden Deeds (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Rootabaga Stories (by Sandburg, Carl)
Ragged Dick : Or, Street Life in New Yor... (by Alger, Horatio, Jr.)
A Book of Golden Deeds (by Yonge, Charlotte Mary)
Robinson Crusoe (by Defoe, Daniel)
Three Good Giants Whose Famous Deeds Are... (by Rabelais, Fr Ca)
Stories from Livy (by Church, Alfred John)
Fairy Tales from Shakespeare (by Britton, Fay Adams)
Eight Cousins (by Alcott, Louisa May)

Top Titles for Age 14

Captain Blood (by Sabatini, Rafael)
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
Captain Blood (by Sabatini, Rafael)
The Princess and the Goblin (by Macdonald, George)
The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe (by Edgar Allan Poe)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Co... (by Mark Twain)
Princess and the Goblin, The (by Macdonald, George)
Emma (by Austen, Jane)
The Story of Mankind (by Van Loon, Hendrik)
Frankenstein : Or, The Modern Prometheus... (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
A Connecticut Yankee (by Twain, Mark)
The Canterbury Tales (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
Canterbury Tales, The (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
Up from Slavery (by Washington, Booker T.)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)

Top Titles for Age 15

Lord Jim (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Road Not Taken : An Introduction To ... (by Frost, Robert.)
The Road Not Taken : An Introduction to ... (by Frost, Robert.)
Lord Jim (by Conrad, Joseph)
Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
Great Expectations (by Dickens, Charles)
Coral Island, The (by Ballantyne, R.M.)
Tempest, The (by Shakespeare, William)
The Rome Express (by Griffiths, Arthur)
The sign of the four and other stories (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
Innocents Abroad, The (by Twain, Mark)
Midsummer Night's Dream, A (by Shakespeare, William)
My Man Jeeves (by Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville)
Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson (by Dickinson, Emily)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)

Top Titles for Age 16

Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Professor And Poems (by Bronte, Charlotte)
Shakespeare's King Lear (by Bloom, Harold)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
Quo vadis (by Sienkiewicz, Henryk)
Promised Land, The (by Antin, Mary)
Metamorphosis, The (by Kafka, Franz)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Metamorphosis (by Kafka, Franz)
Lorna Doone, a Romance of Exmoor (by Blackmore, Richard Doddridge)
The Promised Land, By Mary Antin; (by Antin, Mary)
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stor... (by Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936)
Uncle Vanya (by Checkov, Anton)
Prince and the Pauper, The (by Twain, Mark)
Round the World on a Wheel : Being the N... (by Fraser, John Foster, Sir)

Top Titles for Age 17

To Have and to Hold (by Johnston, Mary)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (by Joyce, James)
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (by Lawrence, T. E.)
Woman in White, The (by Collins, Wilkie)
Faust I (by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von)
To Have And To Hold (by Johnston, Mary)
Thirty-nine Steps, The (by Buchan, John)
Scarlet Letter, The (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. H... (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Versio... (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Tartuffe (by Molière)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (by Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness)
The Odyssey (by Homer)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (by James Joyce)

Top Titles for Age 18

The Iliad (by Butler, Samuel)
Iliad, The (by Homer)
The Yellow Wallpaper (by Gilman, Charlotte Perkins)
The Republic (by Plato)
Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887 (by Bellamy, Edward)
Where Angels Fear to Tread (by Forster, E. M.)
Paradise Lost (by Milton, John)
War and Peace, Book 01: 1805 (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Ivanhoe (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
The Republic, Score Plato Rep (by Plato)
Picture Of Dorian Gray (1891 Version), T... (by Wilde, Oscar)
A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board His M... (by William Bligh)
Middlemarch (by Eliot, George Evans)
Silas Marner
Republic, The (by Plato)

Top Titles for Ages 18+

Divine Comedy, The (by Dante Alighieri)
Vanity Fair (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
The Man in the Iron Mask, An Essay (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Bleak House (by Dickens, Charles)
Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms (by Stein, Gertrude)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Man in the Iron Mask, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Babbitt (by Lewis, Sinclair)
History of the Decline and Fall of the R... (by Gibbon, Edward)
The Genius (by Dreiser, Theodore)
Beyond Good and Evil (by Nietzsche, Friedrich)
Vanity Fair (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
Tender Buttons (by Stein, Gertrude)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)