What happens when a public library looks back across 125 years of reading? In 2022, Brooklyn Public Library answered that question by identifying the most borrowed books in its history. The top five mix four enduring children’s books with one Victorian classic—and the number-one title was created by a Brooklyn-born author.
The library released a ranked list of 125 titles to celebrate its 125th anniversary. This was not simply a download of one modern database: librarians considered checkout and circulation records, historical bestseller lists, and the number of years each book had been available. The result offers a fascinating picture of what generations of Brooklyn readers have returned to again and again.
The Five Most Borrowed Books in Brooklyn Public Library History
1. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak’s 1963 picture book takes the top spot. After causing trouble at home and being sent to bed without supper, Max imagines sailing to the land of the Wild Things. He becomes their king, calls for a wild rumpus, and eventually decides to return to the comfort of home.
The book won the 1964 Caldecott Medal and changed expectations for what a picture book could say about childhood anger, imagination, and security. Its place at number one is especially fitting because Sendak was born in Brooklyn. At the time it announced the ranking, the library said it held 163 copies of the title in multiple languages.
2. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Ezra Jack Keats’s 1962 classic follows Peter as he explores a city transformed by fresh snow. The story is simple—footprints, snowballs, a snow-covered tree—but its quiet attention to a child’s experience makes the day feel momentous.
The Snowy Day won the 1963 Caldecott Medal and became a landmark in American children’s literature for centering a Black child in an ordinary, joyful urban story. Keats also had deep Brooklyn roots, and Peter’s neighborhood feels recognizably connected to the borough’s streets and apartment buildings.
3. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
First published in 1957, The Cat in the Hat turns a dull rainy day into escalating chaos. Its controlled vocabulary, rhyme, repetition, and visual comedy helped make it a fixture for generations learning to read.
Dr. Seuss appears 17 times in Brooklyn Public Library’s complete top 125, more often than any other author on the list. Three of his books landed in the top 20: The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Fox in Socks. Whatever debates surround parts of his catalog, the circulation history shows how deeply his beginner books became embedded in American reading instruction.
4. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The only adult classic in the top five is Charles Dickens’s 1843 novella about Ebenezer Scrooge. Visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Scrooge is forced to confront the human cost of his bitterness and isolation.
Its high ranking makes sense for several reasons. The story is short, frequently assigned in schools, adapted constantly, and rediscovered every holiday season. Unlike many books whose demand peaks after publication, A Christmas Carol receives a built-in annual revival.
5. Are You My Mother? by P. D. Eastman
P. D. Eastman’s 1960 beginner book follows a newly hatched bird searching for its mother. The bird asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, a cow, a car, a boat, a plane, and even a power shovel the same hopeful question before finally finding home.
The repetitive structure helps early readers anticipate the language and participate in the story. That combination of suspense, humor, and readable vocabulary explains why families and classrooms have borrowed it for decades.
Why Children’s Books Dominate the Ranking
Four of the five most borrowed titles are picture books or beginner readers. Children’s books tend to circulate quickly because they are short, frequently reread, and often borrowed in stacks. The same copy can return to a branch and go home with another family far more often than a long novel.
They also serve several overlapping audiences. Parents check them out for bedtime, teachers use them in classrooms, young readers borrow them independently, and adults revisit favorites with a new generation. A beloved picture book can remain continuously useful for 60 years or more.
The broader top 125 still covers an impressive range. Classics such as Wuthering Heights, Little Women, 1984, and The Great Gatsby appear alongside manga including Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. More recent favorites such as Wonder, Twilight, and the Harry Potter series also made the list.
How Brooklyn Public Library Built the List
Brooklyn Public Library was established in 1896. Its 125th-anniversary project looked across a period that predates digital circulation systems, so the staff evaluated multiple kinds of evidence rather than presenting the ranking as a simple lifetime checkout counter. That context matters: older titles have had more years to circulate, while newer books may have stronger modern data.
The project began after another enormous milestone—the library system recorded its one-billionth borrowed item. The final list became a celebration not only of individual books, but of the public library as a place where one copy can pass through hundreds of hands.
You can explore all 125 titles on the Brooklyn Public Library’s official list and read its announcement of the top five. The full ranking is a reading list, a slice of Brooklyn history, and a reminder that the books children love can have the longest lives of all.
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Where the Wild Things Are was my favorite books as a child
I think controlling for the factor of the number of available copies is fundamental
I want to see the list of most checked out books in a year at Brooklyn Public Library
I can look into it and see what I find! If anything, I’ll reach out to them to see if the data is available