The 30 Best Children’s Books According to Independent

Children’s books are dear to many readers because of their childhood as well as reading these books to their children. And today, we will be looking at the 30 best children’s books according to Independent!

We all remember the books from our childhood and our first step into the world of literature. Back then, we didn’t know we would be voracious readers as adults or try to be. 

These are just some of the thousands of children’s books out there that children and adults have read. You will recognize many of the titles and they will evoke certain memories. You can see the full list below!

The 30 Best Children’s Book

• 1. The Alice books by Lewis Carroll (19th century)
• 2. Kinder- und Hausmarchen (‘Nursery and Household Tales’) by The Brothers Grimm (19th century)
• 3. Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (19th century)
• 4. The One Thousand and One Nights by Anon. (Folk tales)
• 5. Peter and Wendy by J M Barrie (1911)
• 6. The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan (1678)
• 7. The Narnia series by CS Lewis (mid-20th century)
• 8. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995)
• 9. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (1937)
• 10. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
• 11. The Once and Future King by TH White (1958)
• 12. Five Children and It by E Nesbit (1902)
• 13. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
• 14. Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988)
• 15. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
• 16. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf (1936)
• 17. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1962)
• 18. The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin (1968)
• 19. Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (1958)
• 20. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively (1973)
• 21. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (late 20th century)
• 22. The Scarecrows by Robert Westall (1981)
• 23. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (2001)
• 24. Down with Skool! A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and their Parents by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle (1953)
• 25. The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban (1967)
• 26. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (2001)
• 27. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (2015)
• 28. How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (2003)
• 29. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902)
• 30. Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (1857)

Childhood Classics

I don’t think there is a wrong book to choose as the best here and Alice in Wonderland is fantastic book. I have only read that book in the series and I am curious as to how many people have read the other books in the series.

It is impossible not to include the popular fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm and by Hans Christian Andersen. They have influenced our childhood and adult lives with all those incredible stories and movie adaptations over the decades. 

Other standouts include Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, and The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Even as adults those books are amazing reads. I recently read the first book in the Northern Lights series and enjoyed every second of it.

Conclusion

These are at the 30 best children’s books according to Independent and don’t even begin to cover the list of amazing children’s books released over the centuries. But it does a good job naming some of the most influential books that readers love as adults and when they were children. What other books would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!

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