Books
You can sort the list of great children's books, winnow it down by age and genre, or use Advanced Search to see many other ways to explore the Treasury of Great Children's Books.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1971)
The Pied Piper pipes all the rats out of an ungrateful town. He then pipes all the children out as a result.
Author(s):
Robert Browning
Illustrator(s):
Walter Hodges
Prester John (1910)
A young Scot goes out to South Africa where he becomes caught up in a native rebellion. This is a later American edition.
Author(s):
John Buchan
Illustrator(s):
Henry Pitz
The Cruise of the Cachalot (1926)
This is the story of a cruise after sperm whales by a member of the crew. The scan is of an early reprinting. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Frank Bullen
Illustrator(s):
Mead Schaeffer
A Little Princess Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time (1905)
Originally a short story, then made into a play, this is a more developed story of the orphan girl left at a boarding school who is reduced to servitude, then rescued by a friend of her father’s. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Frances Burnett
Illustrator(s):
Ethel Franklin
The Secret Garden (1956)
An Anglo-Indian orphan girl and and an English invalid find their cure in a garden.
Author(s):
Frances Burnett
Illustrator(s):
Ernest Shepard
The Incredible Journey: A Tale of Three Animals (1961)
A yellow lab, an ancient bull terrier and a Siamese cat make their way home across two hundred and fifty miles of Canadian wilderness.
Author(s):
Sheila Burnford
Illustrator(s):
Carl Burger
Katy and the Big Snow (1943)
When the big snow paralyzes the town, Katy goes to work and plows it out.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Virginia Burton
Illustrator(s):
Virginia Burton
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939)
When Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Anne win the bid to dig the cellar for the new town hall in Popperville, they get a chance to prove that Mary Anne ‘can dig as much in a day as a hundred men in a week.’
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Virginia Burton
Illustrator(s):
Virginia Burton
The Enormous Egg (1956)
When Nate’s chicken lays an enormous egg, every one is anxious to see what will hatch.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Oliver Butterworth
Illustrator(s):
Louis Darling
The Trouble with Jenny’s Ear (1960)
When Jenny starts hearing people’s thoughts, her brothers figure out how to cash in.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Oliver Butterworth
Illustrator(s):
Julian de Miskey
Mr. Bass’s Planetoid (1958)
David and Chuck are off in their spaceship to rescue the world from the Brumblitron.
Author(s):
Eleanor Cameron
Illustrator(s):
Louis Darling
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954)
David and Chuck are approached by their neighbor Mr. Bass to build a space ship.
Author(s):
Eleanor Cameron
Illustrator(s):
Robert Henneberger
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1937)
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by strange creatures. And in the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, she climbs through a mirror into a fantastical world.
Author(s):
Lewis Carroll
Illustrator(s):
John Tenniel, Ninon MacKnight
The Hunting of the Snark and Other Poems (1903)
Includes The Hunting of the Snark and poems from Rhyme? and Reason?, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and Sylvie and Bruno. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Lewis Carroll
Illustrator(s):
Peter Newell, Robert Wright
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1872)
Alice returns to Wonderland by way of the looking glass over the mantle and meets many queer people, including the Walrus and the Carpenter. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Lewis Carroll
Illustrator(s):
John Tenniel
The Admiral’s Caravan (1892)
A young girl named Dorothy takes a journey with three wooden statues who come alive on Christmas Eve. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Charles Carryl
Illustrator(s):
Reginald Birch
Fables for the Frivolous (1898)
These humorous verse renderings of the familiar Aesop fables are ideal for memorization. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Guy Carryl
Illustrator(s):
Peter Newell
Grimm Tales Made Gay (1902)
Guy Wetmore Carryl brings his gift for comic verse to fairy tales. Read online at archive. org.
Author(s):
Guy Carryl
Illustrator(s):
Albert Levering
The Ballad of the White Horse (2001)
A poem by G. K. Chesterton about the idealised exploits of the Saxon King Alfred the Great.
Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.
Author(s):
Gilbert Chesterton
Illustrator(s):
Robert Austin
The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
A collection of detective stories about a Catholic priest who is considered one of the high spots of detective fiction. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Gilbert Chesterton
Illustrator(s):
Sydney Lucas