The Greatest Books of All Time on Childhood

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
22 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1884 American English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
165 Winnie the Pooh A. A. Milne 1926 British English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
243 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 1876 American English
267 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 Swedish Swedish
303 Peter And Wendy J. M. Barrie 1911 Scottish English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
320 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 1963 American English
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
398 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
499 Platero Juan Ramón Jiménez 1914 Spanish Spanish
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
727 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
758 Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury 1957 American English
798 The Life Of Arseniev Ivan Bunin 1930 Russian Russian
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
823 The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats 1962 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
987 Harriet the Spy Louise Fitzhugh 1964 American English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1097 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
1120 The Sorrow of Belgium Hugo Claus 1983 Belgian Dutch
1172 My Family And Other Animals Gerald Durrell 1956 British English
1229 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake 1789 British English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1319 The Story Of An African Farm Olive Schreiner 1883 South African English
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1377 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 1964 British English
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1420 The October Country Ray Bradbury 1955 American English
1442 Little House In The Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1457 Deliver Us Luigi Meneghello 1963 Italian Italian
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1547 What Maisie Knew Henry James 1897 American English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1680 Harold and the Purple Crayon Crockett Johnson 1955 American English
1707 The House at Pooh Corner A. A. Milne 1928 British English
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1766 Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro 1978 Canadian English
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1776 Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke 1953 British English
1777 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1838 Just William Richmal Crompton 1922 British English
1853 The Velveteen Rabbit Margery Williams 1922 British English
1858 Terug naar Oegstgeest Jan Wolkers 1965 Dutch Dutch
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
1931 The Witches Roald Dahl 1983 British English
1975 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1977 House with the Blind Glass Windows Herbjørg Wassmo 1981 Norwegian Norwegian
1996 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
2139 Shadows on the Rock Willa Cather 1931 American English
2161 The Poetical Works Of William Wordsworth William Wordsworth 1807 British English
2172 Essays Charles Lamb 1823 British English
2214 The Lake of the Bees Theodor Storm 1849 German German
2249 Emil And The Detectives Erich Kästner 1929 German German
2264 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Sigmund Freud 1905 Austrian German
2295 My Father's Glory Marcel Pagnol 1957 French French
2340 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2386 Emil I Lönneberga Astrid Lindgren 1963 Swedish Swedish
2415 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2454 Molesworth Geoffrey Willans, Ronald Searle 1953 British English
2459 Lark Rise To Candleford Flora Thompson 1945 British English
2465 La Grande Maison Mohammed Dib 1952 Algerian French
2497 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English
2523 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2537 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2571 Childhood Nathalie Sarraute 1983 French French
2593 Tales Of Hulan River Xiao Hong 1942 Chinese Chinese
2639 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2657 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2674 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
2690 Childhood Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
2692 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2799 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
2837 Kassandra And The Wolf Margarita Karapanou 1974 Greek Greek
2853 Swami and Friends R. K. Narayan 1935 Indian English
2872 Boyhood J. M. Coetzee 1997 South African English
2922 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2955 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass Bruno Schulz 1937 Polish Polish
2966 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2970 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
2975 Penrod Booth Tarkington 1914 American English
2996 Childhood Leo Tolstoy 1852 Russian Russian
3006 Hideous Kinky Esther Freud 1992 British English
3049 A World for Julius Alfredo Bryce Echenique 1970 Peruvian Spanish
3075 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3131 Little Nicholas Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
3135 Ake Wole Soyinka 1981 Nigerian English
3136 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
3178 Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood 2017 American English