As your children grow older and desire more substance, these popular children's books and classic children's books are sure to inspire and provide hours of listening and reading enjoyment. This short list is by no means comprehensive.

Hilda van Stockum

  • A Day on Skates

Roald Dahl

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • James and the Giant Peach

Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire

  • Abraham Lincoln
  • This and other biographies by the D'Aulaires are all treats to read 

Laura Ingalls Wilder

  • The Little House books (series of 9 books)

C. S. Lewis

  • The Chronicles of Narnia (series of 7 books)
  • Space Trilogy (series of 3 books)

E. B. White

  • Charlotte's Web
  • Stuart Little
  • The Trumpet of the Swan

Holling C. Holling

  • Paddle to the Sea
  • Tree in the Trail
  • Seabird
  • Minn of Mississippi Pagoo

Franklin W. Dixon

  • Hardy Boys (series)

Carolyn Keene

  • Nancy Drew (series)
    • be on guard and buy only the original versions

Gertrude Warner

  • The Boxcar Children (series)

Mary Norton

  • The Borrowers

Edith Nesbit

  • Five Children and It
  • The Railway Children

Louisa May Alcott

  • Little Women
  • Little Men
  • Jo's Boys

Robert McCloskey

  • Homer Price

William H. Armstrong

  • Sounder

Astrid Lindgren

  • Pippi Longstocking
  • Pippi Goes on Board
  • Pippi in the South Seas

Pamela Travers

  • Mary Poppins

Dorothy Sterling

  • Freedom Train

Lynne Reid Banks

  • The Indian in the Cupboard

Betsy Byars

  • The Summer of the Swans

Charles and Mary Lamb

  • Tales from Shakespeare

Scott O'Dell

  • Island of the Blue Dolphins

Mark Twain

  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • A Connecticut Yanke in King Arthur's Court
  • The Prince and the Pauper

Ian Fleming

  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ernest Gaines

  • The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmann

J. R. R. Tolkien

  • The Hobbit
  • The Lord of the Rings (series of 3 books)