The 50 Best Books for Kids

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday (he'd be 108 this year) and the NEA's Read Across America Day on Friday, March 2, we decided it was time to put together the definitive list of best books for children. The task wasn't easy: After all, children's books are among the most indelible sources of memory—and therefore opinion—on the planet. We knew we didn't want only 20th-century classics, and also that we wanted to mix in a few graphic novels and nonfiction works, genres that have come a long way in recent years. And of course we wanted something for every child, from tots and emerging readers to middle-grade kids and middle-school students. (We stopped at roughly age 12, though many in the oldest age category are teen and adult gems as well.) A lot of our personal favorites made the cut (Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter, A Wrinkle in Time) but we're also thrilled that the top 50 include some new classics we'd never heard of.