10 Classic Children’s Books That Everyone Should Read

The wonderful thrilling story of Jim Hawkins and the dreadful, treacherous, evil pirate Long John Silver and their fateful voyage aboard the Hispaniola to find the buried treasure left by Silver's captain on Treasure Island.

An unpleasant and unhappy orphan girl from India is sent to the brooding mysterious Misslethwaite Manor in Yorkshire where she meets her brooding guardian, befriends a boy who talks to animals, and discovers her imperious sickly cousin and unlocks a magical garden that brings them all to life.

This novel is a deeply moving account of a horse’s experiences at the hands of many owners―some sensitive; others cruel. Scenes from the lives of both the landed gentry and the impoverished working class reveal as much about the social ills of the nineteenth century as they do about the treatment of animals. Composed during the last years of her life, Anna Sewell died just five months after its publication.

Once upon a time, O my Best Beloved . . . So begins this classic collection of gloriously fanciful tales of how things in the world came to be as they are. Written by Kipling for his children and drawing on tales from India this fun collection of stories solves many pressing questions, including how the leopard got his spots. Excellent for reading together.

Two identically looking boys, one an urchin from London’s filthy lanes, the other a prince born in a lavish palace, unwittingly trade identities. Thus a bedraggled “Prince of Poverty” discovers that his private dreams have all come true—while a pampered Prince of Wales finds himself tossed into a rough-and-tumble world of squalid beggars and villainous thieves. Great fun and as amusing satire a fun read for adults too!

At the age of five, little orphan Heidi lives with her grandfather in the Alps and old man everyone but Heidi is afraid of. She comes to love her life of freedom in the mountains, playing in the sunshine and growing up amongst the goats and birds. But one terrible day, Heidi is collected by her aunt and is made to live with a new family in town. Heidi can't bear to be away from her grandfather; can she find a way back up the mountain, where she belongs?

No novel better epitomizes the love between a child and a pet than The Yearling. Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend.

The wonderful story of the March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their wonderful Marmee and their joys and mishaps they face as young women and as a family. Based on Louise May Alcott's childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth-century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.

The combination of man and dog against the elements of the then untamed North and the anything-goes adventurous nature of Buck, the protagonist, makes for exciting reading. London draws on his turn of the century experiences during the Goldrush in Alaska when dogs were as important to survival as humans.