I heard from the author of the Fuse 8 blog yesterday about why she had not included all of the children’s votes for the 100 favorite children’s book list. She wrote:
Well, just to justify the tampering, had I allowed every child vote to count (and initially I did) you would have seen numbers 1-50 consist entirely of Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, iCarly, and Rainbow Fairy sequels and series. In the future, I’ll have a better method for handling child votes. As it was, any child that sent me a vote individually counted. If they were in classes, however, then for each of their votes, two adults also had to vote. Not perfect, but amenable.
I responded:
So if you hadn’t tinkered, then the “wrong” books would have been chosen as favorites? Favorites are favorites! Perhaps what we need, then, is two lists. I would love to read the true list of what children pick as their favorite books even if we consider them twaddle, and I also would love to read a list of what adults consider the 100 best books.
I am not trying to be snippy or difficult, but I really have a problem with saying that children’s opinions don’t count, for any reason.
I find the 100 book list very helpful and plan to try to finish them all off with my kiddos by the end of the summer (or year at the least). Luckily, we’ve read an awful lot of them so it shouldn’t be that difficult!
That said, I would really like to know what other books children would pick — even if they all would be books that grown ups might look down upon.
Please ask your kids and spread the word that I would love to hear their votes for their all-time favorite children’s books. All respondents must be under 18 and they can vote for any book they please!
If books are in a series, I will count them together as such instead of making children pick just one book in the series. I suspect the Harry Potter books and Little House books would have been higher up if they had been counted as one entry, for instance, and other series might have made the list if the whole series could be listed (such as the Paddington Bear series, Nancy Drew, Magic Treehouse and American Girl books, just to name a few).
That said, if your favorite book is part of a series you can feel free to tell me which one and I’ll make a note so others will know to check it out!
I realize that my little blog will not get nearly the votes and traffic of the School Library Journal’s, so please help spread the word so we can get as many book recommendations as possible!
I’ll leave the voting up till the end of June and then write up the results. Perhaps I’ll do a parents’ book poll then. 🙂
So please gather up your kiddos and ask them to weigh in. What’s your favorite novel or chapter book?
Making the series (Harry Potter etc) count as one vote is a fabulous idea, well done 🙂
i agree harry potter is very well done but my favorite of all time would have to be chassing vermeer by blue balliet
Great question, Alicia! And, honestly, how could a top 100 list be valid if you’re tampering with the results? Makes no sense.
For my kids, some of their faves are: Diary of Wimpy Kid (Nick — the entire series) and for Hayley, the series starting with Eleven (by Lauren Myracle).
Of course, they devour books (like yours, judging by the photo….!) but these are the ones they either consistently re-read or get excited about telling people.
Saw this posted on the Twitter.
My 7 yo boy says his favorite is the Magician’s Nephew from the Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis.
I asked him about the Little House books and he says those are really good but are 2nd best to Narnia!
We are looking forward to reading what other youngsters recommend!
The Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton!! My boys absolutely love them 🙂
I was surprised that none of the Blyton books made it on the top 100!
Lilly thinks the Uncle Wiggly books should have been on the list.
Yep!! My son loves these too and Specky McGee.
My favorite book is The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews! 🙂
I am so glad you are doing this, Alicia. I, too, am disturbed by how casually children’s opinions are treated by too many adults. I asked my 8 year old son for his vote and he said, PERCY JACKSON!!!
Can’t wait to see the final list.
My son said Geronimo Stilton. He’s read so many wonderful books. Oh well.
I have one vote for Black Beauty, and one for the Percy Jackson series.
How can we choose just one? My daughter’s favorites are mostly series: Harry Potter, Warriors (about the cats), Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles), Guardians of Ga’hoole, Inkheart, Percy Jackson, and anything about befriending dragons, lol. She really enjoys fantasy but also reads the classics like Little House on the Prairie.
My current favorite children’s book novelist is Kate Di’Camillo, I love her books.
Have fun with the votes!
Great poll! One of my daughters votes for the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. My other daughter votes for The Tiffany Aching Adventures from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
If I were to choose some favorites, they would be….
1. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Trilogy)
2. Sabriel, Lireal, Abhorsen by Garth Nix (Trilogy)
3. Uglies by Scott Westerfield
4. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Has a second book, but it is not out yet…I LOVE THIS ONE!!!)
5. Harry Potter (I reread them constantly)
6. Warriors by Erin Hunter (Series)
Ack, sorry that’s a lot of them…I just can’t choose favorites with books. 🙂
-Carmela
P.S- In case you don’t know who I am, I’m one of Victoria’s friends…met you and your family at Jeffer’s Petroglyphs in May. =D
I think the tinkering was because so many kids are so affected by television, the media and peer pressure that they would answer whatever was pre-teen show offering that was backed by Disney or the like or whatever book had the most advertising dollars directed to children (Harry Potter comes to mind.) To get an honest assessment of children’s tastes, you would have to unplug them from peer pressure and unplug them from the television totally for at least six months and put them in a library that had a full option of books. (Our public library would not be that,for example, because the mostly only carries the top promoted children’s books, and they throw out wonderful literature even if it is given to them. I know I have picked up many of them brand new there for free.) Under the current conditons we are living under, it is hard to get an accurate accounting of what are truely the best books, even to kids.
A favorite is a favorite whether it has been influenced by the media and commercialism or not.
I would also like to see the list before the tampering.
My girls’ favorites are:
The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
The Doll People by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin
Magic Tree House
My son’s favourites are “all the Roald Dahl books and Paddington.”
Geneva, 5, votes for Daisy Dawson Is On Her Way by Steve Voake and #2 place for The End of the Beginning by Avi. Abby, 7, votes for Mummies In The Morning ( of the Magic Treehouse series) and Tut’s Mummy: Lost… and Found by Judy Donnelly. She claims it’s a chapter book because it has chapters, but it is a “Step into Reading” book. Her first response was “All Egypt books” because thatt’s her current passion.
AJ, age 9, votes
Clue Me In! The Detective Work of Ethan Flask and Professor von Offel by Kathy Burkett
Nancy Drew #1: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger MacBride
Judy – American Girl, Samantha series
Davy – Magic Tree house (series)
I can’t choose. I have so many favorites. The Dark is Rising series, Harry Potter series, Charlie Bone Series, Keys to the Kingdom series, Narnia series, Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein, Clan of the cavebear [save this for older teens who can handle the sexual scenes in the books starting with the 2nd book I started reading the series when I was 14] RobertJSawyer has several really good books Flash Forward; Humans, Hominids, Hybrids..
I could just go on.
Sorry 🙂
Bekah says:
HARRY POTTER and asks “Is there really anything else?”
Lizzy says:
“Do I have to pick just ONE?”
Her choices are:
To read on her own: The “Baby Mouse” series or “Calvin & Hobbes”
To have read to her: Miss Happiness & Miss Flower OR The Gypsy Girl
Well, just asked my 5 year old to name her favourite book and she said “Ivy and Bean”, I would have guessed she would have said Ramona (we’re counting down the days till the movie!).
Oooh, I have more, if that’s okay. 😀
-The Inheritance Cycle, by Christopher Paolini
-Anastasia, by Vladimir Megre (This is really more of an adult book… And it’s not about the princess in Russia, it’s totally different. )
-Any Piers Anthony books (That’s the author…Ummm…This is really for teenagers, even though I read ’em. )
-The Fire Within, Icefire, Firestar, The Fire Eternal, Dark Fire by Chris D’Lacey
-Anne Franks Diary
-The Christomanci Series by Dianna Wynne Jones
I have lots of favorites….
Sage’s Favorite’s (she is 7):
My Side of the Mountain
Wayside School
Faraway Tree
Magic Treehouse
Wizard of Oz
Pippi Longstocking
Our favourites:
H, girl, age 9 – Secret Seven By Enid Blyton (all of them) and The Dragons of Wayward Crescent by Chris D’Lacey.
G boy, age 7 – The Brainwaves Series of Factual Books and Horrid Henry series
M boy age 5 – Any thing by Lauren Child and The Caterpillow Fight by Jill Barton
S boy age 2 – Ness the Nurse!
(and I agree, a top 100 childrens book list, should be compiled by children!)
Isabel (8) still loves the Junie B Jones books and the Fairy Books. Nick (5) is a fan of the John Deere books (such as Barney Backhoe).
Right now, His Dark Materials. (Golden Compass, Subtle Knife, Amber Spyglass)
Here are Clarissa’s votes for all time favorite chapter books (or just books period!)
Flatfoot Fox mysteries by Clifford Eth …he’s written several of them. All are reread constantly.
Flower Fairy Friends (several author’s)
The Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo
and currently is getting into The Box Car Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
Baby Mouse books
Ivy and Bean
My kids, who are huge book readers and have read many of the books on the top 100 list, both agree that Harry Potter is their favorite. My 11 yo dd said, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and my 9 yo (who I thought would have a hard time deciding between HP and the Percy Jackson series) said with complete conviction, “Harry Potter”. They love a lot of other books but if they had to pick one, HP is it. I don’t think they came to this decision because they have been influenced by their peers and/or the media. As a matter of fact, they read the books before they saw the movies.
My son also votes for the Magic Treehouse Series! 😉
Bernadette (10) says the Lord of the Rings, the Oz series, Narnia, and Redwall.
Gemma (7) is into Little House, Narnia, and the Oz books.