30 of the Most Influential Children’s Books of All Time

Of the great many books from the turn of the last century that starred plucky young orphans — Oliver Twist and The Secret Garden, for example — Anne’s influence may be the greatest. (At least to me, and I am making the list.) Orphans remain a popular subset of children’s book characters, showing up in books like Under the Broken Sky and The Ogress and the Orphans.

This early take on the summer adventure novel is presented as a diary of the summer 10-year-old Lucinda spends in New York City while her parents are in Italy. Over the course of the book, she experiences both freedom and tragedy, and probably learns a lesson or two. Since then, books like A Thousand Questions and The Emperor’s Riddle have explored summer in new ways.

This book may not have invented girl detectives, but it sure popularized them! One of the longest running series from the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the heroine penned by Carolyn Keane went on to influence countless others, including these classic girl detectives, not to mention more recent books like Goldie Vance and (for older readers) The Verifiers.

Given the fact that the novel as a concept predates modern methods of conveyance, it stands to reason that The Hobbit was not the first story about a really long walk, but it was certainly one of the most successful, garnering a prize from The New York Herald Tribune, a nomination for the Carnegie Medal, and spawning a sequel that defined modern high fantasy for decades. No big deal.

More than half a century after a Jewish diaspora settled in the lower east side of Manhattan, and six years after the end of World War II, a charming Jewish family entered the libraries and hearts of readers. Books like Always an Olivia have come since to fill in other Jewish experiences.

Although White was hardly the only author whose books explored our world from animals’ perspectives, his books are certainly some of the most beloved and long-lasting of the genre. Some recent books about animals are The One and Only Ivan and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

Prickly Meg Murry and her magically autistic brother Charles Wallace are two of the most recognized heroes of children’s literature, and their adventure through the universe is among the hardest science fiction written for children. This book’s influences are so great, I turn to The Smithsonian Magazine to enumerate them.

Building on Welsh mythology and influenced by King Arthur, this children’s fantasy series is iconic — and yes, was the basis for Disney’s The Black Cauldron, which takes its names from the second book in The Chronicles of Prydain. (In my opinion, comparisons to Lord of the Rings are unfair as it is wholly for children and explores character in a very different way than Tolkien.)

If Meg is prickly, Harriet is downright unlikable, and oh, how lucky we are to have such wonderful heroines! This is one of the early children’s books that is undeniably queer in a way that would be impossible to prove but is absolutely there. Harriet made way for books like Beezus and Ramona and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

This book builds on the heroines of A Wrinkle in Time and Harriet the Spy, then adds in a mystery element. Find me a girl who grew up anytime between the 1960s and now who did not dream of running away to live in the Met and solve art mysteries. Go on, I’ll wait. What am I saying? You’ll never find her. We all dreamed of it. Some of us are middle aged and still dream of it.

One of the earlier books to explore religion from a child’s perspective, perhaps setting the stage for The Bridge to Terabithia (which is a few entries down on this list), without this novel about a young, curious Jewish girl who not only questions her faith but also gets her period, we might not have books like Confessions of a Closet Catholic or No Laughter Here.

I’m not saying there is a direct line from this book — about a girl who discovers a family that doesn’t age or die — to Twilight, but I’m not not saying that.

Another Newbery medalist, this is one of the earliest mainstream novels to center Black children and issues of racism from outside of a white lens. The book, set in the 1930s and the first in a series about a Black family in the South, offers an authenticity impossible to find in similar influential books like To Kill A Mockingbird.

This isn’t the only children’s book about losing a friend, nor was it the first, but its effects may have lasted the longest so far. The book is one of the most challenged books of all time according to the ALA, often being criticized for its portrayal of religion and the death of a(n atheist) main character. Here are some more of the best middle grade books about death and grief.

While books about a strange clause in a will have existed for as long as wills have, this one took a fun and original spin on the concept, and it spawned many more mysteries in the same vein. I would go so far as to say that without The Westing Game, there would be no Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, no The Inheritance Games, and perhaps (this one is a wee stretch) no Knives Out.

This book, told in vignettes, was one of the earliest to play with form. Because of its lasting impression, we have verse memoir like Brown Girl Dreaming and novels like Gabi, A Girl in Pieces and The Poet X.

If you don’t know why the first book in The Baby-Sitters Club series belongs on this list, I don’t know what to tell you!

One of the earliest dystopian novels for young readers — and likely influenced by sci-fi greats such as Octavia E. Butler, whose Parable of the Sower came out the same year — The Giver went on to influence countless other futuristic societies. Similar concepts can be found in The Hunger Games and Legend.

If you were wondering why I skipped the Little House books, here’s your answer: Erdrich’s saga about life in the early Americas presents a non-Colonial look at the 19th century through the eyes of a young Ojibwe girl, Omakayas, and her family. This series can be read as a companion to the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, but it’s hugely influential on its own. Birchbark Books, an indie bookshop in Minneapolis, stocks primarily Native American authors and is owned by Louise Erdrich and staffed by Indigenous people.

This Newbery and Coretta Scott King award winner is the second book on this list about a Black family in the 1930s. This one is set in Michigan and explores elements of the Great Depression through a Black lens, including mention of a Sundown town and an exploration of the joy of music, specifically jazz.

In addition to writing Indigenous fiction for children, author Smith, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, curates Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperChildren’s that focuses on Native American fiction for children and young adults. Rain is Not My Indian Name was Smith’s second novel and was one of the first titles (re)printed by Heartdrum.

This historical fiction set in 12th century Korea is about a young orphan who learns to be a potter. There have been a number of historicals since that tell non-western stories, including The Crystal Ribbon and When You Trap a Tiger.

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians books were hugely influential in normalizing neurodiverse characters, and kickstarted the current trend of modern stories based on mythology. Riordan took his influence one step further and created Rick Riordan Presents, an imprint for marginalized authors, because Greek mythology is not the only mythology. Books he has directly enabled include Aru Shah and the End of Time, Sal & Gabi Break the Universe, and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.

Predating Rick Riordan Presents, this is one of the earliest modern children’s books based on non-western mythology.

This novel almost wasn’t published, because publishers were afraid a story about hip-hop and basketball wouldn’t sell. They were very wrong! Alexander was one of the first Black authors to be given a publishing imprint, Versify, though it seems to have been reabsorbed in one of the many recent consolidations of the big six five four. One of Versify’s titles was The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, itself influenced by The Phantom Tollbooth, which nearly made this list.

This series, which feels to me like a warm hug in book form, took all the great influences of family stories, New York stories, and precocious children stories, and rolled them into one irrepressible story about five siblings in a mixed race family in Harlem, transforming their lives and their neighborhood one adventure at a time. If nothing else, it will prove influential in the way it builds on the past and does so with such utter joy.

This award winning book about a young girl whose family manages a hotel is one of the first books set in the 1990s to be considered historical fiction, and has been challenged several times for its realistic portrayal of anti-Asian racism. It’s also, interestingly, one of the earlier titles in a slew of hotel-set children’s fiction (though hardly the first).

This title is only three and a half years old, but it’s an important addition to the list as an autobiographical graphic novel that uses humor and art to talk about friendship, microaggressions, and more. It’s a bit early to say what the book’s lasting influence will be, but it seems certain that it will have one.