books
Some parents want their child to be a leader. If I am ever a parent, I would love for my child to be a reader. Here I will save a shortlist of favorites to have in my hypothetical kid’s library, so that I can be ready if/when the time comes. Note: instead of forcing the library on my child, maybe it would be better to just have a library at home, or a secret study behind a bookshelf door à la Anthony Horowitz (with its own bookshelves and reading chairs!), so that the kid wouldn’t have certain books thrust upon him/her but would grow up surrounded by words nonetheless. Naturally, bedtime stories would also be an important service to provide (see e.g. picture books in the next section).
| Title/Series |
Author |
| Harry Potter |
J.K. Rowling |
| The Bartimaeus Sequence |
Jonathan Stroud |
| Andrew Clements books |
Andrew Clements |
| Peanuts |
Charles M. Schulz |
| Beverly Cleary books |
Beverly Cleary |
| Alex Rider |
Anthony Horowitz |
| Ranger’s Apprentice (at least the first nine) |
John Flanagan |
| Encyclopedia Brown |
Donald J. Sobol |
| Ooka the Wise: Tales of Old Japan |
I.G. Edmonds |
| The Mysterious Benedict Society |
Trenton Lee Stewart |
| A Series of Unfortunate Events (despite that ending) |
Lemony Snicket |
| The Princess Bride |
William Goldman |
| Boxcar Children |
Gertrude Chandler Warner |
| Charlotte’s Web |
E.B. White |
| Revenge of the Sith |
Matthew Stover |
| By the Great Horn Spoon! |
Sid Fleischman |
| Wayside School |
Louis Sachar |
| 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny |
Phillip Done |
| Roald Dahl books |
Roald Dahl |
| The House of the Scorpion |
Nancy Farmer |
| Antsy Bonano novels |
Neal Shusterman |
| Percy Jackson and the Olympians |
Rick Riordan |
| Bruiser |
Neal Shusterman |
| Charlie Bone |
Jenny Nimmo |
| Artemis Fowl (at least the first six) |
Eoin Colfer |
| Holes |
Louis Sachar |
| The Phantom Tollbooth |
Norton Juster |
| Dick King-Smith books |
Dick King-Smith |
| The Land |
Mildred D. Taylor |
| Sherlock Holmes |
Arthur Conan Doyle |
| From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler |
E.L. Konigsburg |
| There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom |
Louis Sachar |
| Someday Angeline |
Louis Sachar |
| Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie |
David Lubar |
| Pendragon (I guess) |
D.J. MacHale |
| The Little Prince |
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
| Running Out of Time |
Margaret Peterson Haddix |
| Magic Tree House |
Mary Pope Osborne |
At first I wasn’t going to include picture books, mostly because I can’t remember them all, but some of these are just too good to ignore. Hence I give you… picture books (not ordered).
| Title/Series |
Author |
| Pigs from A to Z |
Arthur Geisert |
| Dr. Seuss |
Dr. Seuss |
| Go, Dog. Go! |
P.D. Eastman |
| The Giving Tree |
Shel Silverstein |
| Chris Van Allsburg books |
Chris Van Allsburg |
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar |
Eric Carle |
| Tacky the Penguin |
Helen Lester |
| Where the Wild Things Are |
Maurice Sendak |
| Aesop’s Fables |
Aesop |
| Goodnight Moon |
Margaret Wise Brown |
| Harold and the Purple Crayon |
Crockett Johnson |
| Curious George |
H.A. Rey |
| The Velveteen Rabbit |
Margery Williams |
| Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day |
Judith Viorst |
| The Little Engine That Could |
Watty Piper |
| Sounds of Language readers |
Bill Martin, Jr. |
| A Bad Case of Stripes |
David Shannon |
| The Snowman |
Raymond Briggs |
| The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales |
Jon Scieszka |
| Math Curse |
Jon Scieszka |
| David Gets in Trouble |
David Shannon |
…actually, let’s just do this for all age groups, and for movies and TV shows too. I want to get my recommendations out there. The majority of each of these lists are not ordered.
| Stories (Adolescence and Above) |
|
| Title/Series |
Author |
| East of Eden |
John Steinbeck |
| The Grapes of Wrath |
John Steinbeck |
| Actually, just all John Steinbeck books |
John Steinbeck |
| The Count of Monte Cristo |
Alexandre Dumas |
| Kurt Vonnegut stories |
Kurt Vonnegut |
| David Foster Wallace stories |
David Foster Wallace |
| Stefan Zweig stories |
Stefan Zweig |
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? |
Philip K. Dick |
| The Last Question |
Isaac Asimov |
| A Tale of Two Cities |
Charles Dickens |
| The Housekeeper and the Professor |
Yōko Ogawa |
| Nineteen Eighty-Four |
George Orwell |
| A Man Called Ove |
Fredrik Backman |
| Beartown |
Fredrik Backman |
| A Prayer for Owen Meany |
John Irving |
| Catch-22 |
Joseph Heller |
| Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption |
Bryan Stevenson |
| Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |
Jonathan Foer |
| Movies and Television |
|
| It’s a Wonderful Life |
All Pixar movies through Toy Story 3 |
| The Shawshank Redemption |
Good Will Hunting |
| 12 Angry Men |
Star Wars (original trilogy) |
| Back to the Future |
Harry Potter |
| Inception |
Forrest Gump |
| The Andy Griffith Show (TV) |
Sherlock (TV; through season 3) |
| Spirited Away |
Pokemon (first few seasons) |
| Wallace & Gromit |
The Lego Movie |