With school starting, a lot of us are thinking about getting back into the routine. No matter where your child learns, that means reading. Reading for school is never as fun as reading on your own, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. Which books are good? Which ones are important? And which ones are fun?
I think everyone should read a mixture of good, important, and fun and a book doesn’t have to belong exclusively to one of those groups.
So, here is a list of 100 Books That Everyone Should Read.
I’m giving this list to my children this year as the school year starts and encouraging them to read the entire list before they finish 12th grade. Books on this list span from elementary to high school level, so I don’t expect the littlest ones to keep up with the oldest. Some of the books on the list are for more mature audiences (war, violence, adult themes) and every parent should review each one before encouraging their child to read it.
However, I feel that none are unnecessarily graphic and will encourage my kids to read them when appropriate to their age. I’ve separated them by stage- elementary, middle, and high school- based on the reading level and content as I see appropriate for my children.
I’ve also created a printable (which you can get for free here) and am asking them to mark off each book as they finish it. In our house, if they can answer some basic questions about the story, plot, characters, or setting, they get $1 for every book read. While my kiddos don’t need extra motivation for reading in general, sometimes they do for reading the books mom says are good.
I’m even going to print one off for me so I can work through the list and mark off books I didn’t get to before 12th grade, too.
Whether you use the list for you, your kids, yourself, or to find your next new book-I believe that everyone should read these books.
Elementary School
- Number the Stars by Louis Lowry
- The Borrowers by Mary Norton
- Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- 10 Dr. Seuss Books of your choice
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
- The Chronicles of Narnia Series By C.S. Lewis
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- The Indian in the Cupboard (3) by Lynne Reid Banks
- Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
- A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
- (5) Magic Treehouse Books by Mary Pope Osborne
- The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
- Corduroy by Don Freeman
- The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Middle School
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Poetry of Robert Frost
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Mythology by Edith Hamilton
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- The Percy Jackson Series (5) by Rick Riordan
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Out of my Mind by Sharon M. Draper
- Eragon by Christopher Paolini
- The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgromery
- The Wonderful World of Oz by L. Frank Balm
- Ella Enchanted by Gale Carson Levine
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
- Bambie by Felix Salten
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
- 101 Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm
- Inkheart Series (4) by Cornelia Funke
- The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
- The Ickabog by J.K. Rowling
- The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allen Poe
- The FableHaven Series (5) by Brandon Mull
High School
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Iliad by Homer
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Pride and Prejuidice by Jane Austen
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespear
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- The Tempest by William Shakespeare
- The Odessey by Homer
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
- The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
- Sir Gawain and the Green Night
- Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
- The U.S. Constitution
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- The Holy Bible
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickenseowulf
- Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
- Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson
- The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson
- The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
- One Second After by William R. Forstchen