Why should children read? The list of reasons can be endless! Think of the hours of childhood we had spent poring over Tinkle, Panchatantra for talking animals, went on adventures with the Famous Five, Asterix, Tintin, explored the world of imagination with Fairy Tales, Winnie the Pooh and learnt so much of life from Ruskin Bond and the Little Women. We found magic and wonder in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and were definitely richer in experience and wonder. Those invaluable childhood memories and reads definitely helped shape us as individuals, writers and professionals in some way or the other. Here is a list of some books that should ideally be a part of every kid’s childhood to develop their minds and make them better writers, students and most importantly, persons.
1. J.R.R. Tolkien:
Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit
2. Enid Blyton books:
Famous Five, Secret Seven
3. Ruskin Bond:
The Boy from the Hills
Getting Granny’s Glasses
The Blue Umbrella
Crazy Times with Uncle Ken
Thick as Thieves: Tales of Friendship
The Whistling Schoolboy
4. Subhadra Sen Gupta:
A Clown for Tenali Rama
Jodha Bai: The Diary of a Rajput Princess
12 O’Clock Ghost Stories: Spooky, Scary and Plain Mysterious!
Mystery of the House of Pigeons
Let’s Go Time Travelling: Life in India through the Ages
A Mauryan Adventure
A Flag, A Song and a Pinch of Salt: Freedom Fighters of India
Foxy Foursome
Saffron White and Green: The Amazing Story of India’s Independence
Tagore and the Song of the Crazy Wind
5. R.K. Narayan:
Under the Banyan Tree
Lawley Road
The Grandmother’s Tales
6. Rick Riordan: The Percy Jackson series
7. Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
David Copperfield
Christmas Carol, to name a few
8. Sudha Murthy:
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories
The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk
Grandma’s Bag of Stories
The Magic Drum And Other Favourite Stories
9. Born Free series
10. Indian Mythology:
The Ramayana
The Mahabharata
Tales from The Panchatantra
11. Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales
12. Paro Anand:
No Guns at My Son’s Funeral
The Little Bird Who Held the Sky Up with His Feet
Wild Child and Other Stories
Like Smoke: A Collection
The Tree with a Travelling Heart
The Secret Diary of the World’s Worst Genius
Wingless
Weed
13. Amar Chitra Katha books
14. Elisabetta Dami: Geronimo Stilton books
15. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
16. Louisa May Alcott: Little Women
17. Lucy Maud Montgomery: Anne of the Green Gables
18. Tarun Matharu: The Summoner Trilogy
19. Agatha Christie mysteries
20. Ranjit Lal:
The Caterpillar who Went on a Diet
The Parakeet that Squawked in English
Faces in the Water
Taklu & Shroom, Miracles
That Summer at Kalagarh
Secret of Falcon Heights
The Battle for No. 19
Tigers of Taboo Valley
Our Nana was a Nutcase
The Simians of South Block and the Yumyum piglets
The Dugong and the Barracudas
The Small Tigers of Shergarh
21. J.K. Rowling: The Harry Potter series
22. Nathasha Sharma:
Kaka and Munni
Squiggle Takes a Walk – All About Punctuation
Rooster Raga
Anaya’s Thumb
What Should I Wear Today?
23. A.A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh
24. Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe
25. Jules Verne:
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Around the World in 80 days
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
26. Asha Nehemiah:
Granny’s Sari
Wedding clothes
Surprise Gifts
The Runaway Wheel
Mrs Wolly’s Funny Sweater
Zigzag and Other Stories.
27 Anthony Horowitz: The Alex Rider novels
28. Arup Kumar Dutta:
The Kaziranga Trail
Trouble at Kolongijan
The Blind Witness
A Story about Tea
The Lure of Zangrila
29. Anu Kumar:
Mythquest, a nine-book series on animals from mythology
Adventures of Atisa
How did the Harappans Say Hello and 16 Other Mysteries of History
Across the Seven Seas
Travellers’ Tales of India
In the Country of Gold-Digging Ants, A Chola Adventure.
30. “Helen” Beatrix Potter: The Tales of Peter Rabbit
31. C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
32. David Walliams:
The Boy in the Dress
Mr Stink
Billionaire Boy
33. Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
34. Jaqueline Wilson:
The Story of Tracy Beaker
The Suitcase Kid
Best Friends
35. J.M. Barrie:
Peter Pan
Little White Bird
36. Judith Kerr:
The Mog Series
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
The Out of Hitler Time trilogy
37. Julia Donaldson
The Gruffalo
Room on the Broom
Stick Man
Zog
38. Lewis Carrol: Alice in Wonderland
39. Michael Morpurgo:
War Horse
Private Peaceful
The Butterfly Lion
40. Michael Rosen:
We’re Going on A Bear Hunt
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
41. Roald Dahl:
The BFG
The Witches
Matilda
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
42. L. Frank Baum: The Wizard of Oz
43. Hergé: The Adventures of Tintin
44. René Goscinny; Albert Uderzo: The Adventures of Asterix
45. Morris: Lucky Luke
46. Judy Blume:
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
47. Yangsook Choi: The Name Jar
48. Dr Seuss:
The Cat in the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
The Lorax
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
49. Noel Streatfield:
Ballet Shoes
Skating Shoes
50. Chandamama
51. E.B. White: Charlotte’s Web
52. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince
53. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden
54. Terry Pratchett:
55. Ludwig Bemelmans: Madeline
56. Mark Twain:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
57. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird
58. Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows
59. Aesop’s Fables
60. Rudyard Kipling:
Jungle Book
Kim
61. Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island
62: The Railway Children: Edith Nesbit
63: Jeanne DuPrau: The City of Ember
64. Jack London: White Fang
65. Judi and Ron Barrett: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed”
– Orhan Pamuk
