Book Day: The Top 50 Books Every Child Should Read

To celebrate World Book Day, Sainsbury’s has published a list of 50 books, which every child should read by the age of 16, with Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory taking the first place.

World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. Now in its 18th year, World Book Day aims to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading.

To mark the World Book Day, Census Wide polled 2,000 parents in February 2015 to determine the ultimate list of the top 50 books that should be on every child’s reading list, encouraging bedtime reading for families.

According to the survey, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin) is the book parents most think their children should read before the age of 16. After Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  the next most popular book was Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, followed by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis.  The list covers a range of traditional classics and more modern tales with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling coming in at number 12.

The top 50 books every child should read by the age of 16:

1. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
2. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
4. Winnie The Pooh – A.A.Milne
5. Black Beauty- Anna Sewell
6. James and The Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
7. The BFG – Roald Dahl
8. A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
9. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
    
11. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
12. Matilda – Roald Dahl
13. The Railway Children – E. Nesbit
14. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
15. Five on a Treasure Island – Enid Blyton
16. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
17. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
18. The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
19. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
20. The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
    
21. Watership Down – Richard Adams
22. The Hobbit – J.R.Tolkien
23. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
24. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
25. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 ¾ Sue Townsend
26. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
27. The Cat in the Hat – Dr Seuss
28. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson-Burnett
29. The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
30. The Twits – Roald Dahl
    
31. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
32. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
33. Anne of Green Gables – L.M.Montgomery
34. The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr
35. Green Eggs and Ham – Dr Seuss
36. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
37. Bambi – Felix Selten
38. Tom’s Midnight Garden – Phillipa Pearce
39. Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder
40. Funny Bones – Janet and Allan Ahlberg
    
41. Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
42. Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden
43. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
44. The Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis
45. The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
46. The Story of Doctor Dolittle – Hugh Lofting
47. The Story of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson
48. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
49. Curious George – H.A.Ray
50. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
    

Celebrate the World Book Day by encouraging your children to pick up a book you will read together at bedtime. Why not mark World Book Day by sharing with Novak Djokovic Foundation on Facebook  or Twitter the cover of””or character from””a children’s book you love on March 5th.