The missing #1
Betsy Bird compiled votes for a list of the 100 greatest children's novels of all time. She's up to number 2. What will be number 1? Six Boxes of Books gathered the list in a more readable format if you want to peruse. It's a magnificent list. Here's the top ten as it stands:
2. Wrinkle in Time (Yay!)
3. Harry Potter 1
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Weep)
5. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
6. Holes
7. The Giver
8. The Secret Garden (sigh)
9. Anne of Green Gables (Love!)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth
What could be #1? You can browse through the previous 89 winners, but I can't think what's missing. Several other Harry Potters made the list as did the obvious Roald Dahls (I think). You got your Little Women, Westing Game, Hobbit, Pooh, Alice, Bridge to Terabithia, Kate DiCamillos, Harriet the Spy, Maniac Magee, Tuck Everlasting, Oz, Dark is Rising, Outsiders...
I don't think the Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning would hit #1. Keep in mind that these were adults doing the voting (I didn't discover the poll until after the voting was over so I wasn't one of them) so it's not likely to be a recent popular book, but something adults cherish from their own childhood but that is still widely read today. ...Wait, maybe Charlotte's Web hasn't hit the list yet. I don't remember seeing it. Okay, if that one is still AWOL, then that's my vote. Any other options? And what would your personal top ten be? (just make it "besides all of Shannon's books" since that's a given. Right? Huh?) Remember, these are just children's novels, not picture books, non-fiction, or YA. Think 8-12 years old.
EDIT: the obscure "weep" after LWW was my reference to how this book made me weep whenever I read it because I wanted to go to Narnia so badly and couldn't. The yearning!