 | Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc
Buy new: $12.00 / Used from: $5.89 OK, so this is probably too scary for small kids. Edward Gorey is great. For younger kids, try "The Shrinking of Treehorn"
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 | The Neverending Story
Buy new: $7.59 / Used from: $1.49 A classic. Filmed in Munich.
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 | Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
Buy used from: $0.01 I love Roald Dahl. This is one of my favorites from him. It's maybe not as weird as a lot of his books.
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 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (Aladdin Fantasy) by Robert C. O'Brien
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 This is a great book (and the Disney animated movie is pretty good too). Somewhat subversive, I think.
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 | Harold and the Purple Crayon 50th Anniversary Edition (Purple Crayon Books) by Crockett Johnson
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.32 Great kids' book. It's hard to find anything as creative as this one.
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 | The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $7.35 I found this book fascinating as a kid. Just mysterious pencil drawings with a single caption under each one. I love "The Wreck of the Zephyr" too.
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 | No Such Things by Bill Peet
Buy used from: $19.70 A lot of fun.
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 | Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
Buy new: $5.99 / Used from: $0.01 This was great when I was in 5th grade I think. Really stimulating for a kid that age.
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 | Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
Buy used from: $0.01 'nother good one. How could I have almost forgotten William Steig?
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 | The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Buy new: $10.64 / Used from: $1.15 Shel Silverstein is classic. This book is definitely bittersweet. Check out his books of poems, too.
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 | The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 A very cozy & cuddly book, presented in a wonderfully fanciful way. Good bedtime reading.
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 | Frederick by Leo Lionni
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 Another slightly somber story, but lovely. I like the way he does his illustrations.
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 | The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Buy new: $7.91 / Used from: $0.01 Another goodie. Illustrations similar in style to Leo Lionni's. Eric Carle grew up speaking German, I have the German version of this one.
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![The Snowman [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414YP94HVWL._SL75_.jpg) | The Snowman [VHS]
Buy new: $2.99 / Used from: $0.44 Bittersweet. The book is probably good, but I really like the music in the film.
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 | The Dark Crystal
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $1.62 Really different. Probably scary for little kids.
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 | Princess Mononoke
Buy new: $14.92 / Used from: $14.95 Pretty dark, but fantastic plot line and beautiful animation. This is the best I've seen from this director, which is saying a lot.
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 | A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 when I read this in 6th grade or so it really blew me away. The rest of the series is great, too. In fact, I think I liked the second and third ones better than this one. Start here, though.
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 | The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 This is a really creative one. Excuse the cliche, but it "makes learning fun".
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 | Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Buy used from: $0.01 Wow. This really opened my eyes to the idea of independence. And it's about a girl *gasp*. But seriously, it was really exciting to me at the time to think that a girl my age could survive alone.
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 | Watership Down by Richard Adams
Buy used from: $0.01 Not so sure about the wholesome message here. The rabbits are hierarchical and sexist, but that's probably accurate in a way. Great adventure story.
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 | A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Buy used from: $0.01 For some reason, as a kid, I didn't actually like this one. I liked the next one in the series, though.
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 | Redwall (Redwall, Book 1) by Brian Jacques
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 I loved this series. It was still being published when I was reading them. I think of it as the Harry Potter of my generation maybe.
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 | The Dream Child by David McPhail
Buy used from: $0.20 Wonderful illustrations. The Dream Child has all these adventures with her friend Tame Bear. They fly through the night in a boat with wings. Amazon doesn't have a picture, buy it used anyway.
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 | Moon Tiger by Phyllis Root
Buy used from: $1.98 I don't have any memory of the actual plot in this book but the illustrations were amazing. If not available on amazon, try alibris. ; )
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 | Maze: Solve the World's Most Challenging Puzzle by Christopher Manson
Buy used from: $2.08 This is not literature, but an extremely creative and challenging puzzle in the form of a book.
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