I was trying to figure out what kind of post I wanted to do today when I happened across an article by TIME listing the “100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time” and I decided, hey that would be cool to make a list of and see if I’ve read all the books on this list or not. I’m not sure what year this list was compiled, but the results were pretty interesting.
So, that’s what I did. I created a list of TIME’s choices from 1 to 100 and added a column to the side to state whether I’ve read that book or not yet (movies don’t count!).
Rank and Title |
Read? |
| 1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | No |
| 2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone | Yes |
| 3. The Book Thief | No |
| 4. A Wrinkle in Time | No |
| 5. Charlotte’s Web | Yes |
| 6. Holes | No |
| 7. Matilda | No |
| 8. The Outsiders | No |
| 9. The Phantom Tollbooth | No |
| 10. The Giver | No |
| 11. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. | Yes |
| 12. To Kill A Mockingbird | Yes |
| 13. Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry | No |
| 14. Anne of Green Gables | No |
| 15. The Chronicles of Narnia | No |
| 16. Monster | No |
| 17. The Golden Compass | No |
| 18. The Diary of a Young Girl | Yes |
| 19. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler | No |
| 20. Looking for Alaska | Yes |
| 21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | No |
| 22. Little House on the Prairie | No |
| 23. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane | No |
| 24. Wonder | Yes |
| 25. The Sword in the Stone | No |
| 26. The Catcher in the Rye | No |
| 27. Little Women | Yes |
| 28. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | No |
| 29. The Hobbit | No |
| 30. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | No |
| 31. Lord of the Flies | No |
| 32. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | No |
| 33. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Yes |
| 34. Bridge to Terabithia | Yes |
| 35. The Call of the Wild | No |
| 36. A Separate Place | No |
| 37. Harriet the Spy | No |
| 38. The Chocolate War | No |
| 39. Jacob Here I Loved | No |
| 40. A Series of Unfortunate Events | No |
| 41. Hatchet | No |
| 42. The Lord of the Rings | No |
| 43. Feed | No |
| 44. The Alchemyst | No |
| 45. The Princess Bride | No |
| 46. Beezus & Ramona | Yes |
| 47. Tarzan of the Apes | No |
| 48. Johnny Tremain | No |
| 49. The Westing Game | No |
| 50. The Wind in the Willows | No |
| 51. Speak | No |
| 52. Mary Poppins | No |
| 53. The Faults in Our Stars | Yes |
| 54. A Northern Light | No |
| 55. The Yearling | No |
| 56. The Hunger Games | Yes |
| 57. For Freedom | No |
| 58. The Wall | No |
| 59. A Monster Calls | No |
| 60. Percy Jackson & the Olympians | Yes |
| 61. The Illustrated Man | No |
| 62. A Wreath for Emmett Till | No |
| 63. Every Day | Yes |
| 64. Where Things Come Back | No |
| 65. Number the Stars | No |
| 66. Blankets | No |
| 67. Private Peaceful | No |
| 68. The Witch of Blackbird Pond | No |
| 69. Dangerous Angels | No |
| 70. Frindle | No |
| 71. Boxers and Saints | No |
| 72. The Graveyard Book | No |
| 73. City of the Beasts | No |
| 74. American Born Chinese | No |
| 75. The Lost Conspiracy | No |
| 76. Dogsbody | No |
| 77. The Pigman | No |
| 78. Alabama Moon | No |
| 79. Esperanza Rising | No |
| 80. The Knife of Never Letting Go | No |
| 81. Boy Proof | No |
| 82. Fallen Angels | No |
| 83. A High Wind in Jamaica | No |
| 84. The Tiger Rising | No |
| 85. When You Reach Me | No |
| 86. Saffy’s Angel | No |
| 87. The Grey King | No |
| 88. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | No |
| 89. The Thief Lord | No |
| 90. The Mysterious Benedict Society | No |
| 91. The Invention of Hugo Cabret | No |
| 92. Sabriel | No |
| 93. Tiger Lily | No |
| 94. Secret | No |
| 95. A Wizard of Earthsea | No |
| 96. Tales of Mystery and Imagination | No |
| 97. Whale Talk | No |
| 98. The Chronicles of Prydain | No |
| 99. Danny the Champion of the World | No |
| 100. Twilight | Yes |
I was honestly super surprised by the order of these books. There are a lot of books on here that I expected to be higher on the list and also books not on here that I definitely expected to be here.
What do you think about the list? Is there a book that I need to read ASAP?!
Feel free to copy and paste the chart to use for your own post! Be sure to tag me, so I can check out your list.
I’m super surprised by the number of these I’ve never heard of!
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I’m definitely going to do this for my own blog, although I’m not sure how to tag people. But I’ll link back here!
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I’ve read 48 of them. I’m surprised The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is number one. While I really liked it, and perhaps would put it in my top 20, I’m amazed it got the top spot (esp with the recent scandal about the author).
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I think I’ve read 17, but I’m not 100% sure. I have a hard time remembering things I read when I was younger or the books I read to my daughter. The number might be higher.
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Oh i will definitely be doing a post of my own and will link back to you.
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I’m definitely doing this one, for next week!
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I’ve only read twelve of these. I was really surprised by the list as well!
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Go read “Holes” right away. It’s a fabulous book.
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Definitely check out The Chronicles of Narnia and The Graveyard Book.
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Ah! Read The Book Thief, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Giver, and When You Reach Me! I would also strongly recommend LOTR, but that is something more of an undertaking. The others are pretty quick reads (The Book Thief is a little longer, but not too bad) and they are amazing stories. Ooh, Also A Monster Calls, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Princess Bride!!!
But I am actually a bit confused as to why Twilight is even on this list…?
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The Book Thief was one of my favorite books of all time. I read it during an emotional time (recovering from Super Storm Sandy) which made it hit even harder!
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