CHILDREN'S BOOKS

CHILDREN'S BOOKS; 50 Years of Children's Books

Published: November 16, 1997

1947 Goodnight Moon. By Margaret Wise Brown. Illustrated by Clement Hurd. Harper & Row. With good-night noises everywhere, the original bedtime book for boomers.

1947 Misty of Chincoteague. By Marguerite Henry. Illustrated by Wesley Dennis. Macmillan. Wild ponies galloping on the sands.

1947 Caps for Sale. Written and illustrated by Esphyr Slobodkina. Harper & Row. Never nap while wearing your cap.

1948 My Father's Dragon. By Ruth Stiles Gannett. Illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett. Random House. Brave Elmer Elevator sets off to rescue the baby dragon.

1950 The Chronicles of Narnia. By C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Macmillan. Allegorical happenings in the land beyond the wardrobe.

1950 Pippi Longstocking. By Astrid Lindgren. Illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman. Viking. An independent redheaded orphan who lives by herself.

1951 Minn of the Mississippi. Written and illustrated by Holling C. Holling. Houghton Mifflin. The classic book about the great river, with illustrations of flora and fauna in the margins.

1952 Charlotte's Web. By E. B. White. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Harper & Row. Sometimes a friend can save your life by writing terse prose.

1952 Ramona the Pest. By Beverly Cleary. Morrow. The life and times of the Quimbys, an emblematic American family, begin here.

1952 Secret of the Andes. By Ann Nolan Clark. Illustrated by Jean Charlot. Viking. The story of an Inca boy living in a hidden valley in Peru.

1953 The Borrowers. By Mary Norton. Illustrated by Beth Krush and Joe Krush. Harcourt Brace. The first of five novels about Pod, Homily and Arrietty, the nice Pod people.

1955 Harold and the Purple Crayon. Written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson. Harper & Row. Can't sleep? Try drawing yourself a great

adventure.

1957 Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. By Betty MacDonald. Illustrated by Hilary Knight. Lippincott. Improving children's manners through the magic of good humor.

1957 The Cat in the Hat. Written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. Beginner Books/Random House. Home alone on a rainy afternoon. Making mischief in easy-to-read language.

1957 Little Bear. By Else Holmelund Minarik. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. I Can Read/Harper & Row. A young bear's life and times in simple prose.

1957 How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss. Random House. The true meaning of Christmas, or was it the cold war?

1960 Island of the Blue Dolphins. By Scott O'Dell. Houghton Mifflin. An Indian girl's life alone on a California coastal island.

1960 The Cricket in Times Square. By George Selden. Illustrated by Garth Williams. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The debut of Harry the cat, Tucker the mouse and others.

1961 The Phantom Tollbooth. By Norton Juster. Illustrated by Jules Feiffer. Random House. Another home-alone adventure; Milo, the hero, drives into enchanted experiences with science, logic and order.

1961 Where the Red Fern Grows. By Wilson Rawls. Doubleday. A boy raises and trains a fine pair of coon hounds.

1962 D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. Written and illustrated by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Doubleday. Meet Zeus and his family in a large-format collection of myths.

1962 The Snowy Day. Written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. Viking. Wearing his red snowsuit, Peter explores the city in the snow.

1962 A Wrinkle in Time. By Madeleine L'Engle. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The first of a quartet of novels about the Murry family, incorporating science and fantasy and the hemidemisemiquaver.

1963 Where the Wild Things Are. Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Harper & Row. Max wore his wolf suit, and a wild rumpus ensued.

1963 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. By Roald Dahl. Illustrated by Joseph Schindelman. Knopf. Virtuous Charlie Bucket visits Willie Wonka's astonishing candy works.

1963 Encyclopedia Brown. By Donald J. Sobol. Illustrated by Leonard Shortall. Lodestar/Morrow. The police chief's son marshals his facts in a series of books.

1964 Tituba of Salem Village. By Ann Petry. T. Y. Crowell. The Salem witchcraft trials from the perspective of a Barbadian slave girl.

1967 The Outsiders. By S. E. Hinton. Viking. The classic teen-age gang novel.

1967 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Written and illustrated by E. L. Konigsburg. Atheneum. Claudia and Jamie escape from the suburbs into the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

1968 Corduroy. Written and illustrated by Don Freeman. Viking. A small stuffed bear in a department store is waiting to be rescued.

1968 Tikki Tikki Tembo. By Arlene Mosel. Illustrated by Blair Lent. Holt. Why Chinese children have short names. A fable.

1969 The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Written and illustrated by Eric Carle. Philomel. Munch, munch, munch -- and lo, the caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly.

1970 Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. By Judy Blume. Bradbury. A 12-year-old's confidences.

1972 George and Martha. Written and illustrated by James Marshall. Houghton Mifflin. The first collection of stories about two dear friends who happen to be bucktoothed hippos.

1972 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. By Judith Viorst. Illustrated by Ray Cruz. Atheneum. Sometimes a boy just has a bad day, from breakfast to bedtime.

1972 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. By Barbara Robinson. Illustrated by Judith Gwyn Brown. Harper & Row. The wretched Herdman children are cast in the annual Christmas play.

1974 The Chocolate War. By Robert Cormier. Pantheon. A chilling novel about the misuse of power at a boys' boarding school.

1974 Watership Down. By Richard Adams. Macmillan. A band of maverick rabbits and their struggles.

1976 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. By Mildred Taylor. Dial. The first of three novels about a poor black family in Mississippi during the Depression.

1976 Arthur's Nose. Written and illustrated by Marc Brown. Little, Brown. The first appearance of today's preschooler's beloved aardvark.

1977 Bridge to Terabithia. By Katherine Paterson. Illustrated by

Donna Diamond. T. Y. Crowell. Jess and Leslie, best friends, have a secret hiding place they call Terabithia.

1980 Where's Spot? Written and illustrated by Eric Hill. Putnam. The first of a series of lift-the-flap books about a curious puppy.

1981 The Indian in the Cupboard. By Lynne Reid Banks. Doubleday. A modern English boy time-trips to the American Wild West.

1985 Sarah, Plain and Tall. By Patricia MacLachlan. Harper & Row. The story of a mail-order bride who comes from Maine and heals a family.

1985 If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. By Laura Joffe Numeroff. Illustrated by Felicia Bond. Harper & Row. It's all very logical, because if you have a cookie -- you need milk.

1985 The Polar Express. Written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg. Houghton Mifflin. On a Christmas Eve long ago, the narrator rode the special train to the North Pole.

1986 Love You Forever. By Robert Munsch. Illustrated by Sheila McGraw. Firefly. A mother and son's lifetime of mutual devotion.

1986 The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks. By Joanna Cole. Illustrated by Bruce Degen. Scholastic. Ms. Frizzle's class gets moving in the first of a series of science adventures.

1986 The Baby-Sitters Club. By Ann M. Martin. Apple/Scholastic. Started by four friends, a successful club turned into a child-care cartel.

1987 Redwall. By Brian Jacques. Philomel. The heroic adventures of Martin the Warrior and his noble friends.

1987 Hatchet. By Gary Paulsen. Bradbury. Surviving a plane crash in Canada.

1988 The Way Things Work. Written and illustrated by David Macaulay. Houghton Mifflin. A guided tour of everyday science led by a friendly mastodon.

1989 The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. By Jon Scieszka. Illustrated by Lane Smith. Viking. Alexander T. Wolf wants to set the record straight about what really happened with those pigs.

1992 Fear Street. By R. L. Stine. Archway/Pocket. Teen-age protagonists solve mysteries, get scared.

1992 The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Stupid Tales. By Jon Scieszka. Illustrated by Lane Smith. Viking. Familiar fairy tale characters and plots stylishly twisted.

1993 Stellaluna. Written and illustrated by Janell Cannon. Harcourt Brace. A baby fruit bat learns life lessons.

1993 The Giver. By Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin. At the age of 12, Jonas is chosen to become the conscience of a cult community.

1993 Goosebumps. By R. L. Stine. Apple/Scholastic. The start of a not very scary but enormously popular series of suburban mysteries.

1996 Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow. An irrepressible child learns classroom behavior.