Our your next trip to the library, look for one of these six classics that kids still love today. They make wonderful summer reading books or great stories to read aloud together at bedtime.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 

Written in 1908, Anne of Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother and sister who had intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Delightful, sometimes awkward, Anne learns to find her way in her new home and community. Since its publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than fifty million copies, translated into 20 languages, and been the subject of film and television shows.

 

Holes by Louis Sachar

This 1998 Newberry Medal and National Book Award Winner has become a modern classic. Stanley Yelnats is under a curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep.

 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

One of the most delightful and enduring classics of children’s literature, The Secret Garden has remained a firm favorite with children ever since its first appearance. Initially published as a serial story in 1910 in The American Magazine, it was published as a novel in 1911. When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle’s great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. Then, Mary discovers a secret garden surrounded by walls and locked with a missing key. With the help of two unexpected companions, she finds a way in. Is everything in the garden dead, or can Mary bring it back to life?

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Published in 1975, Watership Down is the compelling tale of a group of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world. A worldwide bestseller for more than forty years, this timeless classic is set in England’s Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape. It follows the rabbits on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home.

 

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Originally published in 1961, this beloved classic captures the powerful bond between boy and dog. Billy has long dreamt of owning not one but two dogs. So when he’s finally able to save up enough money for two pups to call his own—Old Dan and Little Ann—he’s ecstatic. It doesn’t matter that times are tough; together, they’ll roam the hills of the Ozarks. Soon they are the finest team in the valley until tragedy strikes.

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 

Winner of the 1963 Newberry Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the unforgettable story of Meg and Charles Wallace Murry and their friend Calvin O’Keefe. When the children learn that the Dark Thing has captured Mr. Murry, they time travel to Camazotz, where they must face the leader IT in the ultimate battle between good and evil―a journey that threatens their lives and our universe.