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Students often ask for a “canon” or “reading list” of children’s literature and children’s literary criticism to help them prepare for the written examination. While the children’s literature committee does not intend the lists below to be either definitive or exclusive, it does believe that candidates for an MA in children’s literature should be familiar with most of these works, illustrators, and theorists and should refer to them in the written examination.
Christopher Bing
Leslie Brooke
Nancy Ekholm Burkert
Randolph Caldecott
Eric Carle
Barbara Cooney
Walter Crane
Donald Crews
Tomie DePaola
Leo and Diane Dillon
Barbara Emberley
Tom & Muriel Feelings
Wanda Gag
Paul Goble
Kate Greenaway
Trina Schart Hyman
Ezra Jack Keats
Charles Keeping
Leo Lionni
Arnold & Anita Lobel
David Macaulay
James Marshall
David Macaulay
Robert McCloskey
Gerald McDermott
Jerry Pinckney
Beatrix Potter
Howard Pyle
Arthur Rackham
Alice & Martin
Provensen
Faith Ringgold
Robert Sabuda
Allen Say
John Scieszka
Maurice Sendak
Dr. Seuss
Peter Spier
William Steig
John Steptoe
Chris Van Allsburg
Rosemary Wells
David Wiesner
Ed Young
Paul Zelinsky
William Blake
Lewis Carroll
e. e. cummings
Robert Frost
Langston Hughes
Ted Hughes
Edward Lear
Eve Merriam
Iona and Peter Opie, eds., Children’s Verse
Iona and Peter Opie, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
Neil Philip, ed., New Oxford Book of Children’s Verse
Shel Silverstein
J. R. R. Tolkien
Jan Mark, ed. Children’s Stories
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Joan Aiken, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Lloyd Alexander, The High King
Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
James Barrie, Peter Pan
Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
John Christopher, City of Gold and Lead
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Robert Heinlein, Stranger from a Strange Land
Monica Hughes, The Keeper of the Isis Light
Rudyard Kipling, The Just So Stories and The Jungle Books
Ursula LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Hugh Lofting, The Story of Dr. Doolittle
Lois Lowry, The Giver
A. A. Milne, the Pooh books
Mary Norton, The Borrowers Afield
Robert O’Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web
T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King
Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Jane Yolen, The Devil’s Arithmetic
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
Judy Blume, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
Frances H. Burnett, The Secret Garden
Joseph Bruchac, The Heart of a Chief
Betsy Byars, The Summer of the Swans
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese
Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy
Nancy Garden, Annie on My Mind
Leon Garfield, Smith
Jean George, Julie of the Wolves
Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins the Great
S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
E. L. Konigsberg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Marie G. Lee. Finding My Voice
Lois Lensky, Judy’s Journey
L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Walter Dean Myers. Scorpions.
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh
Zibby Oneal, The Language of Goldfish
Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia and The Great Gilly Hopkins
Gary Paulsen, Hatchet
Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling
Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows
Louis Sachar, Holes
J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
Gary Soto, The Pool Party
Jerry Spinelli, Maniac McGee
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Cynthia Voigt, Dicey’s Song
Mildred Pitts Walker, Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World
Laurence Yep, Child of the Owl
Paul Zindel, The Pigman
Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima
Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy.
Karen Cushman, The Midwife’s Apprentice
Marguerite De Angeli, A Door in the Wall
Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn Dixie
Louise Erdrich, Birchbark House
Esther Forbes, Johnny Tremain
Irene Hunt, Across Five Aprils
Eric Kelly, The Trumpeter of Krakow
Walter Dean Myers, Fallen Angels
Scott O’Dell, The Island of the Blue Dolphins
Philip Pullman, the Sally Lockhart series
Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising
Elizabeth Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Rosemary Sutcliff, Eagle of the Ninth
Mildred Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Yoshiko Uchida, Journey to Topaz
Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Little House series
Laurence Yep, Dragonwings
Molly Bang, Picture This: How Pictures Work
Karen Coats, Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature
Peter Hunt, Ed., Understanding Children’s Literature
Henry Jenkins, ed. The Children’s Culture Reader
Kenneth Kidd, Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale
Ann Lawson Lucas, The Presence of the Past in Children’s Literature
Jean-Fancois Lyotard, The PostModern Explained
Roderick Mcgillis, Ed., Children’s Literature and the Fin de Siecle
Perry Nodelman, Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books
July Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Eds., Literary Theory: An Anthology
Jacqueline Rose, The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children’s Fiction
John C. Somerville, The Rise and Fall of Childhood
John Stephens, Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction
Roberta Trites, Waking Sleeping Beauty
Ian Wojcik-Andrews, Children’s Films: History, Ideology, Theory and Pedagogy
Jack Zipes, Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children’s Literature
