Favorite Kid's Fiction

Boggles the mind that we've never asked this question to The Realm at large. I suppose, for those with blogger profiles, I could go around and check out a person's favorite books, but that seems like stealing when I can just ask. Not to mention (although here I am in the middle of mentioning), all of an indvidual's favorite books holds a larger scope than the question I want to ask. Plus, we have a few Anony-miis out there who read our blog, and I wouldn't be able to find out their favs. And I'd like a list of as many who would be willing to provide.

So, the question is: what are your favorite kid's fiction books? More precisely, I'm talking novels here. For this question, I'm deleting picture books, so, in essence, Green Eggs and Ham, The Giving Tree, Goodnight Moon, Are You My Mother?, Make Way for Ducklings, they're all out. That's (what are your favorite picture books?) certainly a question for another day but not this one. The question I'm asking encompasses Young Adult fiction at the top end and probably Middle Reader books at the low end of the age range.

Feel free to embellish as to why your personal favorites are so. Moreover, only you limit the number of books you consider your all-time favorites. Also, I'd love to know, for those of you who have pre-teens or teenagers, any books through the years that your children have loved.

Lastly, we'll not hold it against anyone if the children's masterpiece, Dorkman, doesn't appear somewhere on your list of books that you deem most magnificent. No Big-Brother-like lurking Realm administrator is going to ban any of our well-respected commenters for not including the outstanding contemporary piece of American literature that Dorkman precisely is. We just aren't that small-minded.

On second thought, we may well be. You'd better include it, just in case.