CLASS lets get reading…
TES (Think, Educate, Share) a website dedicated to bringing the latest teaching news and strategies to educators and the public asked 500 primary and secondary teachers what their top 10 books were. They crunched the numbers and came up with the following list of 100 top books.
It is an interesting list and it ranges nicely from early-ish chapter books — the kind that got us all hooked on reading in the first place, like Dahl and Lewis — to more mature novels like Atonement.
I was glad to see that my girl Jane made the grade (#1, 32, 52, 58). And you’ll recognize lots of other Thought of the Day authors on here too (I put them in italics — if you are interested in reading the bioBlogs go to the search box to the right and type in their name.)
1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by her sister Cassandra, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
3. Harry Potter (series) J.K. Rowling
4. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
5. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
7. The Lord of the Rings (series) J.R.R. Tolkien
8. The Book Thief Markus Zusak9. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien10. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald11. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini12. The Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins13. The Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger[Image courtesy Biography online
14. The Chronicles of Narnia (series) C.S. Lewis
15. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
16. Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
17. His Dark Materials (series) Philip Pullman
18. The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
19. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
20. Life of Pi Yann Martel
21. Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
22. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
23. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
24. Lord of the Flies William Golding
25. Matilda Roald Dahl
My Roald Dahl collage featuring some of his most popular characters (as drawn by the amazing Quentin Blake).
26. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
27. Millennium (series) Stieg Larsson
28. Animal Farm George Orwell
29. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
30. Persuasion Jane Austen
31. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
32. Kensuke’s Kingdom Michael Morpurgo
33. Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian
34. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
36. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne
37. Little Women Louisa May Alcott
English: Bust of Louisa May Alcott (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
38. One Day David Nicholls
39. We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver
40. The Twits Roald Dahl
41. Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel
42. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
43. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
44. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
45. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
46. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
47. George’s Marvellous Medicine Roald Dahl
48. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
douglas adams inspired “Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy” H2G2 http://www.hughes-photography.eu (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
49. Room Emma Donoghue
50. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
51. Atonement Ian McEwan
52. Emma Jane Austen
53. Middlemarch George Eliot
54. The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
55. The Color Purple Alice Walker
56. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle
57. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
58. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
59. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
60. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
61. Charlotte’s Web E.B. White
62. Dracula Bram Stoker
63. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
64. A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
65. The Secret History Donna Tartt
66. The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Scanned drawing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
67. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
68. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
69. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
70. Skellig David Almond
71. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
72. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
73. Game of Thrones (series) George R.R. Martin
74. David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, a former resident of Lant Street. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
75. Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
76. Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak
77. Twilight (series) Stephenie Meyer
78. Beloved Toni Morrison
79. The Help Kathryn Stockett
80. Sherlock Holmes (series) Arthur Conan Doyle
81. Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
82. Moneyball Michael Lewis
83. My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell
84. Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
85. On the Road Jack Kerouac
86. Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
87. Wild Swans Jung Chang
88. Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery
89. Les Miserables Victor Hugo
90. Room on the Broom Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
91. Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo
92. Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman
93. Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee
94. Danny the Champion of the World Roald Dahl
95. Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell
English: George Orwell in Hampstead On the corner of Pond Street and South End Road, opposite the Royal Free Hospital. The bookshop has long gone. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
96. The Magic Faraway Tree Enid Blyton
97. The Witches Roald Dahl
98. The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy
99. Holes Louis Sachar
English: Oscar Wilde, three-quarter length portrait, facing front, seated, leaning forward, left elbow resting on knee, hand to chin, holding walking stick in right hand, wearing coat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So… what do you think? Did the teachers get an A+ for their list? Are there any other books that you treasure that didn’t make the top 100?
If you were asked to list your top 10 books what would you include?
Related articles
- Pride and Prejudice tops teachers’ list of favourite books – see the complete top 20 (schoolsimprovement.net)
- Roald Dahl books ‘cast a more magical spell than Harry Potter’ (metro.co.uk)
- Teachers list top 100 great reads (oddonion.com)
- Favourite book list and some ponderings about cultural differences (butterflyinthelibrary.wordpress.com)
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