Post may contain affiliate links to materials I recommend. Read my full disclosure statement.

I’ve labeled this list for ages 7-12, but, reality is, all ages will enjoy reading these books or hearing them read aloud. Plus, there are many more important books I could list here, but, we’ll save the rest for another time.

The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A A Milne

Charlotte’s Web and other books by E B White

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis

The Complete Adventures of the Borrowers by Mary Norton

Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome

Anne of Green Gables and other books by L.M. Montgomery

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

The Secret Garden and other books by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Little Women and other books by Louisa May Alcott

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

Misty of Chincoteague, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

The Witch of Blackbird Pond and other books by Elizabeth George Speare

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

The Door in the Wall and other books by Marguerite de Angeli

Strawberry Girl and other books by Lois Lenski

Hitty Her First Hundred Years and other books by Rachel Field

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

Smoky the Cowhorse and other books by Will James

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis