The NHPBS Kids Club

Be Part of the Fun!

A Great Summer for Reading!

Nothing says Summer quite like a reading list! Here’s a list of children’s books from the past 100 years that you might want to check out and read with your family! And be sure to check out the Great American Read this summer, where you can talk about, debate, and vote for your favorite novels!

1910s - Orphans Abound

1911 - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Ill-mannered orphan Mary Lennox is sent to live in a desolate manor house with her uncle.
1913 - Pollyanna by Littleton, NH native Eleanor H. Porter - Sunny-natured Pollyanna, another orphan, goes to live with her dour Aunt Polly in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont. You can visit a statue of Pollyanna at the Littleton Library!

1920’s - Toy Stories

1922 - The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams - A stuffed toy rabbit longs to become real.
1926 - Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne - A teddy bear named Pooh and his friends have adventures.

1930’s - We Think We Can

1930 - The Little Engine that Could published by Platt & Munk - A determined engine reaches his goal!
1935 - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder - A family determined to make a home on the Kansas Prairie in what was Osage territory overcomes obstacles like grasshoppers, fire, and malaria.

1940s - We Are Family

1941 - Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey - Mallards shepherd their family to safety in Boston Public Gardens.
1942 - Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown - A little bunny wants to run away from home.
1945 - Stuart Little by E.B. White - A mouse is born into a family of humans.

1950’s - Fight for Your Right

1950 - Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates –Amos Fortune, a slave, purchased his freedom and moved to Jaffrey, NH.
1952 - Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White - A pig is freed from certain slaughter by a web-writing spider.
1954 - Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss - An elephant protects a tiny planet.

1960s - Magical Mystery Tour

1961 - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - A bored boy gets a magic tollbooth that ends up being a portal to another world.
1962 - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - A group of friends travel through the universe via a tesseract.
1963 - Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - A young boy’s bedroom is transformed into a land inhabited by wild things.

1970s - All the Feelings

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst - Alexander wakes up. Things go downhill from there!
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson - Two kids create a secret refuge from the real world .

1980s - Deal With It

1980 - Superfudge by Judy Blume - Peter Hatcher has to deal with a move to a new city, an annoying little brother, and a new baby sister.
1985 - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff - Giving one cookie to a mouse leads to the mouse just wanting more and more!

1990s - Twisted Tales

1992 - The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka - Parodies of familiar children’s stories and fairy tales.
1997- The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey - Two fourth-graders hypnotize their principal into believing he is comic book hero, Captain Underpants.

2000s - Animal Crackers

2000- Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin - Armed with an old typewriter, barnyard animals write letters to Farmer Brown.
2000 - Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo - Opal makes new friends with the help of her funny dog, Winn-Dixie.

2010s - Inspirations

2012 - The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - Ivan the gorilla sees nothing wrong with his life at Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade until Ruby the baby elephant arrives.
2015 - Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bearby Lindsay Mattick - The story of the real-life bear who was the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh.

Kids Club Benefits

A birthday month shout-out on TV and online
Early bird invitations to special events around the state, with VIP status at many of them
A special gift just for joining
Exclusive quarterly NHPBS KIDS CLUB e-newsletter
The Seacoast Science Center offers 50% off children's admission to NHPBS KIDS CLUB members
Knowing your support keeps our great PBS KIDS programs on the air!