Top chapter books

The polls are long closed at Fuse # 8 for the Best 100 Chapter Books, but we can still debate as Elizabeth Bird dishes out the results, which she is doing gradually in the most thorough, thoughtful way imaginable, with lots of cover photos of various incarnations of the books you love. To vote in her poll, you had to send in your top 10. Then she applied her own points system, something even I can understand, though it involves actual math.

I’m showing you my list, which is imperfect. I’m trusting other voters filled in my gaps and that the Top 100 will be filled with Books I Have Loved. (I’ve already seen some floating way down in the 90s.) Most of my Top 10 are from my own childhood, reread as an adult. You won’t see the Chronicles of Narnia on my list because Jewish kids just didn’t read about Narnia when I was growing up. (Note: our parents steered us away from these books because of the Christian allegory, which most of my Christian friends said they completely missed as children.) You also won’t see many of my recent beloved books, of which there are tons, because they haven’t yet stood the test of time. The time in “test of time” varies from person to person, I suppose; in my mind, I put it at roughly five years.

Anyway, here’s my list with some (very brief) justification.

1. The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) My favorite book as a kid, and my husband’s, too, which has to count for something.
2. Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh) Heart, heart, heart. Probably the reason I became a journalist.
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (JK Rowling): It wasn’t from my childhood, but it gave me a second chance at having a childhood. I read these books like I read when I was a kid: lost to the real world. This was the first, so it gets the hat-tip.
4. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeliene L’Engle) A friend of mine read this recently and HATED it. She gave valid reasons why, but in my mind, this book has everything HP has, with love as a last, best weapon. Maybe it’s because of who I was (or wasn’t) when I read it. No matter. No second guesses. It makes the list.
5. Henry and Ribsy (Beverly Cleary) As real today as ever, and I had to put Beverly in here someplace!
6. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O’Brien): Every kid on my street read this book oodles of times, so this is for everyone who lived on Valley View Drive. Not sure why it ranks so highly above the other mouse books (though I could write you a very long diatribe on the ending of Stuart Little, at least, even as I chastise myself for realizing that Charlotte’s Web isn’t on my list. Ack!)
7. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret (Judy Blume) There will be some argument along gender lines about this one, but I can’t imagine any girl growing up without being friends with Margaret. After all of these years, I still remember her birthday. (March 8th)
8. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl). A bit lesson-y, but still magical.
9. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, (EL Konigsburg): Just right in every way. The farthest I ever made it running away was the curb in front of my house.
10. The Giver (Lois Lowry): This is my Aunt Ellen’s favorite book; she taught it to her sixth graders year after year and I finally read it when I was way, way beyond that. It’s still haunting me and I take that as a good sign.

There you have it. You can fight back with your own list, or go over to Fuse No. 8 and check out her results, which are going up five at a time.