25 Books Every Family Should Have at Home

A family bookshelf isn't a library. It's a handful of books that get pulled out again and again, by different people, at different ages. These twenty-five are a place to start. They're grouped loosely by age, but the best of them work for everyone in the house.

For the youngest

• The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr
• Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
• The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram
• The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams

To read aloud together

• Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne
• A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond
• Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
• Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren
• The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

For confident young readers

• Matilda, by Roald Dahl
• The BFG, by Roald Dahl
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
• The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

For older children

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Momo, by Michael Ende
• Holes, by Louis Sachar

For teenagers, and the adults beside them

• Wonder, by R. J. Palacio
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
• Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
• Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

A family bookshelf is less about owning the right books and more about having books that get read more than once.

How to build it

Slowly. From libraries, second-hand shops, birthdays and hand-me-downs. Let each person add one book that matters to them, even if it isn't on any list. Those are often the ones that get passed down.

For the early years: 15 Books to Read Before Your Child Turns 7

The Books We Remember From Childhood, and Why They Stay With Us