Typical summer day in 1960: played Home Run Derby until dinner; then rode my bike home, ate dinner, and read a book.

The 9 - 14 year olds who belong to National Public Radio's Backseat Book Club have nominated tons of books for NPR's Booklist of best books for the 9 - 14 set. A set of experts then chose the top 100 from those nominated. This is a diverse group: the 9 year olds are in 3rd or 4th grade, the 14 year olds are just starting high school, So these books are not for everyone in the entire age group. They do, however, give a remarkably wide range of books for kids to choose from. Ann and I went through the list tonight - she did better than I did, but there were still a lot of books that I have read from the list. And it's not too late: a YA book can be just as well written as an adult novel, and more interesting. I found several that I need to look up on Amazon for my Kindle.

Here they are; the books in green, red, or  blue (depending on my excitement level) would be high on my list:

Watership Down, by Richard Adams        (described by the editors as The Aeneid with rabbits)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The Chronicles of Prydain series, by Lloyd Alexander
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie  (part of my literary summer)
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda series, by Tom Angleberger
The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater
Poppy, by Avi
Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie
Oz series, by Frank Baum
The House With a Clock in its Walls, by John Bellairs
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary
The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper
Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech
The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis
Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl
Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
Matilda, by Roald Dahl
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo
The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau
Half Magic, by Edward Eager
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, by Julie Edwards
The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright
The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich
The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes
House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
The Lincolns, by Candice Fleming
The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
Eleanor Roosevelt, by Russell Freedman
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
Julie of the Wolves, by Jean CraigheadGeorge
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean CraigheadGeorge
Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
Bunnicula, by James Howe
Redwall series, by Brian Jacques
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney
The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler, by E.L. Konigsburg
A Wrinkle in Time series, by Madeleine L'Engle
Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai
The Earthsea Cycle series, by Ursula K. Le Guin   (well-written fantasy makes children think)
To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine
The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne
Anne of Green Gables series, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell
Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen
A Long Way From Chicago series, by Richard Peck
The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett   (Can a book get any better than this?)
His Dark Materials series, by Phillip Pullman
Where The Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan
Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling
Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan
Holes, by Louis Sachar
Okay For Now, by Gary Schmidt
The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick   I bought this right after the movie came out      
Bomb, by Steven Sheinkin
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
The Bone Series, by Jeff Smith       (a graphic arts novel (we called them comic books))  
A Series of Unfortunate Events books, by Lemony Snicket
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli
When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, by Maria Tatar
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
All-of-a-Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Mary Poppins, by P.L. Travers
Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
The Sword in the Stone, by Terence Hanbury White
Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang

Glad to see Bunnicula and the Redwall series make it. I'm never sure they are on the expert's radars. Sorry that The Westing Game didn't make the list. Hope these books made your childhood more enjoyable and more imaginative. What are your favorites? I think I know someone who would put  The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler near the top of his list.