Must-Read Kids' Books from NPR

I think I'm suffering from list overload. Most of my Facebook friends are readers, and we love to post lists and check off how many books from each list we've read. Because we're well-read, yo. But I got tired of seeing lists prominently featuring gems like the Twilight series (okay, I actually did read the first book), and my scores were suffering because of this, people!

So when I started seeing links to the Ultimate Backseat Bookshelf: 100 Must-Reads For Kids 9-14, I was like, yeah, right, whatever, and what's up with this BACKSEAT business, anyway? I can't read in the car. I didn't even click. So the list is a couple of days old now (forever in internet time) and I'm just now getting around to looking at it and HOLY COW, this is actually a good list.

The Backseat Book Club is apparently NPR's book club for young readers. To create the list, they did solicit audience nominations, but they also recruited a stellar panel of experts to curate and create the final list. And it's worth perusing, printing, and posting prominently wherever children are to be found. It includes books from the 19th century (Little Women) to present day (Bomb) and a variety of genres/subject areas (American Stories, Animal Kingdom, Biography/Memoir/History, Everyday Magic, Family Life, Fantasy Worlds, Friendships and Finding Your Place, Good For a Laugh, Graphic Novels, Mysteries and Thrillers, Myths and Fairy Tales, Poetry, Science Fiction, Survival and Adventure).

Several of my favorite series are included, although the Betsy-Tacy series is missing, and for some reason only The Saturdays is included from Elizabeth Enright's Melendy Quartet.

For the record, I've read 57 out of 100. And I'm adding at least some of the others to my to-read list.