We all have our favorites.
Because I just can’t have only one favorite, I went through an excruciating ordeal of listing down my top 10 best middle-grade books. It is just very painful to leave one book out, but I have to really sort it out even when it breaks my heart.
So here goes my 10 favorites, starting from the 10th place:
10. The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norton Juster
Meet Milo, the boy who finds life dull and boring. But a mysterious tollbooth suddenly appears at his doorstep, sending him into the Lands Beyond. As he went down the road, he meets the Whether Man, gets lost in Doldrums and got helped by a talking oversized dog named Tock. As he learns about the trouble, the Kingdom of Wisdom is having, he goes on an adventure to save the Princesses Rhyme and Reason.
9. Charlotte’s Web
Author: E. B. White
Charlotte is a barn spider who befriends Wilbur, the pig. When she learned that Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered, Charlotte wrote messages in her web to persuade the farmer to let him live. This attracts publicity from the neighbors who refers to it as some “divine intervention”. As Charlotte webs more praises for Wilbur, he became renowned and is later on entered in a contest in the country fair.
8. A Little Princess
Author: France Hodgson Burnett
Sara Crewe is the daughter of the wealthy Captain Ralph Crewe. She was living in India, but her father decides she should be ready for a life in high society and enrolled her at Miss Minchin’s boarding school for girls in London. Being a rich man’s daughter, Miss Minchin, the headmistress, gives her special treatments and luxuries. After knowing about the death of Sarah’s father and bankruptcy because of failed investments in diamond mines, Miss Minchin took away all her possessions, made her a slave and mistreated her.
7. A Wrinkle in Time
Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Meg Murry is always considered as troublesome by other people. But her family knows her best. One evening, as she, her brother Charles Wallace, and her mother, was sitting in the kitchen, their neighbor Mrs. Whatsit visited them and mentioned the tesseract. Meg later discovers that the term refers to a scientific concept her missing father was working on. Her discovery leads her on a mission to save her father. Together with Charles Wallace and her schoolmate, Calvin O’Keefe, they go on a journey through the universe and through space.
6. Northern Lights (another title: The Golden Compass)
Author: Philip Pullman
In the world of Lyra Belacqua, human souls exist outside their bodies in the form of talking animals or “demons”. Her demon ‘s name is Pantalaimon whose favorite form was that of a white-furred ermine. One day, Lyra’s friend Roger has gone missing, his Uncle Asriel leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter and she learns about the mysterious phenomenon called Dust. All around other children have gone missing and it’s up to Lyra with her alethiometer to find them.
5. Bridge to Terabithia
Author: Katherine Paterson
Jesse Aaron has always wanted to become the fastest runner. But on the first day of school, Leslie Burke, a girl, outruns him. Somehow, in an almost impossible turn, they became best friends and inseparable. With their imagination, they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where they reign as king and queen.
4. Tuck Everlasting
Author: Natalie Babbit
Wiine Foster accidentally found out the secret of the Tuck family and why they stay young forever. The Tucks take her home and explained to her about why it is not such a blessing even though it seems so. But little did they know that one man knows about their secret, too, and has been following them.
3. James and The Giant Peach
Author: Roald Dahl
James is forced to live with his two cruel aunts after his parents died. One day, James accidentally dropped magic crystals in their peach tree. Soon, a peach has been growing rapidly, getting bigger and bigger. He then discovered an entrance into the fruit, crawls and meets the insects who have grown as big as him too. When the fruit break off the peach tree, James, and his new-found friends find themselves on a journey across the world.
2. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Author: C.S. Lewis
The Pevensie siblings evacuated to London after the war broke out and lived in a professor’s mysterious house. Exploring the house, Lucy accidentally sets foot in Narnia after going inside the wardrobe. When she told her brothers Peter and Edmund, and her sister Susan about it, they were not quick to believe her. But soon, all four came together to Narnia where the winter never ends and an evil white witch is causing terror throughout the land.
1. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone
Author: J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter’s parents have been dead when he was a baby. He was left in the care of his mother’s sister who treated him very badly. He sleeps in the cupboard and his spoiled cousin Dudley is constantly bullying him. But on his eleventh birthday, a big man came to tell Harry he is a wizard and will soon attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry soon discover more truths about himself and about the evil and powerful dark wizard who killed his parents.
We can agree to disagree that we each have our own top 10 favorites. What about you, what is your top 10?
Share with us below!