Love fairy tales? Have kids who are serious super sleuths? Looking for a great adventure? Budding bookworms can find a vast collection of children’s stories throughout the National Museum of Play®.
The museum librarians have compiled a list of favorite children’s books that match the five literary landscapes in Reading Adventureland.
Adventure
Early readers
Beach Days
Karen Roosa
Below
Nina Crews
Pirates Don’t Change Diapers
Malinda Long
SuperHero ABC
Bob McLeod
When Agnes Caws
Candace Fleming
Intermediate readers
Girls Don’t Have Cooties
Nancy Krulik
It’s All Greek to Me
Jon Scieszka
Klondike Gold
Alice Provensen
Lions at Lunchtime
Mary Pope Osborne
Melvin Beederman SuperHero: Curse of the Bologna Sandwich
Greg Trine
Advanced readers
A Single Shard
Linda Sue Park
Cabin on Trouble Creek
Jean VanLeeuwen
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O’Dell
Stowaway
Karen Hesse
The Smugglers
Iain Lawrence
The Whipping Boy
Sid Fleischman
Fairy Tales
Early readers
Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose
Scott Gustafson, Illustrator
Gingerbread Boy
Paul Galdone
Goldilocks Returns
Lisa Campbell Ernst
Is My Friend at Home? (Pueblo Fireside Tales)
Retold by John Bierhorst
Previously
Allan Ahlberg
Puss in Boots
Philip Pullman
Tale of a Tricky Fox
Jim Aylesworth
The Fairy Tale Cake
Mark Sperring
Intermediate readers
American Tall Tales
Mary Pope Osborne
Children of the Dragon
Sherry Garland
Fairy Realm: The Flower Fairies
Emily Rodda
The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit
Julius Lester
Walter the Giant Storyteller’s Giant Book of Giant Stories
Walter Mayes
Advanced readers
Straw into Gold
Gary Schmidt
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Gail Carson Levine
Zlateh the Goat
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Fantasy
Early readers
Pinocchio the Boy
Lane Smith
Russell and the Lost Treasure
Rob Scotton
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbin
Dr. Seuss
The Boy Who Painted Dragons
Demi
The Three Sillies
Steven Kellogg
Intermediate readers
Digby and the Lost King
Angela McAllister
Half Magic
Edward Eager
Igraine the Brave
Cornelia Funke
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
Bruce Coville
Poppy
Avi
Advanced readers
A String in the Harp
Nancy Bond
Eragon
Christopher Paolini
Loamhedge: A Tale from Redwall
Brian Jacques
Sunwing
Kenneth Oppel
Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast
Jane Yolen
Watership Down
Richard Adams
Mystery
Early readers
Dot and Jabber: The Mystery of the Missing Stream
Ellen Stoll Walsh
Miss Nelson Is Missing
Harry Allard
Mystery
Arthur Geisert
Nate the Great and the Tardy Tortoise
Marjorie Weinman and Craig Sharmat
The Case of the Puzzling Possum
Cynthia Rylant
Intermediate readers
A to Z Mysteries: The Canary Caper
Ron Roy
Hank the Cowdog and the Case of the Fiddle Playing Fox
John R. Erickson
Princess for a Week
Betty Ren Wright
Sly the Sleuth and the Sports Mysteries
Donna Jo Napoli
The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen
M.T. Anderson
Top Secret
Paul B. Janeczko
Advanced readers
The Grim Grotto
Lemony Snicket
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle
The London Eye Mystery
Siobhan Dowd
The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists Club
Bertrand R. Brinley
The Sands of Time
Michael Hoeye
Nonsense
Early readers
Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share
Kevin O’Malley
Imogene’s Antlers
David Small
Mrs. McNosh Hangs up Her Wash
Sarah Weeks
Pocketful of Nonsense
James Marshall
Why the Chicken Crossed the Road
David Macaulay
Yummy Riddles
Marilyn Helmer
Intermediate readers
A Pizza the Size of the Sun
Jack Prelutsky
Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon
Paula Danziger
Clarice Bean Spells Trouble
Lauren Child
Kidnapped at Birth?
Louis Sachar
The Quigleys
Simon Mason
Advanced readers
Anastasia at Your Service
Lois Lowry
Leon and the Champion Chip
Allen Kurzwell
Looking For Bobowicz
Daniel Pinkwater
Secret Letters from 0 to 10
Susie Morgenstern
The Puzzling World of Winston Breen
Eric Berlin
