Recommended Reading

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