These are the best children’s books of all time, according to a BBC poll

When I was young, my mom, like many parents, would read to me in bed before I went to sleep. Our favorite book to read together was “Anne of Green Gables.” I wanted to be just like Anne — the imaginative and adventurous orphan girl that finds meaning and joy in writing.

I felt then — and maybe still a little bit now — that it was the best book ever written.

A good children’s book, like “Anne of Green Gables,” can spark a kid’s imagination and lead to a lifelong love of reading. And a new poll from BBC Culture listed 100 books that do just that.

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Who was polled?

BBC Culture polled 177 experts — including authors, illustrators, journalists, academics and industry figures — to determine the 100 greatest children’s books of all time.

Each expert chose their top 10 favorite picks and each book chosen was given up to 10 points depending on how high the expert ranked them. Then each book was ranked based off of the total number of points received.

“The end result is a list that reflects the vast scope of children’s literature through the eras, standing as a tribute to its boundless imagination, thrilling storytelling, and profound themes — from the Panchatantra, a collection of Indian children’s stories dating back to the 2nd Century B.C.E., to the newest book in the list, ‘A Kind of Spark,’ published in 2020,” according to BBC Culture.

Below is a list of the top 20 children’s books off all time, according to the new poll from BBC Culture.

1. “Where the Wild Things Are,” (Maurice Sendak, 1963).

2. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” (Lewis Carroll, 1865).

3. “Pippi Longstocking,” (Astrid Lindgren, 1945).

4. “The Little Prince,” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943).

5. “The Hobbit.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1937)

6. “Northern Lights,” (Philip Pullman, 1995).

7. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” (C.S. Lewis, 1950).

8. “Winnie-the-Pooh,” (A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard, 1926).

9. “Charlotte’s Web,” (E.B. White and Garth Williams, 1952).

10. “Matilda,” (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, 1988).

11. “Anne of Green Gables,” (L.M. Montgomery, 1908).

12. “Fairy Tales,” (Hans Christian Andersen, 1827).

13. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” (JK Rowling, 1997).

14. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” (Eric Carle, 1969).

15. “The Dark is Rising,” (Susan Cooper, 1973).

16. “The Arrival,” (Shaun Tan, 2006).

17. “Little Women,” (Louisa May Alcott, 1868).

18. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” (Roald Dahl, 1964).

19. “Heidi,” (Johanna Spyri, 1880).

20. “Goodnight Moon,” (Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, 1947).

The full list of the 100 greatest children’s books of all time can be found here.