Vote for your top ten favorite middle grade books of all time!

Elizabeth Bird over at the School Library Journal is conducting a poll on the Top 100 Children's Fictional Chapter Books. And she's asking everyone to go on over and shoot her an email with your vote by January 30th.

The rules are below, but check out this link for the official post.

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The Top 100 Children's Fictional Chapter Books Poll


Here are the rules:

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Vote for your top ten middle grade books of all time (not just this year or last year) by 11:59 Eastern on January 31, 2010. This will NOT include young adult books (for kids 13 and up) or early readers (like Mr. Putter and Tabby or Frog and Toad Are Friends). How do you determine if a book is middle grade? Well, I'm very fond of Powell's, so why don't you use their site if you're uncertain. These are books for kids who can read full chapters on their own and who are under the age of 13. You may, of course, write a justification for a book if you feel it really does belong on your list. I have the final right of refusal, however.


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List these books in your order of preference. I cannot stress this enough. Your #1 chapter book would be the one you feel is the most important, so I will give it 10 points. Your #2 choice will be only 9 points. And so on and such. So be very careful how you order your books. During the picture book poll people would just list their ten willy-nilly, but that haphazard order led to a more creative final result than some would have liked.


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Submit these books to me at Fusenumber8@gmail.com. Write "Chapter Book Poll" in the subject line. I'd rather you didn't leave your votes in my comment feature on this site since it's finicky and difficult to use (plus I want everyone's votes to be a surprise).


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If you like, you can submit what you like about each title. At the beginning of February I will tally up the totals and I will pull from the submitted pieces why one reader or another liked a particular book (naming the reader, of course). That way we'll be able to hear from a whole mess of people why they love one book or another. I will then count down from 100 to 1 the top choices of what folks feel the best children's chapter books of all time are.
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So here's what I'm thinking of off the top of my head, I might edit or change it if I think of any new books! :D Not necessarily in order of favorites, I kept remembering more and more.

1. Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
2. The Witches by Roald Dahl
3. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
5. Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
6. Half Magic by Edward Eager
7. The BFG by Roald Dahl
8. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
9. The Little Princess by Frances Burnett
10. The Windsinger by William Nicholson
11. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle.
12. Matilda by Roald Dahl
13. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
14. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
15. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
16. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
17. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
18. The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley
19. Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine
20. The Moffats by Eleaonor Estes
21. The Nine Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
22. The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B. Kerr
23. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
24. The High King by Lloyd Alexander
25. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
26. The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
27. The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
28. The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas
29. Erec Rex: Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley
30. Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson
31. Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson
32. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
33. The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones
34. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
35. The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

Okay. I'm stopping, I'm stopping...RIGHT NOW*. I keep thinking of more and more and more, which shouldn't be surprising since I love middle grade fiction (shh, but I actually like it more than YA, DON'T TELL ANYONE!). Hopefully this list refreshed your memory a bit?

Wait. Wait...how am I EVER going to pick just 10?! ::::heartbreaks::::

But while I deliberate and hesitate, get your votes in! IT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION OF YOUR LIFE!**


* I'm not really, but I've stopped listing them here, haha.
**not guaranteed, some conditions such as choice of college, spouse, religion, or career may make this statement void.