The Re-Read Index

Every list of children's books rates them for the child. This one rates them for you, the person who will be reading the same words at 7:45pm for the fiftieth time.

How it works: these scores are our editors' opinion, not a survey or a measurement. A low score is not a bad book. Some of the books children love most are the hardest on the adults reading them. Disagree? Tell us.

Score	Book	What to expect by reading fifty
10	Charlotte's Web E.B. White	You will cry at chapter 21 every time. Plan your voice accordingly.
10	Frog and Toad Are Friends Arnold Lobel	Written for six-year-olds. Secretly about every friendship you have ever had.
10	I Want My Hat Back Jon Klassen	So short and so dry that you will start reading it just for yourself.
10	Moominland Midwinter Tove Jansson	You will finish a chapter and sit in the dark for a minute, and it will be because of a Moomin.
10	The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson	You will know it by heart within a week, and you will not mind.
10	We're Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen	It is basically a performance piece. Parents who commit to it end up enjoying it more than the child.
9	Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Mo Willems	A three-minute read that also lets your child tell someone no, repeatedly.
9	Matilda Roald Dahl	Doing Miss Trunchbull is one of the great pleasures of parenting.
9	Room on the Broom Julia Donaldson	Your cat voice will improve. Your frog voice will not.
9	The Day the Crayons Quit Drew Daywalt	Every crayon has a voice, and parents who enjoy doing voices do not recover.
9	The Wild Robot Peter Brown	Very short chapters mean "just one more" is hard to refuse. You will want one more too.
9	Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak	About 340 words. Every one of them still works at reading 200.
8	Each Peach Pear Plum Janet and Allan Ahlberg	You know exactly where Baby Bunting is. You look anyway.
8	Last Stop on Market Street Matt de la Peña	Beautiful enough, and rich enough, to keep offering you something new.
8	Owl Babies Martin Waddell	Three small owls, and one of them will wreck you a bit every time.
8	Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren	Your child will learn that adults can be defied, and you will have to live with that.
8	The Paper Bag Princess Robert Munsch	That last line has not stopped being satisfying since 1980.
8	The Rabbit Listened Cori Doerrfeld	Possibly a better parenting book than most parenting books.
8	The Tiger Who Came to Tea Judith Kerr	Nobody ever explains the tiger. By reading 30 you will have developed a theory.
7	Giraffes Can't Dance Giles Andreae	Sweet without being sickly, and the rhymes carry you when you are tired.
7	Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown	Close to a sedative. For you, too.
7	Press Here Hervé Tullet	You know it is not really happening. You still say "whoa".
6	Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin Jr.	It will be in your head at work. You will catch yourself mouthing it in meetings.
6	Dear Zoo Rod Campbell	Short enough that you can say yes every time. Flaps will need replacing.
6	The Book With No Pictures B.J. Novak	You will be saying "boo boo butt" in your own home, and it will never not work. It will wear you out.
6	The Invisible String Patrice Karst	You will not reach for it every night. You will be glad of it on certain nights.
6	The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle	Saturday's food list is the one bit you still look forward to.