Cows with guns.

Like Charlie finding his golden ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, a child finding the right book to read opens the door to hours of joy and wonderment...and sometimes Everlasting Gobstoppers! We all have our favorites—the books we read over and over again until the pages were falling out—but which books should be on every kid's shelves? We ran the numbers on millions of titles to find the top 100 children's books according to Goodreads members! Cows with guns.

We looked for the best reviewed books, all with average ratings above a 4.0 (a high bar that cuts out giants like Ramona and Huck Finn). This time we also decided to focus our search on chapter books and middle grade books for that magical time when a child has graduated from picture books and is reading alone, but isn't ready for YA favorites such as The Hunger Games. (For teen readers, check out our Top 100 Young Adult Books!) Of course, every child is different and no list is ever complete. What beloved book did you read to tatters when you were a kid?