The Best Ones

• The Golden Compass by Gary Pullman
  also The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, which together make a trilogy.
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Summerland by Michael Chapon
• Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (also Flush by the same author)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
  (I'll let you decide if the other books in her series are as good as written by [http://www.superiorpapers.com/|essay writers.
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle%%%also A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which together make a trilogy.
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by
  and you can decide if you want to read the others which are also good but different.
• The Thief Lord by Cornelia Frank
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
  The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore make a trilogy but each is very different.
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Other Good Reads

• Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan
• The Navigator by Eoin McNamee (with more coming)
• The Children of the Lamp by P.B. Kerr
  and I think this is part of a trilogy too, but I have not yet read them.
• Calvin and Hobbes My cousins and I loved this when we were kids and even wrote about it in our term papers.

Not So Happy But Good

• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
• The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (the audio tape is great)
• Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
• Hatchet by Gary Paulson
• Walkabout by James Vance Marshall
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (and others in a trilogy but I have not read them.)