Top 10 most popular children’s books revealed: Aussie classics bumped in favour of Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard is even more popular with NSW school kids now than it was nearly 20 years ago, it can be revealed. See what’s hot and what’s not in the world of kid lit.
Education
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J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world is even more popular with NSW school kids now than it was nearly 20 years ago, it can be revealed, as old favourites reign supreme in the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
Two books from the Harry Potter series are ranked in the top 10 most popular texts logged by students at the halfway point for the 2025 event, which challenges kids in Kindergarten to Year 10 to read up to 30 books in six months.
In 2008, the earliest year for which data is available, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was the 98th most-logged novel but is number one this year, while the second novel in the series ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ was 154th and now ranks 10th.
The data compiled by the NSW Department of Education also shows Kindy classics like Mem Fox’s Possum Magic and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar have been ousted in favour of modern Aussie bestseller Aaron Blabey’s books Pig the Pug and Thelma the Unicorn, the latter of which was turned into a feature film last year.
Jade Arnold is the NSW Premier’s Program Officer for Reading and Spelling, and said the renewed popularity of the boy wizard is likely a reflection of generational change.
“We’ve seen (Harry Potter) get to the point where it has gained status as a children’s classic,” she said.
“We’re also now at that point where a lot of the children who grew up on Harry Potter now have kids of their own, and that’s something that they’re sharing with them from their childhood.”
Possum Magic was read by nearly 26,500 children for the 2008 challenge but has fallen off the list of most popular K-2 books, however Pamela Allen’s 1993 duck-themed picture book Alexander’s Outing remains in the top five.
For slightly older readers Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot – also recently adapted into an animated film – is emerging as a favourite with 6600 entires so far, while Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series dominates the mature readers list, restricted to students in Year 9 and above.
Movie adaptations are “absolutely” a factor in what kids decide to read, Ms Arnold said.
“Even when I was a teacher librarian in school, if there was an announcement about something being made into a film or a TV show, there would be a massive spike in that (book’s) popularity,” she said.
“The fifth Hunger Games book … Sunrise on the Reaping is already starting to pick up there, and we only added that to the book list at the start of term two.”
New books are constantly being reviewed and added to the Premier’s Reading Challenge lists throughout the year, but old ones are rarely removed.
Ms Arnold said recent removals including books by Oliver Phommavanh – who has been charged over allegations of child grooming – and a book that promoted giving misbehaving children “a good beating” are unusual because rural and remote community libraries often need to keep out of print titles on the shelves.
“We don’t tend to take them off unless the book has been reviewed and found to no longer fit modern standards,” she explained.
Camden South Public School student Tom Hazelton said his favourite books are the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan – particularly the fourth title The Battle of the Labyrinth.
“It’s all about Greek gods and full of action,” he said.
His 10-year-old classmate Bailey Ooi meanwhile loves the “emotion” and “great storyline” of novelist Craig Silvey’s children’s title Runt: “Firstly, I love dogs,” she said.
Deputy Premier Prue Car said every child deserved the opportunity to discover a love for reading.
“We know strong literacy skills are the foundation for lifelong learning and success, and this challenge facilitates a love for reading at an early age,” she said.
“Lifting literacy outcomes is a key priority for the Minns Labor Government, backed by a focus in phonics in the early years.”
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