Children’s Books, Literary Classics Top NYPL’s Most Checked Out List

If your New Year's resolution was to read more, the New York Public Library has got you covered.

For the first time ever, the library on Monday released a list of its most checked out books in its 125 year history. The top 10 lists is mostly filled with children's books and American literary classics that most people probably got the chance to read in school.

Award-winning children's story "The Snowy Day" took the No.1 spot on the list with with 485,583 checkouts. Originally published in 1962, the illustration book by Brooklyn's own Ezra Jack Keats captures the magic of the first snowfall for young kids.

To celebrate its 125 year anniversary, the library is also offering a limited edition "The Snowy Day" library. A special edition MetroCard of the book will also be available, the NYPL said.

The NYPL says the shorter the book, the longer it's been in print and the languages available contribute greatly to how often it gets checked out, so there's no surprise there are many classics on the list.

For the No. 2 spot, "The Cat in the Hat" is another classic for young readers. Dr. Seuss and the book have become part of children's lives since the anthropomorphic cat was first published in 1957.

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The third most checked out book of all time is surely the book every high school student in the U.S. has read. "1984" by George Orwell has always stayed relevant in cultural conversations since it was published in 1949. The dystopian fiction rose to the top of best-seller lists in 2017 when people compared to Kellyanne Conway's suggestion of "alternative facts" to the obfuscatory languages in the book.

Next on the list is "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, another children's book which was published in 1963.

Taking the 5th spot is Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," another book that's on most middle and high schooler's reading list. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book explores serious issues like rape and racial inequality. It has been banned in some schools due to its use of racial slurs.