24 1983 children's books

The Broken Anchor is the 70th book in the Nancy Drew Stories series. It was originally published in 1983 under the Wanderer imprint of Simon and Schuster.

Bummer Summer is Ann M. Martin's first novel. She started writing it in 1980 and it was published in 1983.

Dear Mr. Henshaw is a juvenile epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1984. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."

Dirty Beasts is a 1983 collection of Roald Dahl poems about unsuspecting animals. Intended to be a follow-up to Revolting Rhymes, the original Jonathan Cape edition was illustrated by Rosemary Faucet. In 1984, a revised edition was published with illustrations by Quentin Blake. An audiobook recording was released in the 1980s read by Prunella Scales and Timothy West. Later in 1998 Puffin Audiobooks published a recording featuring Pam Ferris and Geoffrey Palmer, and in 2002 Harper Audio released a recording of Alan Cumming reading both Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts.

The Fox Cub Bold is the fourth book of The Animals of Farthing Wood series. It was first published in 1983 and has since been included in a single book with Fox's Feud and in the "Omnibus" edition with Fox's Feud and In the Grip of Winter.

The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot is a book by Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen. Released by Viking Press, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1984.

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy first published in 1983, is the first and most well-known of a series of books by New Zealand author Lynley Dodd featuring Hairy Maclary. His adventures are usually in the company of his other animal friends who include the dachshund Schnitzel von Krumm. His arch-enemy is the tomcat Scarface Claw.

Handles is a realistic children's novel by Jan Mark, first published in 1983 by Kestrel Books of Harmondsworth, London, with illustrations by David Parkins. Set in the Norfolk countryside, it features a city girl on holiday, who loves motorcycles. Nicholas Tucker calls it "a happy, optimistic work"; Erica escapes "mean-minded relatives" for the "anarchic motorbike-repair outfit in a nearby town".

It's Not Easy Being a Bunny is a children's book written by Marilyn Sadler and illustrated by Roger Bollen. It is about a young bunny named P.J. Funnybunny and his adventures to live with a different animal because he does not like being a bunny.

The Last Children of Schewenborn is a 1983 novel by Gudrun Pausewang, depicting life in rural Germany in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

The Moffat Museum by Eleanor Estes is the fourth and final novel in the children's series known as The Moffats. Published in 1983, it appeared forty years after the preceding book. The title refers to a small museum that the four Moffat children set up to help them remember the special times in their lives now that they are growing up. Like the rest of the series, The Moffat Museum is set in small Cranbury, Connecticut in the early 1900s.

People Might Hear You is a children's novel by Robin Klein, first published by Puffin Books in 1983.

Possum Magic is a picture book by Australian author Mem Fox.

The Queen's Nose is a children's novel by Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz in 1983 with illustrations by Jill Bennett. Set in England, where King-Smith lived, it features a girl who can use a fifty pence coin to make wishes. It was adapted as the 1995 TV series The Queen's Nose, which was a great success and ran for 7 series.

Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom is a 1983 children's book written by American novelist Katherine Paterson. Set during the Taiping Rebellion in China, it focuses on Wang Lee, a 15-year-old peasant boy who is abducted into a secret rebel organization. Mei Lin, a female soldier, teaches Wang Lee to read and instructs him in the movement’s dogma. Wang Lee’s transition into being a soldier is marked with acts of violence and betrayal, and he is forced through difficult circumstance to learn humility as part of his training.

The Saga of Erik the Viking is a children's novel written by the Welsh comedian Terry Jones, illustrated by Michael Foreman, and published by Pavilion in 1983. Foreman was commended for the annual Greenaway Medal by the Library Association, recognising the year's best-illustrated children's book by a British subject.

The Sheep-Pig, or Babe, the Gallant Pig in the US, is a children's novel by Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz in 1983 with illustrations by Mary Rayner. Set in rural England, where King-Smith spent twenty years as a farmer, it features a lone pig on a sheep farm. It was adapted as the 1995 film Babe, which was a great international success. King-Smith won the 1984 Guardian Children's Fiction Award, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.

The Sign of the Beaver is a children's historical novel by American author Elizabeth George Speare, which has won numerous literary awards. It was published in February 1983, and has become one of her most popular works.

So You Want to Be a Wizard is the first book in the Young Wizards series currently consisting of eleven books by Diane Duane. It was written in 1982 and published in the next year. In 2012 a revised "New Millennium Edition" was published. The plot follows Nita Callahan, a thirteen-year-old girl who discovers a book titled So You Want to Be a Wizard while hiding from bullies in a library. She brings the book home with her and discovers that it is about the art of wizardry. She does not completely trust the book's claim that she can become a wizard if she takes the Wizard Oath, but she takes it nonetheless. The next day when she is out trying to do her first spell she meets Kit Rodriguez, another wizard. After they successfully complete a spell together, Nita's doubts are gone: she is a wizard.

A Solitary Blue (1983) is a novel by Cynthia Voigt. It was a Newbery Honor book in 1984. It is the third book of the Tillerman Cycle, set concurrently with Dicey's Song and Come a Stranger. It revolves around Jeff Greene, a boy who struggles after being abandoned by his mother at age 7.

Someday Angeline is a children's novel by Louis Sachar. A story about a girl named Angeline Persopolis who faces trouble at school because of her intelligence, it was originally released in 1983, but received a reprint in 2005 following Sachar's success with Holes.

The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree is a 1983 young adult or children's book by Bill Brittain. The "wish giver" in the title refers to the enigmatic man who gives three children a wish to make their deepest dreams come true, but the wishes are not worded carefully, and go horribly wrong.

The Witches is a British children's dark fantasy novel by the British writer Roald Dahl. The story is set partly in Norway and partly in England, and features the experiences of a young English boy and his Norwegian grandmother in a world where child-hating societies of witches secretly exist in every country. The witches are all ruled by the extremely vicious and powerful Grand High Witch, who has just arrived in England to organize her worst plot ever. But an elderly former witch hunter and her young grandson find out about the evil plan and now they must do everything to stop it and defeat the witches.

The Wreck of the Zephyr is a children's book written and illustrated by the American author Chris Van Allsburg, first published by Houghton Mifflin in March 1983.