“What are the best books to read for fans of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli?” We looked at 155 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 17 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Studio Ghibli” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 125+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 17 Books For Fans Of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

17 .) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Lists It Appears On:

• Lawrence Public Library
• The Guardian

This is an extraordinarily moving novel about coming to terms with loss. The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Costa Award winner Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, “A Monster Calls” is an extraordinarily moving novel of coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults. This book is jacketed.

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16 .) A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lists It Appears On:

• Crunchyroll
• Goodreads

Originally published in 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea marks the first of the six now beloved Earthsea titles. Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance.

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15 .) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Lists It Appears On:

• Itcher
• The Guardian

In 1962, Madeleine L’Engle debuted her novel A Wrinkle in Time, which would go on to win the 1963 Newbery Medal. Bridging science and fantasy, darkness and light, fear and friendship, the story became a classic of children’s literature and is beloved around the world.

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14 .) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by Elaine Lobl Konigsburg

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Crunchyroll

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away…Therefore she decided that her leaving home would not just be running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere. To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place. And that’s why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Claudia plans everything very carefully. But neither she nor her younger brother and chosen companion Jamie could possibly expect to find themselves involved in an intriguing art mystery. But that’s just what happens!

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13 .) Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Goodreads

“Kiki is a resourceful, spunky girl who follows her maternal tradition to be a witch. She possesses only one gift of witchcraft — the power to fly. Like all young witches, she sets out at age 12 to find a town of her own. With her ever-present companion Jiji — a cynical and faithful black cat — Kiki departs on her broomstick and arrives at a big town near the ocean. Though nervous at first, she soon sets up a business delivering packages.

Kiki meets all kinds of people and has many adventures. She befriends the thief who stole her broomstick and saves the town’s traditional New Year’s marathon with some courageous and timely flying.

Throughout, Kiki’s confidence and self-awareness grows as she learns to value her unique talents. And with Kiki’s help, the townspeople realize that everyone has some magic that gives them their own special character and vitality.”

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12 .) The Borrowers (The Borrowers, #1) by Mary Norton

Lists It Appears On:

• Crunchyroll
• Goodreads

The Borrowers—the Clock family: Homily, Pod, and their fourteen-year-old daughter, Arrietty, to be precise—are tiny people who live underneath the kitchen floor of an old English country manor. All their minuscule home furnishings, from postage stamp paintings to champagne cork chairs, are “borrowed” from the “human beans” who tromp around loudly above them. All is well until Pod is spotted upstairs by a human boy! Can the Clocks stay nested safely in their beloved hidden home, or will they be forced to flee? The British author Mary Norton won the Carnegie Medal for The Borrowers in 1952, the year it was first published in England. This repackaged paperback edition still has the delightful original black-and-white illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush inside. A charmer!

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11 .) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• The Guardian

“Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he’s the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?”

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10 .) The Hobbit by Tolkien

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Crunchyroll

Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent.

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9 .) The Moomins by Tove Jansson

Lists It Appears On:

• Itcher
• The Guardian

Tove Jansson is revered around the world as one of the foremost children’s authors of the twentieth century for her illustrated chapter books regarding the magical worlds of her creation, the Moomins. The Moomins saw life in many forms but debuted to its biggest audience ever on the pages of the world’s largest newspaper, the London Evening News, in 1954. The strip was syndicated in newspapers around the world with millions of readers in forty countries. Moomin Book One is the first volume of Drawn & Quarterly’s publishing plan to reprint the entire strip drawn by Jansson before she handed over the reins to her brother Lars in 1960. This is the first time the strip will be published in any form in North America and will deservedly place Jansson among the international cartooning greats of the last century.

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8 .) The Ocean At the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• The Guardian

“A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.

This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real…”

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7 .) The Secret Garden by Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett

Lists It Appears On:

• Crunchyroll
• The Guardian

THERE IS NO ONE LEFT When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. ….

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6 .) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Crunchyroll

Meek little Mole, wilful Ratty, Badger the perennial bachelor, and petulant, boastful Toad: over one hundred years since their first appearance in 1908, they’ve become emblematic archetypes of eccentricity, folly and friendship. And their misadventures – in gypsy caravans, stolen sports cars, and their beloved Wild Wood – continue to capture readers’ imaginations and warm their hearts long after they grow up. Begun as a series of letters from Kenneth Grahame to his son, The Wind in the Willows is a timeless tale of animal cunning and human camaraderie.

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5 .) Tom’s Midnight Garden by Ann Philippa Pearce

Lists It Appears On:

• Crunchyroll
• Itcher

“When Tom’s brother gets sick, he’s shipped off to spend what he’s sure will be a boring summer with his aunt and uncle in the country. But then Tom hears the old grandfather clock in the hall chime thirteen times, and he’s transported back to an old garden where he meets a young, lonely girl named Hatty.

Tom returns to the garden every night to have adventures with Hatty, who mysteriously grows a little older with each visit. As the summer comes to an end, Tom realizes he wants to stay in the garden with Hatty forever.”

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4 .) Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Quirk Books

“Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.”

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3 .) When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson

Lists It Appears On:

• Crunchyroll
• Goodreads

Anna hasn’t a friend in the world – until she meets Marnie among the sand dunes. But Marnie isn’t all she seems…An atmospheric ghost story about friendship, families and loneliness. Sent away from her foster home one long, hot summer to a sleepy Norfolk village by the sea, Anna dreams her days away among the sandhills and marshes. She never expected to meet a friend like Marnie, someone who doesn’t judge Anna for being ordinary and not-even-trying. But no sooner has Anna learned the loveliness of friendship than Marnie vanishes…

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2 .) Whisper of the Heart by Aoi Hiiragi

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Quirk Books

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1 .) Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl’s Moving Castle, #1) by Diana Wynne Jones

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• Goodreads
• Reddit

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

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The 125+ Additional Best Hayao Miyazaki Books

8 Best Studio Ghibli Book Sources/Lists