List of Children's Classic Books - Before 18th Century

Before 18th Century

Title	Author	Year published	References and Brief Introduction
Panchatantra	Vishnu Sharma	c. 800 BC	Ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. Similar stories are found in later works including Aesop's Fables and the Sindbad tales in Arabian Nights.
Aesop's Fables	Aesop	c. 600 BC
Kathasaritsagara	Somadeva	11th Century AD	Collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva. Generally believed to derive from Gunadhya's Brhat-katha, written in Paisachi dialect from the south of India.
Arabian Nights	unknown	before 8th century AD
Orbis Pictus	John Amos Comenius	1658	Earliest picture book specifically for children.
A Token for Children. Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children	James Janeway	1672	One of the first books specifically written for children which shaped much eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writing for children.

“How can kindliness rule that man
Who eateth other flesh to increase his own?”
—Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)