NON-British children's classics - calling anyone who grew up (or is living) Elsewhere!

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I've just read (and adored) my son's copy of The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars, who's American.

It came in a "classics" set that includes Ted Hughes and Marianne Storr, so obviously a proper serious level of classic. And it is definitely worthy of that company: utterly lovely book.

But because it was American, I'd known nothing of it - and having searched on here, just one poster has referred to it, ever. So I bet there are masses more books like that - ie, which are "classics" in their own country but just not well-known elsewhere.

So, if you grew up somewhere other than Britain - or had access to non-Brit-centric books as a child - what were your classics?

From a North American childhood -
Edward Eager's boks (especially Half Magic and the Knight's Castle).

Beverly Cleary - Ramona the Pest and her little known teen book, Fifteen.

And for the Aussies - Seven Little Australians. Oh. My. God. The most delicious blubbing of blub-fests - and the most noble death.

I've just gone through my shelf for you and found:
Harold and the Purple Crayon- Crockett Johnson
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day- Viorst and Cruz
Tikki Tikki Tembo- Mosel and Lent
Paperbag Princess- Munsch (so very cute)
Story of Ferdinand- Leaf and Lawson

For older children
-liking mysteries and moving beyond the Boxcar children...Trixie Belden -by Julie Campbell
-Books by Gary Paulsen, like Hachett

Books that grow with children-
Books by Graeme Base, he writes beautifully illustrated books with storylines which can often mature with the child, for example -The Water Hole, starts as a simple animal counting book 1-10, but the pictures also have hidden animals in it to find. The animals on each page are also from different continents or countries. AND the overall book has an ecological theme; as more and more animals come to the water hole it gets smaller and smaller... until it is no more... He really is a wonderful Australian author.

Books by Mark Helprin, once again, his children's book are some beautifully illustrated books (though not illustrated by him) Swan Lake is a lovely story as is the City of Veils. I would highly recommend them too.

I'd second Shel Silverstein's poems, particularly the book 'Where the Sidewalk Ends', favourite of DH's American family.
Can someone remind me what ages roughly the Magic Pudding would be for - was thinking to get copy for dd, but perhaps she is too young (6)

I don't think anyone has mentioned Elisabeth Enright's books about the Melendy children, starting with the Saturdays. We're currently reading the Four Story Mistake as a bedtime story.

Yes second Elizabeth Enright. We are reading Spiderweb for Two - ( the younger Melendy kids are at home while the older ones are away at school and they have a delicious treasure hunt to follow). Just about to start the penultimate chapter. My 11 and 8 year old are hooked.

Just looked at Amazon and found that a whole lot of Edith Unnerstad's books (The Saucepan Journey) have been translated. I used to love these.

Also Alf Proysen (mrs Pepperpot), Tove Janson (the Moomin books), Astrid Lindgren, Gunnel Linde (A Pony in the Luggage).

And more recently, Sven Nordqvist's children's books.

I am French. Many of the classics have already been mentioned on here but there seems to be much more translated and published here nowadays so here are a few examples:

Novels:
Toby Alone - Timothée de Fombelle (this got the Marsh Award for book in translation this year. It?s a fantastic book).
Message in a Bottle & When I was a soldier - Valérie Zenatti
Winter Song - Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Picture books
Rita & Whatsit ? Olivier Tallec & Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod
I want to eat a child - Sylviane Donnio and Dorothee de Monfreid
365 penguins - Jean-Luc Fromental & Joelle Jolivet

Essays
Daniel Pennac ? The Rights of the Reader
A classic for anybody interested in how to turn children into life-long readers. It is a modern classic in France, and here we are lucky enough that it?s illustrated by Quentin Blake.