Every parent has heard it. A tower gets knocked over, a seat turns out to be saved for somebody else, and a small furious voice announces that it is going to get them back. Revenge is one of the oldest engines in storytelling for exactly the reason it is so hard to talk a seven-year-old out of: it is enormously satisfying to imagine. Children’s books have been running on it forever — carrots that follow a rabbit home, a mouse dentist who glues a fox’s jaws shut, a girl who puts superglue in her father’s hat — and the good ones do not pretend the appeal isn’t there. They let the payback land. Then they show you what it cost, what it turned into, or who was still standing when it was over.
Bookroo’s collection of 165 children’s books about revenge spans a wide range: comeuppance stories and prank wars for the read-aloud years, heists and getting-even schemes for newly independent readers, and a few serious novels about characters who have organized their whole lives around a score to settle. Our editors chose the 14 below for that spread — Roald Dahl turns up three times, because nobody has ever written a child getting even better. Under them you can browse by age: picture books for three to eight, then chapter books and middle-grade novels through about eleven.
Jasper Rabbit pulls carrots out of Crackenhopper Field whenever he pleases, and then the carrots start following him home.
Dad agrees to bake the legendary Enemy Pie, on one condition — Tom has to spend a whole day being nice to Jeremy Ross first.
A mouse dentist takes on a fox with a rotten bicuspid, knowing perfectly well what a fox does once the tooth stops hurting.
Mélanie Watt sets out to write a quiet book about a mouse. Her cat Chester finds a red marker and starts rewriting it.
A turtle king stacks his subjects higher and higher to enlarge his kingdom, until the turtle on the bottom burps.
Long before the telekinesis, Matilda handles her awful father with superglue, a bottle of bleach, and a borrowed parrot.
Grandma is a horror. George is eight, left alone with her for an hour, and standing in front of the medicine cabinet.
A collector cheats Griffin out of a Babe Ruth card worth a million dollars, so Griffin assembles a crew to steal it back.
A rat named Roscuro is humiliated in a castle kitchen and decides that a princess is going to pay for it.
Rapunzel escapes the tower with her braids in hand and goes looking for the woman who stole her mother, an outlaw named Jack in tow.
The stoat Badrang takes Martin’s sword and his freedom, and Martin spends the book coming back for both.
Daniel’s father was crucified by Rome, and he has organized his whole life — every friendship, every hour — around the day he can strike back.
Framed by his friends and buried in a sea fortress for fourteen years, Edmond Dantès comes back rich, unrecognizable, and patient.
Read-alouds about getting even, tit-for-tat trouble, and the bully who finally meets his match — ages 3–8.
A bear bully meets his match in a tiny, powerful witch.
Cat wants mice for dinner, but Mouse has a clever plan.
Discover the Giant's untold side of Jack's tale. Who's the real villain?
A discarded mushroom plots revenge after a series of misfortunes.
Can Quirky Turkey outsmart Baa Baa with a clever revenge plan?
A prankster spider's party trick backfires when a turtle hosts his own surprise-filled bash.
Fairy-tale characters are mysteriously slimed. Can you solve the sticky whodunnit?
An ogre devises a clever plan to outsmart bullying goats.
A stolen wand threatens a princess's perfect life. Can magic be undone?
A crocodile escapes Paris to navigate Italian high society. Can he blend in or will he be exposed?
Garfield's lasagna-filled adventures leap from page to screen.
Prank wars, heists, and quests to settle a score, for independent readers ages 6–11.
A clever fox outsmarts three mean farmers to steal food for his family and friends
A marooned pirate seeks revenge and an unlikely alliance to reclaim a stolen treasure map.
Can Gameknight999 save his friend from Herobrine's virus without losing him forever?
A hero battles darkness to reclaim a lost power and save two realms.
A young shark must lead a rebellion against a tyrant threatening their ocean world.
Teen spy faces a deadly choice: loyalty or betrayal.
Maxwell's wish to never exist comes true. Can he reclaim his place in the world?
Trapped in a nightmare, Charlie faces eerie black sheep and sinister twins threatening sweet dreams.
