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Great Books for Children to Read

Published January 29, 2015 • Written by

 

I’ve compiled a list of our favorite children’s books. This list is for a true reader. I have not included any little children’s books or beginner reader books. There are just so many fabulous books out there, so I stayed in the land that I know well: Children’s Literature, 2nd – 11th  grade (give or take). I haven’t had time to organize the books by order of difficulty.

 

Here are a few tips to help grow fervent readers:

  • Make them read books! Turn off the TV. Have a set “reading time” during the day.
  • Have them see you read. A lot.
  • Talk about books that you love.
  • Buy paper books. Children are intrigued by cover art. They can share them with each other. And paper books are just a more tangible, enjoyable experience. Studies also prove that those who read paper books have better reading comprehension and focus.
  • Talk about your memories of books – who gave them to you, the first book you loved, what books your teachers read to you, etc…
  • Go to book stores.
  • Meet an author.
  • Read aloud to your children. Even the older ones.
  • Give them books to read of your choosing. For my older children, we take turns. A book that they choose and then a book that I choose. That’s just the way it is, and they know there’s no getting around it. But, soon they realize that Mom’s books aren’t really all that bad! 🙂 And, the books that they choose do have to be approved.
  • Make them re-read books a year or two later. It’s amazing how a book a child thinks is unimpressive or boring one year can be a life-changing experience 2 years later.  Don’t feel bad about pulling out old books from the shelf and having them re-read. There’s something very comforting about reading a book that you ‘know’.
  • Read children’s literature yourself so that you know what is out there and what will touch their hearts. And, face it, most common adult books are written on a grade school reading level anyway, so you don’t have to feel that your belittling yourself by reading children’s literature!
  • Start a children’s book club. I’ve always wanted to do this… over the summer with a few girls and/or boys.
  • Don’t be a slave to A/R reading lists. They’re nice motivation. Points and prizes are great. But, if the book selection is poor, as it often is, let it go. Get a good book list and head to the library. I gave myself a lot of freedom when I abandoned the A/R lists.

These lists are divided up into a few categories. Classics, Series, Favorites, Emelie’s Recommendations and Jonathan’s Recommendations . Then, I give you some of my favorite book lists, so you can do even more research if you’d like.

We love all of these books, but have marked a few for you:

*  Great Family Read-Aloud Books

** Lauren’s Favorites

 

Classics:

Betsy-Tacy Series – Maud Heart Lovelace

Anne of Green Gables Series – L.M. Montgomery

Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

An Old Fashioned Girl – Louisa May Alcott

Pollyanna – Eleanor Hodgman Porter

Heidi* ** – Johanna Spyri

Arabian Nights

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew* – Margaret Sidney

The Little Princess* ** – Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

The Space Trilogy – C.S. Lewis

For teens:

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Persuasion – Jane Austen

Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen

 

Series:

Anne of Green Gables ** – L.M Montgomery

Little House on the Prairie  **– Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Women, Jo’s Boys, Little Men ** – Louisa May Alcott

The Borrowers – Mary Norton

Nancy Drew

Hardy Boys

The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis

The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

All of a Kind Family – Sydney Taylor

The Box Car Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner

Trixie Belden – Jule Campbell

My Side of the Mountain Trilogy –  Jean Craighead George

Tomie De Paola Chapter Book Series.

Little Britches * – Ralph Moody

Wrinkle in Time Series – Madeleine L’Engle

 

Favorites:

Eight Cousins and it’s sequel, Rose in Bloom ** – Lousia May Alcott

All Creatures Great and Small **- James Harriot

The Singing Tree – Kate Seredy

Adam of the Road – Elizabeth Janet Gray

Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

The Railway Children – E. Nesbit

Arabian Nights – Anonymous

Homesick ** – Jean Fritz

Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls

Cheaper by the Dozen ** – Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth

Con of Misty Mountain – Mary Theresa Waggaman

Heidi * ** – Johanna Spyri

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew * ** – Margaret Sydney

Turn Homeward, Hannalee – Patricia Beatty

The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

Thimble Summer –  Elizabeth Enright

Gone Away Lake –  Elizabeth Enright

Sing Down the Moon – Scott O’Dell

Just David ** – Eleanor Porter

The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien

Tomie de Paola Series

Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren

The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare

The Corn Grows Ripe – Dorothy Rhoads

The Good Master – Kate Seredy

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry ** – Mildred Taylor

My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George

Island of the Blue Dolphins **  – Scott O’Dell

The Endless Steppe  – Esther Rudomin Hautzig

Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink

Sarah Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan

Little House Series * (read aloud, especially Farmer Boy) – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Carry on Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham

A Lion to Guard Us * – Clyde Robert Bulla

The Courage of Sarah Noble –  Alice Dalgliesh

Sarah Whitcher’s Story – Elizabeth Yates

The Borrowers  – Mary Norton

Julie of the Wolves – Jean Craighead George

The Indian in the Cupboard –  Lynne Reid Banks

The Sign of the Beaver ** – Elizabeth George Speare

Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes

The Cabin Faced West ** – Jean Fritz

Walk the World’s Rim – Betty Baker

Shiloh – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Our Only May Amelia ** – Jennifer Holm

A String in the Harp – Nancy Bond

A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park

The Kitchen Madonna** – Rumer Godden

The Diddakoi (The Gypsy Girl)** – Rumer Godden

An Episode of Sparrows ** Rumer Godden

The Dolls’ House – Rumer Godden.

The Winged Watchman * **  Hilda Van Stockum

The Borrowed House ** – Hilda Van Stockum

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers ** * – Ralph Moody

Shadow Spinner (for olders girls) – Susan Fletcher

Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell

The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Patterson

The Good Master – Kate Seredy

Just So Stories * Rudyard Kipling

The Incredible Journey * – Sheila Burnford

The Master Puppeteer ** (A Japanese Robinhood Story) – Katherine Patterson

Little Lord Fauntleroy – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Mrs. Mike** – Nancy and Benedict Freedman

Mama’s Bank Account** – Kathryn Forbes

 

Emelie Recommends (with her own parental notes in parentheses):

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwielder –  E. L. Klonigsburg

Indian Captive  (Indians kill her family) – Lois Lowry

A Lion to Guard Us  – Clyde Robert Bulla

Watership Down ** (hard to read and some killing of rabbits)  – Richard Adams

A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park

The Endless Steppe  – Esther Rudomin Hautzig

Kira Kira (sister dies and she was really sweet) – Cynthia Kadohata

Walk Two Moons ** (book is about her mother leaving) – Sharon Creech

Ruby Holler  – Sharon Creech

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle # (murder mystery) – Avi

Eight Cousins ** – Louisa May Alcott

An Old Fashioned Girl ** – Louisa May Alcott

Secret Garden ** – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Matilda – Roald Dahl

Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo

Arabian Nights *

Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne

Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne

The Chronicles of Narnia Series – C.S. Lewis

A View From Saturday  – E.L. Klonisburg

Mara, Daughter of the Nile – Eloise J. McGraw

The Golden Goblet– Eloise J. McGraw

 

(The difficult thing about having advanced readers is finding challenging books that are appropriate for a younger child. That’s where the classics will save you. There are so many wonderful, exciting classic stories out there that are on a challenging reading level. They may have been written 100 years ago, but no worries. They’ll fall in love with timeless favorites!)

 

Jonathan Recommends:

The Trumpet of the Swan * – E. B. White

Along Came a Dog – Meindert DeJong

Twenty-One Balloons – William Penne Du Bois

The Borrowers Series *  – Mary Norton

The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster

The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie

My Side of the Mountain * – Jean Craighead George

Shadrach – Meindert DeJong

Robinson Crusoe * – Daniel DeFoe

The Castle in the Attic – Elizabeth Winthrop

No Talking (or anything by this author) – Andrew Clements

White Fang – Jack London

Hardy Boys Series

Castle in the Attic and Battle of the Castle – Elizabeth Winthrop

The Adventures of TinTin

Robin Hood – Roger Lancelyn Green

He really likes the Puffin Classics Series – has many of the books lined up neatly on his shelf:

Grimms Fairy Tales – Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Myths of the Norsemen – Roger Lancelyn Green

Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne

White Fang – Jack London

The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Tales of the Greek Heroes – Roger Lancelyn Green

King Arthur – Roger Lancelyn Green

Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi

The Phoenix and the Carpet – E. Nesbit

Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum

Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Five Children and It – E. Nesbit

 

 

Other Great Reading Lists, Articles and Links:

  • My Pinterest Page on “Books That Formed Me”
  • Satori Smiles Children’s Literature List
  • Great reading lists from KOR Education School:
  • Recommended book websites from our school:
  • Like Mother, Like Daughter’s “What you need to teach a child to read” series of posts are so informative, funny and encouraging. Check it out.
  • Another one from Like Mother, Like Daughter
  • This list has been recommended numerous times: A Mother’s List of Books costs just $7.25
  • Ambleside book lists:
  • Sonlight Readers (see list on right side of page) :
  • Sonlight Read-Alouds (see list on right side of page) (these don’t have to be read aloud, just check the reading levels. They have both a read-aloud level and a reading level posted for each book)
  • List combines Sonlight and Well-Trained Mind:
  • I love The Well-Trained Mind: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/
  • Simcha Fisher’s Post on ‘Good Fiction for Young Adults‘

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Written by • Published January 29, 2015

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