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‘
