Great literature has been on my mind lately.

One of my favorite courses when finishing my degree was English Lit.  I LOVED finding the symbolism and major thematic ties in great stories.  Just as Common Core is looming to slash the importance of analyzing literature I’ve been feeling a stronger pull to introduce my now 5th grader to the depths of the great stories that lie under the surface of words on the page. Introducing literature guides might be a good fit if your child is a passionate bookworm – focus on quality of understanding than quantity of books read. The ones I like provide historical background of the time that the author wrote the book, information about the author, chapter by chapter thought provoking questions, opportunities for diagramming character relationships, discussion of emotions, characters, moral challenges etc. Others are more summary notes – which can help understand more about the story, but don’t teach how to analyze a story as well on your own.

Through word of mouth and internet searching I’ve come across some great resources which I’m super excited about:

LITERATURE GUIDES

Biblio Mania (free)
Bright Ideas Press
ChristianBook.com
 Glencoe Literature Library (free) * love this website
Progeny Press
Millstone Education – K-3 (free)
Millstone Education 4-7 (free)
Millstone Education 8-12 (free)
Rainbow Resource Center
Teacher Vision (some free)
Veritas Press

FREE E-BOOKS & AUDIO BOOKS

Amazon Prime (some free, membership required)
Authorama (free)
Biblio Mania (free)
LibriVox.org (free)  * love this website
Project Gutenberg (free)
Wired for Books (free)

READING COMPREHENSION

A fun free website offers online quizzes with prize points to test for reading comprehension K-8:
Book Adventure

Here is a running tab of Classic Books that I’ve come across either on our own shelves, the library, school reading lists and online curriculum sites. The kids do a ton of reading with other books but not all are on the radar of classics that stand the test of time but are still fantastic – maybe I’ll add those at the end ! One interesting point – not all copies of the same one classic are the same! Some have been radically shortened or simplified.  If you wish to obtain the most complete original you might need to dig a little or get out of the ones labelled ‘Children’s Classics.’

* for personal purposes a √ denotes when we’ve read that book (not just watched the movie of which we’ve seen them… would like to read the book. )

CLASSIC BOOK LIST

A

A Christmas Carol
Across Five Aprils
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Aesop’s Fables (some)
A First Book of Fairy Tales
A Journey to the Center of the Earth
Aladdin and Other Favorites
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Animal Farm
Anne of Green Gables √
Arabian Nights Stories
Alice in Wonderland
Around the World in 80 Days √
A Lion to Guard Us
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Tale of Two Cites

B

Bambi
Beauty and the Beast
Bible √ still reading
Black Beauty √
By the Shores of Silver Lake

C

Call of the Wild  √
Canterbury Tales
Charlotte’s Web √
Chronicles of Narnia Series √
Comedy of Errors
Cinderella

D

David Copperfield
Doctor Doolittle √
Don Quixote

E

F

G

Grimm’s Fairy Tales √ still reading
Gulliver’s Travels √ listening audio book

H

Hansel and Gretel
Hans Brinker √
Hardy Boys
Heidi √
Huckleberry Finn

I

In Their Own Words: Paul Revere

J

Jack and the Beanstalk
Jane Eyre √
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Jungle Book √
Just So Stories √

K

King Arthur
King Midas and the Golden Touch √

L

Lassie √
Light in August
Little House in the Big Woods √
Little House on the Prairie √
Little Men
Little Women
Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit √

M

Maya the Bee √
Moses Maimonides: The Guide for the Perplexed

N

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
1984

O

Old Yeller √
On the Banks of Plum Creek √

P

Paradise Lost
Pilgrim’s Progress
Pinocchio
Pollyanna
Praise of Folly
Pride & Prejudice √

Q

R

Rapunzel
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm √
Rikki Tikki Tavi √
Rip Van Winkle
Robin Hood
Robinson Crusoe √
Rumpelstiltskin

S

Shakespeare Stealer
Sleeping Beauty √
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

T

Tales from Shakespeare
Talk
Tarzan
The Adventures of Pinocchio
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer √
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
The Black Stallion  √
The Chocolate Touch
The Chrysalids
The Emperor’s New Clothes √
The Fire on the Mountain
The Hiding Place
The Hunting of the Great Bear
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Little Match Girl
The Little Prince √
The Long Winter √
The Magic Brocade
The Magic Paintbrush √
The Metamorphosis
The Odyssey
The People Who Could Fly
The Prince and the Pauper
The Scarlet Letter
The Secret Garden √
The Sign of the Beaver
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Tale of Peter Rabbit √
The Time Machine √
The Trumpet of the Swan √
The Trumpeter of Krakow
The Ugly Duckling √
The Velveteen Rabbit √
The War Within
The Wind in the Willows √
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Treasure Island √
20,000 Leagues under the Sea √

U

Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Utopia

V, W, X, Y, Z

Water Babies √
White Fang √
Why the Owl Has Big Eyes
William Tell

BOOK SERIES’ LIST

All Creatures Great & Small √
American Girls  √ still reading
Chronicles of Narnia Complete series √
Dear America √ still reading
Diaries of a Wimpy Kid √ still reading
Emily Windsnap √
Harry Potter √ still reading
Magic Tree House
Nancy Drew Mysteries √ still reading
Rainbow Magic Fairy Series √
Royal Princess Diaries √ still reading
Seekers √ still reading
Spiderwick Chronicles √
Survivors √ still reading
The Famous Five √ still reading
Warriors √

Grab a coffee or tea, a blanket and cuddle up with your kiddos on the sofa for some memorable reading time together!

Happy reading!