American History Reading List -- 5th Grade Spring!

This spring, my 5th grader is continuing her American History...
 There are so many great books out there that help bring this era alive, but I also wanted her to read about young people in adolescence that experience personal growth -- often overcoming an initially resistant attitude.  (My 11 year old is fabulous -- and she is very much a "tween" with her own stuff to overcome!) Being inspired by these characters will hopefully not only illuminate American History but will point her in some "growing up" directions in a positive way.

1)  George Washington: Our First Leader from the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series, by Augusta Stevenson.  This is a fictionalized biography of what "could have been."  Accurate?  Certainly not.  Some truths and facts sprinkled throughout?  Sure.  A way to liven up what can be a dry study of battles and generals and "whites of their eyes?"  Definitely.  Quick read, fun start to semester.  Wouldn't recommend a steady diet of this series but here and there is entertaining.

2) Dreams in the Golden Country:  The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, a Jewish Immigrant Girl from the "Dear America" series, by Kathryn Lasky.  I'm sometimes not a fan of serialized books created for kids but the "Dear Americas" are an exception.  They are a personal-feeling window into other people's lives that are a catalyst for understanding other cultural groups in America.  This one particularly grasps the hope that people felt coming here that anything was possible for future generations.

3)  The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Newbery Award winner Karen Cushman.  Outstanding writing, strong female lead character who has difficulty accepting her family's move to California during the Gold Rush.  Her discoveries about California and herself make for an excellent read!

4) Calico Bush, Newbery Honor Book by Rachel Feld.  Orphaned in 1743, 13 year old Marguerite survives by becoming an indentured servant in an isolated part of northern Maine.  Suffering loneliness and hardship, Marguerite discovers how courageous she really is.  Fabulous, touching book!

5) The Perilous Road, Newbery Honor Book by William O. Steele.  The Publisher's Weekly review says "One of Mr. Steele's best books, an engrossing, realistic story of a Tennessee mountain boy who, during the Civil War, comes to realize that war is terrible no matter where one's sympathies lie."  I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment.  Uncomfortable at times: extremely important.

6) A Wrinkle In Time, Newbery Award Medal Winner by Madeleine L'Engle.  Can't go wrong with any of Ms. L'Engle's books!  An imaginative and deep look at the nature of good and evil in a fantasy setting.  The hero is a smart girl who doesn't feel she fits in -- like every adolescent ever!  My favorite book, my favorite author.  I hope my daughter loves it as much as I do!

This will take us to Easter and Spring Break!  So many adventures!

Reading List: Books that are Friends, 8th Grade

My 8th grade son has decided that he'd like the "public school experience" for high school.  

I feel like Seinfeld saying, "not that there's anything wrong with that..." because I admit that it makes me slightly uncomfortable!  We made the decision to keep him at home because he always met expectations -- and if the expectations were ridiculously high, so was his achievement.  This has not changed, but many expectations come from within at this point, so his drive is his own. 
I am certain he'll be successful academically, and if the social draw ends up not being what he expects at least he will see that for himself.  So next fall, we are in for a new adventure!

But the questions in my own self have started... Have I given him all the things I think he'll need to be a successful human being with a joy for life and an ability to think and feel deeply?  We have studied philosophy, tons of history, music and art, as well as the science and math that he is naturally drawn to.  As I write, I'm listening to him speak Mandarin into the Rosetta Stone microphone, which he'll continue along with piano and musical theater when he starts high school next year.

So in a purely self-indulgent move, I have assigned him a spring reading list that reflects both books I loved at his age and ones that I enjoy now.  I hope that he will get hooked, feel friendship with the characters, want to read others by some of my favorite authors, and give us a place to connect as he moves into his next phase of life and grows more and more independent.  (As he should!)

THE SPRING "BOOKS THAT ARE FRIENDS" READING LIST!

5 books by Madeleine L'Engle:
   The Arm of the Starfish
    A Ring of Endless Light
   A Wrinkle in Time
   A Wind in the Door
   A Ring of Endless Light

L'Engle's works for young adults are timeless.  They capture perfectly the tension between dependent childhood and independent adulthood, and her characters make LOTS of mistakes.  Just like every real life teenager.  They also are able to positively affect the world in profound ways.  Good examples for any young adult.  He read "Wrinkle" several years ago, but it is my very favorite book, sooo... :)

Little House on the Prairie 
This one is more for my husband than for me, as they were his childhood favorites.  Our young man read one in the series several years ago, but never this one.  A quick read, seeing as he read "Shogun" last semester... but not everything has to be hard, right?
The Phantom Tollbooth... also from my husband's faves... a very funny book that honors smart kids! 

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.
Urban fantasy is not something I think my son has ventured into, and this is a great introduction, with characters up against enormous forces that are able to rely upon wits, ingenuity, and friendship to overcome impossible odds.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Modern Epic Fantasy, and one of the best I've read.  This first in the series is a lot a coming-of-age as well -- good for young men.

And finally...
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
A re-visit on a few, but like so many things, there is more depth each time these are read.  And I think he may be ready to tackle "The Last Battle" which has more solid and controversial theology than most people  realize!  I am excited to see where these take him and to talk about them.

Well-loved and often-read books are beautiful!

Middle Ages and Renaissance Reading Lists

These are the rest of our books for this school year. I have divided them into Middle Ages, Renaissance, and a few "Just for Fun."

Middle Ages

Flame Over Tara (Polland)
Beowulf -- A New Telling (Nye)
The Apple and the Arrow (Buff)
Tam Lin (Yolen)
Inferno (Dante -- Pinsky verse translation + Italian)
Otto of the Silver Hand (Pyle)
The Beduins' Gazelle (Temple)
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Konigsburg)
The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Adam of the Road (Gray)
Catherin, Called Birdy (Cushman)
The Door in the Wall (de Angeli)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien)
The Once and Future King (White)
Matilda Bone (Cushman)
Joan of Arc (Stanley)
Saint George and the Dragon (McCaughrean)


Renaissance

Michelangelo (Stanley)
Leonardo Da Vinci (Stanley)
Treasure Chests: Da Vinci
Luther (Nohl)
Master Cornhill (McGraw)
I, Juan de Pareja (de Trevino)
The Prince and the Pauper (Twain)
The Shakespeare Stealer (Blackwood)
Shakespeare Stories (Garfield)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare)
Sonnets (Shakespeare)

"Just for Fun"

Mountain Born (Yates)
The Wheel on the School (DeJong)
The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster)
A Little Princess (Burnett)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)

Ancient History Reading List

As we aim for a literature-rich program that enlivens the history and cultures we're studying, "The Reading List" is the most time consuming and intense item in our preparation for the school year. I draw from Sonlight Curriculum, The Well Trained Mind lists, public school recommendations, and various websites that may have suggestions for certain periods or cultures. Of course this number of books gets very expensive -- the library hasn't worked well for us because these books become like old friends my children want to return to time and again. They fight over who gets to take which books when they move away! I highly recommend half.com, the used bookstore to the world -- I get beat up discarded library copies that have super tough bindings!
This year our history takes us from Ancient times through the Reformation. The following reading list is our complete literature for the Ancient World -- some are read aloud by me, some are read by the third grader, some by the sixth grader and some by both.
As a basis, the sixth grader has worked through the public school text book for sixth grade history, Ancient Civilizations, published by Pearson/Prentice Hall. There are extensive writing assignments throughout. The third grader has read through A Child's History of the World (Hillyer). We have listened to Margaret Wise Bauer's The Story of the World (volume I, Ancient Times) on CD all together, so the kindergartner who isn't yet a fluent reader got her first taste of the ancient world as well.

General

Usborne Time Traveler
Historical Atlas of the Ancient World (Hays)
The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World (Hurdman)
Learning About Ancient Civilizations Through Art (Chertok)
Ancient Civilizations (Hart)
A Child's History of the World (Hillyer)
The Story of the World (Bauer)

Prehistoric Times

Boy of the Painted Cave (Denzel)

Ancient Egypt

Hieroglyphs from A to Z (Der Manuelian)
History Detectives -- Ancient Egypt
Kids' Discover Magazine -- Mummies
Tut's Mummy -- Lost and Found (Donnelly/Watling)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile (McGraw)

Ancient Middle East

Kids' Discover Magazine -- Ancient Persia
Hittite Warrior (Williamson)
The Golden Goblet (McGraw)
The Bronze Bow (Speare)
Beyond the Desert Gate (Ray)

Ancient Far East (This isn't much -- we studied non-Western cultures last year)

The Great Wall of China (Fisher)
The Samurai's Tale (Haugaard)
I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade (Wilson)
A Single Shard (Park)

Ancient Greece

The Greek News (Powell, Steel)
D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
Usborne Greek Myths
The Iliad and The Odyssey (Homer)
The Trojan War (Coolidge)
The Aesop for Children (Ill. Winter)
Pandora of Athens (Denenberg)
Theras and His Town (Snedeker)
Archimedes and the Door of Science (Bendick)

Ancient Rome

Detectives in Togas (Winterfeld)
Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld)
The Ides of April (Ray)
The Lantern Bearers (Sutcliff)
The Eagle of the Ninth (Sutcliff)

Byzantine Empire

Anna of Byzantium (Barrett)

Coming up... Dark Ages through the Reformation!