Book List | Homeschool Omnibus

Homeschool Omnibus Book List

Early Elementary

Arnold Lobel. Fables. 1980. Reprint. Perfection Learning, 1983. While ostensibly a parody of Aesop’s fables, these lighthearted stories contain lessons of their own. May provide another way for teachers to talk about fables.

Marcia Brown. Once a Mouse... 1961. Reprint. Atheneum, 1972. Humility and thankfulness are valued in this fable from India, illustrated with charming woodcuts

Alma Flor Ada. The Lizard and the Sun. Dragonfly Books, 1999. A folktale of a lizard, set in ancient Mexico.

Candace Fleming. Oh, No! Schwartz & Wade, 2012. A repetitive tale teaching kindness and reciprocity. Several animals fall into a hole, and when rescued decline to help out the tiger who was about to eat them.

James Thurber. Louis Slobodkin, illustrator. Many Moons. 1943. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1981. A humorous story in the style of a fairy tale. None of the “wise men” of the court can accomplish the ill princess’s wish, but the court jester is able to do so.

Gloria Houston. Susan Condie Lamb, illustrator. My Great-Aunt Arizona. HarperCollins, 1992. A girl dreams of visiting the faraway places she reads about, but instead becomes a teacher in a rural one- room school. May be best for introducing children to the historical setting described.

Eve Bunting. The Wednesday Surprise. Clarion, 1989. A girl teaches her grandmother how to read.

Gretchen Woelfe. Nicola Bayley, illustrator. Katje the Windmill Cat. Walker, 2001. Based on a historical account of a fifteenth-century Dutch village. A cat that is often shoved aside becomes a hero after saving a baby during a flood. Other themes include friendship and familial affection.

Charles Perrault. Malcolm Arthur, translator. Fred Marcellino, illustrator. Puss in Boots. 1992. Reprint. Square Fish, 2011. This literary fairy tale from the Renaissance humorously represents a trickster cat.

Beatrice de Regniers. Beni Montresor, illustrator. May I Bring a Friend? 1964. Reprint. Atheneum, 1971. A charming, simple and imaginative storyline carries themes of friendship and hospitality.

Sally Pomme Clayton. Virginia Lee, illustrator. Persephone. Eerdmans, 2009. Fully illustrated retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone, who personifies the changing of the seasons.

Margot Zemach. It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale. 1976. Reprint. Perfection Learning, 1990. A humorous fable about contentment.

Mary Batchelor. John Haysom, illustrator. The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories. 1985. Second edition. David C. Cook, 1995. An accessible (but not condescending) retelling of the Old and New Testaments. Color illustrations are integrated with the text.

Sorche Nic Leodhas. Nonny Hogrogian, illustrator. Always Room for One More. 1965. Reprint. Square Fish, 1972. A lighthearted Scots narrative poem about friendship and hospitality. May require explanation of Scots words.

Patrick O’Brien. The Making of a Knight. Charlesbridge, 1998. A fictionalized story of a boy aspiring to be a knight, providing an introduction to medieval Europe.

Barbara Cooney. Miss Rumphius. Viking, 1982. The story of an independent spirit who finds her purpose in life: to make the world more beautiful.

Esphyr Slobodkina. Caps for Sale. 1940. Reprint. HarperCollins, 1987. A simple, repetitive story about creative solutions to problems.

Diane Stanley. The Conversation Club. Simon & Schuster, 1983. A shy mouse demonstrates the value of listening and not just speaking.

Tony Johnston. Deborah Kogan Ray, illustrator. The Barn Owls. Charlesbridge, 2001. A quiet prose poem follows the life cycle of barn owls, accompanied by muted full-page color illustrations.

Barbara Cooney. Island Boy. Viking, 1998. A nostalgic—and sometimes quite sad—depiction of life on an island in Maine.

I. C. Springman. More. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Using minimal text and excellent illustrations of a bird building its nest teach the lesson that less is often more.

Barbara Emberley. Ed Emberley, illustrator. Drummer Hoff. Simon & Schuster, 1967. Very simple words and colorful, stylized illustrations.

Michael Bond. A Bear Called Paddington. 1958. Reprint. HarperCollins, 2014. Paddington Bear is not only the subject of a series of books by the author Michael Bond, but its popularity has spawned a market a host of products dealing with the lovable furry creature. Illustrated by Peggy Fortnum, A Bear Called Paddington is the first in the series, which was followed by More About Paddington. According to the the Independent the book was inspired by a teddy bear on the mantlepiece

Else Holmelund Minarik. Maurice Sendak, illustrator. Little Bear. 1957. Reprint. HarperTrophy, 1978. There are several books in the series. Simple text for early readers.

Aliki. How a Book Is Made. 1986. Reprint. HarperCollins, 1988. May satisfy a curiosity that may arise in children newly exposed to reading on their own. Refers to outdated technology at points.

Christine Butterworth. Kate Nelms, illustrator. See What a Seal Can Do. Candlewick, 2013. A simple illustrated introduction to seals.

Joyce Lankester Brisley. The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook. 1998. Reprint. Kingfisher, 2001. Written in the early to mid twentieth century, these charming stories may prove a delight in reading aloud to children. They tend not to teach lessons, but do provide modern readers a glimpse into the past.

Late Elementary

Sally Pomme Clayton. Virginia Lee, illustrator. Persephone. Eerdmans, 2009.

Marianna Mayer. K. Y. Craft, illustrator. Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave. HarperCollins, 1994. A retelling of a Russian version of the Cinderella story, richly illustrated.

Conrad Buff. The Apple and the Arrow. 1951. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001. Retells the story of William Tell and his son.

Bruce Robertson. Kathryn Hewitt, illustrator. Marguerite Makes a Book. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.

Eleanor Estes. Louis Slobodkin, illustrator. The Hundred Dresses.1944. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004.

Kathryn Lasky. Kevin Hawkes, illustrator. The Librarian Who Measured the Earth. Little, Brown, 1994. A book about the life of Eratosthenes and his remarkably accurate calculation of the circumference of the Earth.

Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema. Cleopatra. Morrow, 1994. Diane Stanley. Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam. HarperCollins, 2002.

Beverly Birch and Christian Birmingham. Marie Curie’s Search for Radium. Barron’s, 1996.

Judy Donnelly. Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon. Random House, 1989.

Barbara Cooney. Eleanor. Viking, 1996. A childhood biography of a girl who would later become First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. Though an “ugly duckling” story, this book does not discuss in detail Roosevelt’s later achievements.

Wallace Edwards. Monkey Business. Kids Can, 2004. This book takes English idioms (such as monkey business) and renders them literally in humorous surrealistic paintings. Can be used to teach both the concept of idioms and the meanings of specific expressions.

Raymond Huber. Brian Lovelock, illustrator. Flight of the Honey Bee. Candlewick, 2013. A simple illustrated introduction to bees.

Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Mary Azarian, illustrator. Snowflake Bentley. Houghton Mifflin, 1998. The true story of a persistent boy with an interest in nature, later to photograph snowflakes for the first time and see their minute beauty.

Judy Donnelly. Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon. Random House, 1989. This book describing an important historical event is not long, and can be read by students on their own by the end of their second year.

Kathryn Lasky. Kevin Hawkes, illustrator.The Librarian Who Measured the Earth. Little, Brown, 1994. A book about the life of Eratosthenes and his remarkably accurate calculation of the circumference of the Earth.

Beverly Birch and Christian Birmingham. Pasteur’s Fight Against Microbes. Barron’s, 1996.

Alice and Martin Provensen. The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot. 1983. Reprint. Puffin, 1987. The true story of the persistent inventor who first flew across the English Channel.

Anna Harwell Celenza. JoAnn E. Kitchel, illustrator. The Farewell Symphony. Charlesbridge, 2000. The historical background to Franz Joseph Haydn’s famous symphony.

Gloria Skurzynski. The Minstrel in the Tower. Random House, 1988. A fictional story set in medieval England. This story is longer and for confident readers, although younger children may enjoy hearing the story read.

Diane Stanley, The Bard of Avon.

Diane Stanley, Joan of Arc.

Margaret Davidson, Louis Braille.

Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema, Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations.

Gloria Skurzynski, The Minstrel in the Tower.

Kate Waters, Sarah Morton’s Day.

E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web.

Walter D. Edmonds, The Matchlock Gun.

Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire, Benjamin Franklin.

The Childhood of Famous Americans series, published by Macmillan Publishing Company
(New York).

This series of books, some old and some new, are exclusively about Americans: American inventors, presidents, patriots, and frontiersmen. I like the older ones in the series, like Thomas Edison (published in 1947). In reading this particular book, a seven- or eight-year-old gets a glimpse of the childhood of a legendary American inventor: that he was homeschooled; that he became partially deaf by being boxed in the ears by a railroad conductor hoisting him up onto the train; that his curiosity led him to do odd things, like sitting on chicken eggs for hours in a barn to test an idea that he had on incubation. The series also includes very affordable books about the following Americans: Neil Armstrong, Ronald Reagan, Daniel Boone, Buffalo Bill, Davy Crockett, Henry Ford, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, Molly Pitcher, Teddy Roosevelt, Martha Washington, Paul Revere, and others.

Wiesner, David. June 29, 1999. New York: Clarion Books, 1992.

F. J. Gould. The Children’s Plutarch: Tales of the Greeks. Available at the following web address: Baldwin Online Children’s Literature Project

Barbara Cooney. Chanticleer and the Fox. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1958.

Diane Stanley. Peter the Great. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1999.

Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Translated by Naomi Lewis. London: Penguin Books, 2010.

Washington Irving. Rip Van Winkle. Retold and Illustrated by John Howe. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988.

Jean Fritz. The Cabin Faced West. New York: Puffin Books, 1958.

Aird, Hazel and Catherine Ruddiman. Henry Ford: Young Man with Ideas. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.

Arthur Ransome. Uri Shulevitz, illustrator. The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship: A Russian Tale. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968. In this Russian folktale, the unpromising but humble, simple and generous man accomplishes what his clever older brothers could not.”

One good site for profitable books is Beautiful Feet Books.

Early Middle School

Elizabeth George Speare. Sign of the Beaver. Published in 1983, The Sign of the Beaver is an award-winning children’s novel which has won numerous literary awards. The story is based on a real incident concerning a boy who was abandoned for a summer in the wilderness and was befriended by a Native American and his grandfather. Keeping the Promise is a film based on the novel, which aired on television in 1997.

Arlene Mosel. Blair Lent, illustrator. Tikki Tikki Tembo. 1968. Reprint. Square Fish, 2007. A lesson in humility in the form of a Chinese folktale.

Anton Chekhov. Gennady Spirin, illustrator. Kashtanka. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1995. Rich illustrations and an accessible translation allow children to appreciate this story by the well-known Russian author. Themes include friendship and loyalty.

Paul Geraghty. The Hunter. 1994. Reprint. Andersen, 2011. A girl decides that she does not want to become a hunter after returning an orphaned elephant to its herd.

Thomas Locker. Lenny Hort, illustrator. The Boy Who Held Back the Sea. Dial, 1987. A boy with a reputation as a good-for-nothing saves a Dutch town by plugging a hole in the dyke.

Conrad Buff. The Apple and the Arrow. 1951. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001. Retells the story of William Tell and his son.

Clyde Robert Bulla. Bruce Bowles, illustrator. The Sword in the Tree. 1956. Reprint. HarperCollins, 2000. Set in Arthurian England. Text intended for early readers, but the story is not overly simple.

Eleanor Estes. Louis Slobodkin, illustrator. The Hundred Dresses. 1944. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. A poor Polish-American girl is ostracized by her classmates, who experience regret when she leaves the school.

Hugh Vernon-Jackson. Yuko Green, illustrator. Susan L. Rattiner, editor. African Folk Tales. Dover, 1999. These folktales from West Africa were first published in 1958 and 1963.

Scott O’Dell. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1960. A fictionalized account of a young girl stranded on an island on the coast of California in the nineteenth century.

Anna Harwell Celenza. JoAnn E. Kitchel, illustrator. The Heroic Symphony. Charlesbridge, 2004. The historical background to Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous symphony, which was originally intended to honor Napoleon.

Brian Jacques. The Pearls of Lutra. Published in 1996 as the eleventh book in the popular Redwall series, The Pearls of Lutra is a fantasy novel that deals with otters and a valuable treasure of pearls.

Christoph von Schmid. The Captive. The Christian protagonist of this 96-page tale is Anselmo, who finds himself in dire straits; however, he shows his faith and character when he refuses to take the easy way out.

Sheela Chari. Finding Mighty. Published by Amulet books just this spring, Finding Mighty is a mystery book that “explores the nature of art and the unbreakable bonds of family.

Lois Lenski, The Indian Captive.

Meindert DeJong, Along Came a Dog.

C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Jeanne Bendick, Archimedes and the Door of Science.

Dorothy Kupcha Leland, The Balloon Boy of San Francisco.

Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire, D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths.

Esther Forbes, Johnny Tremain.

Richard Adams, Watership Down.

Roger Lancelot Green, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Trans.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes.

Elizabeth Gray, Adam of the Road.

Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel.

George Macdonald, Princess and the Goblin.

Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous.

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.

Candace Fleming. Boris Kulikov, illustrator. Papa’s Mechanical Fish. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. The persistence and creativity of the eccentric protagonist, based on a historical inventor, is finally rewarded.

Barbara Brenner. Olivier Dunrea, illustrator. The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West. 1999. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. Born before the time of the American Revolution, Benjamin West was a pioneer of American painting. This book tells his story, from the time he was a child in a Pennsylvania Quaker home.

Patrick O’Brien. The Making of a Knight. Charlesbridge, 1998. A fictionalized story of a boy aspiring to be a knight, providing an introduction to medieval Europe.

Walter D. Edmonds. The Matchlock Gun. 1941. Reprint. Puffin, 1998. This story is set among Dutch immigrants in New York in the mid-1700s, during the French and Indian War. The many illustrations are soft and charming.

Dorothy Sterling. Freedom Train:The Story of Harriet Tubman. 1954. Reprint. Scholastic, 1987. Written for children, this biography depicts the life and circumstances of Harriet Tubman.

Margaret Cousins. Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia. 1952. Reprint. Random House, 2004. Each volume in the Landmark Books series is full of information and written for children. Other books depict events such as the Landing of the Pilgrims and the American Revolution, and lives of historical figures such as William Penn and Sequoyah; though all but a few are out of print, they are worth seeking out.

Howard Pyle. Tania Zamorsky, reteller. Dan Andreasen, illustrator. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. Sterling, 2006.

Philip Smith, editor. Irish Fairy Tales. Dover, 1993. These stories have been collected from nineteenth-century retellings.

Donald J. Sobol. Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective. 1963. Reprint. Perfection Learning, 2010. A young boy who likes learning trivia solves mysterious cases. There are many more books in the series.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Little House in the Big Woods.

Louise Vernon, The Beggar’s Bible.

Emily Little, The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys.

Frank B. Galbraith, Cheaper by the Dozen.

Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer.

Upper Middle School / Early HIgh School

Arthur Ransome. Swallows and Amazons. 1930. Reprint. David R. Godine, 2010. Children from several families have realistic adventures in their boats during school holidays. There are other books in the series.

Conrad Buff. The Apple and the Arrow. 1951. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001. Retells the story of William Tell and his son.

Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys. 1910. Reprint. AB Publishing, 1993. This book contains a number of stories that teach moral lessons.

Claire Huchet Bishop. Twenty and Ten. Puffin, 1978. In Nazi-occupied France, ten Jewish children are hidden by twenty boarding-school students.

Naomi Lewis. Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. 1981. Reprint. Puffin, 2010. These literary fairy tales are retold for younger listeners. Black-and-white illustrations.

L.M. Montgomery. Anne of Avonlea. Anne is a sixteen-year-old young lady who means well but often gets into trouble.

Isaac Asimov. Foundation and Empire. I read this book a few months ago and found it rather entertaining, but was not very impressed by the characters, theme, or dialog. I agree with readers who say that this science fiction novel was the inspiration behind the the Star Wars series.

Maria Augusta Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.

Frank and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen.

Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds.

C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

Alexander McCall Smith, Tears of a Giraffe.

William Golding, Lord of the Flies.

Jack London, The Call of the Wild.

Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island.

Joe Schwarcz, The Genie in the Bottle. (Non-fiction)

Thornton Wilder, Our Town.

John Hersey, Hiroshima. (Non-fiction)

Helen Keller, The Story of My Life. (Non-fiction)

John Boyne, The Boy in Striped Pajamas.

Orwell , George. Animal Farm.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. The Little Prince.

Field, Rachel. Calico Bush. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1931.

Kipling, Rudyard. Captains Courageous.

Milne, A. A. Now We Are Six.

Gray, Elizabeth Janet. Adam of the Road.

High School

Elie Wiesel. Night. A short look at the cruelty of the concentration camp, but more enlightening, the effects of cruelty on the prisoners themselves, who become brutish in turn to one another. Although I recommend the book, this non-fiction account contains disturbing and mature material.

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer. Really a long short story, this famous work by the Polish-born author deals with a stowaway on a ship.

Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. Inherit the Wind. I remember reading this back in my early high school days. Although I liked it then, I am now more wary of some of the conclusions the author draws regarding religion and science. Its theme regarding McCarthyism and authoritarianism in education is good, taken with a grain of salt.

Arthur Miller. The Crucible. Another work written during the McCarthy era, this play deals with paranoia and mass hysteria.

G. K. Chesterton. The Man Who Was Thursday. I enjoyed this mystery/detective work, and although I have taught it in my classes in the past, it is not currently on my list of books to read for high school students during the school year.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Arthur Miller, The Crucible.

Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders.

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.

Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place.

C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters.

Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun.

George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome.

Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd.

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography.

Henry James, Daisy Miller.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables.

Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat and The Nose.

Anonymous. Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney.

Herman Melville. Billy Budd.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.

Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.

Francis Bacon. New Atlantis. Just a few weeks ago I finished rereading this 17th-century classic, which I believe I first read about thirty-five years ago. The novel shows Bacon’s interest in science and Christian ideals. Although most likely high school students won’t find this a thriller, it is short and like all truly good science fiction, it contains ideas that are thought-provoking. A writer of both scientific and religious works, Francis Bacon is often considered the father of the scientific method, which is outlined in his work Novum Organum.

Anne Bronte. Tenant of Wildfell Hall. All of the Bronte sisters—Anne, Charlotte and Emily—were known for the Gothic elements contained in their novels. With its abandoned mansion as its setting and the many dark secrets it contains as what drives the plot, the Tenant of Wildfell Hall is no exception.

William Dean Howells. The Rise of Silas Lapham. Although not as famous as the contemporary classics The Scarlet Letter and Huckleberry Finn, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) deals with the all-important issue of doing what is right despite all the pressure to do otherwise. Written during the Gilded Age, when materialism was threatening to take hold of the American spirit, the protagonist in this realist novel must make an important decision, as all Americans today must: should he follow after filthy lucre or make the moral choice?

Rudyard Kipling. Kim. American author Henry James once said that Kipling was “the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known.” The genius of Kim might just be the way in which Kipling is able to draw a picture of then exotic culture of India.

Elizabeth Eliot. The Savage, My Kinsman. Published in 1961, this real-life account was written several years after her husband’s death in Ecuador. Speared to death in the jungles of Equador, her husband Jim Eliot and four other missionaries became modern-day martyrs for the cause of Christ.

Alfred Lansing. Endurance. Published in 1914, this gripping account of Ernest Shackleton’s journey of exploration to the Antarctic is a favorite in my family—not just the among the men. In 1914, Shackleton sailed to the South Pacific in the Endurance, and on November 21, 1915, she sank under ice and had to be abandoned.

Natalie Sanmartin Fenollera. The Awakening of Miss Prim. New York: Atria Paperback, 2014. A debut novel and international bestseller, The Awakening of Miss Prim involves a literary woman who moves into a small Spanish village to work as private librarian.

Anthony Trollope. The Last Chronicle of Barset. Dare I put a 900-page novel on the list? I dare. It was just last year that I finished reading this last book in the Barsetshire series. Although I enjoyed the first in the series, The Warden, best, the novel’s protagonist Mr. Crawley is very memorable as the overconscientious clergyman. This book suggestion is not just an English teacher’s recommendation: my daughter loved the novel as well.