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*Note: print out to take to the library or used book sale.
Books, books, and more books!
by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson
Last
weekend I had the privilege and delight of speaking at the IHM NationalConference. In conversations with parents afterwards, I received many requests
for book recommendations. Here are some incomplete lists, rapidly thrown
together and clumsily categorized. In my experience (as a child and as a mother)
many books which are suitable for an older audience are accessible to younger
readers when read aloud. I’ve thrown in some asterisks to indicate some of the
“read aloud” selections we have really enjoyed in the last few years. For
reference, our children are seven, five, two and a half, and six months old.
Early Chapter
Books (for confident readers)
· Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus*
· In Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson
· The Little House series by Laura
Ingalls Wilder *
· The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories by
Betty MacDonald*
· The Encyclopedia Brown stories by
Donald Sobol*
· Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater*
· Sisters of the Last Straw series by Karen Kelly Boyce
· Ben and Me and other books by Robert Lawson
Books accessible
to grade schoolers or younger (read independently or read aloud)
· The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting*
· The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye*
·
The
Wolves of Willoughby Chase
by Joan Aiken*
· Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
by Lewis Carroll*
·
Emil
and the Detectives by
Erich Kästner*
· D'Aulaires Greek Myths and Norse
Myths*
· The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm*
· The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian
Anderson*
· The "Fairy Books" of Andrew
Lang*
· The Light Princess by George
MacDonald*
· The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann
David Wyss*
· Heidi by Johanna Spyri*
· The Anne books by L.M. Montgomery*
· The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame*
· The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by
Frances Hodgson Burnett*
· The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.
Lewis*
· The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien*
·
The Paddington Bear stories by Michael Bond*
·
A
Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens*
·
Silas
Marner by George Eliot
·
The
Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace*
·
Compendiums
of children’s stories by James Herriot*
·
The
Mary Poppins novels by P.L. Travers* (though, as a dear friend pointed out to
me recently, Mary Poppins’ behavior is not at all what I would recommend in
parenting!)
Books that might
appeal more to your middle/high school sons (though, honestly, your daughters
are likely to enjoy these too—I certainly did!):
· Anything by Rosemary Sutcliff
· The Redwall books by Brian Jacques
· The Living History Library from
Bethlehem Books
· The “Vision Books” Saints Biographies
· The Yearling by
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
· Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
· Various works by Marguerite Henry*
· The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling*
· Treasure Island*, Kidnapped*, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
·
The
Chronicles of Prydain by
Lloyd Alexander
· All Sherlock Holmes novels and short
stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
· The Horatio Hornblower novels by C.S.
Forester
· The Aubrey-Maturin novels by Patrick
O’Brian
· The Biggles stories by W.E. Johns
· The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, and Mr. Standfast by John
Buchan
· Lord Jim by Josef Conrad
· A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court and The Prince
and the Pauper by Mark Twain
·
The
Iliad and The Odyssey
by Homer
·
The
Aeneid by Virgil
·
Beowulf
·
The
Nibelungenlied
·
The
Kalevala
· The historical novels AND the
histories by Thomas B. Costain
· The full works of James Herriot
· The Civil War trilogy by Shelby Foote
· The Quiet Man and Other Stories by Maurice Walsh
·
The
Man Who Never Was
by Ewen Montagu
Books for high
schoolers and adults:
· EVERYTHING by Jane Austen
· Nicholas Nickleby*, David Copperfield, Bleak
House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Little
Dorrit, and Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
· The Barsetshire Chronicles by Anthony
Trollope (The Warden, Barchester Towers, Dr. Thorne, The
Small House at Allington, Framley Parsonage, and The Last
Chronicle of Barset); Also He Knew He Was Right
· Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
· The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion by
J.R.R. Tolkien
· The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
· Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
· The Picture of Dorian Gray and ALL THE PLAYS by Oscar Wilde
· Cranford, North and South, and Wives
and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
· The Moonstone and The Woman in White by
Wilkie Collins
· Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
· The novels of Georgette Heyer (ladies,
this one is for you!)
· Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes
Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Villette by the Brontë
sisters
· Dracula by Bram Stoker
· EVERYTHING by P.G. Wodehouse (just
start reading and never stop)
· The Ball and the Cross, The Flying Inn, and the Fr.
Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton
· Various novels by Agatha Christie,
Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Josephine Tey
· Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
· Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
· Declare and The Anubis Gates by Tim
Powers
·
Jennifer
the Damned and
Cinder Allia by Karen Ullo
NB: Joseph Pearce
has catalogued contemporary Catholic fiction very well and since he has a much
wider knowledge of that field than I do, I link one of his catalogues here!
Other works I
mentioned (positively) in my talks:
·
An
Experiment in Criticism by
C.S. Lewis
·
Nihilism:
The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age by Fr. Seraphim Rose
·
After
Virtue by Alasdair
MacIntyre
·
Evangelii
Nuntiandi (Pope
Paul VI)
·
Designing
Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura Berquist (which has endless,
wondrous, glorious book lists!)
·
“The
Last Tools of Learning” by Dorothy L. Sayers
·
Leisure,
the Basis of Culture by
Josef Pieper
·
Orthodoxy
by G.K.
Chesterton
·
The
Light of Christ by
Fr. Thomas Joseph White
·
The
Hillbilly Thomist bluegrass
band (not a book but exemplifying true genius!!!)
·
Present
Position of Catholics in England by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman
Books I am
currently reading:
· Whisper Music by J.B. Toner
· Death’s Dream Kingdom by Gabriel Blanchard
· More Walls Broken by Tim Powers
· The Catholic Writer Today by Dana Gioia
· The Mummy by Jane Loudon (Thank you to the
awesome ladies who told me about this uproarious early Gothic piece!)
· An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden
And
now I am destined to lie awake endlessly cataloging the innumerable books I
have forgotten. For more comprehensive lists, there are wonderful resources
including Laura Berquist’s books and, of course, the works of our dear,
incomparable Maureen Wittmann, especially: For the Love of Literature: Teaching Core Subjects with Literature,
and her many book lists (most
recently, this gem). You can also check out the brilliant and hilarious
writings of Susannah Pearce, especially her recent “WhatMakes Great Children’s Literature Great?” and “GreatBooks I Wouldn’t Want to Be In (And Some I Would!)”.
Parents who have favorite books I’ve
neglected to list: feel free to comment below and add your suggestions! Parents
with particular questions about any of the above, feel free to reach out to me
personally at ebourgnicholson at gmail dot com.
To check out Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson's upcoming live, interactive courses, visit http://tinyurl.com/nicholson19-20
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