Books for the Young and Young-at-Heart: 160+book recommendations to shape minds

Little Ebbe Reading by Christian Krohg, 1920

What is our defense against this sort of language—this language-as-weapon? There is only one. We must know a better language. We must speak, and teach our children to speak, a language precise and articulate and lively enough to tell the truth about the world as we know it. And to do this we must know something of the roots and resources of our language; we must know its literature. The only defense against the worst is a knowledge of the best.

from In Defense of Literacy by Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry wrote these lines three years ago, sharp as a tack, at the age of 88. In his essay In Defense of Literacy, he emphasizes that children need to be taught language that is rich, careful, and articulate: “We will understand the world, and preserve ourselves and our values in it, only insofar as we have a language that is alert and responsive to it, and careful of it.”

Yet the language of some of the most popular children’s books reads like white paint¹. Consider the opening lines to Dog Man—“George and I are best friends”—or The Adventures of Captain Underpants—“Meet George Beard and Harold Hutchins”². Books stripped of complexity³ also lose depth and beauty. Who would dare to publish a 107-word sentence for young readers today?

From E.B. White’s Stuart Little (1945):

“In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elm trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla.”

If we want our children to develop language that is capable of appreciating the world in all its complexity and to communicate accurately, beautifully, and with mastery, then we need to turn to books that “have proved worthy of devoted attention.”

In today’s post I’ve curated “An Inventory of Books to Shape Young Minds”. The complete list includes over 160 books, presented alphabetically (not ranked).

The recommendations are based on the volumes on our own shelves (including some lesser-known European stories), curated from lists such as the Mensa for Kids Reading Program, Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Trained Mind, Michael D. O’Brien’s Landscape of Dragons, Memoria Press, The Classical Learning Resource Centre, as well as readers of School of the Unconformed. A tremendous THANK YOU to everyone who contributed their favorites!

I am happy to share the first half for free for all subscribers.

Paying subscribers can access the entire list here:

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The full list will also be included in the “Pocket Stack” Reading Rebellion Masterlist, along with 230 short fiction recommendations (100 to 400 pages in length) and 60 classic long reads (400 + pages in length).

Stay tuned for ordering details and a giveaway next week!

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Simple steps for raising a reader

Read to your child daily. Early love of books is tied to higher literacy skills later on. Interestingly, reading ability is more closely linked to a child’s range of vocabulary than their age, and their verbal language skills are a high predictor of later literacy skills.

Have a regular quiet time in the afternoon (or the evening) when everyone reads. We have done this since our first child was born and still continue with this practice over two decades later. When the kids were little we used to start our mornings on the couch, reading through a pile of classic picture books before breakfast. When they were older we would do read-aloud time of longer classics in the afternoons and evenings.

Let children see you read. Children need reading role models to follow.

Take books along wherever you go. Read in public.

Create a home environment free of digital distractions, and fill your home with books. The number of books in a home has been found to be a more important indicator of educational attainment than parents’ education or any other influence. Aim for a home that C.S. Lewis experienced as a child, where he had “the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass”.

Don’t hurry. While some children may be ready to read early, don’t stress when they need some more time. In Finland (which has one of the best education systems in the world) students first learn to read at seven. Similarly, in Switzerland where I was raised, students do not learn to read in kindergarten, but when they enter primary school a couple of years later.

Here are some helpful resources for at-home reading instruction:

• Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – We used this classic to teach all three of our children to read.

• The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading by Sara Buffington and Jessie Wise offers a clear guide to teaching phonics at home.

• See Dixie Dillon Lane’s post on How My Children Have Learned to Read for beginning reading ideas.

• Erik Hoel offers a series on teaching your child how to read.

• For a full list of resources, as well as English vocabulary development, see “A Guide to Surviving the Age of Post-Literacy: How to raise (or become) a reader”.

An Inventory of Books to Shape Young Minds

Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down. Children are demanding. They are the most attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick and generally congenial readers on earth… Children are game for anything. I throw them hard words and they backhand them across the net.

-E.B. White

You’ll note that the following book recommendations are not grouped by age or grade. While these categories can be helpful, they are also unnecessarily limiting. Many a young child finds delight in listening to The Hobbit read aloud, even though Scholastic labels the book as “grade 7 to 12”. Children don’t need to understand all the words within a story to follow along, and reading books to them that are a bit beyond their comprehension stretches their vocabulary, patience, and imagination.

These books can be read either by children on their own, read aloud by you or an older sibling, or listened to as audiobook versions (try Librivox, Libby, or The Thousand Good Books Project, which has a substantial audio library).

Please note that the books are listed alphabetically.

The list includes favorite classic reads as well as a few contemporary books. It is not an exhaustive list, and you’re sure to have some that you’d like to add. Please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments!

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1. A Bear Called Paddington (entire series) by Michael Bond (1958)

2. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)

3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1871)

4. All Creatures Great and Small by James Harriott (1972)

5. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery (1908)

6. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1872)

7. Ben and Me: A New and Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin, as Written by His Good Mouse, Amos by Robert Lawson (1939)

8. Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace (1940)

9. Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling (1897)

10. Chanticlear and the Fox by Barbara Cooney (1958)

11. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1964)

12. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (1952)

13. Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (1912)

14. Dot and Anton by Erich Kästner (1931)

15. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (1874)

16. Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner (1929)

17. Emil and the Great Escape by Astrid Lindgren (1963)

18. Emil and the Rat by Astrid Lindgren (1966)

19. Emily of New Moon series by L.M. Montgomery (1923)

20. Family Grandstand by Carol Ryrie Brink (1952)

21. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (1970)

22. Farmer Giles of Ham by JRR Tolkien (1949)

23. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (1902)

24. Flight to the Promised Land by László Hámori (1964)

25. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (1967)

26. Gentle Ben by Walter Morey (1965)

27. Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (1951)

28. Half Magic by Edward Eager (1954)

29. Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge (1865)

30. Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997)

31. Heidi by Johanna Spyri (1880)

32. Homer Price by Robert McCloskey (1943)

33. I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Traviño (1965)

34. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (1980)

35. Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery (1937)

36. Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende (1960)

37. Karlsson on the Roof by Astrid Lindgren (1955)

38. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

39. King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (1948)

40. Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight (1940)

41. Little Britches by Ralph Moody (1950)

42. Little House on the Prairie (entire series) by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1935)

43. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868)

44. Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat (1956)

45. Mary Poppins series by P.L. Travers (1934)

46. Matilda by Roald Dahl (1988)

47. Men of Iron by Howard Pyle (1891)

48. Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren (1954)

49. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (1947)

50. Momo by Michael Ende (1973)

51. Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner (1898)

52. More Adventures of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald (1969)

53. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater (1938)

54. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien (1971)

55. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Betty McDonald (1947)

56. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (1959)

57. Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (2007)

58. Nicholas by Goscinny and Sempé (1959)

59. North to Freedom by Anne Holm (1963)

60. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1989)

61. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (1956)

62. Peter Pan by J.M Barrie (1911)

63. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (1882)

64. Pippi Longstocking series by Astrid Lindgren (1945)

65. Polyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (1913)

66. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (1944)

67. Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary (1982)

68. Rascal by Sterling North (1963)

69. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (1903)

70. Redwall (entire series of 22 books, incl. Mossflower, Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall, Salamandastron, Martin the Warrior, The Bellmaker) by Brian Jacques (1986)

71. Rise of the Cyber Ghouls: The Complete Series by P.G. Eggenberger (Peco Gaskovski) (2015)

72. Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren (1981)

73. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (1985)

74. Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (1945)

75. Stuart Little by E.B. White (1945)

76. Swallows and Amazons (entire series of 12 books) by Arthur Ransome (1930)

77. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss (1812)

78. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)

79. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley (1941)

80. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (1926)

You can access the other half of the list including titles from T - Y as well as myths, fables & fairy tales here:

Note to paying subscribers: School of the Unconformed goes beyond the “human-certified badge” to establish reader-writer trust: Write me (Ruth) a letter! I will respond with a handwritten full-page letter, embossed with the School of the Unconformed logo. Contact me via direct message for my mailing address.

Please share your thoughts, questions, and additonal suggestions in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you :)

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In case you missed it:

My husband Peco served up a perfect combination: coffee, fasting, and T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock. Measuring out my life in coffee spoons

1. Or, what Ray Bradbury would call, “dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature”.

2. This is not to say that children should never read silly or inane books, but they should not serve as a mainstay.

3. Ted Gioia noted that music is getting less complex as well: “Researchers analyzed 21,480 compositions written since the early 17th century, and determined that both jazz and classical music have become less complex.”