Good Books

While looking online for a good homeschool Greek curriculum I came across a reading list recommended by Mortimer J. Adler, the former editor-in-chief of the Encylopaedia Britannica and my favorite modern philosopher. (He spent his life talking himself into believing the truth of Christ and abandoned pagaism for Christianity in his 80s.) Many of the books on his list we have already read to our boys but many I've never heard of. For instance, we have the red, gree, and blue fairy books but until now had no idea there were brown, lilac, and yellow fairy books.

“The Good Books”
Literature Reading List
Nursery – 8th Grade

Nursery (7 Books)
The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit (all 23 little books) by Beatrix Potter
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose Coloring Book by Kate Greenaway
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Preschool (9 Books)
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Complete Poems of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Lilac Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Nonsense Poems by Edward Lear
The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Anderson’s Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson
The Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Ride a Cock-Horse and other Rhymes and Stories by Randolph Caldecott

Kindergarten (10 Books)
A Treasury of Mother Goose
Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Dr. Dolittle: A Treasury by Hugh Lofting
The Orange Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Green Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Favorite Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris
The Brown Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm

First Grade (10 Books)
The Aesop for Children by Aesop
The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Kate Greenaway Birthday Book by Kate Greenaway
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Pied Piper of Hamlin by Robert Browning

Second Grade (12 Books)
Arabian Nights edited by Andrew Lang
Smoky by Will James
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

Third Grade (12 Books)
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
Log of the Cowboy by Andy Adams
Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott
Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Doyle
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Princess and the Curdie (CD ROM) by George MacDonald
Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

Fourth Grade (17 Books)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott
Captain’s Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
Around the World in80 Days by Jules Verne
The Boy Knight by G. A. Henty
Kidnapped by Robert Lois Stevenson
The John Carter Mars Collection (CD ROM) by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Knight of the White Cross by G. A. Henty
Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
A Tale of the Western Plains by G. A. Henty
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Call of the Wild by Jack London

Fifth Grade (18 Books)
An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
20,000 leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dogdes
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan: The Beasts of Tarzan, the Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Jungle Tales of Tarzan (CD ROM) by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott
The Dash for Khartoum by G. A. Henty
The Ranch on the Beaver by Adams Adams
The Chessman of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Wells Brothers: the young Cattle Kings by Andy Adams
Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott
Bonnie Prince Charlie by G. A. Henty
In Freedom’s Cause by G. A. Henty

Sixth Grade (22 Books)
Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott
Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley
Sketchbook by Washington Irving
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Moods by Louisa May Alcott
The Dragon and the Raven by G. A. Henty
Work by Louisa May Alcott
In the Reign of Terror by G. A. Henty
Won by the Sword by G. A. Henty
Under Drake’s Flag by G. A. Henty
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
The Lion of St. Mark by G. A. Henty
Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland
Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
Facing Death by G. A. Henty
Michael O’Halloran by Gene Stratton-Porter
With Wolfe in Canada by G. A. Henty
Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
Beric the Briton by G. A. Henty
A Girl of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter

Seventh Grade (22 Books)
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Wulf the Saxon by G. A. Henty
Winning his Spurs by G. A. Henty
The Young Carthaginian by G. A. Henty
For the Temple by G. A. Henty
The Silverado Squatters (CD ROM) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Two Years before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare
Freckles by Stratton-Porter
The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper
The Lion of the North by G. A. Henty
The Harvester by Stratton-Porter
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
By Pike and Dyke by G. A. Henty
With the Lee in Virginia by G. A. Henty
Across the Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the Heart of the Rockies by G. A. Henty
Penrod by Booth Tarkington
The Complete Stalky and Co. by Rudyard Kipling

Eighth Grade (22 Books)
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
A Daughter of the Land by Stratton-Porter
At the Foot of the Rainbow by Stratton-Porter
The Two Admirals by James Fenimore Cooper
The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
St. Bartholomew’s Eve by G. A. Henty
The Ways of the Hour by James Fenimore Cooper
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Pilot: A Tale of the Sea by James Fenimore Cooper
The Wing-the-Wing by James Fenimore Cooper
Chainbearer by James Fenimore Cooper
The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Barnaby Ridge by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper
Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott
Mr. Midshipman Easy by Marryat
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Doyle


Update: Basil Wenceslas, who is 4 years old, will not sit still for any of the Fairy Books.