Book Lists for Young Lutherans: Older Children

Whether children are homeschooled or attend a public, private or Lutheran school, one great way to “train them in the way they should go” is to encourage them to read, and read with them, at home. While Bible and catechetical reading is crucial, reading books of many genres with your children is also a great idea. As you read alongside them, you can reflect on the material with them, helping them learn how to evaluate and what to love, whom to admire and what to condemn.

To aid you in this, Kate Deddens and Leah Bromen of Classical Consultants have generously shared their list of good reads for students of various age levels. Read below their recommendations for older children (late elementary through middle school). (You can also check out their lists for little children and high schoolers).

Note: Children mature at different rates and have different sensitivities, and certain families may find different sorts of content objectionable. Websites like Common Sense Media are helpful resources to ensure that the language and content of particular books are appropriate for your children.

Recommended Reading for Older Children (Late Elementary through Middle School)

Church History, Theology & Apologetics

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs — John Foxe

Journey through Church History — Christa Petzold

Celebrating the Saints — William Weedon

The Victor Journey Through the Bible — V. Gilbert Beers

Literature

Adam of the Road — Elizabeth Janet Gray

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Mark Twain

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Lewis Carroll

Anne of Green Gables — Lucy Maud Montgomery

Black Beauty — Anna Sewell

Black Ships Before Troy — Rosemary Sutcliff

Caddie Woodlawn —Carol Ryrie Brink

Captains Courageous — Rudyard Kipling

A Christmas Carol — Charles Dickens

The Door in the Wall — Marguerite de Angeli

Farmer Boy — Laura Ingalls Wilder

Gold Bug and Other Tales — Edgar Allan Poe

Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates — Mary Mapes Dodge

Heidi — Johanna Spyri

The Hiding Place — Corrie Ten Boom

The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hound of the Baskervilles — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Indian in the Cupboard — Lynne Reid Banks

Island of Blue Dolphins — Scott O’Dell

Johnny Tremain — Esther Forbes

The Jungle Book — Rudyard Kipling

Just So Stories — Rudyard Kipling

Kidnapped — Robert Louis Stevenson

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — Washington Irving

Little Britches series — Ralph Moody

Little Men — Louisa May Alcott

Little Women — Louisa May Alcott

The Lord of the Rings — J.R.R. Tolkien

Mary Poppins — P.L. Travers

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood — Howard Pyle

Misty of Chincoteague — Marguerite Henry

My Side of the Mountain — Jean Craighead George

Number the Stars — Lois Lowry

An Old Fashioned Girl — Louisa May Alcott

Old Yeller — Fred Gipson

Oliver Twist — Charles Dickens

On the Back of the North Wind — George MacDonald

The Once and Future King — T.H. White

Peter and Wendy — James Matthew Barrie

The Prince and the Pauper — Mark Twain

The Princess and the Goblin — George MacDonald

The Railway Children — Edith Nesbit

Rascal — Sterling North

Rebecca of Sunnybook Farm — Kate Douglas Wiggin

Rifles for Watie — Harold Keith

Rip Van Winkle — Washington Irving

Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe

Sarah, Plain and Tall — Patricia MacLachlan

The Secret Garden — Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Shakespeare Stealer — Gary Blackwood

Sherlock Holmes — Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Beaver — Elizabeth George Speare

Stories of Beowulf — Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall

Stories of Don Quixote — James Baldwin

Stories of the Faerie Queene — Mary MacLeod

Stuart Little — E.B. White

The Swiss Family Robinson — Johann David Wyss

The Sword in the Stone — T. H. White

The Sword in the Tree — Clyde Robert Bulla

A Tale of Two Cities — Charles Dickens

Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson

The Trumpet of the Swan — E.B. White

The Twenty-One Balloons — William Pene du Bois

Where the Red Fern Grows — Wilson Rawls

A Wrinkle in Time — Madeleine L’Engle

Poetry

Rhymes and Verses: Collected Poems for Young People — Walter de la Mare

Come Hither, Vol. I: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages — Walter de la Mare

Poetry for Young People — Emily Dickinson

The Song of Hiawatha — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Drama

Tales from Shakespeare — Charles and Mary Lamb

Historical Fiction & History

Amos Fortune, Free Man — Elizabeth Yates

Black Ships Before Troy — Rosemary Sutcliff

The Boy Knight — G.A. Henty

The Bronze Bow — Elizabeth George Speare

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch — Jean Lee Latham

The Cat of Bubastes — G.A. Henty

The Children’s Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy — Padraic Colum

Crispin: The Cross of Lead — Avi

The Dragon and the Raven — G.A. Henty

The Eagle of the Ninth — Rosemary Sutcliff

Famous Men of the Middle Ages — John Henry Haaren

Favorite Medieval Tales — Mary Pope Osborne

The Golden Fleece: And the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles — Padraic Colum

Harald the Ruthless: the Saga of the Last Viking Warrior — Andrea Hopkins

Joan of Arc — Diane Stanley

Joan of Arc — Nancy Ross

The Lion in the Gateway — Mary Renault

Men of Iron — Howard Pyle

Otto of the Silver Hand — Howard Pyle

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights — Howard Pyle

Story of the World series — Susan Wise Bauer

Uncle Tom’s Cabin — Harriet Beecher Stowe

Viking Tales — Jennie Hall

William the Conqueror — Thomas B. Costain

Mathematics & Science

Mathematicians are People, Too series — Luetta and Wilbert Reimer

The Phantom Tollbooth — Norton Juster

Galileo — Mitch Stokes

Newton — Mitch Stokes

Logic

The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning — Hans and Nathaniel Bluedorn

The Amazing Dr. Ransom’s Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies — Douglas and N.D. Wilson

Music

A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra — Robert Levine

Image: “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” Maxfield Parrish, 1902.