Ultimate List of Living Books for Elementary Grades. Plus-Free Printable!

 

I’ve made it no secret that we enjoy the Charlotte Mason method of Education.  If you want to learn more about this, I will be uploading a class for the Digital Homeschool Convention!  I also have shared a bit about the Charlotte Mason method HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE to name a few, there are more if you want to glance around.  One of my favorite things about Charlotte Mason was her love for living books.

What is a living book?

If you walked around my house, you would see I have books in every room.  For me to say that I absolutely love books would be an understatement.  LOL!  The books you see behind me are a small taste of what we actually have.  In fact, I have 13 book cases full of books ranging from A to Z!  Okay, so I really love books and truly believe that most books are wonderful, but when you are educating your children you again want to lay down good habits.

Living books are not textbooks.  They are actually quite the opposite.  Living books are quality literature that can be either fiction or non fiction that is written by an author who expresses passion for a topic.  The book draws you into the story, stirs up your imagination and causes you to care about the subjects that you are reading about.  They also make you think.  Living books are inspiring stories that help engage your children’s mind and, honestly, help to engage the minds of adults as well!  Living books provide honorable characters that your children can look up to!

Living books are the opposite of Twaddle books.  What is a Twaddle book?  Twaddle books are books that dumb down your child.  They are poorly written and overly predictable.  Think of Twaddle books as junk food.  Sure, most junk food tastes great and serves an immediate purpose, but there is no sustenance.  Over time, eating junk food for every meal will have a negative effect on your physical and mental health.  What you and your kids consume is part of their environment.  The same holds true for their choice in books.  This is why such an emphasis is added to living books.  

One of the first things I researched when we decided to homeschool was a list of living books that I might need.  I acquire the books in advance so I have them ready for my kids to read.  If I find some really good deals, I might have them for years before I’ll actually need them.  In hopes of removing the guess-work, I have compiled a list of living books for you.  This list is customizable to your family’s needs and I pray it is a blessing!  Keep scrolling down because you will also find a printable for my subscribers! 🙂

1.  Among the Farmyard People
2. Among the Pond People
3. Among the Night People
4. Among the Forest People
5. Among the Meadow People
6. All of Thorton Burgess books
7. Elementary Geography
8. Around the World in a Hundred Years
9. Egermeier’s Bible Story Book
10. Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible
11. I heard the Good News Today
12. Aesop’s Fables
13. Uncle Wiggly’s Storybook
14. Handbook of Nature Study
15. A Child’s Garden of Verses
16. All of Lang’s Fairy Books.
17. Parables From Nature
18. Pilgrim’s Progress
19. Christian Liberty Nature Readers
20. Great Inventors and their Inventions
21. Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels
22. Physics Lab in a Housewares Store
23. Charlotte’s Web
24. Pippi Longstocking
25. Black Beauty
26. The Wizard of Oz
27. Harry Potter Series
28. Little House on the Prairie series—all of these are wonderful!
29. The Phantom Tollbooth
30. The Hiding Place
31. Matilda
32. The Thanksgiving Story
33. King of the Wind: The story of the Godolphin Arabian
34. America Begins: The Story of the Finding of the New World (Out of Print)
35. Abraham Lincoln and any books by D’ Aulaire
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and other stories
37. The Courage of Sarah Noble
38. Mr. Popper’s Penguins
39. A Boy Named FDR
40. The Fourth of July Story
41. Butterfly House
42. Anne of Green Gables
43. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
44. Hans Brinkler or the Silver Skates
45. Michael Faraday, Father of Electronics
46. Rifles for Watie
47. Cilla of Ingleside
48. All of the Avonlea Series
49. Falcons of France
50. Goodbye Mr. Chips
51. The Story of My Life
52. Where the Sidewalk Ends
53. The Complete Grimms Fairy Tales
54. The Giving Tree
55. Because of Winn-Dixie
56. Buffalo Bill
57. Boy of the Pyramids: A Mystery of Ancient Egypt
58. Benjamin Franklin
59. Great Astronomers 
60. Always Inventing
61. George Washington Carver
62. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
63. Oliver Twist
64. Little Women
65. A Christmas Carol
66. Captains Courageous
67. Puck of Pooks Hill
68. Bard of Avon
69. Paddle to the Sea
70. The Thief
71. The Wednesday Wars
72. The BFG Click HERE for printables
73. Adam and the Golden Cock
74. Bumblebee at Appletree Lane
75. School! Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School
76. The Bee Tree
77. The Columbus Story
78. Dave Dash Away the Young Aviator
79. Math and Magic in Wonderland
80. Justin Had a Horse
81. The Good Master
82. The White Stag
83. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
84. The Great Brain
85. Of Courage Undaunted
86. Passion for the Impossible
87. Carry A Big Stick
88. Wild Animals I have Known
89. Holes
90. Momo
91. The Neverending Story
92. The Brooklynn Bridge: The story of the Worlds Most Famous Bridge and the Remarkable Family Who Built It
93. Are You a Dragonfly
94. The Apple and The Arrow
95. The Age of Fable
96. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
97. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
98. Paul Revere’s Ride
99. Rip Van Wrinkle
100. The Secret Garden
101. A Book of Golden Deeds
102. The Borrowers
103. Lassie Come Home
104. The Railway Children
105. Gentle Ben
106. Thimble Summer
107. Return to Gone Away
108. The Peterkin Papers
109. Calico Captive
110. Johnny Tremain
111. Tree of Freedom
112. Amos Fortune, Free Man
113. The Story About Ping
114. The Wind in the Willows
115. Ben and Me
116. Bambi 
117. Bambi’s Children
118. The Hundred and One Dalmatians
119. The Lorax (We actually love ALL Dr. Seuss books!)
120. The Velveteen Rabbit
121. Hill of Fire
122. Pompeii: Buried Alive
123. Just So Stories
124. Misty of Chincoteague
125. Doctor Dolittle
126. Favorite Poems Old and New
127. Tree in the Trail
128. Pagoo
129. Alias Jungle Doctor
130. A Wrinkle in Time
131. Adam of the Road
132. The Gate in the Wall
133. Around the World in 80 Days
134. The Four Story Mistake
135. Bridge to Terabithia
136. The Chronicles of Narnia Series
137. Pollyanna
138. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
139. Caddie Woodlawn
140. Pinocchio 
141. Detectives in Togas
142. Gulliver’s Travels
143. Tales From Shakespeare
144. Henry Reed, INC
145. Crystal Mountain
146. The Good Master
147. The Singing Tree
148. Kidnapped
149. Tom Sawyer
150. Big Red
151. The Winged Watchman
152. The Incredible Journey
153. Where the Red Fern Grows
154. One and Only Ivan
155. Only the Names Remain: The Cherokees and the Trail of Tears
156. Number the Stars
157. Otto of the Silverhand
158. Fifty Famous Stories Retold
159. Viking Tales
160. Trial and Triumph
161. A Child’s Garden of Verses
162. Now we are Six
163. When We Were Very Young
164. St George and the Dragon
165. The Boxcar Children-The Whole set is wonderful!
166. A Lion to Guard Us
167. An Island Story
168. This Country of Ours
169. The Little Duke
170. Joan of Arc
171. Stories from the Bible
172. Understood Betsy
173. Robin Hood
174. Heidi
175. Paddington
176. Wonderful Tales For Children
177. Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
178. Pied Piper of Hamelin
179. Five Children & It
180. Brighty of the Grand Canyon
181. Chanticleer and the Fox
182. Along Came a dog
183. The Bears of Hemlock Mountain
184. The Hundred Dresses
185. Billy and Blaze Books
186. The Enormous Egg
187. Michelangelo
188. Landing of the Pilgrims
189. The Adventures of Marco Polo
190. Secrets of the Woods
191. The Heroes
192. The Princess and the Goblin
193. Children of the New Forest
194. The Wheel on the School
195. The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen
196. The Twenty-One Balloons
197. My Side of the Mountain
198. George Washington’s World
199. Poor Richard by Daugherty
200. Abigail Adams
201. Minn of the Mississippi
202. Madam How and Lady Why
203. The Storybook of Science
204. Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
205. Physics Lab in the Home
206. A Little Princess
207. The Water Babies
208. At the Back of the North Wind
209. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
210. The Bears of Blue River
211. Swallows and Amazons
212. Unknown to History: Captivity of Mary of Scotland
213. The Saturdays
214. Men of Iron
215. English Fairy Tales

 

I have many other homeschool posts you might be interested in HERE.  Some of my favorite resources are also Usborne books.

I have a wonderful Charlotte Mason Printable on Attainable Attributes for a six-year-old’s in my store for FREE. Just go —>>>HERE.