Ultimate List of Read Alouds for Your Homeschool

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
October 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I wasn’t homeschooled, but I can remember loving library time in elementary school. It wasn’t just the books or the break away from the regular classroom. It was sitting on the big round rug listening to the librarian read aloud.

This post sponsored by:Night Zookeeper | Fantastically Fun Learning

Night Zookeeper is a children’s brand on a mission to make learning fantastically fun and help kids unlock their creativity. Our reading & writing program has helped over 1 million children aged 6-12 to develop their reading, writing, and creative thinking skills.

 

The Benefits of Read Alouds in Your Homeschool

ultimate homeschool read aloud book list

There are studies that demonstrate that read-alouds can improve pronunciation, reading speed, and a student’s ability to make connections while reading. Further, “Reading aloud to young children, particularly in an engaging manner, promotes emerging literacy and language development and supports the relationship between child and parent.”1

Beyond studies, as homeschooling parents, we understand that adding read-alouds to our homeschool can foster much more than an improvement in reading and a love for it, it can foster relationship. Relationship is fundamental to a successful homeschooling experience for our families.

 

How to Read Aloud

This might seem obvious. You choose a book and you begin reading aloud. Couldn’t be simpler, right? There are some tips and techniques that can make your read-aloud time a better experience for everyone.

  1. Practice reading aloud. Vary your cadence. Use fun voices for certain characters if that seems fun to you!
  2. Pick a book YOU love when you first begin. If your favorite book is a longer one, try reading just a few chapters at a time, finding a stopping point that leaves them wanting more. This also teaches your child the art of savoring a book for themselves in their own reading. Stumped, this resource is a great guide.
  3. Keep a list of lists. Books lists will help you know the classics, the tried-and-true, the most-loved books. Suggestions: Caldecott winners, homeschooling read-aloud lists, the 1,000 Good Books List, and the Vintage Homeschool Mom reading list podcast. 
  4. Take turns! You don’t have to be the only reader! Even the littlest of your children can take a turn in the read-aloud seat!
  5. Make use of audiobooks and let the narrator take the role of teacher. This works wonderfully during long drives and the dinner-making routine. You can find a wide selection at your library or even Audible.com. Our all-time favorite family read-aloud was Where The Red Fern Grows. Other favorites include The Courage of Sarah Noble, Heidi, and David Copperfield.

What if I Don’t Like Reading Aloud?

If you don’t like reading aloud, it’s likely due to one of the following:

  • it’s a new concept to you and the learning curve seems too great
  • you’ve never developed a love of reading
  • you’re scared of failing
  • you’re tired after a day of homeschooling and homemaking or working and you don’t need to add one more thing to your list

I understand! You don’t have to be perfect at reading aloud, you just have to begin! It’ll be an adventure! Make use of some of the techniques above and master the new skill or allow others (your own children and audiobooks) to help you!

Ultimate List of Read Alouds for Your Homeschool

Elementary

1. Misty of Chincoteague by Margueritte Henry
2. The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett
3. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
4. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
5. Tornado by Betsy Byars
6. The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
7. Bright April by Marguerite De Angeli
8. My Father’s Dragon series by Ruth Stiles Gannet
9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson This one we still quote to this day! So many funnies. Worth the audio version.
10. The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla
11. Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
12. The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
13. Star of Light by Patricia St. John
14. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
15. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner
16. The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
17. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
18. Walter the Lazy Mouse by Marjorie Flack
19. Mary on Horseback by Rosemary Wells
20. The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds
21. Sox by Beverly Cleary Read belly-laughs happen with this one!
22. The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill Miss Agnes is the type of teacher every homeschool mom aspires to be. <3
23. A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
24. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
25. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
26. Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
27. The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois A favorite of my kids when they were in the 8-10 year-old range.
28. Riding the Pony Express by Clyde Robert Bulla
29. Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry This was wonderful to read around Kentucky Derby time.
30. Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop An introduction to WW2 for youngers.
31. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
32. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary Both my boys loved this one!
33. The Apple and the Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff
34. Treasury for Children by James Herriot I love all things James Herriot, and for the parents, the BBC series is a must.
35. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame  Children love this “put yourself in the place of” imagining of a dragon during the time of St. George the Dragonslayer.
36. Mice of the Herring Bone by Tim Davis Growing up on Highlights magazine, I fell in love with this series of how the ordinary can do extraordinary things.
37. Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey Homer Price belongs on every bookshelf.
38. The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling Can you have too much of a good thing?
39. The Adventures of Peter Cottontail by Thorton Burgess Burgess books were my first exposure to the living books classification. A happy discovery!
40. Betsy-Tacy Books by Maud Hart Lovelace
41. The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers I loved this more than my kids, but still made the list.
42. The Bears of Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
43. Joel, A Boy of Galilee by Annie Fellows Johnston This one is special to me. Not only did I love the book, but lived down the road from Pewee Valley, KY, the author’s town.
44. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
45. Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter
46. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert C. O’Brien We also enjoyed the motion picture.
47. Ribsy by Beverly Cleary
48. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
49. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
50. Who Owns the Sun by Stacy Chbosky
51.  The Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
52. The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh

Middle School | High School Reading List (yes, you can read aloud in the upper grades)

 

53. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
54. Watership Down – Richard Adams
55. The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
56. A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond
57. The Book of Three – Lloyd Alexander
58. Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
59. Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing – Judy Blume
60. The Incredible Journey – Sheila Burnford
61. Ramona the Pest – Beverly Cleary
62. The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier
63. Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech
64. The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 – Christopher Paul Curtis
65. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
66. Because of Winn-Dixie – Kate DiCamillo
67. A Girl Named Disaster – Nancy Farmer
68. Harriet the Spy – Louise Fitzhugh
69. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key – Jack Gantos
70. M.C. Higgins, the Great – Virginia Hamilton
71. Redwall – Brian Jacques
72. The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
73. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg
74. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
75. The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
76. Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt
77. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
78. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
79. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
80. Mary Poppins – P. L. Travers
81. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
82. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
83. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
84. Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder
85. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
86. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
87. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
88. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
89. The Indian in the Cupboard – Lynne Reid Banks
90. Watership Down – Richard Adams
91. The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
92. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
93. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
94. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
95. My Ántonia – Willa Cather
96. The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
97. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
98. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
99. The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
100. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
101. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
102. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
103. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
104. Silas Marner – George Eliot
105. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
106. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
107. Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes
108. The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
109. The Miracle Worker – William Gibson
110. Old Yeller – Fred Gipson
111. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
112. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
113. Summer of My German Soldier – Bette Greene
114. Death Be Not Proud – John Gunther
115. Roots – Alex Haley
116. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
117. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
118. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
119. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
120. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
121. The Outsiders – S.E. Hinton
122. Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt
123. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
124. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
125. The Jungle Book (Books I and II) – Rudyard Kipling
126. A Separate Peace – John Knowles
127. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
128. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
129. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
130. The Call of the Wild – Jack London
131. The Giver – Lois Lowry
132. Sarah, Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan
133. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
134. The Crucible – Arthur Miller
135. Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
136. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
137. Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery
138. Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
139. 1984 – George Orwell
140. Animal Farm – George Orwell
141. Cry, The Beloved Country – Alan Paton
142. A Day No Pigs Would Die – Robert Newton Peck
143. Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls
144. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
145. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
146. The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
147. Shane – Jack Schaefer
148. Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
149. Pygmalion – George Bernard Shaw
150. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
151. Antigone – Sophocles
152. Call It Courage – Armstrong Sperry
153. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
154. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
155. The Pearl – John Steinbeck
156. The Red Pony – John Steinbeck
157. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
158. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
159. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
160. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
161. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
162. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
163. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
164. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
165. Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
166. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
167. Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder
168. Our Town – Thornton Wilder
169. Black Boy – Richard Wright
170. Native Son – Richard Wright
171. The Swiss Family Robinson – Johann David Wyss
172. The Pigman – Paul Zindel

 

Happy reading!

1 Archives of Disease in Childhood.

 

Read aloud by Media Angels: (available on Kindle)

 

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Valuable Benefits from Reading Classic Literature in your Homeschool

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
November 29, 2018 by Leave a Comment

LCP Ep 9: Valuable Benefits from Reading Classic Literature in your Homeschool

 

Stack of classic books for valuable benefits from reading classic books in your homeschool podcast #homeschool #homeschooling #languagearts #classicbooks #classicliterature #literaturestudy #literarystudy #highschoolliterature #highschoolliterarystudy #middleschoolliterature #middleschoolliterarystudy #homeschoolhighschool #homeschoolmiddleschool #literarycafepodcast #homeschoolpodcast

 

Do you cringe when you think about “classic literature”?

Are you intimidated by the thought of tackling challenging vocabulary or complex sentences that seem to go on and on?

Visit Katie’s website for more fun ideas and tips to use in your homeschool at Katie’s Homeschool Cottage  or her Facebook Group.

Join Katie Glennon as she shares important benefits from reading classic literature, starting with easier books and working your way (and their way) up and through more challenging works as they progress through middle and high school.

There are so many academic and personal benefits that you most likely have not considered in reading classic books, but make the effort extremely worthwhile. They range from the very practical like expanding vocabulary to developing your child’s understanding of themselves, their world, and their individual viewpoints and worldviews.

Show Notes

 

Here is a summarized list of the benefits from the podcast. Please listen to the podcast for details and examples about these benefits.

When I use the term “classic literature”, I am not referring to the ancient literature of Socrates or Sophocles or Oedipus Rex. I am discussing books that have withstood the test of time and have earned a valuable place in our culture and on our bookshelves based on their theme and content or their rich use of language to express ideas.

I have compiled lists of suggested book titles for middle and high school for your reference when considering what books to include in your literature study.

Suggested Middle School Reading List

Suggested High School Classic Literature Book List

Important Benefits from including Classic Books in your Homeschool Literature Study

Learn to Appreciate the Written Word as a Piece of Art

When reading quality literature, we can envision a picture in our minds the scene the author is expressing through the written word. Through vivid descriptions, imagery, literary devices and other writing techniques, we are brought into the world or story that the author is describing. We can hear, feel, or see what the characters experience. We absorb the mood and get to know the characters through their dialogue.

Writing is a craft on paper, much like that expressed by artists with paint on a canvas. What we are reading has so much more meaning and we appreciate and enjoy it more when we can understand the techniques that a writer has used to transport us into another world for the moment.

Learn to Understand and also Absorb Complex and More Interesting Sentence Structure

Classic books, especially as you enter high school level literature, contains more complex and sophisticated sentence structure. If we start exposing our children to easier to understand classic books in middle school, they become accustomed to the longer and more complex sentences and how to tackle them when reading. When they enter high school, it will be less daunting to read some of the more challenging works because of the practice they have already gained.

Our children will also start to speak and write in more interesting sentences, because they actually start to absorb this way of expressing themselves. It comes naturally.

Enrich and Expand Vocabulary

When your children are regularly exposed to a more challenging vocabulary increments at a time, your children will become adept at using the sentence around the word to decipher the meaning of the word in its context. This is a very important and practical skill. They also more easily learn and retain the meaning of the word in the context of the sentence and the story, as opposed to weekly vocabulary lists that are not attached to a memorable story.

These words will then appear more naturally in their speech and their own writing.

Practice Identifying and Analyzing Worldview

In this day, it is important that we help our children identify worldviews that exist today and appear in the written and spoken word as it is presented in books, social media, television, and movies. We need to share with them our family viewpoints, morals, values, and our personal worldviews. Through this filter, we can then identify worldviews in speech and written word we come across or study with our children. It’s important to compare the viewpoints presented by others to our own personal worldviews and determine if they fit with our own and accept them or reject them.

It is through this study and discussion that our children develop their own views and are prepared to enter the world ready to stand by their own beliefs or be swayed and habitually change their viewpoints depending on their surroundings.

Classic literature with its content, themes, and viewpoints is a wonderful resource for this practice and discussion. Wordviews have been presented and have changed throughout literary time periods through history. (In the podcast, we have discussed this with more detail.)

Looking at Literature as a Reflection of History and Society

Because writers do not write in a vacuum and live during different time periods in history and changes in society, their writing will reflect their surrounding events and societal views and their own experiences. When we read classic books, we get a front row seat to events and feelings and beliefs of that time period of that author or of the story.

We can see why and how we are today because of the progression of ideas, events, and beliefs that have come before the present we are experiencing.

Looking at Literature as an Influence on History and Society

Writers not only write about events and beliefs around them to reflect what is happening, but also to influence those events and beliefs to bring about a change. Examples would be Thomas Paine’s Common Sense or Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Both were written to influence society and instigate change.

The written and spoken word can be powerful tools. Learning to identify pursuasive rhetoric helps our children learn to use these tools effectively and be able to discern when this rhetoric is being used to persuade them to adopt an idea or a belief.

Develop and Practice using Higher Order Thinking Skills

When interpreting and analyzing literature for its worldview and meaning and tying in our own views and experiences, we have the perfect opportunity to practice higher order thinking skills. From comprehending what we are reading to synthesizing what we have read to meld those ideas with our own, there are different kinds and levels of thinking skills that are naturally incorporated in reading and discussing a classic book.

 

Identify and Explore Universal Themes found in Literature and in Life

Classic books are a great opportunity to look at the theme presented in the story and compare it to life and our own personal experiences. These themes might be jealously, greed, grief, love, pride, revenge, or good versus evil. When we read about and explore a theme of a story, we have the opportunity to look at the consequences of actions of the characters and learn lessons from their experiences.

We can compare our own thoughts and feelings from our own experiences and examine them and learn from them. We begin to understand these “universal life truths and human experiences”.

This leads to our next benefit.

Understand and Develop Empathy and Sympathy for Others

A scientific study examined children when they read fiction versus non-fiction and they found children learned something when they read fiction. From reading about different characters and their experiences and being able to see and be a part of the characters’ thoughts and feelings in reaction to those experiences, the children in the study developed an understanding and empathy for those characters.

They were able to learn to take what they learned from those characters and those experiences and transfer an empathy to other people who were feeling a certain way because of the discussions about those characters and comparing their experiences to their own experiences. The children were able to project what they would do and how they would feel and act toward others in different circumstances that demonstrated an understanding of the feelings and motivations of other people. Practicing this with characters in literature helped them to develop this skill.

So you can see that studying classic books does not have to be a dreaded experience of convoluted sentences and long and difficult words and thoughts. It can be a wonderful practical experience to acquire not only academic skills that will help them in college, but important life skills to bring them into adulthood.

Be sure to comment in the Comments box any ideas you’d like to share about how your family has studied any classic books! Any great book titles or authors to suggest? I would love to hear from you!

 

Thanks for visiting! Come back and visit the Literary Cafe Podcast for December’s topic when we look at ways to help your struggling writer learn to write! Don’t miss this episode as I share practical and easy ways to help your writer get over the frustration and “the deer caught in headlights look” when faced with a blank piece of paper.

Make sure you download our podcast at iTunes or subscribe to the Literary Cafe Podcast by clicking on the Android or RSS feed buttons below the recording on this page! And make sure you share this page with other homeschoolers with middle and high school aged children!

Stack of classic books for valuable benefits from reading classic books in your homeschool podcast #homeschool #homeschooling #languagearts #classicbooks #classicliterature #literaturestudy #literarystudy #highschoolliterature #highschoolliterarystudy #middleschoolliterature #middleschoolliterarystudy #homeschoolhighschool #homeschoolmiddleschool #literarycafepodcast #homeschoolpodcast

 

 

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