A Medieval Book List

Our new co-op, the Classical Village Academy, will be using Cycle 2 of the Classical Conversations Foundations Guide this coming year. I love this cycle. What's not to love? Middle Ages, Renaissance, princesses, kings, and dragons. (Well, maybe not so much historically, but fun nonetheless.)


This year I am in a new position. Eowyn's reading has really taken off, and she is racing through books faster than I can keep up. So my goal, apparently, this year is to buy all the books. We aren't going to read all of these aloud, but I want them all available for the kids to pick up as they want. And I'm getting a lot because we've gotten several and Eowyn has already read two. (I'll tell you how I'm getting so many after the book list.)

I'm also in a different position this year because in addition to having a voracious reader, I also have a learning reader (who I expect to take off this year), and then a barely-in-pre-school listener. So I need books for the oldest to read all the time, I need books for the learning reader to be capable of reading, I need books to read to the pre-schooler, and I need books to read to everyone. That's a lot of books.

For the Readers

• Huguenots Inheritance Series (These are going to be hard to find! But I think Eowyn will love them.) 
• The Minstrel in the Tower (good for the early/mid readers)
• The Door in the Wall
• Les Miserables (for the younger reader)
• Crispin The Cross of Lead
• Hawk that Dare Not Hunt by Day
• The Reluctant Dragon (great read aloud for littles)
• Scottish Seas
• Redwall (another series, and it is at our library)
• Struggle for Freedom Series
• Frog and Toad are Friends (for early readers)
• Dick Whittington and His Cat
• Along Came a Dog (for Gideon to practice reading)
• The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad (for Gideon again)
• Chanticleer and the Fox (fun picture book)
• Saint George and the Dragon (awesome picture book)

• Dutch Color
• Wheel on the School (good read aloud for littles)
• A New Coat for Anna
• The Trumpeter of Krakow
• Adam of the Road (This one we will be reading for our afternoon Grammar session of our co-op)
• Otto of the Silver Hand

Biographies

• Son of Charlemagne (Eowyn already read this one, and loves it)

• The Magna Carta
• Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor
• Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England
• Michaelangelo (I've got several of Diane Stanly's biographies here)
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Joan of Arc (Landmark Book)
• Joan of Arc (Diane Stanly)
• Augustine Came to Kent
• Starry Messenger
• From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World
• Ink on His Fingers
• I Juan De Pareja

Vikings

• The Story of Rolf: A Viking Adventure 
• The Vikings
• Viking Adventure

Poetry (That's not Shakespeare)

• Robert Browning (Poetry for Young People) (I love this series, they are so pretty!)
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Poetry for Young People)

Fairy Tales

• The Wind in the Willows
• The Princess and the Goblin (Eowyn is reading this one now, and love it!)
• Beatrice Potter: The Complete Tales (for Esmond, the pre-schooler)

• Tales of the Kingdom (Really excited about this one, I've read so many good things about it!)
• Anderson's Fairy Tales
• The Enchanted Castle
• The Canterbury Tales (By Geraldine McCaughrean, we really enjoyed her Odyssey last year)
• Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales
• Winne the Pooh (for Esmond, the pre-schooler)
• The Wonder Clock (Looks so fun!)

King Arthur

• The Sword in the Tree
• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
• The Boys' King Arthur
• The Sword in the Stone: Magical Story of Young King Arthur
• The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
• The Once and Future King

Epics

• Lord of the Rings Trilogy (listening to the audiobooks from the library this summer)
• The Hobbit (listened to the audiobook this summer)
• The Chronicles of Narnia (Eowyn is reading these, but for free you can listen to them here.)
• Farmer Giles of Ham

Science

• Medieval Medicine and the Plague
• A Medieval Feast
• The Ocean of Truth
• Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel
• Signs and Season: Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy (also find this one and the next at Classical Astronomy; I haven't completely decided I will get this one because it's for the upper grades. I'll want it definitely later, and I really do also want it now, but I don't want to expect too much.)
• Moonfinder (this one is for Esmond too)
• The Storybook of Science (I think Gideon will particularly enjoy this one)
• The Fairy Land of Science (And I think Eowyn will enjoy this one)
• Eric Sloanes' Weather Book
• Isaac Newton and the Laws of the Universe
• Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction (there's also a full color version of these now)
• Castle
• The New Way Things Work (I think this one looks great!)

Shakespeare

• The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Macbeth (I love this series, and I want them all!)
• The Young Reader's Shakespeare; A Midsummer Night's Dream
• William Shakespeare (Poetry for Young People)
• Bard of Avon
• The Shakespeare Stealer Series (I think Eowyn will love these)

I know, I know. It's too much. I am really being adventurous this year. But like I said, Eowyn has already read two, and I think having these will spark quite a bit of interest. I found this past year that we prefer to read historical literature. They loved our Saints vs. Myths reading list, and we learned so much. Plus, Eowyn has found a series at the library that I don't love and I'm hoping to replace it with some of these, like the Huguenot Inheritance or the Shakespeare Stealer. For our read alouds, I will probably just pick them as I go. My literature lists are more about learning the cultures through the myths and beliefs instead of chronological history.

How am I getting all of these books? I'm asking for and buying some of these as gifts (birthdays and Christmas). I'm also price comparing between Amazon, Christian Book, and Thriftbooks. (I love Thriftbooks. If you haven't found it yet, go check it out! Spend $10 and get free shipping, the books are great prices, and if you sign up for the Readers' Rewards, you get a $5 coupon every $50. I don't want to tell you how many $5 coupons I've gotten, but I have bought a ton of books from them in the past year, and haven't had one complaint!) I am also trading in some of my old books that I don't want anymore to Amazon for an Amazon gift card that will be going toward the new books. I have a slight goal to get rid of as many books as I'm getting, although I don't know that I'll be able to find that many books to get rid of. And, of course, some of these books are at my local library.

Things to note about this list: It is far too long of a list. Do not attempt this list. Pick and choose from this list. I'm not attempting to read all of these books, but I found them on trusted lists and will let my kids read them. I'll pick several for us to read aloud, but definitely not all. This is a list for, well, my family. I don't expect to move through all of them, but I want them in my house. We have a whole year to read, and I imagine it will take us at least a year, maybe more to read them all. I want them to help build the culture in my house, a culture of truth, goodness, love, humility, nobility, and bravery.

My resources:

• Classical Academic Press's Reader
• Well Trained Mind's Great Books List
• Books for Young Readers: The Middle Ages and Renaissance