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.