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Ancients book lists for middle grades?


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I'm having trouble getting results in a search, I think my words are too general. :/ I'm looking for book recommendations, especially history-based fiction, for the ancients. I have loads for younger kids, but my 8yo is over Magic Treehouse and storybooks and the like.

 

He's read a fiction series about the Greek gods...I can't think of the name at the moment. I have some of the classics in middle-grade versions (The Odyssey, etc). But he'd love some general adventure books based in ancient times or during big events, or about individuals we'll study in the coming weeks. We're working our way through SOTW, heading into Egypt's middle kingdom, but anything after that is great, too!! He is reading at an 8th grade level so mostly we just try to monitor content.

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Black Ships Before Troy - Sutcliffe

Egyptian Diary

Archimedes and the Door of Science

 

 

Look at the Sonlight website. Check the fifth or sixth grade reading lists. I don't know which year they do ancients again but it will have ideas.

 

ETA. I looked it up. Click on 6th grade package and then the tab for What's Included.

Edited by hellen
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Long Ago People  is one of the few prehistoric novels in the public domain that many people would still find appropriate to use. London is called Llyn-dun.

https://books.google.com/books?id=q2YAAAAAYAAJ&dq=long+ago+people&source=gbs_navlinks_s

 

Tales and Customs of the Ancient Hebrew really has some interesting info about daily life and early farming and is lots more than Bible stories.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Tales_and_Customs_of_the_Ancient_Hebrews.html?id=UJZHAAAAIAAJ

 

Librivox has free audio of

 

Peeps at Ancient Egypt

https://librivox.org/peeps-at-many-lands-ancient-egypt-by-james-baikie/

 

Cat of Bubastes

https://librivox.org/the-cat-of-bubastes-by-g-a-henty/

 

Famous Men of Greece

https://librivox.org/famous-men-of-greece-by-john-h-haaren-and-ab-poland/

 

Famous Men of Rome

https://librivox.org/famous-men-of-rome-by-john-h-haaren-and-a-b-poland/

 

A Wonder Book

https://librivox.org/a-wonder-book-for-girls-and-boys-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

 

Tanglewood Tales

https://librivox.org/tanglewood-tales-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/

 

The beginning chapters for Story of Mankind

https://librivox.org/the-story-of-mankind-by-hendrik-van-loon/

 

The beginning chapters of Our Island Story

https://librivox.org/our-island-story-part-1-by-he-marshall/

 

On the Shores of the Great Sea

https://librivox.org/on-the-shores-of-the-great-sea-by-m-b-synge/

 

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You don't need to buy the ebooks from Heritage History to use their lists. Here is the historical fiction novel list.

http://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=library#fiction

 

You can also browse the Yesterdays's Classics lists by subject and acquire the books elsewhere.

http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/catalog/displaycatalog.php?catalog=greece

 

Rosegate Harbour's Henty chronological list.

http://users.gobigwest.com/rosegate/HentyChron.html

Edited by Hunter
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Some of our favorites:

Ludmilla Zeman's Gilgamesh picture-books

Hittite Warrior

The Golden Goblet

Tirzah

Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green

D'aulaire's Greek Myths

Black Ships before Troy

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff

or The Children's Homer in place of the Sutcliff

Theras and His Town

Lysis Goes to the Play

The Bronze Bow

Detectives in Togas

The Mystery of the Rkman Ransom

The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Church

Modern Rhymes for Ancient Times

Quintus

The Ides of April

The Eagle of the Ninth

Julius Caesar, a story version

 

Plus picturebooks listed in the SOTW AG

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I'm not entirely sure what constitutes the "middle grades" but perhaps something here will be helpful.  Copying an older post of mine ~

 

 

First a general note about my list, we're quite liberal so some of the videos on the list as well as a few books (i.e., Gonick's the Cartoon History ...) might not suit all families.   I enlisted my husband to watch all of the videos with my daughter.  It gave them something to enjoy together and also involved my husband in homeschooling.

 

Bear in mind that my daughter was a voracious reader; I suspect that one might happily use far fewer books.  We also were homeschooling on a serious budget our first few years of homeschooling, and so I basically used what I could locate at the library and thrift stores.

 

This list covers the time period from prehistory to 500AD.  

 

My daughter used the following materials in 7th grade:

 

 

Selections from The Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World by Charlotte Evans et al.

 

The Young People's Story of Our Heritage: The Ancient World, Pre-history to 500BC by V. M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey

 

The Young People's Story of Our Heritage: The Ancient World, 500BC to 500AD by V. M. Hillyer and E. G. Huey

 

A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson

 

Cave of the Moving Shadows by Thomas Milstead

 

Spirit on the Wall by Ann O'Neal Garcia

 

Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

 

Pharaoh's Daughter by Julius Lester

 

Video:  David Macaulay's World of Ancient Engineering:   Pyramid

 

Black Ships before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Dateline: Troy by Paul Fleischman

 

Inside the Walls of Troy by Clemence McClaren 

 

The Curse of King Tut by Patricia Netzley

 

The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum

 

Escape from Egypt by Sonia Levitin

 

Troy by Adele Geras   

 

The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty

 

City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament by Peter Dickinson

 

Gods and Goddesses by John Malam

 

The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Cross Giblin

 

Selections from  Cultural Atlas for Young People:  Ancient Greece by Anton Powell

 

Selections from Then and Now by Stefania and Dominic Perring

 

Selections from Usborne Book of Famous Lives

 

Selections from  Heroines by Rebecca Hazell

 

Selections from A Picturesque Tale of Progress, Volume 2 by Olive Beaupre Miller

 

The Story of the World, History for the Classical Child: Ancient Times by Susan W. Bauer

 

Niko: Sculptor's Apprentice by Isabelle Lawrence

 

How Would You Survive as an Ancient Greek? by Fiona Macdonald

 

Calliope Magazine: Taharqo

 

Calliope Magazine: Ancient Celts

 

Alexander the Great by Peter Chrisp

 

Video: Alexander the Great (The History Makers)

 

Men of Athens by Olivia Coolidge

 

Selections from Mathematicians are People, Too by Luetta and Wilbert Reimer

 

Science in Ancient Greece by Kathlyn Gay

 

Selections from A Day in Old Athens by William S. Davis

 

Your Travel Guide to Ancient Greece by Nancy Day

 

The Librarian who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky

 

The Emperor's Silent Army by Jane O'Connor

 

Selections from Ancient Japan by J. E. Kidder

 

Hannibal's Elephants by Alfred Powers

 

The Story of the Romans by H. A. Guerber

 

Galen: My Life in Imperial Rome by Marissa Moss

 

Caesar's Gallic War by Olivia Coolidge

 

Selections from Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe

 

Video:  Anthony and Cleopatra (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1974)

 

Videos:  I, Claudius (Volumes 1-7)

 

Augustus Caesar's World by Genevieve Foster

 

City by David Macaulay

 

The Wadjet Eye by Jill Rubalcaba

 

Video:  David Macaulay's World of Ancient Engineering:   Roman City

 

Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfield

 

Video:  Ancient Mysteries:  Pompeii, Buried Alive

 

The Capricorn Bracelet by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

 

Selections from Wonders of Ancient Chinese Science by Robert Silverberg

 

The White Stag by Kate Seredy

 

Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges

 

Selections from The Dark Ages by Tony Gregory

 

Lady Ch'iao Kuo:  Warrior of the South by Laurence Yep

 

The Dancing Bear by Peter Dickinson

 

Video:  Africa (Ancient Civilizations for Children)

 

The Cartoon History of the Universe II, From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome by Larry Gonick

 

Regards,
Kareni

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