Please help me develop a fiction booklist....(as our only reading curriculum)

[Meadowlark]

I know there are quite a few resources out there, but at the moment I just can't remember them!

I'm looking for somewhere that can give me titles so that I can put together 20-30 books for grades 3, 4, 5. Of course, I want only the best quality literature-think full, rich, beautiful, virtuous and the absolute best writing. You know, the ones that shouldn't be missed.

Where can I look to develop these lists? Thank you.

[Lucy the Valiant]

We use The Classical Reader for this purpose; I bought one for each kid, and we have enjoyed the whole experience richly, over many years.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Lucy the Valiant
messed up link

[kristin0713]

I have used the following book lists over the years— 

Curricula:

Sonlight/Bookshark

My Father’s World

Heart of Dakota

Veritas Press

Memoria Press 

Books:

The Read Aloud Handbook 

What to Read When

Honey for a Child’s Heart

And then there are always the amazing posts by @Lori D.  filled with great suggestions! 

[Meadowlark]

Nm 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Meadowlark

[Meadowlark]

1 hour ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

We use The Classical Reader for this purpose; I bought one for each kid, and we have enjoyed the whole experience richly, over many years.

Can you tell me more? How is it meant to be used?

[Lori D.]

Just for fun -- here are 15 ideas for books at each of your 3 grade levels, in a variety of "genres," to get you started. Totally agree with @kristin0713 about using those great book lists for ideas. We also liked many of the suggestions from the 1000 Good Books list.

grade 3
   mystery
- Basil of Baker Street (Titus)
- Cam Jensen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds (Adler)
- The Boxcar Children (Warner)
   tall tale/fantasy
- Pippi Longstockings: Pippi in the South Seas (Lindgren)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl)
   realistic / historical
- Clementine (Pennypacker)
- Riding the Pony Express (Bulla)
- The Courage of Sarah Noble
- The Little Riders (Shemin)
   adventure/survival
- Nim's Island (Orr)
- The Robinson Crusoe Reader (Cowles)
- Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest (Mcgovern)
   animals
- Dolphin Adventure; or, Dolphin Treasure (Grover)
- Follow My Leader (Garfield)
- Charlotte's Web (White)

grade 4
   mystery
- The Thieves of Ostia (Lawrence)
- The Mysterious Benedict Society (Stewart)
   tall tale/fantasy
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Lin)
- The Borrowers (Norton)
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum)
   realistic/historical
- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord)
- Caddie Woodlawn (Brink)
- Sara Plain and Tall (MacLachlan)
- Behind Rebel Lines (Reit)
   adventure/survival
- Baby Island (Brink)
- Naya Nuki, The Shoshone Girl Who Ran (Thomasma)
   animals
- The Rescuers (Sharp)
- The Trumpet of the Swan (White)
- Ben and Me -- or, Mr. Revere and I (Lawson)
- Pax (Pennypacker)


grade 5
   mystery
- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsberg)
- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Grabenstein)
   tall tale/fantasy
- The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster)
- By The Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman)
   realistic/historical
- Children of the Longhouse (Bruchac)
- Crispin, The Cross of Lead (Avi)
- The Great Wheel (Lawson)
- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill)
- The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Kelly)
- Number the Stars (Lowry)
   adventure/survival
- My Side of the Mountain (George)
- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)
- Call It Courage (Sperry)
   animals
- The Incredible Journey (Burnford)
- The Black Stallion (Farley)

Edited February 21, 2021 by Lori D.

[4atHome]

I've been working from this thread for our library orders.

 

 

[4atHome]

Also, my general gameplan is to copy the booklists from Veritas, Memoria, Bookshark, etc.

[Lori D.]

Curriculum Vendor Booklists (by grade or age range)
Sonlight/Bookshark
Build Your Library -- family reading crates; booklists per grade
Moving Beyond the Page
Heart of Dakota
Winter Promise
Tapestry of Grace
Veritas Press
Exodus Books: Reading Roadmaps -- book packages

"Good Books" / Old Fashioned Book Lists
1000 Good books - classic and good books, by age range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Charlotte Mason Home Education: Twaddle Free Literature
Charlotte Mason Help: Books and Schedules
An Old Fashioned Education: Classic Literature
Ambleside Online -- booklists by grade/year

Historical Fiction/Non Fiction Book Lists
A Book in Time (K-12) - historical fiction / non-fiction
Home's Cool - SL books in WTM 4-year cycle, by grammar/logic/rhetoric stage

National Book Lists
Read Aloud America - annual read aloud list; by age/grade range
Mensa Excellence in Reading Award Program - classic literature by age/grade range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Teachers 100 Best Books - list of good books by age range
The Art of Simple: Summer Reading List for Tweens
NPR Backseat Book Club: 100 Must Reads for Kids Ages 10-14
Association for Library Services to Children: Tween Recommended Reads
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
Penny Gardener's Readable Science - list by science topic
Caldecott Winners (picture books)
Newbery Winners (late elementary/middle grades books)
The ALA Notable Lists (useful for new books)
Coretta Scott King Award Winners (books by African-American authors)

Edited February 21, 2021 by Lori D.

[Meadowlark]

59 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Curriculum Vendor Booklists (by grade or age range)
Sonlight/Bookshark
Build Your Library -- family reading crates; booklists per grade
Moving Beyond the Page
Heart of Dakota
Winter Promise
Tapestry of Grace
Veritas Press
Exodus Books: Reading Roadmaps -- book packages

"Good Books" / Old Fashioned Book Lists
1000 Good books - classic and good books, by age range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Charlotte Mason Home Education: Twaddle Free Literature
Charlotte Mason Help: Books and Schedules
An Old Fashioned Education: Classic Literature
Ambleside Online -- booklists by grade/year

Historical Fiction/Non Fiction Book Lists
A Book in Time (K-12) - historical fiction / non-fiction
Home's Cool - SL books in WTM 4-year cycle, by grammar/logic/rhetoric stage

National Book Lists
Read Aloud America - annual read aloud list; by age/grade range
Mensa Excellence in Reading Award Program - classic literature by age/grade range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Teachers 100 Best Books - list of good books by age range
The Art of Simple: Summer Reading List for Tweens
NPR Backseat Book Club: 100 Must Reads for Kids Ages 10-14
Association for Library Services to Children: Tween Recommended Reads
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
Penny Gardener's Readable Science - list by science topic
Caldecott Winners (picture books)
Newbery Winners (late elementary/middle grades books)
The ALA Notable Lists (useful for new books)
Coretta Scott King Award Winners (books by African-American authors)

Can I just say that you are beyond awesome? Thank you so so much!!! 

[Lucy the Valiant]

12 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

Can you tell me more? How is it meant to be used?

I'm not really sure how it's MEANT to be used, but here's how we use it: My kids are fairly avid readers, and I wanted to direct them toward high-quality stuff while still allowing them a wide range of choice. So I bought them each one of these list-books, and showed them (in the younger years) the joy of reading high-quality material. Our shared goal is that each kid read most of the books on the list by the 3-year mark (AKA complete the "Lower Grammar" section by the end of 3rd grade, the "Upper Grammar" section by the end of 6th, etc. until graduation). 

We read some of them together, and kids read most of them independently (some are family read-alouds and / or car listening audio books). Sometimes we discuss / I gently introduce analysis / we make jokes / take a field trip / watch a related movie or documentary.

This is the only "literature" we have done through all the years up until high school (I'm an English teacher by training), and it has worked so beautifully for my crew. I'm sure it wouldn't work the same in every family, but - that's how we do it. ❤️

[Meadowlark]

2 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:

I'm not really sure how it's MEANT to be used, but here's how we use it: My kids are fairly avid readers, and I wanted to direct them toward high-quality stuff while still allowing them a wide range of choice. So I bought them each one of these list-books, and showed them (in the younger years) the joy of reading high-quality material. Our shared goal is that each kid read most of the books on the list by the 3-year mark (AKA complete the "Lower Grammar" section by the end of 3rd grade, the "Upper Grammar" section by the end of 6th, etc. until graduation). 

We read some of them together, and kids read most of them independently (some are family read-alouds and / or car listening audio books). Sometimes we discuss / I gently introduce analysis / we make jokes / take a field trip / watch a related movie or documentary.

This is the only "literature" we have done through all the years up until high school (I'm an English teacher by training), and it has worked so beautifully for my crew. I'm sure it wouldn't work the same in every family, but - that's how we do it. ❤️

That is helpful. What exactly is inside the book? I see the TOC from the sample, but I can’t figure out what the book is FOR. Do you just check off the books after they’re read? Or is there more to it than just a list of titles? 

[Lucy the Valiant]

4 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

That is helpful. What exactly is inside the book? I see the TOC from the sample, but I can’t figure out what the book is FOR. Do you just check off the books after they’re read? Or is there more to it than just a list of titles? 

The first few (10?) pages are how / why of reading & their publisher's abbreviation key. If you scroll all the way down in the "Look Inside" sample, you can see how the list is made for each age-related group (example: p. 27 is first page of Dialectic list); yes, we just jotted the date in the list, and often a funny / interesting comment / note of recipe we enjoyed / field trip related to the book, etc.  If the books are out of print and we can't get them by borrowing, we just skip them.

Edit: It's essentially just a neatly-bound (aka: harder for me to lose) list, yes. The kids enjoyed having their own, and would mark ones they wanted to get next time at the library, etc.

I bought it because it contained almost all the "good old classics" I kept finding on many other lists. It was just convenient.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Lucy the Valiant

[caffeineandbooks]

8 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

That is helpful. What exactly is inside the book? I see the TOC from the sample, but I can’t figure out what the book is FOR. Do you just check off the books after they’re read? Or is there more to it than just a list of titles? 

I don't want you to miss the fact that this is available for free, searchable, online at http://www.classicalreader.com/

It's a great resource, coded by genre and whether it's easy, average, hard or teacher read-aloud for its nominated age group.  Like @Lucy the Valiant I also ended up buying a copy, but check out the free version first.

[Meadowlark]

2 hours ago, caffeineandbooks said:

I don't want you to miss the fact that this is available for free, searchable, online at http://www.classicalreader.com/

It's a great resource, coded by genre and whether it's easy, average, hard or teacher read-aloud for its nominated age group.  Like @Lucy the Valiant I also ended up buying a copy, but check out the free version first.

Thanks! So what’s the advantage of buying the print version? Or, is it the same thing? I like that there is more info given and a picture online, but I can see the convenience of having the book too. What else should I consider before buying (or just being satisfied with the website?)

 

 

[caffeineandbooks]

6 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

Thanks! So what’s the advantage of buying the print version? Or, is it the same thing? I like that there is more info given and a picture online, but I can see the convenience of having the book too. What else should I consider before buying (or just being satisfied with the website?)

If you have the print one, you can tick/highlight/scrawl notes/cross out, and keep it all together.  Mostly, I'm just part cave woman and prefer paper to online 🙂  If, however, you keep your plans and booklists on a device, you might prefer to use the website and copy/paste.

[Lucy the Valiant]

42 minutes ago, caffeineandbooks said:

If you have the print one, you can tick/highlight/scrawl notes/cross out, and keep it all together.  Mostly, I'm just part cave woman and prefer paper to online 🙂  If, however, you keep your plans and booklists on a device, you might prefer to use the website and copy/paste.

Haha, same.

[orthodoxmother]

You will find a great list for each grade at Ambleside Online and it’s free! And it’s very flexible if you wanted to group multiple grades and read together. 
 

Although it includes non-fiction, you can just focus on the fiction.

[Ellie]

On 2/20/2021 at 10:14 PM, Lori D. said:

Just for fun -- here are 15 ideas for books at each of your 3 grade levels, in a variety of "genres," to get you started. Totally agree with @kristin0713 about using those great book lists for ideas. We also liked many of the suggestions from the 1000 Good Books list.
 

I'm so glad you found this! The web site URL was changed and I thought it was gone forever!

[Lori D.]

2 hours ago, Ellie said:

I'm so glad you found this! The web site URL was changed and I thought it was gone forever!

I know! I think that changed a year or two back. I stumbled back over it via a general online search. 😄 Hurray!

[Ellie]

2 hours ago, Lori D. said:

I know! I think that changed a year or two back. I stumbled back over it via a general online search. 😄 Hurray!

Oh, I think it was more recent than that. Maybe they left the old URL up for awhile or something. I know I have referred to it within the last year.
.
I had been thinking I would ask if anyone had copied the list and could share it. 🙂 ❤️