Oh No! Not the Classics!
By Maggie Hogan
Sources for book lists:
Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt
What Then Shall We Read by Jan Bloom
Invitation to the Classics by Louise Cowan & OS Guinness, Editors
The Horn Book www.hbook.com
Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present:
www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal.htm
1,000 Good Books List: www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html
Sonlight Catalog: www.sonlight.com
Book Peddler Catalog: www.bookpeddler.us
www.findbooknotes.com
Progeny Press study guides are excellent & are written from a Christian
perspective.
Useful terms to know:
Annotate, v to make or furnish critical or explanatory notes or
comments.
Abridge, v to shorten by omission of words without sacrifice of sense.
Unabridged, adj. complete work
When choosing classic books, find an author whose works you’re
interested in. Then find one of their more accessible books. Use
amazon.com to its fullest advantage to find all the titles an author has
written. There are too many excellent books and authors out there to
name them all. For the sake of this workshop, I am going to refer to the
adult literary masterpieces that are generally recognized to be the
classics, as the “Great Books.” These would include authors such as
these, taken from Invitation to the Classics:
Homer’s The Iliad & The Odyssey
Herodotus History of the Persian Wars
Sophocles Oedipus Rex
Plato The Republic
Works by Aristotle & Virgil
Beowulf
Augustine - The Confessions
Dante - The Divine Comedy
Thomas More - Utopia
Works of Martin Luther
Machiavelli - The Prince
Cervantes - Don Quixote
Shakespeare
John Donne poetry
John Keats poetry
John Milton - Paradise Lost
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels
The Federalist Papers
Jane Austin
Von Goethe – Faust
Essays Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Emily Dickenson poems
Melville – Moby Dick
Flaubert – Madame Bovary
Dickens - Great Expectations
George Elliot – Middlemarch
Tolstoy – Anna Karenina
Dostoyevsky – The Brothers Karamazov
Henry James
Mark Twain – Huck Finn
Conrad – Heart of Darkness
James Joyce – Dubliners
Kafka – The Trial
Robert Frost, TS Elliot and William Butler Yeats poetry
CS Lewis
William Faulkner
Classic Literature for Teens
20,000
Leagues under the Sea
-- Jules Verne
Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn -- Mark
Twain
Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes -- Arthur Conan Doyle
Adventures
of Tom Sawyer -- Mark Twain
African
Queen, The -- C.S. Forester
Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland --
Lewis Carroll
Amos
Fortune, Free Man
-- Elizabeth Yates
Around
the World in Eighty Days -- Jules Verne
Ben-Hur
-- Lewis Wallace
Big
Sky, The
-- A.B. Guthrie
Bridge
of San Luis Rey, The -- Thornton Wilder
Bridges
at Toko-Ri, The
-- James Michener
Call
of the Wild, The -- Jack
London
Captains
Courageous -- Rudyard
Kipling
Christmas
Carol, A
-- Charles Dickens
Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A
-- Mark Twain
Count
of Monte Christo, The
-- Alexander Dumas
Cry,
the Beloved Country
-- Alan Paton
Deerslayer,
The
-- James Fenimore Cooper
Diary
of a Young Girl
-- Anne Frank
Dracula
-- Bram Stoker
Drums
along the Mohawk
-- Walter D. Edmonds
Ethan
Frome
-- Edith Wharton
Fahrenheit
451
-- Ray Bradbury
Frankenstein
-- Mary Shelley
Goodbye,
Mr. Chips
-- James Hilton
Gone
with the Wind
-- Margaret Mitchell
Hobbit,
The
-- J.R.R. Tolkien
Hornblower
series, The
-- C.S. Forester
Hunchback
of Notre Dame, The
-- Victor Hugo
Innocents
Abroad
-- Mark Twain
Island
of the Blue Dolphins
-- Scott O'Dell
Ivanhoe
-- Sir Walter Scott
Johnny
Tremain
-- Esther Forbes
Journey
tothe Center of the Earth --
Jules Verne
Kidnapped
-- Robert Louis Stevenson
Kim
-- Rudyard Kipling
King
Must Die, The -- Mary Renault
King
Solomon's Mines
-- H. Rider Haggard
Last of the Mohicans -- James
Fenimore Cooper
Le
Morte d'Arthur
-- Sir Thomas Malory
Legend
of Sleepy Hollow, --
Washington Irving
Life
with Father
-- Clarence Day
Little
Men
-- Louisa May Alcott
Little
Prince, The
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Lord
of the Rings, The
-- J.R.R. Tolkien
Lorna
Doone
-- Richard D. Blackmore
Lost
Horizon
-- James Hilton
Madame
Curie: A Biography
-- Eve Curie
Martian
Chronicles
-- Ray Bradbury
Member
of the Wedding
-- Carson McCullers
Men
of Iron
-- Howard Pyle
Mysterious
Island
-- Jules Verne
National
Velvet
-- Enid Bagnold
Night
to Remember, A
-- Walter Lord
Northwest
Passage
-- Kenneth Roberts
Old
Man and the Sea, The
-- Ernest Hemingway
Ox-Bow
Incident, The
-- Walter Clark
Pearl,
The
-- John Steinbeck
Pilgrim's
Progress, The
-- John Bunyan
Poems
-- Robert Frost
Prince
and the Pauper, The
-- Mark Twain
Profiles
in Courage
-- John F. Kennedy
Raisin
in the Sun
-- Lorraine Hansberry
Rebecca
-- Daphne Du Maurier
Robe,
The
-- Lloyd C. Douglas
Robinson
Crusoe
-- Daniel Defoe
Scarlet
Pimpernel, The -- Baroness Emma Orczy
Sea
Wolf, The
-- Jack London
Shane
-- Jack Schaefer
Story
of My Life
-- Helen Keller
Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The
-- Robert
Louis Stevenson
Three
Musketeers, The
-- Alexander Dumas
Through
the Looking Glass
-- Lewis Carroll
Thurber
Carnival, The
-- James Thurber
Time
Machine, The
-- H.G. Wells
To
Kill a Mockingbird
-- Harper Lee
Tortilla
Flat
-- John Steinbeck
Tree
Grows in Brooklyn, A
-- Betty Smith
Two
Years before the Mast -- Richard H. Dana
Treasure
Island -- Robert Louis Stevenson
Up
from Slavery
-- Booker T. Washington
War
of the Worlds
-- H.G. Wells
Yearling,
The
-- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Classic
Literature for Children
Adam
of the Road
-- Elizabeth Janet Gray
Anne
of Green Gables
-- L.M. Montgomery
Bear
Called Paddington, A
-- Michael Bond
Bears
on Hemlock Mountain, The
-- Alice Dalgliesh
Ben
& Me
-- Robert Lawson
Betsy
series
-- Carolyn Haywood
Black
Beauty
-- Anna Sewell
Black
Stallion, The
-- Walter Farley
Blueberries
for Sal
-- Robert McCloskey
Book
of Nonsense
-- Edward Lear
Borrowers
series, The
-- Mary Norton
Cabin
Faced West, The
-- Jean Fritz
Caddie
Woodlawn
-- Carol Ryrie Brink
Carry
on, Mr. Bowditch
-- Jean Lee Latham
Charlotte's
Web
-- E.B. White
Cheaper
By the Dozen
-- Frank B. and Gilbreth
Child's
Garden of Verses, A --
Robert Louis Stevenson
Chronicles
of Narnia series
-- C.S. Lewis
Courage
of Sarah Noble, The
-- Alice Dalgliesh
Cricket
in Times Square, The
-- George Selden
Curious
George series
-- H.A. Rey
Doctor
Doolittle series
-- Hugh Lofting
Door
in the Wall, The
-- Marguerite De Angeli
Fables
-- Aesop
Fairy
tales
-- Hans Christian Andersen
Ginger
Pye
-- Eleanor Estes
Goodnight,
Moon
-- Margaret Wise Brown
Heidi
-- Johanna Spyri
Henry
Huggins series
-- Beverly Cleary
Hitty,
Her First Hundred Years
-- Rachel Field
Homer
Price
-- Robert McCloskey
House
at Pooh Corner, The
-- A.A. Milne
Just
So Stories for Little Children
- Rudyard Kipling
Little
Bear
-- Else Holmelund Minarik
Little
House series
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little
Women -- Louisa May Alcott
Madeline
series
-- Ludwig Bemelmans
Make
Way for Ducklings
-- Robert McCloskey
Mary
Poppins series
-- Pamela L. Travers
Matchlock
Gun, The
-- Walter D. Edmonds
Mike
Mulligan & His Steam Shovel -- Virginia L Burton
Miracles
on Maple Hill
-- Virginia Sorenson
Misty
of Chincoteague
-- Marguerite Henry
Moffats
series
-- Eleanor Estes
Mr.
Popper's Penguins -- Richard & Florence Atwater
My
Friend Flicka
-- Mary O'Hara
Now
We Are Six
-- A.A. Milne
Old
Yeller
-- Fred Gipson
Peter
Pan
-- J.M. Barrie
Pippi
Longstocking series
-- Astrid Lindgren
Red
Pony, The
-- John Steinbeck
Reluctant
Dragon, The
-- Kenneth Grahame
Rifles
for Watie
-- Harold Keith
Secret
Garden, The
-- Frances Hodgson Burnett
Story
of Babar, The
-- Jean de Brunhoff
Story
of Ferdinand, The
-- Munro Leaf
Strawberry
Girl
-- Lois Lenski
Stuart
Little
-- E.B. White
Swiss
Family Robinson
-- Johann Wyss
Tale
of Peter Rabbit, The
-- Beatrix Potter
Trumpeter
of Krakow, The
-- Eric Kelly
Twenty-One
Balloons, The
-- William Pene Du Bois
Velveteen
Rabbit, The
-- Margery Williams
Wheel
on the School, The
-- Meindert De Jong
When
We Were Very Young
-- A.A. Milne
Wind
in the Willows, The
-- Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh
-- A.A. Milne
Witch
of Blackbird Pond --
Elizabeth George Speare
Wonderful
Wizard of Oz, The -- L. Frank Baum
Another way to choose books is by theme. For example:
Character
Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Forbes, Johnny Tremain
Frank, Diary of a Young Girl
Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia
Ten Boom, The Hiding Place
Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Courage and Honor
Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage
Lewis, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
MacLachlan, Patricia, Sarah, Plain and Tall
L'Engle, Madeleine A Wrinkle in Time
O’Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins
Speare, Sign of the Beaver
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings series
Friendship & Loyalty
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Fleischman, Sid, The Whipping Boy
Fritz, Jean, The Cabin Faced West
Good vs. Evil
L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
Lewis, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
Survival
Taylor, Theodore, The Cay
O’Dell, Scott, Island of the Blue Dolphins
Sperry, Armstrong, Call it Courage
George, Jean C. My Side of the Mountain