The Twaddle-Free Bookstore
and Reading List
In association with Amazon.com
Click on the book titles to order directly from Amazon.com---the world's largest on-line bookstore. Most titles are offered at significantly reduced prices from the recommended list price (10 - 30% off).
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"Twaddle" and "living books" are terms from Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies. Charlotte Mason was an educator in England during the previous century, and her methods are currently experiencing a rebirth among American home schools.
Twaddle = dumbed down literature; absence of meaning
Living Books = books that are well-written and engaging---they absorb the reader---the narrative and characters "come alive"; living books are the opposite of cold, dry textbooks.
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The age designations for this list are only approximate. A child's listening level will often be several grades higher than their personal reading level---feel free to choose books from an older list if you're planning on reading aloud to your children.
We began reading aloud to our children from chapter books (such as Charlotte's Web) before their third birthdays. Don't under-estimate your child's ability to comprehend or listen to fairly advanced material.
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Debi's Twaddle-Free Reading List
and On-line Bookstore
(This reading list is my personal idea of twaddle-free reading--it does not necessarily represent the views of C. Levison, K. Andreola, P. Gardner or any other Charlotte Mason-related authors.)
PRESCHOOL BOOKS
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables - Audio Cassette Version
A Child's Garden of Verses ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Tasha Tudor)
The Little House ~ Virginia Lee Burton
The Snowy Day ~ Ezra Jack Keats
The Story About Ping ~ Marjorie Flack
The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant ~ Jean De Brunhoff
Beatrix Potter : The Complete Tales ~ Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit, etc.)
The Velveteen Rabbit ~ Margery Williams
Winnie-the-Pooh Series ~ A.A. Milne
EARLY ELEMENTARY
A Little Princess ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett (illustrated by Tasha Tudor)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass ~ Lewis Carroll
Caddie Woodlawn ~ Carol Ryrie Brink
Charlotte's Web ~ E.B. White
Children's Book of Virtues ~ William J. Bennett (illustrated by Michael Hague)
The Chronicles of Narnia (complete paperback set) ~ C.S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia (Hardcover Deluxe Set) ~ C.S. Lewis
(The) Complete Book of the Flower Fairies ~ by Cicely Mary Barker
(The) Courage of Sarah Noble ~ Alice Dahgliesh
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Heidi ~ Johanna Spry
How to be Your Own Selfish Pig ~ Susan Schaeffer MaCaulay
Johnny Appleseed ~ Eva Moore
Johnny Tremain ~ Esther Forbes
Just So Stories ~ Rudyard Kipling
Little House on the Prairie Series ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Lord Fauntleroy ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett
Misty of Chincoteague ~ Marguerite Henry
Pollyanna ~ Eleanor H. Porter
(The) Princess and the Goblin ~ George MacDonald
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ~ Kate Douglas Wiggin
Sarah, Plain and Tall ~ Patricia Mac Lachlan
(The) Secret Garden ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett (illustrated by Tasha Tudor)
Stuart Little ~ E.B. White
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims ~ Clyde Robert Bulla
(The) Story of Dr. Doolittle ~ Hugh Lofting
Tales from Hans Christian Andersen ~ Hans Christian Andersen
Tales from Shakespeare ~ Charles and Mary Lamb
Tanglewoods' Secret ~ Patricia St. John
Treasures of the Snow ~ Patricia St. John
Trumpet of the Swan ~ E.B. White
Witch of Blackbird Pond ~ Elizabeth George Speare
MID - LATE ELEMENTARY
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal 1830-32 ~ Joan W. Bloss
A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Wrinkle in Time ~ Madeleine L'Engle
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~ Mark Twain
(The) Adventures of Pinocchio ~ Carlo Colladi
(The) Adventures of Tom Sawyer ~ Mark Twain
Amos Fortune, Free Man ~ Elizabeth Yates
Anne of Avonlea ~ L. M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables ~ L. M. Montgomery
The Arabian Nights
Around the World in 80 Days ~ Jules Verne
Black Beauty ~ Anna Sewell
(The) Book of Virtues ~ William J. Bennett
Bronze Bow ~ Elizabeth George Speare
Cheaper by the Dozen ~ Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.
Diary of a Young Girl ~ Anne Frank
Early Thunder ~ Jean Fritz
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates ~ Mary Mapes Dodge
(The) Hobbit ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
(The) Incredible Journey ~ Sheila Bumford
Island of the Blue Dolphins ~ Scott O'Dell
(The) Jungle Book ~ Rudyard Kipling
Kidnapped ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Little Men ~ Louisa May Alcott
Little Women ~ Louisa May Alcott
Peter Pan ~ J.M. Barrie
(The) Prince and the Pauper ~ Mark Twain
(The) Swiss Family Robinson ~ J.D. Wyss
Treasure Island ~ Robert Louis Sevenson
Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ~ Jules Verne
Old Yeller ~ Fred Gipson
Oliver Twist ~ Charles Dickens
Red Badge of Courage ~ Stephen Crane
Sounder ~ William H. Armstrong
(The )Water-Babies ~ Charles Kingsley
(The) Wind in the Willows ~ Kenneth Grahame
(The) Yearling ~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
JUNIOR HIGH
Call of the Wild ~ Jack London
Christy ~ Catherine Marshall
David Copperfield ~ Charles Dickens
Emma ~ Jane Austen
Jane Eyre ~ Charlotte Bronte
(The) Lord of the Rings (trilogy + The Hobbit) ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
(The) Merry Adventures of Robin Hood ~ Howard Pyle
Pilgrim's Progress ~ John Bunyan
Pride and Prejudice ~ Jane Austen
Robinson Crusoe ~ William Defoe
Tanglewood Tales ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
White Fang ~ Jack London
HIGH SCHOOL AND UP
A Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens
Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ ~ Lew Wallace
(The) Count of Monte Cristo ~ Alexander Dumas
Cry, the Beloved Country ~ Alan Paton
Don Quixote de la Mancha ~ Miguel De Cervantes
Foxe's Book of Martyrs ~ John Foxe
God in the Dock : Essays on Theology and Ethics ~ C.S. Lewis
(The) Hiding Place ~ Corrie Ten Boom
Hinds' Feet on High Places ~ Hannah Hurnard
The Last of the Mohicans ~ James Fenimore Cooper
L'Abri ~ Edith Schaeffer
The Light and the Glory ~ Peter Marshall
Mere Christianity ~ C.S. Lewis
(The) Odyssey ~ Homer
(The) Pilgrim's Regress ~ C.S. Lewis
(The) Rime of the Ancient Mariner ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(The) Scarlet Pimpernel ~ Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Silas Marner ~ George Eliot
(The) Screwtape Letters ~ C.S. Lewis
The Space Trilogy ~ C.S. Lewis:
~ Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy - Book 1)
~ Perelandra : A Novel (Space Trilogy - Book 2)
~ That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy - Book 3)
Uncle Tom's Cabin ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
BOOKS FOR PARENTS AND HOME EDUCATORS
A Charlotte Mason Education ~ Catherine Levison
Bear's Guide to Earning College Degrees Nontraditionally ~ John Bear
Books Children Love ~ Elizabeth Wilson
For the Children's Sake ~ Susan Schaeffer MaCauley
Homeschooling for Excellence ~ David and Micki Colfax
Honey for a Child's Heart ~ Gladys Hunt
Let the Authors Speak ~ Carolyn Hatcher
Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours ~ Kevin Leman
(The) Original Homeschooling Series ~ Charlotte Mason
The Read-Aloud Handbook (4th Ed) ~ Jim Trelease
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning ~ Doug Wilson
(The) Successful Homeschool Family Handbook ~ Raymond Moore
Teaching Children: A Curriculum Guide ~ Diane Lopez
You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully ~ Ruth Beechick
ART
Drawing With Children ~ Mona Brookes
Drawing for Older Children and Teens ~ Mona Brookes
Books by Richard Muhlberger (Metropolitan Museum of Art):
~ The Christmas Story: Told Through Paintings
~ What Makes a Bruegel a Bruegel?
~ What Makes a Cassatt a Cassatt?
~ What Makes a Degas a Degas?
~ What Makes a Goya a Goya?
~ What Makes a Leonardo a Leonardo?
~ What Makes a Monet a Monet?
~ What Makes a Picasso a Picasso?
~ What Makes a Raphael a Raphael?
~ What Makes a Rembrandt a Rembrandt?
READING / WRITING / ENGLISH
Any Child Can Write ~ Harvey S. Wiener
Bob Books for Beginning Readers/Set 1
More Bob Books for Young Readers/Set 2
Even More Bob Books for Young Readers
English from the Roots Up ~ Joegil Lundquist
Simply Grammar: An Illustrated Primer ~ Charlotte Mason (w/ Karen Andreola)
Tales from Shakespeare ~ Charles and Mary Lamb
Tales from Shakespeare on Cassette
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons ~ Siegfried Engelman
The Three R's ~ Ruth Beechick
SCIENCE
Bible Animals
(The) Body Atlas
Gray's Anatomy
Gray's Anatomy Fact Filled Coloring Book
(The) Visual Dictionary of Animals
(The) Visual Dictionary of Chemistry
(The) Visual Dictionary of Plants
(The) Way Things Work
HISTORY
(The) Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World
Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers ~ Patrick Kavanaugh
(The) Timetables of History
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew ~ Daniel Pool
THE CORE KNOWLEDGE SERIES
by E.D. Hirsch
What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know
What Your First Grader Needs to Know
What Your Second Grader Needs to Know
What Your Third Grader Needs to Know
What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know
What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know
What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know
Books to Build on : A Grade-By-Grade Resource
Cultural Literacy : What Every American Needs to Know
A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy for Children
NATURE STUDY
Beatrix Potter 1866-1943: The Artist and Her World
Beatrix Potter's Art ~ Anne Stevenson Hobbs
The Bird Book and the Bird Feeder
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, 1906 ~ Edith Holden
Drawing from Nature ~ Jim Arnosky
Earthways : Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children ~ Carol Petrash
Handbook of Nature Study ~ Anna Comstock
Linnea in Monet's Garden ~ Bjork and Anderson
Linnea's Almanac ~ Bjork and Anderson
Linnea's Windowsill Garden ~ Bjork and Anderson
Nature for the Very Young : A Handbook of Indoor and Outdoor Activities ~ Marcia Bowden
Nature Journaling: Learning to Observe and Connect with the World Around You ~ Clare Leslie Walker and Charles E. Roth
Nature Watching (book, tweezers, insect observatory, more) ~ Paul Sterry
The Outdoor Adventure Handbook ~ Hugh McManners
Wild Days: Creating Discovery Journals ~ Karen Skidmore Rackliffe
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NOTE:
When possible, I selected books for this list which are priced at $4 or less. I realize many families with children at home (especially families with a single income and/or homeschooling families) don't have an abundance of disposable income.
When you see books listed here for a higher price, either there were not any less expensive editions, or I may have chosen a more expensive version due to the illustrator (Tasha Tudor and Michael Hague are personal favorites of mine).
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Frugal Books for Simple Living
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