Please list your "not to be missed" books for grades 7-12

[Kfamily]

Hi! I am trying to decide which books I want to be sure we work in for grades 7-12 (dd is 6th and I have those) and I would love some opinions. I already know many that I will most likely use so I was hoping for a very pointed list for several different areas of your absolute most important books that will help me end dd with a solid education with a strong leaning towards the classics.

I'd love to see these catergories:

History (maybe 4-6 choices)
Biography (again maybe 4-6 choices)
Philosophy (maybe 3-4)
Literature (10-12)
Other categories I have overlooked

I would also really like to see about what grade level you think is appropriate for your choices. Also, if there are any supplements you recommend before reading a particular book please include that as well. For example, if reading a particular book that draws heavily on another work that would be good to read before or along with it. Does that make sense??:001_smile:


I feel overflooded with the possibilities of which books to read and when when I think of these upper grades and I know I want to have a short but solid list that we can take our time with. I would love any opinions and help!!

Thank you many times over. I try to express my gratitude here but sometimes words are lacking (or at least mine are). I really appreciate your help.

[shalom22]

One source that I would consider would be Sonlight's reading list for each core. They always have excellent books listed in each core that work well together. That would help when trying to determine what books to use for specific history timelines. I am using books from core 5 & 6 for my dc's world history and geography studies.

At this point I myself don't have any specific books for grades 7 - 12, since I am in the same position that you are in.

[Kfamily]

I will take a look at these. I have a Sonlight catalog I can look through.

Do you think I should x-post this to the High School Board?

[gamommy]

Here's my seventh grade reading list for this year.
I pulled selections from the WTM years two and three as this most closely matches her History (BJU 7th).

First Semester:
1)Beowulf: A new telling (Robert Nye)
2)Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien)
3)Canterbury Tales (Retold by Geraldine McCaughrean)
4)Dante’s Inferno-cantos 1-5 (Trans. By Robert Pinsky)
5)Saint George and the Dragon (Margaret Hodges or Geraldine McCaughrean)
6) The Sword in the Stone (if time the subsequent volumes in The Once and Future King) ( T.H. white)
7) Opt1 Shakespeare Stories (Leon Garfield) OR Stories from Shakespeare (Margaret Chute)
Opt 2 Read MacBeth or Mid Summer Night’s Dream (Oxford school Shakespeare Series)

Second Semester:


1)Don Quixote Retold (Michael Harrison)
2)”A Voyage to Lilliput” and “A Voyage to Brobdingnag”
Excerpts from Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift)
3)Pilgrim’s Progress (listen to audio of John Bunyan or read retelling by Gary D. Schmidt)
4)Fairy Tales- The complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault or Grimm’s Fairy Tales
5)The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
6)Choose 1: Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe), Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne), Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain audio)
7)Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
8)A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)

We'll tackle some poetry in late spring/summer.

[nestof3]

I only have a few minutes right now on the board, but I think a book every young man needs to read is A Day No Pigs Would Die. I just loved that book! Animal Farm is also a must in my opinion, but we're a big "politics" family.

I can let you know what my son read later when I have more time.

Oops -- why did I read that you had a son. You have a daughter. Well, I loved A Day No Pigs Would die!

[Kfamily]

I have an older edition (maybe the first one out) of WTM so I need to pull that out and reread some of it. I hope the actual book suggestions are close to the same. I know she has updated due to new materials available for writing, etc.

This is very helpful. I am trying to work through the many choices of great and important books to read but need to keep the list manageable. Dd is not proving (so far) to enjoy handling a heavy book load. I want to give her a quality classic education but most lists are very heavy. I need to figure out which ones should be on the list and which ones not to include.

Thanks again:001_smile:

Thanks nestof3, I will check out A Day No Pigs Would Die

[JFS in IL]

Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Old Man and the Sea, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, a couple Shakespeare plays, an Austen, a Dickens.

[Kfamily]

I want to be sure not to put something if front of her too soon.

This is a tentative list for 7th. (We'll be doing modern history)

Age of Fable (continued from 6th)
The Story of King Arthur and his Knights
Animal Farm
English Lit. for Boys and Girls
The Endless Steppe
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Number the Stars
Book of Marvels (Halliburton)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln's World

I could probably take one or two more books for 7th.

Thanks, kiana, I have The Good Master and forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me.

I will definitely add in at least a couple of Austens over the next couple of years. I love Jane Austen.

[kiana]

Definitely consider how sensitive your child is when you decide whether to use A Day No Pigs Would Die. I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone ... it really is a good book. But when I read it for the first time at 14, I couldn't stop crying for ages. If your child is mature enough to handle this book, there's another book by the same author. The title is Arly. I found it compelling and thought-provoking. I'll warn that you should read it first, as the material may be inappropriate for your family and your child. There's a 16(??) year old girl who enters a brothel in order to escape the fields and her family's crowded hut. It's quite clear that this is not a desirable choice and she's forced to it, but you should be warned.

I'll definitely agree with Animal Farm though.

If not already read, some books that I'd strongly recommend are by Kate Seredy, The Good Master and the sequel The Singing Tree. They're set before and during World War I.

Also, Rifles for Watie, which is set during the American Civil War, manages to humanize both the North and the South.

Added on edit: I don't know how I missed Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. There are several other books by this author which continue the story and are just as good.(IMO)

[shalom22]

I would think about the Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte books, I didn't read them when I was in school, sooo many years ago, but a friend's dd who is 15yo. loves these books. I just recently read Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Jane Eyre (best of the bunch) and Emma (reading now). I am really enjoying these books.