TCT Must-Reads by Year and Knowledge Stream

Many families are beginning The Children’s Tradition with students who are not in Year 1. Naturally the question arises: which books do we just drop, and which ones are important to give to our children, even if they are a few years older than when it was assigned in the curriculum? Essential to our philosophy is the idea that certain Good Books are necessary prerequisites for the Great Books later, and therefore ought not to be passed over. Without these as building blocks in their mind and soul, they are likely to find classical high school texts too difficult to understand. A student in this situation will need an increased exposure to rich vocabulary, complex sentence structures, and timeless themes embodied in all of these stories. With that in mind, I have selected the books that are, in my opinion, essential to a humanities curriculum, regardless of the student’s age. I hope this will provide a meaningful resource for parents aiming to DIY the right curriculum for their incoming older child. 

A parent with an incoming 3rd grader could make a curriculum of the Year 1 and 2 books below, in combination with the essential books from Year 3. An incoming middle schooler might do an “on-boarding” year of Years 1-4 books, and do a combo of Years 5-6 the following year. An incoming high schooler could cover the whole of this list in 1-2 years. These are the students who will be more benefitted by the list by Knowledge Stream rather than by Year. I think you will find that even if a high school junior spent their junior and senior years of high school with no past experience of classical education, but read, narrated, and wrote about the books below, they would have a robust education still far superior to what they would have received in many high schools. These are Good Books, which mean they are not only good for the young, they are good for us all! We must continuously break away from the idea that our job is to give students content to master (as if these books represent the proper content suited to a particular grade alone) so much as we are training the senses (which can be cultivated through Good and Great Books in all grades). It is never too late, for us or our children, and we all can simply begin where we are. I have also written an article that I will be sharing next all about how to implement the philosophy of The Children’s Tradition with students in the upper years after they have covered the books below.

BY YEAR

Year 1

• Household Stories from the Brothers Grimm translated by Lucy Crane

• D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

• The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Graham (Incoming Year 4’s and below)

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

• Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

• Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

• The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

• The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis

• The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

• The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Year 2

• Come Hither by Walter de la Mare

• Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol

Year 3

• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• By the Shore of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Year 4

• The Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich

• The Marvelous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass translated by Kenneth Mackenzie

• Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

• The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

• Smoky by Will James

• Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

• Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (and other Tarzan books, if you have time)

Year 5

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Collection

• The Victorian Fairy Book by Michael Patrick Hearn

• The Children’s Homer by Padriac Collum

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

• Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

• Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (You might use this in tandem with the real plays for upper year students, reading the tale to be oriented in the story, and then reading/watching the play.)

• Plutarch’s Lives 

  • The Plutarch Project Volume One (Revised): Marcus Cato the Censor, Philopoemen, and Titus Flamininus by Ann White

  • The Plutarch Project Volume Two (Revised): Pyrrhus, Nicias, and Crassus by Anne White

• A Midnight Fantasy by Thomas Bailey

• Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle

• Captain Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

• Penrod by Booth Tarkington

• Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat

• Afloat and Ashore by James Fenimore Cooper

In Addition…

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Christmas Read)

• Cricket by the Hearth by Charles Dickens (Christmas Read)

• Any of the Chroniclers

• If a student has not read much high-quality historical fiction, I would recommend beefing up any history stream with selections from G. A. Henty. You can find a Chronological list here in case you want to find ones corresponding to any first-hand historical sources you may be studying. 

• If your student does not know the content of Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason, it would be wise to work your way through it, regardless of the age of the student. 

• Continue with Artist Study (there are more artists covered in Stories of Painters by Amy Steedman) and Composer Study. Composer Study is best paired with their studies of a particular musical instrument.

• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

• Star-Lore by William Tyler Olcott

BY KNOWLEDGE STREAM

Fairytales and Myths

• Household Stories from the Brothers Grimm translated by Lucy Crane

• The Victorian Fairy Book by Michael Patrick Hearn

• D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

• Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Marvelous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass translated by Kenneth Mackenzie

• The Children’s Homer by Padriac Collum

Literature

• The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Graham (Incoming Year 4’s and below)

• Dr. Dolittle

• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol

• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

• Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

• The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

• Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

• Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Christmas Read)

• Cricket by the Hearth by Charles Dickens (Christmas Read)

Shakespeare

• Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (You might use this in tandem with the real plays for upper year students, reading the tale to be oriented in the story, and then reading/watching the play.)

Adventure Stories

• Smoky by Will James

• Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

• Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs (and other Tarzan books, if you have time)

• A Midnight Fantasy by Thomas Bailey

• Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle

• Captain Courageous by Rudyard Kiping

• Penrod by Booth Tarkington

• Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat

• Afloat and Ashore by James Fenimore Cooper

History

• Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• By the Shore of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Plutarch’s Lives 

  • The Plutarch Project Volume One (Revised): Marcus Cato the Censor, Philopoemen, and Titus Flamininus by Ann White

  • The Plutarch Project Volume Two (Revised): Pyrrhus, Nicias, and Crassus by Anne White

• Any and all of the Chroniclers

• If a student has not read much high-quality historical fiction, I would recommend beefing up any history stream with selections from G. A. Henty. You can find a Chronological list here in case you want to find ones corresponding to any first-hand historical sources you may be studying. 

Geography

• If your student does not know the content of Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason, it would be wise to work your way through it, regardless of the age of the student. 

• Continue with Artist Study (there are more artists covered in Stories of Painters by Amy Steedman) and Composer Study. Composer Study is best paired with their studies of a particular musical instrument.

Nature Study

• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

Star-Gazing

• Star-Lore by William Tyler Olcott

Bedtime Read-Alouds

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

• Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

• Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

• The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis

• The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis

• The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

• The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis