Great Homeschool Readalouds: 12 Great Book Series to Read Together
Need a new series for winter readaloud season? We have a few ideas.
Sometimes you don’t just want a book — you want a whole series to read aloud in your homeschool. Discover a whole world of series to obsess over together when you’ve finished Harry Potter and the other usual suspects.
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle
Start with: A Wrinkle in Time
When Meg Murry comes downstairs on a dark and stormy night, she sets off a chain of events that will take her from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to the microscopic universe inside a single human cell, from the birth a star to the wasteland of a nuclear winter. L’Engle’s fascination with science is well-matched to her philosophical musings about good and evil, and this series manages to be as readable as it is thought-provoking.
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Start with: Shards of Honor
You may be tempted to dismiss this science-fiction series, especially if you get hold of one of the 1980s editions with laser beams and spaceships on the cover. But you’ll be missing out. Bujold’s politically and technologically complex space opera, set in a future world where humans have colonized space, is a delight — smart, funny, and utterly absorbing.
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Start with: The Golden Compass
The original sin of curiosity becomes a triumph rather than a fall in Pullman’s fantasy-world retelling of Paradise Lost. Stubborn, wild Lyra Belacqua comes from an alternate Oxford, where humans’ spirits live beside them in animal form. Independent, untrusting Will Parry comes from our world. Together, they’ll travel through other worlds, meeting witches, cliff ghasts, armored bears, and long-missing parents, on a quest that will save or destroy every world in the cosmos.
The Pendragon Adventures by D.J. MacHale
Start with: The Merchant of Death
Time travel is just the beginning for Bobby Pendragon, who takes on the Quantum Leap-esque burden of influencing civilizations across time and space to make the right decisions at pivotal moments in their development. Lots of action keeps things interesting, and the worlds — distinct but connected in space-time — are delightfully imagined, from the watery ocean world Cloral to the virtual reality wastelands of Veelox.
Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy Sayers
Start with: Strong Poison
You have my permission to skip Five Red Herrings, which gets a bogged down with time tables and bus routes, but no Sherlock fan should miss Lord Peter. High-strung, over-educated, aristocratic Lord Peter assists in solving tricky mysteries with the help of his gentleman’s gentleman Bunter and (eventually) his Oxford-educated, detective novelist wife, whom he meets when she is on trial for murder (in Strong Poison).
Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Start with: The Adventures of Captain Underpants
This series, about two boys who inadvertently turn their principal into a crime-fighting, underpants-flashing superhero, is unapologetically silly, but that’s part of what makes it so fun. George and Harold find themselves caught up in an increasingly ludicrous series of adventures, including battling lunchroom zombie nerds and bionic booger boys.
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
Start with: Emily of New Moon
If Anne of Green Gables is a domestic fairy tale, Montgomery’s Emily trilogy is its original-Grimm-version cousin. Like Anne, Emily Starr is an orphan in love with the beauty of the natural world and passionate about the power of words. But Emily lacks Anne’s charm, her easy friendships, her ability to make the best of things. Oh, there’s plenty of Montgomery’s gentle fireside humor, but Emily must fight much harder and sacrifice much more for her ambition.
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Start with: Gregor the Overlander
Though her Hunger Games trilogy is more popular, Collins’ underworld epic is arguably a better work. Gregor falls through a grate in his New York City laundry room and finds himself in an underground civilization, where enormous spiders, cockroaches, bats, and rats, coexist with deep-dwelling humans. A series of Underland prophecies may point Gregor toward his destiny, if he can survive the perils of the underground kingdom.
The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright
Start with: The Saturdays
When you find yourself wishing life were simpler, blame the Melendys. Enright’s family — including actress Mona, pianist Rush, dancer Randy, and little brother Oliver — inhabit a golden 1940s New York, where children can safely roam the streets of Manhattan solo and go swimming in dammed-up brooks. Nostalgic but never treacly, the Melendy stories are a pleasantly absorbing trip to the past.
The Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan
Start with: The Ruins of Gorlan
Orphaned Will’s not so sure he wants to become an apprentice to the Rangers, the spy network for the country Araluen, but the alternative is working in the fields. So Will sets off with his new mentor Halt to protect the kingdom from traitors and invaders.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Start with: Leviathan
Set in an alternate World War I, this steampunk trilogy pits the Clankers and their mechanized war machines against the Entente Powers and their genetically fabricated living creatures. It’s up to the on-the-run heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a girl who’s disguised herself as a boy so she can join the British Air Service to bring the world back to peace.
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Start with: Swallows and Amazons
Homeschoolers have helped rediscover this old- fashioned British series about two groups of families who bond over a shared love of sailing in an idyllic countryside where kids are perfectly safe setting up camp on an island for the summer.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Our Favorite Homeschool Books of 2022
Our favorite homeschool books from this year’s reading lists.
Here are the best books we read in our homeschool in 2022.
We are big readers over here, so we tend to read a lot of books. I read books because I want to read them, not with the idea that they need to fit into our curriculum somewhere, though some of them will end up on future reading lists. Many of the books we read are just fine, some are notably terrible, but there are always a few really great books that I want to tell everyone about. So consider this me telling everyone about these books. (The usual caveat: I read these books in 2022; they weren’t all published this year!)
My Picks
People sometimes comment that they wish I’d include reading levels on books, but as a reader, I’ve always found them weird and limiting. Why can’t I read a picture book on an airplane, or read a “grown-up” book to my preschooler? I’ve tried to indicate reading levels for some of these books, especially when there’s content that you might want to screen for younger readers, but this list is honestly all over the place in terms of recommended reading levels. (If you see a star in front of a title, it’s because that book is on my personal Best of the Best list.)
* Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
In an alternate Oxford, translation is a magical act, and a Chinese orphan finds himself at the intersection of language, learning, and imperialism. This is a weird, dense, charming book that maybe isn’t for everyone, but it is probably the best book I read this year. (It has footnotes!)
A House Between the Earth and Moon
Suzanne recommended this to me as a company town book, only the company town is in space. A group of hopeful scientists in the near future take their work to a corporate space station, hoping that they can save the planet (and their own families) while making an oasis for billionaires. Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and every mistake is chronicled by the corporation’s omnipresent technology. I’m looking for a place to fit this in my high school reading lists.
The New Way to Cake
I’ve been very into baking this year — some years are like that! — and The New Way to Cake has joined Snacking Cakes at the top of my favorites list. I like the herby surprise of these recipes — sage adds an unexpected note to apple cake, mint kicks a ginger cake up a notch. (We made the custard donuts for our Thanksgiving this year, and they were a big hit!)
Marple
A dozen modern authors — including Naomi Alderman, Alyssa Cole, Elly Griffiths, and Karen M. McManus — bring their own spin to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in this short story collection. Some of the authors bring some interesting diversity and feminism to Miss Marple, while still channeling what feels like the authentic Marple charm. There are some hits and some not-so-much-hits, but I found the overall book a lot of fun.
* Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky
This picture book is gorgeous. And it’s one of the most antiracist picture books I’ve ever read, just because it doesn’t assume a white version of history. Exploring the history of blue, from the Egyptians wearing lapis lazuli to the blues singers of the U.S. South, this book is one I’m buying for every picture book reader in our circle and some people who think they’ve outgrown picture books, too.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
I’m recommending this new history of humanity to everyone. What if everything we think we know about human history is rooted in racism, ignorance, and greed? What if “uncivilized” people actually exhibit more characteristics we consider civilized than modern societies? David Graeber upends world history to give us a view of human history that’s ultimately so hopeful and empowering. Definitely a dense book, but I loved it.
Piranesi
This weird, slim volume is a specific kind of book: Piranesi spends his days mapping the mysterious house he inhabits, a labyrinth of rooms containing an entire ocean and many mysteries. The story is as meandering and slow to reveal itself as Piranesi’s house, but I found its dreamlike patience soothing and compelling.
Once More Upon a Time
A prince and princess cursed to forget their love go on a road trip to save their kingdom — and you’ll never guess what happens. This is a fun, frothy, utterly likable fairy tale.
* No One Is Talking About This
There is a baby with serious health problems in this book, which is something I like to know upfront. But if you can handle that, this is a book that I insisted Suzanne read immediately because I really wanted to talk about it. The narrator, a social media personality who travels around the world riding the wave of ideas and voices that make up “the portal,” goes offline when her sister’s pregnancy takes a turn for the tragic. The way this novel reads feels as fragmented and fascinating as the social media its narrator is surrounded by.
The Lion of Mars
This is a delightful middle grades book about an 11-year-old settler on a U.S. Martian colony. Bell can’t remember life before he came to the Martian settlement, and his life on Mars is full of routines and projects that keep the space station running. When a virus infects the settlement’s grownups, Bell and his fellow space kids have to figure out a way to save the day.
Ophie’s Ghosts
I’m putting this on my middle grades U.S. history reading list. Ophie has the power to see ghosts — something she learned when she saw her father right after he was attacked by white supremacists in the Jim Crow South. When she and her mother move to live with family and Philadelphia, Ophie finds an old house full of ghosts in search of resolution.
Build Your House Around My Body
Another Suzanne recommendation — this book tells the stories of two girls who go missing decades apart in Vietnam. They seem to have nothing in common, but as their stories unfold, it becomes clear that their fates are linked. I hear “story of two missing girls,” and my brain goes in a particular direction — toward a kind of book that I don’t love reading these days. Believe me when I tell you this book goes somewhere else entirely — a weird, surprising place that felt ultimately like exactly where I wanted to be.
Skin of the Sea
Natasha Bowen reimagines the mermaids of African mythology in this gorgeous YA novel. Simi is one of the Mami Wata who collects the souls of the drowned before blessing their journey home — a task that has become sadder and more dangerous with the ships carrying kidnapped and enslaved Africans across the ocean. When Simi saves a boy who has been thrown overboard, she must undertake a dangerous journey to make amends for violating the ancient decree that Mami Wata not save the lives of drowning victims. The only caveat I have is that this book ends on a giant cliffhanger, which is one of my readerly pet peeves.
The Chosen and the Beautiful
What if The Great Gatsby was retold from the perspective of a queer, Asian Jordan Baker who lives in a world of magic and supernatural forces? I know! This one’s going on my YA reading lists for sure.
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this book, but I have not been able to stop thinking of it since I finished reading it, and it’s been a long time since a book stuck with me like that. Partly about the tension between motherhood and creativity, partly about the Manson family cult, and partly about living with mental illness, this is a weird, weird book, and you should read it.This is one I’d probably only recommend to adult readers.
* The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
OK, this book is brilliant, and it deserves a spot on your high school physics reading list. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s book is an intellectual history of the cosmos, as informed by particle physics, a memoir of her own life as a cosmologist and particle physicist, and an examination of racism and sexism in science and the history of science. It will blow your mind.
The Marvellers
I am loving the awesome new middle grades magic school books that I can recommend instead of Harry Potter. (See also Amari and the Night Brothers.) The magic school in The Marvellers is the Arcanum Training Institute, where Ella is the first Conjuror to ever enroll. Being the first is always hard, and a lot of the magical community is pretty distrustful of Conjurors, but Ella is finding her footing — and some friends — when things go terribly wrong.
White Smoke
Here’s the modern Gothic novel I was looking for all winter — Mari and her newly blended family move to a picture-perfect small town where her mom is the new artist-in-residence, complete with a shiny renovated house. But the house is on the gentrified edge of a neighborhood of dilapidated houses, and it’s full of haunted house tricks, like lights that turn off on their own and doors that open and shut unexpectedly. Even more suspiciously, Mari’s new stepsister has a new imaginary friend who doesn’t seem to like Mari very much. This is a fun YA read — but beware if you have bedbug anxieties!
* Light from Uncommon Stars
Another book I’ve raved about — this one I’m handing out to my high schoolers left and right because it’s so life- and self-affirming. I can’t explain what it’s about — there’s a trans violinist who plays video game music, a musician who made a deal with the devil, a family of aliens who run a Los Angeles doughnut shop — but please just believe me that it’s a book you’ll probably be glad you read.
* Pretty as a Picture
Please let this be the first book in a series! Extreme introvert film editor Marissa Dahl takes a job on a top-secret set for a legendary director and finds a mystery: The actress playing the murder victim is murdered right on set. Two teens with a true crime podcast enlist Marissa’s help solving the murder. I think this would be a great addition to a YA mysteries reading list, even though it’s not shelved as a YA book.
Gallant
In this eerie middle grades fairy tale, orphaned Olivia returns to her mother’s family home, where dark magic is afoot. I know a lot of middle grades books lean heavily into action, but I liked the slow, introspective pace of this one.
* The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
I loved this gorgeous Korean folktale retelling. Mina saves the girl her brother loves — the most beautiful girl in the village — from being tribute to the Sea God by throwing herself in the water instead. Beneath the waves, she finds a strange new world and new allies. I’ve already added this to our high school reading list.
The Anomaly
I just thought this was fun: In 2021, a plane lands in New York twice — once in March and again in June. All the people on board, who believed they had double lives, now really do have double selves. Do they prove the universe is a simulation? Are they a second chance? Does any of it even matter? And what if another plane lands?
* Snake Falls to Earth
I know I raved about this one on the podcast, too. I loved it, though — I’ve already reread it, I liked it so much. This one’s on the middle grades reading list! And maybe the high school list, too.
Gideon the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir writes the weirdest books! Orphaned indentured servant teams up with the Ninth Necromancer on a mission for the Emperor, designed to pit all the Houses against each other in a battle of wits and skill. This book has A LOT happening, but it’s one of the most vividly imagined fantasy worlds I’ve been to in a long time.
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting
Here’s a middle grades vampire novel that leans into African mythology in the coolest ways. This is the first in a series, so there’s a lot of set-up, but I had to put it on the list because I can’t wait to read the next one.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Suzanne recommended this to me as a comfort book after we lost one of the moms in our homeschool community. She was a gorgeous, brilliant, compassionate human being, and we loved her. This was the perfect book for reminding me that it’s the depth and beauty of human connection that we mourn when we lose someone. We mourn because those feelings are real and they matter. I don’t know if that’s what this book is about, but for me, that’s what it will always mean.
Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species
This has been a highlight of my evolutionary biology class this semester (see below), and I understand why: This group biography focuses on the people whose scientific discoveries led to the modern theory of evolution. I love this book because it’s about people actually doing science and about how scientific theories change and develop as people add new understanding. I’m always trying to remind students that science is a work in progress that they’re participating in — not a list of already-figured-out things they just have to memorize.
Matrix
I will always read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. This one is mostly about one of Eleanor’s ladies of the court, Marie de France, who is sent to England to be the prioress of an abbey there, a job for which she turns out to be extraordinarily well-suited. I think this would be a great addition to a high school medieval reading list.
The Upstairs House
Suzanne did not warn me that there are Babies in Peril when she recommended this book, so I am warning you — but other than that, she was right: This novel about a woman coping with postpartum depression and an unfinished dissertation who finds an apartment upstairs where the (late) children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown is living is weirdly compelling.
Anxious People
I feel like sometimes I just want a book where people turn out to be kinder and better than you think they are. This book, about a botched robbery, is exactly that.
Within These Wicked Walls
On the podcast I called this a “kind of supernatural African Jane Eyre,” and I stand by that.
* The Space Between Worlds
The multiverse is real. The catch is that you can’t travel to any world where you’re alive — which means that marginalized people, who are more likely to die from illness, crime, abuse, or poverty, make the best inter-world travelers. Cara is only alive in eight of the almost 400 worlds known to exist, so she’s plucked from poverty in the Wastelands to a prosperous life and a powerful job. When another one of her selves is murdered, Cara discovers that the multiverse is even more complicated than she realized.
The Man Who Died Twice
The Thursday Murder Club is so much fun! I want to be part of a geriatric Scooby gang when I retire. In this one, former secret agent Elizabeth has to solve the mysterious murder of another former spy, her ex-husband.
My College Kid’s Picks
My homeschool guinea pig says she only included books she read for fun, and there weren’t a lot to choose from because she had gigantic piles of reading to do for her classes this past year. Fair enough!
Crumbs
This is a sweet little graphic novel about finding yourself — and a little love, too.
The Last Session
Other Dungeons & Dragons fans will appreciate this story of a high school D&D group trying to finish their unfinished first campaign before their college graduation.
What Is Home, Mum?
We all know that home is people and traditions as much as a place, but this book is a really beautiful reminder of all the ways that is true.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
My mom thought I would like this book about a teenage wizard who bakes up magic, and she was right.
My High School Kid’s Picks
My teen also opted for books they read purely for fun this year, but they assure me that doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the books we read together.
Accidental Gods: On Race, Empire, and Men Unwittingly Turned Divine
Why is history full of people being turned into gods? (Hint: Some of it might be because of colonialism.)
Queer Ducks (And Other Animals)
This YA book is all about same-sex relationships in nature — ducks, sure, but also albatrosses, clownfish, and doodlebugs. Nature is gay, and here’s the science to prove it.
My Volcano
This is a very weird novel with intersecting storylines, including a time traveling boy who witnesses the fall of the Aztec empire, a trans writer trying to finish a sci-fi story set on an impossible planet, and a Mongolian farmer who becomes a sentient green cloud creature that wants to connect to every other living thing. My kid won’t stop raving about it.
Out of Your Mind
My child is majorly into Alan Watts this year.
Bonus: Our students at the Academy vote on their favorite assigned books each semester — these are the ones that got the most votes in 2022.
The Academy Junior High Picks
The Academy High School Picks
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Going Out With a Bang! 10 Great Apocalypse Novels for High School
It’s the end of the world as we know it — and sometimes that’s not as bad as it seems. These 10 books about the end of the world are great for starting big conversations with your high school homeschooler.
It’s the end of the world as we know it — and sometimes that’s not as bad as it seems. These 10 books about the end of the world are great for starting big conversations with your high school homeschooler.
I’ve decided to go out with a bang(!) in my book recommendations this summer by listing my Top Ten Tales of the Apocalypse.
I’m actually something of a reading wimp, with a low tolerance for horror and blood-drenched thrillers. For many years, I carefully avoided zombies and other world-ending events (Meteors! Vampires! Really Bad Flu!) in my fiction, but in the past few years I’ve discovered a new attraction to near-apocalypses. Impending death forces characters to deal with the meaning of life — and do some very serious prioritizing — and I think many of us, in our everyday probably-not-the-end-of-the-world lives, struggle with how to separate what is meaningful and necessary from what is unimportant and time-wasting.
Of course, along with bringing up interesting moral issues, apocalypses are usually chock full of violence and death, so (unless otherwise noted) I’d recommend the following books for teen readers and up.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Two decades after a civilization-shattering pandemic, a small troupe of musicians and actors visits enclaves of survivors to stage Shakespeare plays. Their motto, taken from an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, is “Survival is Insufficient.” This novel achieved both popular and critical success upon its 2014 release and deservedly so. What I love about it, and what sets it apart from so many other popular end-of-the-world sagas (looking at you, The Walking Dead), is its refusal to give up hope. Mandel portrays the darkness in human nature, but she also sees the light — the ability of people to pull together in terrible circumstances and create communities that protect and support each other. By making room for all possibilities instead of focusing only on what is selfish and destructive in humanity, she creates a world populated by characters I can recognize and actually believe in.
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
Hank Palace has finally achieved his dream of becoming a detective. Unfortunately, it’s under difficult circumstances: an asteroid is scheduled to hit Earth in six months, causing an extinction-level event, and in this pre-apocalyptic world civilization is starting to break down. If the world is going to end in less than a year, do you keep going to work every day? Is the answer different if you are a police officer, or a surgeon, or someone responsible for keeping the power on? In addition to the murder mystery at the core, there are a lot of fascinating moral questions in this novel, first in a trilogy (which, SPOILER ALERT, does not end well).
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
I love this book so much that I don’t even know how to tell you about it. Set after the Go-Away War, where humanity was devastated by the invention of a new weapon that caused people and objects to simply go away (with, not so shockingly, unexpected and terrible side effects), we follow the adventures of two best friends, part of a team of ex-special-operatives, as they take on a dangerous mission. With mimes, ninjas, and pirates! Amazon calls it a “hilarious, action-packed look at the apocalypse” but fails to mention that certain readers may become so attached to the characters that things get very emotional at times. (I only cried a little, OK?) This is one of those books that is not going to work for everyone, but if you’re are in the mood for a novel that is so out there you’ll read most of it with your jaw hanging open in amazement, you should look no further. (Don’t forget to pick up Harkaway’s other two books, Angelmaker and Tigerman, and definitely email me so we can discuss them all AT LENGTH.)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Forget Brad Pitt. This novel (which shares a title with the movie version, but not much else) consists of a series of interviews with various survivors of the Zombie War. It’s unique in that it depicts the global scale of the disaster and tells much of the story from the perspective of the military forces involved. Some of the events were so disturbing and haunting that it took me years to work up the courage to reread it, whereupon I discovered that the pieces I found so unsettling were only mentioned briefly in the narrative — the author had succeeded so well in creating the world that I had filled in all the blanks myself without even realizing it. Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to listen to the audiobook adaptation, which includes Nathan Fillion, Alan Alda, and Mark Hamill among its stellar cast.
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
In this list I’ve chosen to highlight more recent books, leaving off classics like The Stand, On the Beach, and Alas, Babylon, but I had to include this 1958 novel by Jackson. One of her less well-known works, it follows the Halloran family after Aunt Fanny has a vision of the coming apocalypse. As one would expect in a Jackson story, the Hallorans and their hangers-on are strange, unsettling, and occasionally very funny. Plus there’s a creepy mansion, so that’s good.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Adolescent Julia and her family struggle to deal with massive changes as the rotation of the Earth inexplicably slows. While I struggled a bit with the science (or the massive lack of it) in this particular apocalyptic scenario, that’s not really the point. Instead, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer used a Hellmouth to point out the challenges of high school and teenagerhood, Walker uses the possible end of the world as a backdrop for this coming of age tale, where Julia wonders if she’ll even survive the dramatic changes, both personal and global, taking place in her world. (This is one of the only novels on the list that I’d be okay handing to a middle schooler.)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Prior to winning every lit award on the planet with Underground Railroad, Whitehead wrote this zombie novel, following the protagonist and his fellow “sweepers” as they patrol the ruins of New York City, trying to eliminate the remaining infected. It’s a slow-moving, thoughtful take on the zombie genre—at least until everything starts to go horribly, inevitably wrong.
Pure by Julianna Baggott
I’ve read my share of YA dystopias (usually featuring a female lead born to set things right) but the post-apocalyptic world of Pure is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Pressia lives outside, with the other “wretches” suffering the effects of radiation which has caused human flesh to fuse with inanimate objects, while Partridge and his family live among the “pures” in the Dome. This novel, first in a trilogy, was unsettling and unique and memorable, and I couldn’t wait to read the sequels—which, unfortunately, I ended up disliking intensely for many reasons, but mostly because they didn’t live up to the promise of the first volume. Despite that disappointment, Pure was so good that I still recommend it for anyone looking for something new and powerful in the YA dystopia genre, though I wouldn’t necessarily advise continuing on in the series.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Some say the world will end in science, some say in magic — but why choose? In this award-winning science fantasy, two childhood friends take diverging paths — one talks to animals, one builds a two-second time machine—but as they reach adulthood and the planet falls apart around them, they must figure out if they can work together to save the world. I already gushed about this one with Amy on the podcast, but I can’t resist an opportunity to recommend it again.
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
I’ve saved one of my very favorites for last—this zombie-apocalypse novel takes on deeply human themes while still being scary and action-packed and gory (as one expects when you’ve got zombies around). It was the inspiration for the high school Apocalyptic Lit class I’ll start teaching in a few weeks at the Academy (which will also cover Station Eleven, The Last Detective, The Sundial, and The Age of Miracles). And I can’t really tell you much more than that, because part of the fun going in is not knowing exactly what’s happening, so email me when you’re finished reading and ready to talk about it. (In the meantime, I’ll be reading the just-out prequel, The Boy on the Bridge.)
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit
BONUS NON-FICTION PICK: I sang the praises of this terrific book in a recent Library Chicken Update, so I’ll try to keep it short here, but if you’re interested in what actual human beings do in actual times of disaster (HINT: It’s a lot more like Station Eleven than The Walking Dead) you should pick this up immediately. Even without the occasional solar eclipse, it’s been feeling a bit like the end of the world lately, and I found this book to be both timely and inspirational in its depiction of how human beings can come together to help each other. Fair warning: it’s also frustrating and sad and maddening at times as it details the ways that authority figures have let us down in the past (the Hurricane Katrina chapter is especially difficult), but we can only change the narrative when we understand what’s gone wrong and why.
Here’s hoping that we get through the next year with no mutant-zombie-vampire-pandemics (if there is an apocalypse, I’ll be the one with zero useful survival skills), and I’ll see you next summer!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Looking for a YA Thriller? These Books Will Keep You Turning Pages
If you’re looking for a twisty turner teen thriller, these recent YA books about teens in dangerous situations may be just what you’re looking for.
If you’re looking for a twisty turner teen thriller, these recent YA books about teens in dangerous situations may be just what you’re looking for.
The Follower by Kate Doughty
If you've ever watched HGTV while listening to a true crime podcast, The Follower is for you! The Cole triplets are an Instagram sensation, following their house-flipping parents from one dramatic renovation to the next and racking up sponsorships along the way. It’s a glamorous life — but not always a fun one, since every moment has to be painstakingly captured in a succession of filters and the teens always have to have their camera faces on. Cecily is burned out on being the pretty one, brother Rudy just wants to keep everything rolling smoothly, and Amber can’t help but notice that her plus-size body gets edited out of family photos too often. Plus there’s the problem that their parents’ Instagram-famous renovations aren’t doing much to put a dent in the family’s giant debt.
Now they’re on their biggest project yet: a huge mansion in a small town which is famous for the gruesome murders that took place there — and rumors that it might be haunted. The triplets play up the haunted house angle for the camera, but they can’t help noticing that weird things ARE happening. Stuff goes missing, suspicious shadows move along the hallway, and that’s just the beginning. Someone doesn’t want the Coles in this house.
The triplets are interesting people in their own right and not a homogenous lump, which is nice. Amber, especially, finds that their new small town life suits her: She starts stepping out from behind her picture-perfect sibs (with lots of support from them, which is lovely), finds a girlfriend, and starts to find herself. The trio’s relationship is believably complicated but mostly warm and supportive — they’re different people, but they love each other. The Cole parents are kind of terrible in the parents-using-their-kids-as-Instagram-moneymakers vein, and there’s a lot of (fair) criticism of online culture in the book. It does get a little wonky plot-wise, especially with the haunted house bits, and several things (including — warning! — violence toward adorable household pets) are predictable stalker-angry ghost tropes. (Even the ending is kind of obvious if you’ve read many books in this genre.) Still, it’s a fun, fast YA thriller, and I enjoyed it.
The Glare by Margot Harrison
The Glare is all the warnings about screen time rolled into one otherworldly drama: Hedda has been living off the grid with her mom for a decade, ever since a childhood incident convinced her parents that computers made her “off-kilter.” Hedda can’t remember anything about what happened, but she’s grown up protected from “the glare” of computer screens. Now, though, Hedda’s headed back to the real world to live with her computer game designer dad and his new family, and technology is everywhere. Practically her first night in the real world, she ends up playing an oddly familiar first-person shooter game on the dark web, and memories of the past slowly start to return. The game, it turns out, is part of an urban legend: Die 13 times on level 13, and you’ll die in the real world. It seems ridiculous — until gamers start dying around her, and Hedda’s cell phone starts receiving threatening messages. Is her mom right that technology is making her a little crazy? Or is something even more sinister going on?
It’s a cool idea, and I found the first half of the book, setting all of this up, fairly interesting, but then it seems to skid off the rails a bit. It starts out all Black Mirror-ish, critiquing technology even as it embraces its possibilities, but that’s not where it ends up — which is fine, but the transition feels clumsy and unfinished. And while the idea that the darkness inside us is the real villain is always interesting, it’s kind of undermined by the fact that there is an actual villain, lurking in the shadows, doing villain-y stuff for ill-explained reasons. Still, some of the early scenes with the game bleeding into the real world are deliciously creepy, so if that’s your thing, you should totally pick this one up.
The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky
OK, so one of my YA literature pet peeves is when it turns out that everything in the story has always been about the heroine, and that means there is no way I was not going to be annoyed by The Mary Shelley Club. Which is a shame, because I loved the title and the idea of a secret teen club dedicated to pulling off terrifying pranks.
Rachel’s the new kid at Manchester Prep, and all she really wants is a fresh start after a traumatic event made her notorious in her old town. Manchester Prep is full of entitled kids whose allowances are bigger than her family’s rent, but Rachel quickly becomes part of a secret club dedicated to fear — specifically, each member has to scare a scream out of a chosen target. But Rachel can’t help feeling like there’s something going on she doesn’t know about, and it may be a lot more than a prank in the planning.
The book starts off strong and builds to a shivery middle, but the end collapses a bit into melodrama and the aforementioned need to make everything ultimately about the heroine. Worth reading? Sure, if it sounds like your thing, but it’s not my favorite. Mary Shelley deserves better.
The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle
In The Murder Game, Luke’s bad boy roommate Oscar is the prime suspect in their teacher’s murder, and no one seems interested in proving his innocence but Luke. The title (and cover) may make you think there’s more than one murder in store for you or some kind of game, but nope, it’s kind of a typical boarding school teen murder mystery. There’s a cast of suspects (the teacher’s husband, who also happens to be the dean; the dean’s ex-wife; the teacher’s ex-husband; etc.), and a loner girl with a secret past who teams up with Luke to solve the murder. The adults feel like caricatures (though I suspect teens often see adults that way), and the students aren’t super well-developed. Luke, for instance, has a crazy backstory, in which he was apparently held captive in the woods but escaped using his survival skills, but even though that seems more interesting than the actual murder mystery plot, that backstory is never really developed. And, really, failing to get into this story kind of meant that Luke was a pretty static character — we can’t see him grow if we don’t know who he is.
This sounds critical, but every book doesn’t have to be a classic. If you’re in the mood for a fast, fun YA mystery, this one might just fit the bill.
You Owe Me a Murder by Eileen Cook
The thing about rewriting a Hitchcock classic thriller is that you really need something to set your story apart from the original — to make it feel like you’ve made the story your own. Sadly, You Owe Me a Murder doesn’t manage this, and it ends up feeling like a watered-down YA version of Strangers on a Train.
When freshly dumped Kim meets Nicki, a stranger on a plane, she’s ready to murder her ex, who not only broke her heart but also managed to break it just in time for Kim to be stuck on a class trip to London with him and his new girlfriend. Nicki’s got her own problems with her mom, and when she suggests they swap murders, Strangers on a Train style, Kim laughs it off — until her ex-boyfriend turns up dead, and Nicki starts blackmailing Kim to hold up her end of the bargain.
Kim is an unreliable — and increasingly unlikable — protagonist, and I do like that she’s not just a Good Girl in a Bad Situation. The book is definitely fast-paced — which is handy, since we all already know the major plot beats. But I did not like the gratuitous love interest, I did not like the sheer predictability of the story, and I especially did not like the resolution, which fell flat after all the tension-building. Maybe I would have liked it more if I hadn’t watched the movie (and read the book on which it was based) so many times? But this one fell pretty flat for me.
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
Five Total Strangers is obviously about a group of people who turn out NOT to be total strangers, and while I am down for a Hitchcockian thriller, this one relied a little too heavily on coincidence to keep me engaged. Mira’s on her way from her fancy California art high school back home to her mom, who’s still a bit of wreck a year after her twin sister — Mira’s aunt — died from cancer. Mira’s not doing so great either — and she’d probably be doing even worse if she knew that she’d been being stalked for the past year. Lucky (??) for her, she doesn’t know because her stalker has been sending mail to the wrong address — but that’s okay, because Mira’s stalker is on her flight, and when the airport shuts down during a snowstorm, Mira’s stalker is one of the FIVE TOTAL STRANGERS who agree to rent a car and drive together. I mean, OK, Mira’s stalker is biding their time, and this opportunity just kind of presents itself, but this seems like an increasingly big reach as the squad of teens gets into a series of snow-related accidents, gets chased down by an angry convenience store owner with a gun, and keeps running into the same creepy hitchhiker wherever they stop. Because Mira has no idea she’s being stalked, the big reveal is basically her discovering a stack of letters addressed to her in the trunk of the car, freaking out, and immediately getting into a cliffside shove-off with her stalker. It’s pretty unsatisfying, especially since the letters from her stalker are sprinkled throughout, hinting at a more nuanced resolution. If you can get over the more and more unlikely incidents and just relax into the drama, this is an entertaining soap opera-y stalker story (but with none of the psychic dread of actually being stalked), but it broke my willing suspension of disbelief pretty early and never got it back.
I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan
When she was seven, Dee went into the woods with her best friend Sibby. Sibby never came back — Dee watched her abduction and told the police everything she could, but Sibby was gone.
A decade later, Dee is still haunted by the loss of her childhood friend and obsessed with missing persons cases — so much so that she’s become the (heavily disguised) voice behind the popular Radio Silent true crime podcast. Dee and her team of internet detectives have even racked up an impressive record of solved cases — bringing the podcast to the attention of mass media, which Dee definitely doesn’t want. Meanwhile, another little girl goes missing from Dee’s family’s old house, and Dee can’t helping making the connection to Sibby’s disappearance all those years ago. Could this be her chance to finally find out what really happened to her best friend?
I enjoyed I Hope You’re Listening, which was fast-paced, engaging, and peopled with likable characters. The plot got away from itself here and there and it felt over-written in places — have editors just stopped actually editing books? Is that not a thing anymore? — but I liked Dee enough to stick with her, and I’m glad I did. So much of what happens to us as kids and teenagers shapes who we become and the ways we choose to live, and I loved watching Dee realize that, accept it, and counter it on her own terms. Not all of us deal with being the spare kid in an abduction scenario, obviously, but we’re all tangled in our own history, often in ways we don’t realize. I think the book did a nice job of illuminating that. And, of course, I loved the Radio Silent community — there’s a part at the end where they play kind of a big role, and I’m not going to lie, I got a little weepy thinking about the way that strangers can be friends thanks to the connections we forge on the internet.
So a solid read for me, even with some sloppy storytelling. I’d recommend it for your YA reader obsessed with true crime.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Great Books for Kids Who Want to Start Their Own Business
If you have a kid who dreams of starting a business, these readalouds will help inspire them.
If you have a young entrepreneur, you’ll want to add these books — about kids who launch their own small businesses — to your homeschool reading list.
Camila’s Lemonade Stand by Lizzie Duncan
When Camila can’t afford a ride on the Ferris wheel, a friend suggests that she start a business to finance her fun. This book has great tips on the steps kids need to take to get their first business up and running, but kids will especially enjoy the story of how two friends with competing businesses deal with their conflict. (Elementary)
The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
Sixth-grader Rufus Mayflower’s determination to save money on toothpaste makes him a millionaire in this breezy guide to capitalism from The Pushcart War author. This was published in the 1970s and is set in 1960s Ohio — it’s not surprising that Rufus (who is Black) has to deal with racism from neighbors and competitors, and the book doesn’t shy away from this though it’s not a main focus. A plus: The book encourages kids to work through some of the starting-a-business math as they read — inflation may have changed the numbers in the problems, but doing the math gives kids a clearer understanding of the financial side of business. (Middle grades)
Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur by Luke Sharpe
Kid entrepreneur extraordinaire Billy Sure organizes a contest to find the next great kid inventor. Billy’s riding a middle school success train as the inventor of the All Ball (which can change into any sports ball with the press of a button) and the CEO of Sure Thing, Inc., which he runs with the help of his best friend (and CFO) Manny. This is definitely a little silly and over-the-top, but that’s probably why it makes such a fun readaloud. (Elementary)
Lunch Money by Andrew Clements
Rivals team up in a mini comic-publishing business that hits a bump when their principal outlaws comic books at school. This one is fun because it reminds kids that creativity can build a business — Greg’s talent for drawing comics is what makes his business work — and while his goal is to make money, he learns that business is about more than that. Kids can practice their math skills right along with Greg and Maura and learn from them how to approach adults about their business ideas and how to deal with obstacles. (Elementary)
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Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
An inherited lawn mower sends an ordinary boy into a whole new tax bracket. If your kids are interested in understanding how capitalism and the U.S. economy actually work — Paulsen’s version is so idealized as to be ridiculous, but that’s what makes it so great as a conversation starter. The more you read and discuss, the more problems you’ll discover. (Elementary)
The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
A people-smart boy and his math-smart sister compete to see who can build the most successful lemonade stand empire. This book really gets into the nitty-gritty of what makes a business work, from the skills people need, to the accounting side, to things like marketing and public relations, and it does this in a way that recognizes that there’s no one right way to run a business. Bonus points for navigating a challenging but loving sibling relationship that turns a little too competitive. (Middle grades)
Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin
Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey start their own business, complete with officers, advertising, and a dedicated phone line. I feel like so many of us loved the Baby-Sitters Club because they managed to run a hugely successful business while still being normal middle school girls (and later Logan!) with regular middle school girl interests. A lot of books for entrepreneurs focus on what could be considered a very white male-centric version of economic success, and while that appeals to some kids, it’s definitely not the only way to go into business. The Baby-Sitters Club offers a different version of business success. (Middle grades)
Henry Reed’s Baby-Sitting Service by Keith Robertson
Henry and Midge team up for a summer of baby-sitting for profit in this sequel to Henry Reed, Inc. Yes, there’s some weird 1950s gender stuff going on, but it’s still a lot of fun: Expat Henry is visiting family in New Jersey and determined to get a summer business going — and when his market research suggests that baby-sitting is where the customers are, he dives into childcare with lots of enthusiasm and only the tiniest bit of actual experience. Henry’s thinking around business decisions is interesting, and he takes the details of his business very seriously — which gives kids a framework for how they might want to approach some of their own business making decisions. (Middle grades)
Not for a Billion Gazillion Dollars by Paula Danziger
Matthew’s got a million ideas to make big bucks on his summer vacation—but entrepreneurship may be harder than he thought. It’s got that 80s movie vibe (including some bits that might be considered a little racy by modern standards), but I’ve included it because even though it does end up with a successful business big, Matthew fails A LOT (and often hilariously) along the way, which is something a lot of entrepreneurs experience. (Middle grades)
This list is adapted from the summer 2016 issue of HSL. (We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
The Readaloud Day Guide: A 52-Week Reading List for World Mythology and Folk Tales
Think of mythology as the building blocks for future literature studies — though, admittedly, they can be messy, complicated, ambiguous building blocks. This 52-week reading list is designed to cover a full year of mythology studies, and while it’s accessible for elementary students just diving into the wide world of literature, older students looking for a place to start a systematic comparative literature study may also find this a place to begin.
Think of mythology as the building blocks for future literature studies — though, admittedly, they can be messy, complicated, ambiguous building blocks. This 52-week reading list is designed to cover a full year of mythology studies, adaptable for students of all ages.
Why mythology? These are the stories that inform our cultural landscape, influencing art, music, literature, and pretty much everything else we encounter on an everyday basis. Think of mythology as the building blocks for future literature studies — though, admittedly, they can be messy, complicated, ambiguous building blocks. This 52-week reading list is designed to cover a full year of mythology studies, and while it’s accessible for elementary students just diving into the wide world of literature, older students looking for a place to start a systematic comparative literature study may also find this a place to begin.
D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
Greek mythology is the perfect place to start diving into the world’s great myths. For so many of us, these stories — of all-powerful Zeus’s antics, Persephone’s pomegranate seeds, the heroes of the Trojan War — are touchstones that echo throughout western literature and our imaginations. Some of the big problems of mythology — notably rape and violence — are glossed over a bit here; depending on your child, you may want to talk a little about why these dark ideas are softened here.
Black Ships Before Troy
There are several young reader-friendly versions of The Iliad; I like this one because it echoes the jump-around style of the original instead of telling everything around the story of Achilles. For the ancient Greeks, the Trojan War marked a metaphorical line between the Age of Myth and everyday life — the war represented the end of the time of heroes. The Greeks believed that death with honor was better than a long and peaceful life, and the exploits of this war story reflect that hyper-masculine philosophy.
Greek Myths
With superficially simple but deeply complicated stories like world myths, the more versions you can read, the better your understanding will be of the ideas, values, and world views of the people who wrote them. Olivia Coolidge’s slightly old-fashioned take on Greek mythology (it was published in 1949) scrupulously attempts to give space to every god’s story, with an emphasis on drama and adventure. Compare these stories to the D’Aulaires’ to see what changes between retellings.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Say what you will about Rick Riordan’s uber-popular series, few middle grades books have made Greek mythology as urgent and fascinating to a modern audience as the adventures of Percy and his friends. By now, the heroes, monsters, and gods of the pantheon will be familiar friends, and kids will love seeing Riordan’s modern-day take on Greek myth.
The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy
Padraic Colum’s kid-friendly translation captures all the twists and turns of Odysseus’s long journey home, which help set the standard for what an epic journey should look like. Omniscient narrator? Check. Hero who faces death? Check. Geographical and emotional journey? Check. Odysseus’s adventures are interesting enough on their own, but they can also inspire other activities. Draw a map of Odysseus’s voyage, or make a board game based on his adventure.
Tales from the Odyssey
Mary Pope Osborne’s two-part retelling of Odysseus’s story is one of the best. Osborne manages to channel the non-stop excitement of the original (sorcerers! cannibals! shipwrecks!) in a way that’s easy to follow and fun to read. With stories like this that were told for centuries before they were finally written down, reading lots of different versions can be illuminating.
Aesop’s Fables
Aesop’s morality stories were written down in the sixth century B.C.E. and focus on many of the same lessons and ideas that Greece’s mythology hones in on: How should we treat each other? What makes a good leader? How do you deal with bullies? Jerry Pinkney retells more than 60 of Aesop’s best known fables with lush illustrations in a book. Kids may enjoy looking for instances of characters not following Aesop’s advice in other traditional myths.
Tomie dePaola's Book of Bible Stories
The stories of Jonah and the whale, Noah and the flood, Moses and the Pharaoh have influenced Western literature and art in significant ways, and it feels like a disservice to leave them out of your mythology studies. This collection isn’t intentionally secular, but its focus on the stories and characters rather than on religious principles makes it a good option for reading traditional Bible stories in their mythological context.
Usborne Children's Book of Bible Stories
One thing you’ll notice as you read through this collection of stories is how the motifs in them carry over into other literature: The baby floating down the river in a basket, the flood that reshapes the world, the hero who sacrifices himself to save the world — these ideas echo through mythological traditions around the world.
The City of Rainbows: A Tale from Ancient Sumer
As far as writing goes, this isn’t the most eloquent story you’ll ever read — its appeal is in its origin. Author Karen Polinger Foster is an archaeologist, and the story she’s retelling was preserved on clay tablets in ancient Sumeria. The story — of two kings whose different ways of seeing things cause confusion — is a classic folk tale that hints at the importance of the innovation of writing in Mesopotamia.
Gilgamesh the King
Ludmila Zeman focuses on the first part of the epic of Gilgamesh, where the not-so-nice king of Uruk meets his match — and ultimately his best friend — in the wild man Enkidu. Don’t make this the only version of Gilgamesh you read (see below); it’s bowdlerized to be kid-friendly in ways that may well annoy you, but the story is a good introduction to the world’s first epic, and the illustrations — inspired by Babylonian, Assyrian, and Sumerian art — are fantastic.
Gilgamesh the Hero
Once you’ve read the simplified picture-book, dive into this engaging retelling, which starts with Gilgamesh’s friendship with Enkidu but continues to his conflict with the goddess Inara and his (ultimately unsuccessful) quest for immortality after Enkidu’s death. Geraldine McCaughrean softens some of the R-rated elements of the story (including Gilgamesh’s rape culture mentality) without excising them.
Tales of Ancient Egypt
Greek mythology was heavily influenced by the more sophisticated philosophy of their Egyptian neighbors, and this chapter book by Roger Lancelyn Green focuses on the Egyptian pantheon, its heroes, and its ideas of magic and the supernatural. Reading it after you dive into the more popular Greek mythology lets you appreciate all those subtle points of influence that you might miss if you explore Egypt first.
Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales
This collection includes 32 stories from across the continent of Africa — a broad swathe, to be sure, but it’s a vibrant sampler of African storytelling. A map at the beginning highlights the geographic region where each story originates, and you’ll find a mix of creation myths, hero stories, and trickster tales.
Kings, Gods, and Spirits from African Mythology
Jan Knappert retells 35 stories of gods, ghosts, heroes, warriors, tricksters, kings, and animals from the Zulu, Swahili, Bantu, Ashanti, and other African people. There’s no Wakanda, but there is definitely just as much magic in stories like “The Golden Stool” and “The Ogre Who Ate People.” Feel free to skip the less-than-thrilling introduction and cut straight to the stories.
The Star-Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt
Dianne Hofmeyer retells the odd but lovely Heliopolis creation myth, in which golden godchild Atun must separate Geb, god of Earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky, in order to make room for his creations. The story explains the different forces that the Egyptians believed governed their everyday lives: earth, wind, water, and sky.
Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters, and Mortals
It’s surprising how few collections of Egyptian mythology there are compared to other cultures’ mythologies — perhaps it’s the air of weirdness that permeates Egyptian myth. Donna Jo Napoli’s retellings, collected in this book, are a step toward rectifying that omission, preserving the mythic weirdness while relating the stories in a way that resonates with younger readers.
Illustrated Arabian Nights
This luxe Usborne book edited by Alida Massari Anna Milbourne is a softened-for-kids version of the somewhat violent and misogynistic but also fantastic folktales from the Golden Age of Islam. You’ll find plenty of familiar names — Aladdin and his lamp, Sinbad the sailor, Scheherazade the storyteller — as well as more unusual stories.
Angels, Prophets, Rabbis, and Kings from the Stories of the Jewish People
These Jewish tales from the Talmud highlight the power of quick thinking, the benefits of good deeds, the importance of tradition, and the joys of family. Many of these tales date back to the Middle Ages, which makes them more recent than much of the other mythology on this list.
Seasons of Splendor: Tales, Myths and Legends of India
Cookbook author Jaffrey Madhur compiled this collection of Indian myths her mother told her as a child, organized according to the Hindu calendar, including the story of Rahu, the evil star who punishes the moon with an annual eclipse for trying to interfere in one of his nefarious schemes.
The Gita for Children
Roopa Pai tackles one of the most philosophically interesting conversations in mythological history, between Pandava prince Arjuna and his chariot driver, the god Krishna. This simplified version works on its own as a story, but layers of meaning are waiting to unpack with willing readers.
The Boys Who Fought: The Mahabharata for Children
The Mahabharata is one of India’s great epics, a complicated story about the Kuruksetra War between the wealthy Kauravas and their poor cousins the Pandavas. Devdutt Pattanaik retells the story in a simplified, comic book form, illuminating the ideas of dharma and karma in a kid-accessible way.
The Girl Who Chose: A New Way Of Narrating the Ramayana
Keep going with Devdutt Pattanaik’s take on India’s other great epic, the Ramayana, the story of Prince Rama’s quest to rescue his wife the Princess Sita from Ravana who has used an army of monkeys to kidnap her. Despite what the title suggests, this book isn’t a feminist take on the not-very-feminist story, but it does underscore the significance of choices in destiny.
Rama and The Demon King
Jessica Souhami takes an even simpler approach to the Ramayana in this picture book, which focuses on Rama’s battle with the ten-headed king of demons. The shadow puppet-style illustrations, following the traditional Indian art form, illuminate the story of Prince Rama’s life in the forest, which turns deadly when a demon vows revenge against him.
Amma Tell Me About Durga Puja
Bhakti Mathur does get some girl power going in this story about the mother goddess Durga who defeats the evil, shape-shifting, sneaky demon Mahishasura. The gods team up to create a super-powered ultra goddess, the only hero who can defeat this particularly villainous demon.
Aru Shah and the End of Time
It’s no surprise that the first book in Rick Riordan’s new Disney imprint features a hero who discovers she’s descended from a mythic hero — the twist is that 12-year-old Aru’s mythic heritage comes from Indian mythology. When she accidentally sets a sinister supernatural spirit free, she must channel her inner Pandava and discover the world of Indian myth lurking at the edges of the world she’s always known.
D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths
Just as with Greek mythology, the D’Aulaires offer the perfect starting point for a deep dive into Norse mythology. (And just as with Greek mythology, this isn’t always easy because some of the original stories have dark and violent undertones.) From Odin the All-Father to Thor and his hammer to the great battle of Ragnarokk, these beautifully illustrated stories are a great introduction to the fantastic — if fatalistic — Norse pantheon.
Norse Mythology
Neil Gaiman definitely dives into the salty side of the Norse pantheon, so you may want to skim ahead to make sure you’re comfortable with the content — it’s totally consistent with the bawdy, violent world of Asgard, and Gaiman fully appreciates all the weird, wild antics of Norse mythology.
The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths
Padraic Colum paints a fairy tale picture of life in Asgard once upon a time, emphasizing the fantastic elements of life in the world of the Norse gods.
Odd and the Frost Giants
Gaiman returns to Norse mythology with an invented story of a lonely boy who finds himself on a quest for the gods. Chris Riddell’s deliberate, slightly eccentric illustrations illuminate the story’s fairy tale nuance, while the story itself is steeped in Scandinavian myth.
Eight Days of Luke
Diana Wynne Jones beat Neil Gaiman to the punch by imagining a world peopled by undercover Norse gods and an ordinary boy who finds himself in the middle of an adventure he never anticipated. This is the perfect Wynne Jones mix of quotidian British life and high fantasy, but you’ll definitely want to save it for when you’re familiar with the fundamentals of the Norse pantheon — half the fun is identifying the secret identities of the different characters who crop up on David’s adventure.
Essential Chinese Mythology: Stories That Change the World
This collection of Chinese myth includes tales from Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian mythology and offers a fascinating glimpse into a world of ideas that both parallels and sharply departs from the Western traditions we know so well.
The Eight Immortals of Taoism: Legends and Fables of Popular Taoism
Daoist mythology is a compelling combination of historical figures and supernatural forces, and these stories are a good introduction. The eight immortals are a surprisingly (and pleasantly) diverse group, including a woman, a student, a person who is physically disabled, and an androgynous hero.
The Emperor and the Kite
Little Princess Djeow never gets any attention, but her kite-flying skills save the day when her father is kidnapped and imprisoned in a tall tower. Djeow’s skill, persistence, and clever thinking earn her family’s respect in this not-so-traditional princess story.
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China
In this early Chinese Cinderella story, you’ll find a fish instead of a fairy godmother but otherwise the same jealous stepfamily, royal ball, magical shoes, and the happy ending.
The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac
The Chinese zodiac is full of animals — but plenty also get left out. This playful tale tells the story of how the rat cheated the cat out of a victory in the Jade Emperor’s great river swimming race — and a spot in the zodiac.
Treasury of Chinese Folk Tales
My favorite part of this eclectic collection of Chinese stories is that Shelly Fu and Patrick Yee give the historical and cultural context for each one.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Grace Lin’s quest novel takes its magic from the Chinese myths and folk tales she grew up with, and the result is a delightful fantasy steeped in Chinese mythic tradition.
Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection
The tales in this collection reflect the diversity of the Hispanic world: Some are indigenous stories told by Latin American tribes, others come from Basque and the Middle East. Playful, chatty, and engaging, this is a lively introduction to some of the stories that have shaped Latinx culture around the world.
Hawaiian Myths of Earth, Sea and Sky
Vivian Thompson explores ten foundational Polynesian myths, focusing on the central core that runs through the islands’ mythological diversity. You’ll find strong parallels between the landmark-focused stories in these myths and those in Native American mythology.
Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places
Abenaki poet and author Joseph Bruchac tells the stories of ten spaces with sacred connections for various Native American tribes, including the Seneca story of Ne-ah-ga (Niagara Falls), to emphasize that all natural places are sacred spaces.
The Mud Pony
In this tale from the Skidi branch of the Pawnee Indians of the Plains, a boy must find his own strength after his sculpted mud pony — miraculously brought to life — returns to earth.
Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest
This story from the Pacific Northwest people may remind you of the Prometheus myth: Feeling sorry for people trapped in the world’s eternal darkness, trickster Raven sneaks into the Sky Chief’s house to steal his light and warmth for the rest of the world.
How the Stars Fell into the Sky
In Navajo tradition, the chaos of the stars in the night sky reflects the chaos of life — and it’s no surprise that this starry chaos was caused in part by the trickster Coyote. First Woman patiently crafts a mosaic of laws in the sky, but impatient Coyote messes up her careful work, bringing chaos into the world.
Rabbit’s Snow Dance
The Bruchac pere et fils bring a much-needed jolt of charm and energy to this Iroquois fable about a rabbit who just can’t wait for snow — even though it’s the middle of summer. Compare this to the story of Pandora.
The Legend of the Bluebonnet
The theme of sacrifice in this Comanche folk tale will feel familiar after reading so many other myths: When She-Who-Is-Alone learns that the drought destroying her community is caused by the Great Spirit, who is angry with the Comanche for taking from the land without giving back, she understands that only a burnt offering of her most precious possession can save her people.
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
This pourquoi story (or origin story) from East Coast Native American tradition isn’t particularly surprising, but the telling makes it feel that way: Brown Squirrel and Bear learn a lesson about bragging and teasing, and the chipmunk is created when Bear boasts that he can keep the sun from rising. It’s worth comparing this to some of the Greek origin stories.
Big Turtle
In this Huron-Iroquois creation story, Sky Girl is trapped between the water and the sky, and while she rides on the back of the Big Turtle, a series of animals attempt to bring enough earth from the bottom of the sea to give her a place to live. Little Toad succeeds, and Sky Girl’s descendants become Earth’s first people.
The Sun’s Daughter
You’ll be amazed by how much this Iroquois legend of the Corn Maiden reminds you of the story of Persephone and Demeter: When Maize slips away from her mother Sun to walk at night, she’s captured by the moon Silver. Just as in the Persephone myth, the resulting shared custody explains the origin of the seasons.
Kokopelli: Drum in Belly
It’s hard not to love Kokopelli, the fertility god musician who appears in the traditions of some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. In this origin tale, Kokopelli uses his music to lead the Ant People out of the Dark World and into the Green World, where they become the first people.
Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale
The pattern of this tale set among the Pueblo people matches up to other traditional stories of virgin-born heroes who must face a series of trials, but the really interesting thing about it is how it represents a western mythology being superimposed on another culture. In fact, in Pueblo culture, illegitimate children are treated the same as other children, and the kivas are places of community, not of trial. Why would the author create a Western version of a Pueblo tale? This is a longstanding problem in telling the mythology of other people, and it’s one that after all the rest of your reading, you’re ready to tackle together.
Favorite Folktales from Around the World
Jane Yolen collects tales of tricksters, creation, the end of the world, and more in this collection of tales from Syria, Estonia, Peru, Haiti, and more countries whose mythological and folklore traditions may be less well known.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.) This book list was originally published in the spring 2018 issue of HSL.
Homeschooling Literature with Movies: Great Book-Movie Pairings
You don’t have to choose between the book and the movie in these terrific adaptations—enjoy them both. We’ve rounded up some book-and-a-movie combos perfect for cold weather marathon sessions.
You don’t have to choose between the book and the movie in these terrific adaptations—enjoy them both. We’ve rounded up some book-and-a-movie combos perfect for cold weather marathon sessions.
We’re bringing some of our favorite content out of the archives and back onto the front page.
The film version gets the full Hollywood treatment (star Elizabeth Taylor definitely doesn’t have book-Velvet’s cottony hair and buck teeth), but it manages to hang onto the story of one stubborn girl’s determination to win a horse race.
Though it wanders from the book’s storyline, Studio Ghibli’s adaptation captures the sheer visual magic of the Borrowers’ tiny world with gorgeous animation.
Shaw’s play may feel like heavy going to readers new to his style, so take advantage of the delightful musical adaptation to appreciate its nuances—and to kick off the never-ending argument of what a happy ending to this story would actually be.
Maria’s quest to save her family from an unfortunate curse is the crux of this fantasy book and movie combo. (The book was J.K. Rowling’s favorite as a child.)
Though not a literal adaptation of the classic fairy tales, this inventive film about the enchantments of imagination, set in an abandoned theater, channels the same storytelling spirit—and may inspire some living room reenactments.
Really, this animated film—about a boy who teaches a warmongering robot how to love—should get more respect than it does—and Hughes’ lyrical storytelling is as memorable as his poetry.
Sherlock Homes sometimes used the alias Basil, so it’s no surprise that’s the name of the Sherlock Holmes of the mouse world, who—accompanied by his biographer/assistant Dawson—solves baffling crimes.
The action moves to New York and there are a few other changes in this lavish adaptation, but it slow-paced, dreamy filmmaking and a terrific Sara Carew make this movie a must-view.
This list was originally published in the winter 2016 issue of home/school/life. Because apparently winter is when we need lots of movie breaks.
The BookNerd’s Official Guide to Reading Hamilton
Don't let your obsession stop with the stage: Our Book Nerd's book-by-book guide to indulging your Hamilton obsession will keep you busy until ticket prices go down. (They have to go down eventually, right?)
We’re bringing some of our favorite content out of the archives and back onto the front page.
Far and away, the best thing to happen to our household in the recently-ended Year That Must Not Be Named was our discovery of the musical Hamilton. (Well, okay, and we got a kitten. So maybe the kitten is first. But Hamilton is a very close second.) I’ve been a history buff for a long time, so the musical provided me with the perfect excuse to spend way too much time reading some great biographies and history books. After all, I want to be able to answer intelligently any questions my homeschool students may have after we’ve listened to “Guns and Ships” for the 27th time. From that, I’ve come up with this list for anyone—homeschool student, homeschool parent, or interested bystander—who’d like to take a deep dive into the world of the Alexander Hamilton. I’m happy to present:
The BookNerd’s Official Guide to Reading Hamilton
1. Read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The Biography That Started It All. Okay, yes, it’s over 700 pages long, but you can do it! Don’t throw away your shot! (Sorry.) Take a break whenever necessary and listen to a Hamilton track to stay inspired and if you really get bogged down, imagine the witty and erudite conversation you’ll be able to have (after finishing this book) with Lin-Manuel Miranda next time you run into him at the airport or the local sub shop or wherever. Besides, it’s a really good book.
2. Read Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. Another awesome biography about Hamilton’s buddy and father figure, and c’mon, you know Lin-Manuel’s read this one too. This is actually my favorite bio by Chernow—one of my favorite moments is when the famously undemonstrative Washington had a falling out with Thomas Jefferson and changed his greeting to him in their correspondence from “My Dear Sir” to just “Dear Sir.” WASHINGTON ISN’T PLAYING, PEOPLE.
3. Read Short History of the American Revolution by James L. Stokesbury. Now that you’ve made it through some 1,500 pages of Founding Father biography, you’re probably interested in learning more about the actual fighting during the American Revolution. War histories can be incredibly long and difficult to keep up with, but Stokesbury’s Short History series (he’s also written books on World War I, World War II, etc.) provides great one-volume overviews. These books are great for homeschool shelves and have been highly recommended by My Brother, An Actual History Professor.
4. Read Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis. Ellis is another historian who specializes in taking big historical events and breaking them down into episodes that highlight important turning points. Ellis is always entertaining and this book, with chapters about the Hamilton-Burr duel, the Hamilton-Jefferson-Madison dinner, and Washington’s farewell address, seems tailor-made for Hamilton fans.
5. Read a Burr biography. The bad news is that there aren’t that many Burr bios out there (though I’m sure that is changing even now as publishers scramble to keep up with the Hamilton fandom); the good news is the man was fascinating, so whatever you can find on him will be a good read. Everything that happens with Burr during Hamilton? That’s just the warm-up to the good stuff, when Burr decided to raise a force of armed men and invade Mexico, or maybe Florida, or maybe he’ll just take over New Orleans. Historians are divided on whether he actually committed treason (SPOILER: he definitely committed treason) but Burr being Burr, he managed to avoid legal consequences. I recommend David O. Stewart’s American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America (which primarily focuses on the post-duel years) and the two-volume biography by Milton Lomask (which I’m still working my way through but is great so far). War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel That Stunned the Nation by John Sedgwick is also a great read. I can’t help it—I’ve become very fond of Burr. Sure, I wouldn’t let him talk to my daughters and I would NEVER EVER lend the man money, but I bet he would have been great to sit next to at a dinner party.
(Editor's Note: We read Gore Vidal’s fictional Burr for the podcast, where we gushed a lot about the Theodosias. As one does.)
6. Read Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell. Vowell’s writing here is wildly entertaining, as usual, so I’ll forgive her the fact that this book has a slightly disappointing lack of Hamilton. Really, you should do yourself a favor and read ALL of Vowell’s American history books. She’s a great addition to any homeschool shelf and I highly recommend her to students who maybe aren’t so sure that they’re interested in history. Assassination Vacation and The Wordy Shipmates are two of my personal favorites.
7. You should probably read a Thomas Jefferson biography, I suppose. I’m not the biggest fan of Jefferson, but yeah, he was an important Founding Father and a genius and all that. I don’t have a favorite Jefferson biography—though American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis is not a bad place to start—but there are plenty to choose from. I highly recommend reading The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed alongside whatever Jefferson biography you choose, to provide some additional perspective.
8. And now that you’ve read at least TWO Pulitzer Prize winning books and are an American Revolution history buff, you should definitely reward yourself by reading the official book about the musical, Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. Except I’m sure you’ve already got it, so now you can reread it and have intelligent and informed opinions on all the choices Miranda made when adapting history for a Broadway musical! Or you can just continue to obsess over its amazing awesomeness, like the rest of us!
EXTRA CREDIT: Do you have room in your heart for yet another amazing Broadway musical about American history? Of course you do! So you must see the movie version of 1776, the musical about the creation of the Declaration of Independence. The music (while wonderful) is more Broadway standard than contemporary, and the cast consists almost entirely of white men, but like Hamilton, the dialogue and verses are based on the actual writings of our Founding Fathers, who show up here as complicated, funny, and occasionally obnoxious men, rather than secular saints in heroic poses. As a bonus, the lead is my personal favorite Founding Father, John Adams, so after you watch this, you can pick up avid McCullough’s John Adams, the biography on which the HBO mini-series was based. Just think of the great conversation you can have with Lin-Manuel now!
Happy reading, everyone!
If You Want to Read Something Profound
These powerful stories pack an emotional punch.
These powerful stories pack an emotional punch.
Speak Up by Miranda Paul and Ebony Glenn
A diverse class of students learn that when something really matters, one voice can make a big difference. Early grades
Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne et al
Poetry is a great medium for social change, and these inspiring poems by poets including Brown, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood, will make kids want to express their ideas about justice and injustice through poems and art, too. Early grades
Small Matters by Heather Ferranti Kinser
Powerful images from an electron scanning microscope show how tiny details can make a big difference in this eye-opening picture book. Early grades
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl
Cricket believes she can bring her vanishing mama back if she finds the secret room that featured in so many of her childhood stories — so takes her only clue (a coin from a Mississippi ghost town) and sets off into the woods to find the truth about her family. Middle grades
Sylvia and Aki by Winifred Conkling
Sylvia and Aki faced different kinds of prejudice: Sylvia’s family had to start a legal battle to get her into school, and Aki’s family was relocated to an internment camp during World War Two. By coincidence, Sylvia’s family rents the house that Aki’s family was forced to leave behind. Middle grades
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Like all of Acevedo’s work, the language in this verse narrative is the star. When their father’s plane crashes, two sisters — one in New York City and one in the Dominican Republic — discover each other’s existence and their father’s double life. High school
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
Class conflict, the Asian diaspora, and rape culture come together in this story about a wealthy international student from Shanghai who rents a room from a Filipino-American family. High school
Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
In this eerie fairy tale, a rural Australian girl investigates the disappearance of her two older brothers. High school
Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman
You may well want to add this chronicle of the author’s journey along a slave route in Ghana to your high school history reading list — it’s a fascinating (and sad) look at a side of history we often gloss over. High school
This was originally published in the summer 2020 HSL reading guide.
If You Want to Read Something with Memorable Characters...
It’s the brilliantly realized characters and relationships that make these books sing.
It’s the brilliantly realized characters and relationships that make these books sing.
The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
The One and Only Ivan’s best friend, Chihuahua mutt Bob, tells his own story in this sequel to the Newbery classic. Middle grades
The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss
12-year-old orphan Bicycle is supposed to go to sleep-away camp at the Friendship Factory; instead, she decides that she’s going to ride her bike to California so she can meet her hero, Polish cycling racer Zbig. Middle grades
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renee Watson
Ryan Hart has a lot on her mind: all the things she wants to invent, her family’s new (old) house, financial problems, an infuriating brother, and recipes that don’t always go right. But she’s determined to see the best in everything that happens. Middle grades
The List of Things that Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead
Bea keeps a list to remind her of the constants in her life since her parents’ divorce: No matter what, her mom and dad will love her and each other. Still, she’s excited and nervous about the big change when her dad tells her he’s going to marry his boyfriend Jesse, who has a daughter of his own. Middle grades
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
This family story about the destructive and healing potential of words follows three siblings in the weeks leading up the Challenger’s 1986 launch. Middle grades
Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley
Illustrator/memoirist extraordinaire Knisley charms in her first middle grades graphic novel about a girl who unwillingly moves to the country with her mom after her parents get divorced. Middle grades
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
The author of American Born Chinese delights readers again with this story of a comic book-loving boy who discovers an unexpected interest in the superhero-esque arc of his high school’s basketball team. High school
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
This twisty whodunnit is a standout for its diverse cast and lovable protagonist: a Black trans artist who must learn what it really means to love who he is when an anonymous fellow student harasses him with transphobic messages. High school
Camp by L.C. Rosen
Camp Outland is Randy’s happy place: a camp for LGBTQ+ kids and the place where he met his Super Crush Hudson Aaronson-Lim. But Hudson doesn’t like boys who don’t act straight, so Randy reinvents himself as Del, a manly man who doesn’t wear nail polish or put unicorn sheets on his bed. Of course, you can only pretend to be someone you aren’t for so long before you start wondering whether it’s worth it to give up your identity for love. High school
August Folly by Angela Thirkell
Think of this 1936 novel as classic Brit lit charmer, in which a bunch of rural English folk put on fetes and amateur theatricals, pour tea, fall in love, and otherwise wander through their bucolic lives where nothing really terrible ever happens. High school
This list was originally published in our summer 2020 reading guide.
If You Want to Read Something Exciting...
Looking for something exciting to read this summer? These action-packed books will keep you turning pages.
These action-packed books will keep you turning pages.
The Real McCoys by Matthew Swanson
The world’s greatest 4th grade detective is missing her crime solving partner since her best friend moved away, and now she’s on her toughest case yet: the case of the kidnapped school mascot. She can’t solve this one alone — but will she be able to find a new partner? Early grades
Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor
Akata Witch author Okorafor is back with her trademark blend of Nigerian magic and realism in this story about a boy with super powers on a mission to avenge the murder of his police chief father. Middle grades
Sal & Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
A Gabi from a parallel universe arrives to warn the titular duo that their efforts to close all the wormholes might actually — oops — destroy the universe. Middle grades
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale
Everybody’s new favorite super hero, Squirrel Girl has all the powers of a squirrel and all the challenges of life as a 14-year-old in a new town. Middle grades
Again Again by E. Lockhart
The We Were Liars author ups the plot twist ante with an iterative multiverse: In the summer between her junior and senior year, Adelaide deals with romantic, family, and academic problems. High school
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
Power follows up her weird but compelling Wilder Girls with a creepy thriller about a girl who returns to her mother’s hometown to find the truth about her family history — and gets more than she bargained for. High school
A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer
The prophet of Weird brings his distinctive voice to YA fiction with this fantasy about an orphaned teen who inherits the family manor — and its portals in the basement that lead to an alternate Earth where a maniacal Aleister Crowley is in charge. High school
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
This is the classic everyone is riffing these days, but the original story about a falsely accused young man who brilliantly plots his revenge against his betrayers is still worth reading. High school
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Acceptance at the elite Catherine House ensures students a successful future — but to attend, students must shut themselves off from the outside world for their three-year tenure. Rebellious Ines finds Gothic mysteries lurking beneath the shiny, raucous surface of her new life. High school
8 Great Books to Read This Winter
In the mood for something new? Add these books to your library list.
In the mood for something new? Add these books to your library list.
Layoverland by Gabby Noone
Mean girl Beatrice, who died in a car accident, is sentenced to work in airport-like limbo, helping other souls move on.
High school
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
The letter from her dad on her twelfth birthday is the first time Zoe’s heard from him since he was sentenced to prison for a terrible crime.
Middle grades
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
Snap’s neighborhood witch is just a cool old lady who sells roadkill skeletons on the internet, but Jacks may be more magical than Snap suspected.
Middle grades
Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha
It’s always been just Chun and her mom — until a trip to Alabama ends up bringing her a new family.
Middle grades
Gloom Town by Ronald L. Smith
When Rory takes a job in a spooky old mansion, he discovers an otherworldly plot to steal the town’s shadows and take over the world.
Middle grades
In a Jar by Deborah Marcero
Anyone with a collection-prone kiddo will love this tender picture book about all the nature (and memories) a jar can hold.
Early grades
Catherine’s War by Julia Billet
A Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France tries to hang onto her identity as she moves from safe house to safe house in this graphic novel based on a true story.
Middle grades
The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert
Alberta is so happy when another person of color finally moves to her small town — and she and Edie immediately discover a mystery from the past.
Middle grades
Reading List: Imagining Anastasia
DNA evidence has concluded that the Russian tsar’s plucky youngest daughter met her end with the rest of her family in 1918, but imagining the real and alternate ends of the Romanovs remains a literary obsession.
DNA evidence has concluded that the Russian tsar’s plucky youngest daughter met her end with the rest of her family in 1918, but imagining the real and alternate ends of the Romanovs remains a literary obsession.
The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne
A Russian soldier who emigrates to England after the war reflects on his life and the time he spent guarding the Russian royal family before their execution (High School)
Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914 by Carolyn Meyer
This tearjerker installment in the Royal Diaries series fully embraces the tragedy of Anastasia’s real-life ending. (Middle Grades)
Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan
Katya’s mother is a lady-in-waiting to the Tsarina, and Katya has grown up with the royal family — so when the revolution begins, everything she’s understood about the world and her place in it begins to change. (Middle Grades)
The Lost Crown by Sarah Miller
The four Romanov sisters take turns narrating this story of their lives, as they go from unimaginable luxury to house arrest and impending doom. (High School)
Romanov by Nadine Brandes
The newest installment in Anastasia mythology, in this version Anastasia’s family’s magic revives her and her brother Alexei after their execution, but that’s just the beginning of the dangers the young Romanovs face. (High School)
Books that Inspire You to Make the World a Better Place
Sometimes, you just want to read a book that makes you feel empowered to make the change you want to see in the world.
Sometimes, you just want to read a book that makes you feel empowered to make the change you want to see in the world.
I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
Let the teenage Nobel Prize winner share her story in her own words: Malala advocated for education for girls and was targeted — and shot — by the Taliban as a result. She survived to continue her work and inspire another generation of young people.
Just Mercy
In this stark look at the criminal justice system in the United States, Stevenson recounts his experience defending a Black man wrongly convicted of murdering a white woman. You’ll want to reform the entire U.S. judicial system by the time you’re done.
You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen
Sometimes it feel like there’s no way for one person to make a difference, but this inspiring book gives lots of real-life examples of people who have managed to do just that. This is the book to pull out when you feel a little hopeless and overwhelmed by the problems of the world.
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
It would be easy to tell this story of an agender teen and the young Black man who attacks her on a Los Angeles bus as a tale of good and evil, but Slater avoids oversimplification, creating a nuanced picture of two young people whose lives were changed forever by a bus ride.
This list was excerpted from our 2020 HSL Reading Challenge recommendations.
A Literary Robots Reading List
Sentient AI are nothing new in literature, and this chronological reading list takes you on a tour of some of the evolving practical and philosophical issues surrounding artificial intelligence.
Sentient AI are nothing new in literature, and this chronological reading list takes you on a tour of some of the evolving practical and philosophical issues surrounding artificial intelligence.
1907: Ozma of Oz
Dorothy discovers the copper-and-clockwork Tic-Tok abandoned in a cave.
1909: The Machine Stops
E.M. Forster’s dark futuristic vision paints a world where technology has completely replaced experiences.
1950: “There Will Come Soft Rains”
A fully automated house outlives its human occupants.
1950: I, Robot
Almost all our modern-day AI fiction comes from Asimov’s original vision.
1968: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
In Philip Dick’s futuristic dystopia, artificial intelligence has become so sophisticated that it’s hard to tell robot from reality.
1989: Hyperion
Think Canterbury tales, but with pilgrims focused on the uneasy alliance between man and machine in a sci-fi future.
1996: Excession
Iain Banks’ Culture series explores the question of what it means to be human in a post-scarcity world run by hyper-intelligent AI.
2012: Cinder
The first of the Lunar Chronicles features a cyborg mechanic who gets caught up in dangerous political intrigue.
2013: Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie’s collective-individual AI is a fascinating, gender-exploding twist on the traditional robot genre.
2014: House of Robots
In this middle grades sci-fi comedy, Sammy’s mother’s robot inventions do everything from tutoring Sammy to handling the housework.
2015: Speak
Louisa Hall’s novel follows generations of people involved in AI development from the 17th century to the future.
2016: The Wild Robot
A surprisingly tender middle grades fairy tale about a lost robot stranded on an island focuses on the ways we construct identity.
A Camus Reading List
Get uncomfortable with the absurdity of human existence and the essential Camus reading list.
Get uncomfortable with the absurdity of human existence and the essential Camus reading list.
Camus’s take on the essential absurdity of human existence can be equal parts crushing and liberating, part humor and part grief, part possibility and part entropy. Whatever it is, it’s never boring, and if you’ve got a teen who enjoys critical thinking, Camus’s writing can be a bridge to more academic philosophy. These books are a good place to start.
THE STRANGER
Meursault is an existential protagonist who acknowledges that there is no inherent meaning in life — but unlike Camus himself, this antihero isn’t inspired to try to make meaning. Instead, he makes the people around him uncomfortable and afraid by refusing to engage in accepted social behaviors, such as mourning the death of his own mother. The brutal, blunt language reinforces the blunt, brutal reality of a meaningless existence, setting the terms of a philosophical discussion that continues today.
THE PLAGUE
The darkness of human existence is present again in The Plague, but so is the radiance and nobility of human goodness. When an epidemic quarantines an Algerian city, the residents are forced to confront their morality, their relationships, and the meaning of life.
THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS
Confronted with meaning- less existence, man must learn how to live with death at the end of it—no easy task, and one that requires an absurd hero. Enter Sisyphus, the Greek figure doomed to endlessly push a rock up a hill, starting the process anew each day. Camus’s essays in this collection embrace the complex and baffling nature of life without underlying meaning.
CALIGULA
In Camus’s weird drama, his absurdist philosophy plays out through the life of the infamous Roman emperor, who realizes when his beloved sister dies that all humans ultimately die miserable at the end of meaningless lives. Caligula responds with the cruelty and violence that would ensure him a page in history, using depravity to battle his philosophical desperation.
Books With Dual Timelines
Two or more timelines double the drama in these books.
Two or more timelines double the drama in these books.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
In a world wracked by catastrophic geologic change, three women — one barely more than a girl — born with the power to control their environment face a hostile society that fears them.
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Twins Jude and Noah grow up inseparable, but a few years into young adulthood, they’re not even speaking.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Why is your mother so impossible? This book flashes between the lives of American daughters and Chinese mothers, answering that question.
Americanah by Chimanada Ngozi Adichie
Ifemelu and Obinze hope to escape from Nigeria together but end up in separate places — Ifemelu in the United States and Obinze, undocumented, in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in their home country.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The timelines in this book about a postapocalyptic Shakespeare troupe focus on life before and after a devastating epidemic.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
A Black woman travels back and forth between 1970s California and antebellum Maryland in this razor-sharp time travel story.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
When Andi discovers the diary kept by a teen girl during the French Revolution, she also discovers that time doesn’t run in just one direction. (Bonus points for Epic Ride! cab driver Virgil. Get it?)
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
When the clock strikes 13, Tom is able to walk into the garden and visit Hattie in the past.
Darkmere by Helen Maslin
In the past, young bride Elinor marries the wealthy Mr. St. Cloud and becomes the mistress of Darkmere, gradually realizing that her marriage might not be the happy ending she’d expected. In the present, Kate and her friends plan to spend the summer partying at Darkmere but find a dark mystery instead.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Lamora's life story plays out in the past — where he trains with the city's criminal royalty to learn their ways — and the present, when he's attempting to pull off the biggest heist of his life.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
In the past, a crew of scientists work to keep humanity alive when an extinction-event asteroid approaches the Earth; thousands of years later, the space colonists return to their home planet to find they're not alone.
50 Books for 50 States
Read your way across the United States with a book for every state in the union.
Read your way across the United States with a book for every state in the union.
Alabama
Inside Out & Back Again BY THANHHA LAI
Alabama comes to life through the eyes of Hà, a Vietnamese immigrant whose family leaves everything familiar in Saigon to make a new life away from the Vietnam War. And it’s not easy — Alabama may not have soldiers on the street corners, but it has people who make fun of Hà’s accent and appearance, adults who don’t seem to understand that you can miss your home even if it isn’t a safe place, and food and culture that feel totally unfamiliar. I love the way the free verse structure of this book echoes the way that learning a new language can feel — metaphors and allusions make up the gap between the words we know and the words we're still learning.
Alaska
Sweet Home Alaska BY CAROLE ESTBY DAGG
It’s 1934, and in an effort to develop Alaska and improve lives during the Great Depression, President Roosevelt has offered farmer families the opportunity to start a new life in an Alaskan colony. Thirteen-year-old Terpsichore has grown up reading the Little House series and convinces her struggling family to seize the opportunity to start a new life where all her book-learned pioneer knowledge will prove to be a handy resource.
Arizona
Saving Lucas Biggs BY MARISA DE LOS SANTOS AND DAVID TEAGUE
When her father is sentenced to death (on the first page of the book!), 13-year-old Margaret uses her family’s ability to travel back in time through the history of her Arizona mining town to understand why Judge Lucas Biggs has targeted her father — and how she can change the past in order to return to a different future.
Arkansas
Where the Red Fern Grows BY WILSON RAWLS
Go into this story of Billy’s backwoods childhood and the two dogs who are his best friends knowing it’s a tear-jerker. Billy’s farm is in the Ozarks, which sprawl from Arkansas to Oklahoma and which remain a largely rural area even in the 21st century.
California
One Crazy Summer BY RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA
It’s the summer of 1968, and three sisters from Alabama are spending it in Oakland, California with their artist mother. Their mother is more interested in her own life than in her kids and sends them off to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers. Williams-Garcia is at her best writing the relationship between the book’s three sisters, but she also conjures a vivid image of what life was like for northern California’s Black community during the 1970s.
Colorado
Father and I Were Ranchers BY RALPH MOODY
Flashback to turn-of-the-20th-century Colorado through the eyes of 8-year-old Ralph, who moves from New Hampshire with his family to start a “dirt ranch” in the Colorado foothills. Ralph learns how to be a rancher at his father’s side, and when the time comes, he’s ready to take over the work of ranching himself.
Connecticut
Night Of The Moonjellies BY MARK SHASHA
In this quiet picture book, 7-year-old Mark spends the day helping at his family’s hot dog stand at the Connecticut, and when night comes, he finds the perfect place to release the mysterious jelly creature he found on the way there.
Delaware
The Book of Unknown Americans BY CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ
Maribel’s family has a new home in a Delaware apartment block. They’ve immigrated from Mexico and everything they know, hoping that the United States will hold the cure for Maribel’s traumatic brain injury. Mayor Toro, the son of Panamanian immigrants living in the same complex, develops a deep relationship with Maribel, but the suspicion and uncertainty of immigrant life makes things complicated.
Florida
Chomp BY CARL HIAASEN
The Everglades are the latest destination for "Expedition Survival!," and Wahoo and his animal trainer dad have the increasingly difficult job of keeping the show’s clueless-about-animals star from getting mauled, maimed, or otherwise destroyed by the Florida swamp’s wildlife.
Georgia
Truth with a Capital T BY BETHANY HEGEDUS
Maebelle is crushed when she’s bumped out of her school’s gifted-and-talented program, and she’s counting on a summer at her grandparents’ antebellum Georgia mansion to cheer her up. Instead, she finds a talented cousin and a locked room mystery that only she can solve.
Hawaii
Night of the Howling Dogs BY GRAHAM SALISBURY
A Boy Scout camping trip on the Big Island goes awry when an earthquake strikes, causing a tsunami. Dylan and Louie team up in this adventure, which captures the beauty and danger of the Hawaiian wilderness and some of the nuances of Hawaiian culture and tradition. Amazingly, it's based on a true story that happened to a group of young campers in 1975.
Idaho
Walk Two Moons BY SHANNON CREECH
On a road trip with her grand- parents from Ohio to Idaho, 13-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle spins a story for her grandparents about the mysterious disappearance of her new friend’s mother. Sal is on her way to visit her own mother’s final resting place in Lewiston, Idaho, and her story spinning starts to intersect more and more with her own life.
Illinois
The Ambrose Deception BY EMILY ECTON
Chicago becomes a giant game board in this book about three middle schoolers competing for a mysterious scholarship that sends them around the city following cryptic clues to city landmarks. Of course, the shadowy figures behind the competition may be up to more than an innocent scavenger hunt.
Indiana
The Fault in Our Stars BY JOHN GREEN
When they aren’t on a quest to Amsterdam, Hazel and Gus call Indianapolis home: The action in these teen love-story-tearjerker takes place at 100 Acres at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Castleton Square Mall, Holiday Park... and Crown Hill Cemetery.
Iowa
Tomás and the Library Lady BY PAT MORA
In this warm picture book, a transplanted-from-Texas boy who has come with his family to do seasonal work finds his Iowa home at the library, where a kind librarian gives him books — but also compassion, support, and the occasional glass of cold water. (Tomás is based on the real-life Tomás Rivera, who would grow up to become the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside.)
Kansas
May B. BY CAROLINE STARR ROSE
In this novel-in-verse, 12-year- old May B.’s parents hire her out to a homesteading couple on the Kansas prairie. She’s already upset about missing months of school, where she struggles but dreams of becoming a teacher, and lonely without her family, when she realizes that she’s been abandoned, 15 miles from home with winter bearing down on her. As May’s story becomes a tale of survival and inner strength, this book takes its place with other 19th century pioneer stories like Little House on the Prairie and Hattie Big Sky, as a novel that captures the beauty and danger of the wild in the west.
Kentucky
Chasing Redbird BY SHARON CREECH
I usually try not to duplicate authors on my lists, but I’m making an exception for Sharon Creech and this heart- wrenching story about a girl coming to terms with the loss of two people she loved. The Kentucky woods — and an ancient trail she discovers in them — play an important role in Zinny’s story.
Louisiana
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen BY RENÉE WATSON
The mixed media illustrations and free-verse storytelling make this story of Hurricane Katrina compelling for young readers. Adrienne, Keesha, Michael, and Tommy have lived on the same street in New Orleans for their whole lives, but everything changes after the hurricane strikes. The kids’ perspective brings a fresh hopefulness to this true story.
Maine
Welcome Home or Someplace Like It BY CHARLOTTE AGELL
Aggie and Thorne are used to getting dropped off in random places by their writer-mother, so it’s no surprise when she leaves them with their estranged grandfather in the quirky hamlet of Ludwig, Maine. Aggie is surprised when this strange and temporary place starts to feel like home. (Bonus points to this book for highlighting that classic soda of Maine life: Moxie!)
Maryland
Dicey's Song BY CYNTHIA VOIGT
In this sequel to Homecoming, Dicey and her siblings find a home with their grandmother on a rundown farm on Chesapeake Bay. Dicey, who is used to carrying the responsibilities her mentally ill mother can’t handle, doesn’t know what to do with herself now that she is free to be a regular teenager.
Massachusetts
Make Way for Ducklings BY ROBERT MCCLOSKEY
Boston landmarks are the backdrop for this classic picture book about a family of ducks on their way to the Public Gardens.
Michigan
Bud, Not Buddy BY CHRISTOPHER PAUL CURTIS
Ten-year-old Bud is in Flint, Michigan on the trail of his long-lost father, who he’s convinced plays in a band whose posters he’s seen in his mom’s things. Depression-era Michigan is a tough place for a boy on the run, but Bud’s a tough boy, and he’s determined to change his life for the better.
Minnesota
Emily of Deep Valley BY MAUD HART LOVELACE
Unlike Lovelace’s other heroines, Emily is a loner without a big, busy family. Instead, she lives with her beloved grand- father, taking care of him and trying to model her life after her hero Jane Addams. In that spirit, she finds a surprising sense of connection and be- longing when she starts working with the growing population of Syrian immigrants in her neighborhood.
Mississippi
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry BY MILDRED D. TAYLOR
This book perfectly captures the racial tensions in 1930s Mississippi, which means it’s not always an easy book to read. Racism stinks. But the Logans are a caring, intelligent, inspiring family to spend some time with, and talking about racism with our kids is more important now than ever.
Missouri
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer BY MARK TWAIN
No one captures the small town, old-fashioned charm of childhood in rural Missouri the way Mark Twain does. Nobody likes Tom Sawyer, who’s all privilege and swagger, but it’s impossible not to enjoy his antics. Importantly, this book also captures some of the racism against Native Americans that permeated U.S. history, making it a great conversation starter for your family.
Montana
The Miseducation of Cameron Post BY EMILY DANFORTH
After her parents die in a car accident, still-in-the-closet Cam moves to Montana to live with her very old-fashioned grandmother and aunt. She’s determined to just blend in, but then she meets the cowgirl of her dreams, and she realizes that she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life hiding who she really is.
Nebraska
Savvy BY INGRID LAW
Everyone in the Beaumont family has a superpower — Grandpa can move mountains. Fish can control the weather. And almost-13-year- old Mibs is about to discover her own superpower when word comes that her beloved Poppa has been in an accident. Mibs travels through the Nebraska countryside to reach her father, convinced that her still-to-be-revealed power can save him.
Nevada
Riding Freedom BY PAM MUÑOZ RYAN
Charlotte is supposed to be a proper Victorian-era young lady, but she’d rather just hang out with horses. After being raised in a boys’ orphanage, the idea of settling into the role of a young lady is enough to drive her to an inspired solution: She’ll disguise herself as a boy and run away to Nevada to become a horse rancher.
New Hampshire
The Enormous Egg BY OLIVER BUTTERWORTH
In Freedom, New Hampshire, a very unusual egg hatches into a baby dinosaur — and suddenly, the cozy little 1950s town is front-page news every- where. The little town of freedom is a picture-perfect flashback to the kind of small New England town that we still look back at nostalgically (even as we realize that it might not have actually existed for most people).
New Jersey
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal BY G. WILLOW WILSON
Kamala’s parents are super-strict Muslim immigrants, but Kamala’s just your average Jersey City girl — until she walks into a strange mist and emerges with shape-shifting super powers.
New Mexico
Kepler's Dream BY JULIET BELL
While her mother is in the hospital receiving an experimental cancer treatment, Ella has to go stay with her buttoned-up, book-obsessed grandmother in Albuquerque. Ella’s not sure how she’ll survive the heat, the boredom, or the endless list of rules — much less worrying about what’s happening with her mom. Then a book disappears from her grandmother’s be- loved library, and Ella teams up with a new friend to solve the mystery and get her grandmother's book back.
New York
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street BY KARINA YAN GLASER
Five kids, two parents, and a host of pets call the first two floors of a Harlem brownstone home — and they can’t imagine living anywhere else. So when their landlord declines to renew their lease, Jessie, Isa, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney are determined to convince him that he’s making a big mistake. I love the way this book brings the small-town-in- a-big-city feel of Harlem to life.
North Carolina
Serafina and the Black Cloak BY ROBERT BEATTY
Serafina lives (secretly) in the basement of the Biltmore Estate with her grandfather, who is Vanderbilt family’s maintenance man. When children begin disappearing from the house, Serafina and her friend young Braeden Vanderbilt risk the perils of the surrounding forest to investigate — but the forest is full of secrets.
North Dakota
Apple In the Middle BY DAWN QUIGLEY
Apple is nonplussed to spend a summer on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation with her late mother’s family, but her dad doesn’t give her much of a choice. As Apple learns about her Native heritage — and comes to appreciate its emphasis on family, faith, nature, and humor — she also learns more about the mother she never knew and about herself.
Ohio
Unwind BY NEAL SHUSTERMAN
Ohio is the backdrop for this speculative fiction novel in which abortion is illegal but parents can “unwind” their teens’ lives between age 13 and 18 as long as their organs are donated to another person. Three kids scheduled to be unwound go on the lam across Ohio, determined to stay undercover until they turn 18 and can no longer be terminated.
Oklahoma
The Outsiders BY S.E. HINTON
The Greasers and the Socs face off in 1960s in Tulsa in this classic coming-of-age story about class, friendship, and hope. Teenage Ponyboy is a working class kid who gets caught up in the escalating violence between the city’s two socioeconomic factions. This was one of the first books to feature a teen protagonist with an authentic voice, and it’s been banned as often as it’s been praised since it was published.
Oregon
Roller Girl BY VICTORIA JAMIESON
Astrid’s roller derby team practices in Portland’s Oaks Park, and she’s determined to make her mark on the team, even though she’s not the best skater and even though her best friend doesn’t seem interested in being best friends anymore. This graphic novel charts a tough season in the life of a middle schooler, but Astrid’s persistence — and a little support from the people who love her — carries the day.
Pennsylvania
Maniac Magee BY JERRY SPINELLI
Jeffrey Magee achieves folk hero status in Two Mills, Pennsylvania, thanks to his amazing athletic abilities, but that doesn’t protect him from racism or the problems of growing up in poverty. This is an odd little book that bounces between slapstick and heartstring-tugging, but somehow, it all works.
Rhode Island
The Amazing Adventures of John Smith, Jr., a.k.a. Houdini BY PETER JOHNSON
John’s friends call him Houdini because he’s obsessed with magic, but he finds a new ob- session when an author visits his school in the rundown part of Providence. Houdini finds that his adventures with his friends make good literary fodder, but it’s harder to write about his dad’s job loss or his brother’s military PTSD.
South Carolina
Brown Girl Dreaming BY JACQUELINE WOODSON
The contrast between life as a young Black girl in 1960s in South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York, is the heart of this lyrical memoir in verse, based on Woodson’s own life. It’s simple enough to read with an elementary student, but it’s rich enough to be a rewarding read with a high schooler, too.
South Dakota
The Trickster and the Troll BY VIRGINIA DRIVING HAWK SNEVE
The cultural convergence is part of what makes North Dakota so interesting, and this picture book — featuring a Lakota trickster and a Norwegian troll — captures both. While trying to track down his recently immigrated family from Norway, a troll meets Iktomi, whose people have also gone missing.
Tennessee
A Snicker of Magic BY NATALIE LLOYD
There’s been no magic in Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, since the Brothers Threadbare left the town drained of magic and under a curse. Newcomer Felicity doesn't really care, though, since she’s never lived anywhere long enough to feel at home. But when she discovers an ability that suggests Midnight Gulch could be her real home, she’s determined to get to the roots of the town’s magical problem.
Texas
Love, Sugar, Magic: A Dash of Trouble BY ANNA MERIANO
Leo’s always getting told she’s too young to help with her family’s Rose Hill, Texas, bakery, but she’s thrilled when she accidentally discovers that her mom, aunt, and big sisters are all pastry brujas with the power to mix magic into everything they bake. Leo thinks that seems pretty cool — so cool that when her best friend comes to her with a problem, Leo decides to whip up a magical solution for her.
Utah
The Great Brain BY JOHN D. FITZGERALD
Tom — a.k.a. the Great Brain — and his brothers get up to all kinds of mischief in 1896, shortly after Utah officially joined the United States. The Great Brain isn’t a nice kid, exactly, but he’s a very entertain- ing one — and his stories paint a vivid picture of turn-of-the- 20th-century Utah.
Vermont
Witness BY KAREN HESSE
In this powerful novel-in-verse, 11 different characters tell the story of the year the Klu Klux Klan arrives in a small Vermont town, changing its in- habitants’ lives forever. Though the (true) story is set in 1924, readers will identify with the choice between fear and acceptance that permeated this book.
Virginia
Bridge to Terabithia BY KATHERINE PATERSON
Jess doesn’t love much about his life in rural Virginia until Leslie moves in next door and teaches him to see the world in new ways. This tearjerker classic about a boy and girl who imagine a magical world in the Virginia wilderness is a moving meditation on friendship, belonging, and identity.
Washington
Jackie's Wild Seattle BY WILL HOBBS
When their parents head overseas for the summer to work with Doctors Without Borders, Cody and Shannon stay in Seattle with their uncle, who drives the ambulance for a local wildlife rescue center. When their uncle is injured by a rescued hawk, the kids take over his job, and Seattle be- comes a backdrop for their animal adventures.
West Virginia
Shiloh BY PHYLLIS REYNOLDS NAYLOR
When Shiloh runs away from his abusive owner, Marty finds him and immediately knows the beagle is meant to be his dog. Marty's determined to keep Shiloh — and keep him safe — but in his rural West Virginia town, stealing someone else’s dog is something you shouldn’t do. Marty finds himself asking hard questions about what the right thing to do is when it feels like the rules should be broken.
Wisconsin
The Westing Game BY ELLEN RASKIN
A shiny new apartment building on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan is the setting for this classic mystery, in which an unconnected group of residents find they have a mystery in common. The millionaire Sam Westing has been murdered in his nearby mansion, and the resident who solves the mystery will inherit the Westing fortune.
Wyoming
My Friend Flicka BY MARY O’HARA
Ten-year-old Ken meets the untrained horse Flicka on his family’s horse ranch in Wyoming. As Ken trains Flicka, he gains confidence and comes to understand himself and his family better. The wildness and wide open spaces of Wyoming are almost a secondary character in the story.
This reading list was originally published in the fall 2019 issue of HSL.
Celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival with a Great Readaloud
Reading together is a favorite way for many Chinese families to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in China — also known as the Moon Festival.
Reading together is a favorite way for many Chinese families to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in China — also known as the Moon Festival.
Marking the end of the harvest season and the full moon, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a little like a Chinese Thanksgiving, focused on celebrating family and friends. So snuggle up, do a little moon gazing, and learn more about the Chinese Moon Festival with one of these readalouds.
Thanking the Moon by Grace Lin
A Chinese American family celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival with a moonlight picnic in this picture book introduction.
Lin Yi’s Lantern by Brenda Williams
Little Lin Yi has a big job: He’s in charge of doing all the shopping for his family’s Moon Festival celebration. And if he can bargain well enough, he might also be able to buy the red rabbit lantern he yearns for.
Mooncakes by Loretta Seto
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a little girls listens to her parents tell stories about the brave moon goddess, a magical tree that can never be cut down, and the Jade Rabbit who lives on the moon.
The Moon Lady by Amy Tan
I love that this readaloud (a chapter from the novel The Joy Luck Club) is as engaging for teens as for preschoolers. Nai-Nai tells her three granddaughters the story of the Moon Lady and how she grants secret wishes when she’s asked.
A Full Moon Is Rising by Marilyn Singer
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of several festivals that celebrate the moon, and Singer’s book is a cheerful poetry collection about all the ways that people around the world come together to honor the moon.
38 Totally Brilliant Comics for Your Homeschool Reading List
September 25 is National Comic Book Day, but don’t wait until then to add these comics to your homeschool reading list. These graphic texts stand up as literature in their own right.
September 25 is National Comic Book Day, but don’t wait until then to add these comics to your homeschool reading list. These graphic texts stand up as literature in their own right.
The first graphic novel was (probably) published in 1978, but it’s really only over the past three decades that comics have found their rightful place as “real literature” on library shelves, thanks in part to groundbreaking graphic novels like Maus, Sandman, and Persepolis. (In case you’re wondering, a graphic novel is, basically, a book-length comic, and the terms can be used interchangeably.) To celebrate National Comic Book Day and the storytelling power of books and art, we’ve rounded up some great graphic novels for your homeschool shelf.
Chi’s Sweet Home by Konami Kanata
It’s pretty much impossible to resist these stories about a stray cat who finds a home with a kind family in a no-pets-allowed Tokyo apartment building. Elementary
Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires
Space cat Binky ventures out the window and into “outer space” to rescue his stuffed mouse after a misadventure strands him outside. Elementary
Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
A little mouse gets gussied up one piece of clothing at a time — until his mother reminds him that mice don’t actually wear clothes. Elementary
The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé
In Tintin’s first adventure, the young journalist tracks down a secret hidden in a model ship. Elementary
The Adventures of Polo by Régis Faller
A little dog sets out to explore the world with his boat, his backpack, and his umbrella. Elementary
Hamster and Cheese by Colleen Venable
In the first book of the Pet Shop Private Eye series, Sasspants the guinea pig teams up with Hamisher the hamster to solve the mystery of the missing sandwiches. Elementary
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman
This book highlights the collection at Boston’s best-known art museum. Grandma loses a green balloon, which causes a series of artistic mishaps around the city. Elementary
Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
The Bone cousins are determined to find their way home to Boneville, which means navigating a wilderness filled with monsters and potential friends. Elementary
Into the Volcano by Don Wood
Talk about drama: Two brothers on a mission to recover their family’s long-lost treasure find themselves trapped inside an erupting volcano. Elementary
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
The students have always wondered what their lunch lady does when she’s not dishing out lunch in the cafeteria — turns out, she’s serving up justice against bad guys, including a nefarious substitute teacher. Elementary
Babymouse: Queen of the World! by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm
The first book in the Babymouse series is a perfect introduction of what’s to come: A sassy little mouse with big dreams tries to navigate life as schoolmouse. Elementary
Luke on the Loose by Harry Bliss
A pigeon leads a boy on a chase through New York City, from Central Park across the Brooklyn Bridge, through an upscale restaurant, and into the sky. Elementary
Sticky Burr: Adventures in Burrwood Forest by John Lechner
In this whimsical tale, a little burr who feels like an outsider in his community sets out on an adventure with his nature journal in hand. Elementary
The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
Siblings Emily and Navin must rescue their mother from a strange alternate world in this first book in the Amulet series. Middle grades
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Eric Shanower and L. Frank Baum
Eric Shanower’s graphic adaptation of Dorothy’s adventures in Oz is one of the great examples of how a graphic novel can bring fresh life to a classic story. Middle grades
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The only thing creepier than Gaiman’s original novel about a girl who finds a wonderfully terrible world behind a secret door in her new house is this deliciously eerie graphic adaptation. Middle grades
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Get ready to meet the bold and imaginative heroine you’ve been waiting for: Spacegirl Zita just wants to save her pal from an alien doomsday cult, but she discovers she’s kind of a hero. Middle grades
Foiled by Jane Yolen
Aliera may be a fencing star, but she’s a nobody at school. So when her cute lab partner asks her on her first date, the last thing she needs is to deal with a bunch of magical creatures determined to steal her new fencing foil. Middle grades
Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton by Matt Phelan
In this nostalgic tale of old-fashioned summers, a traveling vaudeville troupe comes to Henry’s town and captivates Henry and his friends with its tightrope walkers and exotic animals—and with a kid performer named Buster Keaton, a.k.a “the human mop.” Middle grades
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
Telgemeier’s one-word-titled graphic novels (see also: Ghosts, Sisters, Drama) are the middle grades graphic novel gold standard. In this one, Raina reflects on her life in dentistry, which includes headgear, surgery, braces, and more. Middle grades
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Shapeshifter Nimona teams up with a not-so-evil villain to take down a not-so-good hero in this delightfully fractured fairy tale. Middle grades
Ghostopolis by Doug Ten Napel
Garth Hale gets stuck in the world of spirits when a washed-out ghost handler accidentally zaps him to the netherworld. Being a human in the ghost world comes with certain superpowers — but an evil ruler wants to harness those powers to fulfill his evil scheme. Middle grades
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen
Can Charlie and Nate’s friendship survive a student government election that features cheerleaders out for blood, killer robots, behind-the-scenes scheming, and (why not?) chainsaws? Middle grades
Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman
Former space hero Hakata Soy just wants to be a regular kid — but with mean girls, a roommate who’s obsessed with sports, and a best friend who won’t return his calls, being a student at Astronaut Academy is harder than he expected. Middle grades
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson and Dan Jolley
When a virus kills off all the adults, a teenage girl becomes a reluctant leader, protecting her fellow survivors from starvation, danger, and the ruthless gangs who roam the city streets. Middle grades
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch
A dragon-fighting, bad guy-kicking Orthodox Jewish heroine? Yes, please. Thank goodness this one kicks off a series, because one dose of Mirka Herschberg just wouldn’t be enough. Middle grades
Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack, Jr.
The only thing more fascinating than the story of a liberated enslaved person turned Wild West cowboy is the true story of a liberated enslaved person turned Wild West cowboy. Nat Love is one of those people who brings history to life. Middle grades
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa
When a group of teenagers discover that their parents are actually supervillains, running away from home seems like the only option. Then they discover that they have super powers of their own, which could be used for evil — or good. Think of it as coming of age story with heat vision. High school
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
This autobiographical account of a precocious kid with Marxist parents who lived through the Islamic Revolution in Tehran in 1979 is utterly riveting. High school
Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan
Remember that paperboy from Better Off Dead? These four papergirls would take him down in a couple of minutes. Lucky for the world, they’re on the case on Halloween in 1988, when a bunch of creepy aliens invade Earth. High school
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
When someone asks you what a graphic novel can do that a more traditional book can’t, point them to this dreamy, delicate story about stories. A boy from the North Pole falls in love with a girl from the South Pole. The catch? They can’t touch. So they set off on a journey around the world to find a solution together. The book reads like a series of folk stories passed down through hundreds of voices, and the whimsically tender illustrations have a voice of their own. High school
The Gigantic Beard that Was Evil by Stephen Collins
Just go with it: Dave’s an ordinary guy, living a normal life until one day when he grows a gigantic beard that swallows his whole town. This book is surreal, weird, and kind of wonderful. High school
Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Kamala Khan is just a typical teenage girl. Well, unless you count the fact that her strict Muslim parents won’t let her go to any parties in her New Jersey hometown. Oh, and that she’s got super powers, thanks to the effects of a weird mist. Kamala is smart, determined, and full of save-the-world pep. High school
This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
Definitely for mature readers (but in the best possible way), this is a coming-of-age story about two friends spending the summer together and figuring out the uncertain terrain between the safety of childhood and the freedom of adulthood. The Tamakis make a bold choice in letting Rose be unlikable, but the resulting book is stronger and more interesting because of it. Bonus: This book has the best graphic novel dance scene ever. High school
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and P Craig Russell
Not all beloved books translate to graphic format — but The Graveyard Book author knows a thing or two about what makes a great comic (see: The Sandman), and this adaptation delivers. Russell brings to vivid life the peculiarly creepy world where Nobody Owens grows up in a graveyard, raised by ghosts and creatures of the night. High school
Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
In 1898 China, peasants are bullied and abused by foreign devils—and Little Bao is sick and tired of it. Against all odds and with the help of the old Chinese gods, Little Bao builds an army of kung fu-trained peasants (called boxers) and kicks of a successful — and violent — revolution. High school
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
This isn’t a light or simple story — it’s a story about surviving the Holocaust and about being the child of Holocaust survivors. It’s about war and the hard choices that shape us and the way that luck strikes without reason or justification. It’s powerful and difficult and totally worth reading. High school
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
In this creepy Gothic horror comic, Carroll weaves five spine-tingling tales of the macabre with deliciously eerie illustrations. If you’re in the mood for something spooky, don’t miss this one. High school
This was originally published in the summer 2017 issue of HSL.
Need a new series for winter readaloud season? We have a few ideas.