Medieval Book List

I compiled our literature list for 2nd/3rd grade based on using The Story of the World vol. 2 The Middle Ages as well as a search of our public library online catalog. I looked for fictional books that tied to the historic time period and location we will be studying each week. Some books were suggested in the Story of the World Activity Guide.

I'm excited about this list because it offers a variety of people, books, stories, poems and authors that coordinate with our history lessons. I look forward to introducing Pillango to some of the major works of literature from the time period (i.e. Robin Hood, Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote and Shakespearean plays).

Some of the books will be independent reading for Pillango (dd7) and many will be read-alouds. I'm also looking forward to doing four literature studies during the year. I've purchased study guides that will guide us through a more in depth focus on the books. I've highlighted these books in italics.


Our preliminary literature book list for 2009-2010 is as follows:

Literature Selection	Literature Author
Augustine Came to Kent	Willard, Barbara
Across a Dark and Wild Sea
Who in the World was the Acrobatic Empress?	Phillips, Robin
Once a Mouse…	Brown, Marcia
The River Goddess: A Hindu Tale	Singh, Vijay
Muhammad	Demi
Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights	Kerven, Rosalind
Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves	Kimmel, Eric
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor	Riordan, James
Sinbad	Zeman, Ludmila
Maples in the Mist: Poems for Children from the Tang Dynasty	Ho, Minfong
The Paper Dragon	Davol, Marguerite
Yoshi's Feast	Kajikawa, Kimiko
A Single Shard	Park, Linda Sue
The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars	Merrill, Jean
The Long Silk Strand	Williams, Laura
Maui and the Sun	Bishop, Gavin
The Holy Twins: Benedict & Scholastica	Norris, Kathleen
Son of Charlemagne	Willard, Barbara
El Cid	McCaughrean, Geraldine
Minstrel in the Tower	Skurzynski, Gloria
Leif the Lucky	d'Aulaire
Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky	Schiller, Barbara
Blood Feud (RA)	Sutcliff, Rosemary
The Midwife's Apprentice	Cushman, Karen
Castle Diary	Platt, Richard
Knight's Castle	Eager, Edward
The Last Knight: An Intro to Don Quixote	Eisner, Will
Sword of the Samurai	Kimmel, Eric
Canterbury Tales
Here bygynneth Chaucer's Canterbury Tales	Williams, Marcia
Robin Hood	Philip, Neil
The Apple and the Arrow	Buff
Tale of Meshka the Kvetch	Chapman, Carol
Snow in Jerusalem	da Costa, Deborah
The Song of Mu Lan	Lee
Genghis Kahn	Demi
Beautiful Warrior	McCully, Emily Arnold
The Emperor and the Kite	Yolen, Jane
Kat and the Emperor's Gift	Bradford, Emma
Baboushka and the Three Kings	Robbins, Ruth
Prince Ivan and the Firebird	Lodge, Bernard
Tom Thumb	Watson, Richard
The Door in the Wall	D Angeli, M
Days of Courage	Jensen, Niels
Three Sacks of Truth	Kimmel, Eric
Joan of Arc	Stanley, Diane
Fire, Bed and Bone	Branford, H
More Tales from Shakespeare: Richard III	Williams, Marcia
Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, Spain 1466	Meyer, Carolyn
The Girl Who Married a Lion…	McCall Smith, Alex
Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali	Burns, Khephra
In the Land of the Taj Mahal	Rothfarb, Ed
Where Do You Think You are Going, Mr. Columbus?	Fritz, Jean
Follow the Dream	Sis, Peter
Columbus	d'Aulaire
Me Oh Maya	Scieszka, Jon
The Bravest Flute	Grifalconi, Ann
Spy for the Night Riders	Dave & Neta Jackson
Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World	Maier, Paul
Whipping Boy	Fleischman, Sid
The William Tyndale Story	DVD Animated
The River of Grace: John Calvin bio	Joyce McPherson
HawkThat Dare Not Hunt By Day	O'Dell, Scott
Starry Messenger	Sis, Peter
Galileo's Treasure Box	Brighton, Catherine
Good Queen Bess	Stanley, Diane
Sir Frances Drake	Gerrard, Roy
The Queen's Progress	Mannis, Celeste
Shakespeare for Kids	Burdett, Lois
More Tales from Shakespeare	Williams, Marcia
Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night	Coville, Bruce
The Lyon's Roar	Stainer, M.L.

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

edition: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957
originally written in 1888


I've been creating a literature reading list for the next school year for my daughter who is 7 (blog name Pillango). We will be studying medieval times starting with Christianity arriving in Britain to the end of the 16th century. All of the assigned books on our reading list fall into this time period.

One book I didn't choose to put on the reading list is "Otto of the Silver Hand" by Howard Pyle. However, I checked out a copy from the library because I wanted to read it. Pillango and I read it together recently. This book was a wonderful introduction to medieval times - the language, the customs, the darkness and the way of life.

We read about Otto, the unfortunate circumstances of this birth, his monastic upbringing and his return to the harsh world after turning 12. It was a perfect read-aloud for Pillango because everytime I returned to reading it she was immediately captivated by the details and events even though initially she was resistant to picking it up again.

The other captivating aspect of this book was the artwork. Almost every page included a captioned picture created by the author.

Read-Aloud Handbook

A friend loaned me a copy of Jim Trelease's "The Read-Aloud Handbook" so I read it and was inspired to blog about our family's favorite read aloud books. Dad is an academic librarian and Mom homeschools the two kiddos so we are enthusiastic about books and reading.

Trelease makes the case for the importance of reading aloud to children. Reading aloud teaches them about the joy of books and reading while also teaching them about the sounds letters make, sentence structure, paragraphs, etc. If we want children to learn to speak we speak to them. It only makes sense that if we want children to learn to read, we read to them from a very young age.