The Ultimate Book List for Kids of All Ages

Are you looking into incorporating more literature into your homeschool? 

You can do so by using curriculum that routinely requires the use of different literature (one of our favorites is Lightning Literature), or you can encourage periods of independent reading during the day. These can also be used for time spent reading aloud to your children.

The content of what your kids are reading is probably important to you. It’s good to be aware of the quality of literature you are providing, as well as what ages they are appropriate for. We tried to make this list as high quality as possible. 

Here is a list of books with roughly which grade they are meant for. We understand that determining whether something is age-appropriate for your child or not is a very personal decision that is specific to each family and each individual child. 

We recommend checking out Common Sense Media if you need more information on each book.

Jump to: Kindergarten and Younger – 1st-3rd grades – 4th-6th grades – 7th grade and up

Kindergarten and younger

Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel	My Father’s Dragon series by Ruth Stiles Gannett and Ruth Chrisman Gannett
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling	Aesop for Children by Milo Winter
Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne	When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Adventures of Little Bear by Else Homeland Minarik	Dr. Seuss Books
On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier	The Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I Spy books by Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo	Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak	Snowmen at Night Series by Caralyn Buehler
Make Way for Ducklings by Robery McCloskey	Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Corduroy by Don Freeman	The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak	Honk Honk! Beep Beep! by Daniel Kirk

1st – 3rd grades

The Children’s Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett	Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White	A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie	Winnie-the-Pooh Series by A.A. Milne
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard Atwater	Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome	The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell	Amelia Bedelia series by Herman Parish
Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery	The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Paddington series by Michael Bond	The Tales of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz	Pippi Longstocking series by Astrid Lindgren
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans	Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth
The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne	Stuart Little by E.B. White

4th – 6th grades

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling	The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien	The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
Call of the Wild by Jack London	The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
Proud Knight, Fair Lady by Naomi Lewis	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson	A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Holes by Louis Sachar	From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens	Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl	Tales From Shakespeare by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi	Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
The Hatchet Series by Gary Paulsen	My Side of the Mountain Trilogy by Jean Craighead George

7th grade and up

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien	Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Animal Farm by George Orwell	Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Walden by Henry David Thoreau	Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury	To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester	The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes	The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck	The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins	The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

We routinely update this post to include more books. Please email us at kidslearningforlife@gmail.com if you have any suggestions!

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