As I mentioned in my recent curriculum post, I decided this year I would purchase a book (or two or three!) from each chapter- the "best of the best". This list was compiled using recommendations from the Well Trained Mind Curriculum Board, the SOTW 2 Activity Guide and my own research.
I hope this list helps another mom who may want to do something similar. I do want to say that what I consider “the best of the best” may not be for your family so take my recommendations with that in mind. I chose books based on several criteria: books that would appeal to Thatcher (hence so many of Fiona McDonald’s titles from her You Wouldn’t Want to… series), classics that I wanted my child exposed to, books with beautiful language and/or illustrations, books that filled in the gaps of what I wanted Thatcher to know… Not all the books met all the criteria, of course, but I tried to sure that every book met at least one or more. A few book are used in several chapters as well and I still have a few chapters with no books listed.
Feel free to leave a comment if I have left off one of your family's favorites. I am sure there are many wonderful books I have missed that others would benefit from hearing about. :)
I hope this list helps another mom who may want to do something similar. I do want to say that what I consider “the best of the best” may not be for your family so take my recommendations with that in mind. I chose books based on several criteria: books that would appeal to Thatcher (hence so many of Fiona McDonald’s titles from her You Wouldn’t Want to… series), classics that I wanted my child exposed to, books with beautiful language and/or illustrations, books that filled in the gaps of what I wanted Thatcher to know… Not all the books met all the criteria, of course, but I tried to sure that every book met at least one or more. A few book are used in several chapters as well and I still have a few chapters with no books listed.
Feel free to leave a comment if I have left off one of your family's favorites. I am sure there are many wonderful books I have missed that others would benefit from hearing about. :)
Ch. 1
The Glory that was Rome
I Wonder Why Romans Wore Togas…
Fiona MacDonald
Ch. 2
The Early Days of Britain
Beowulf
by Michael Morpurgo
Favorite Medieval Tales
Mary Pope Osborne
Ch. 3
Christianity Comes to Britain
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Michael Morpurgo
Across a Dark and Wild Sea
Don Brown
Life in a Medieval Monastery
Cels
Augustine Came to Kent
Barbara Willard
Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland
Tomie De Paola
Ch. 4
The Byzantine Empire
Famous Men of Middle Ages
Cyndy Shearer
Legend of Saint Nicholas
Demi
Ch. 5
The Medieval Indian Empire
I Doko: The Tale of a Basket
Ed Young
Ch. 6
The Rise of Islam
Stories of the Caliphs
Denys Johnson-Davies
Ch. 7
Islam becomes an Empire
Sinbad
Ludmila Zeman’s series (out of print – borrow from library)
Ch. 8
The Great Dynasties of China
Lon Po Po
Ed Young
Ch. 9
East of China
Grass Sandals
Spivak
Ch. 10
The Bottom of the World
Gidja
Qinkin Mountain
(Ultimately I was not able to find thesetwo books but they came highly recommended by an Aussie on the WTM board. I left them on the list, just in case.)
Ch. 11
The Kingdom of the Franks
Famous Men of Middle Ages
Favorite Medieval Tales
Ch. 12
Islamic Invasion
Three Golden Oranges
Ada
Ch. 13
The Great Kings of France
Famous Men of Middle Ages
Ch. 14
The Arrival of the Norsemen
Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky
Barbara Schiller
Ch. 15
The First Kings of England
The Vikings
Shuter
Ch. 16
England After the Conquest
Medieval Feast
Aliki
The Reluctant Dragon
Kenneth Grahame
Saint George and the Dragon
Margaret Hodges
Castle Diary: Tobias Burgess
Platt
Ch. 17
Knights and Samurai
Sword of the Samurai
by Eric A. Kimmel and Michael Evans
EyeWitness- Days of Knights
How to be a Medieval Knight
How to be a Samurai Warrior
Fiona MacDonald
Ch. 18
The Age of the Crusades
Chanticleer and the Fox
Chaucer
You Wouldn’t Want to be a Crusader
Fiona MacDonald
Canterbury Tales
Barbara Cohen
Ch. 19
A New Kind of King
Lives of Extraordinary Women
Krull
Robin Hood
Jim Weiss CD
Robin Hood-DK Rder
Angela Bull
Ch. 20
The Diaspora
???
Ch. 21
The Mongols Devastate the East
Mu Lan
Jiang
Ch. 22
Exploring the Mysterious East
Silk Route: 7000Miles of History
John Major
Empty Pot
Demi
Ch. 23
The First Russians
Russian Fairy Tales
Avery
Ch. 24
The Ottoman Empire
Legend of the Persian Carpet
DePaola
Ch. 25
The End of the World
You Wouldn’t Want to be Sick in the 16th Century
MacDonald
Door in the Wall
Marguerite De Angeli
Ch. 26
France and England at War
Joan of Arc
Diane Stanley
Ch. 27
War for the English Throne
Bravo, Mr. William Shakespeare
Marcia Williams
Ch. 28
The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal
Lives of Extraordinary Women
Ch. 29
African Kingdoms
???
Ch. 30
India Under the Monguls
The Rumor: A Jakata Tale from India
Thornhill
The Monkey and the Crocodile
Galdone
Ch. 31
Exploring New Worlds
Columbus-Step n2 Reading Book
Krensky
Columbus
D’Aulaire
Who Was Ferdinand Magellan?
Kramer
Who in the World was the Forgotten Explorer, Amerigo Vespucci?
Lambert
Ch. 32
The American Kingdoms
You Wouldn’t Want to be…Aztec Sacrifice
You Wouldn’t Want to be…Mayan Soothsayer
You Wouldn’t Want to be an Inca Mummy
MacDonald
Ch. 33
Spain, Portugal and the New World
Lives of Extraordinary Women
Krull
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters
Steptoe
The Sad Night: Aztec Victory and Spanish Loss
Sally Schofer Mathews
Ch. 34
Marin Luther’s New Ideas
Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World
Maier
You Wouldn’t Want to be Married to Henry VIII
MacDonald
Francis: Poor Man of Assisi
DePaola
Ch. 35
The Renaissance
J. Gutenburg and the Amazing Printing Press
Bruce Koscielniak
Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Laurence Anholt
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists: Pieter Bruegel
Mike Venezia
How a Book is Made
Aliki
Katie and the Mona Lisa
James Mayhew
Leonardo’s Horse
Fritz
Marguerite Makes a Book
Bruce Robertson
Ch. 36
Reformation and Counter Reformation
Ch. 37
The New Universe
Starry Messenger
Peter Sis
The Genius of Leonardo
Visconti
Ch. 38
England’s Greatest Queen
Elizabeth I
Turnbull
Good Queen Bess
Diane Stanley
Ch. 39
England’s Greatest Playwright
Bard of Avon
Vennema
Shakespeare and the Globe
Aliki
Tales from Shakespeare
Marcia Williams
More Tales from Shakespeare
Marcia Williams
Any of the Bruce Coville Shakespeare Books
Ch. 40
New Ventures to the Americas
Roanoake: The Lost Colony
Lee Miller
Ch. 41
Explorations in the North
With Pipe, Paddle and Song: A Story of the French-Canadian Voyageurs
Elizabeth Yates
Ch. 42
Empires Collide
You Wouldn’t Want to Sail in a Spanish Armada
MacDonald
You Wouldn’t Want to Explore with Sir Francis Drake
MacDonald
Additional Treasure Chests:
Ancient China
Knights
DaVinci
Other Recommended Books:
Clown of God (Read around Christmastime)
Aliki
Days of Knights & Damsels
Laurie Carlson
Squire and the Scroll
Bishop and McDaniels
Minstrel in the Tower
Gloria Skurzynski
Caedmon’s Song
Ashby
14 comments:
I was lamenting this past Sunday that I hadn't gotten all my prep done for science and SOTW2 yet - we started this monday... :-(
And then I see this post and I realize how blessed I am to "know" (as in bloggy 'know') you! Thank you sooooo much for posting this - Jason will enjoy these as well!
Now if I could just get all my projects planned out - how much time would that save me per week, huh?
Andrea
Forgot to ask - are you working on any sort of timeline with Thatcher? I didn't get to it last year and just feel like it would do wonders in making connections and tying things together. I got mine here:
http://www.thehomeschoolshop.com/sh-timelines.htm
and then ordered some stickers from Veritas Press. I am determined to start on it this year. Check it out!
Andrea
Thanks for sharing this - now my work is done :) Well, not exactly but it sure is helpful.
I just wanted to say that I came across your blog today as I was searching for some more homeschooling "stuff"...and I am blown away by how much we have in common. I am a 34 year old pastor's wife...to 3 girls...8, 3, and 1 1/2. I am also a runner. I just finished my first half-marathon this spring. I live in Illinois and I am from Florida and like you, I told my husband (who is from Illinois) that I would never live in Illinois. This will be my first year homeschooling. I also taught school for 7 years before I became a stay-at-home mom. I look forward to reading your blog and hopefully we can chat one day. I really feel like the Lord led me to your blog today as I'm getting more and more nervous about this new task in my life. If you ever get a chance to email...scpenn@sbcglobal.net
Stephani Penn
what a wonderful list! makes me wish i was doing sotw 2 instead of sotw 1 this year. you don't by chance happen to have a book list for sotw 1 do you?
thank you for all your work, jennifer.
btw, how much did it cost to buy all the books like that for sotw 2, if you don't mind sharing?
I just got "Arthur High King of Britain" from the library. J is LOVING it! I just put him to bed and even I want to sneak back into this book to read what happens next. Michael Morpurgo has a great way with words and the illustrations are beautiful. Thanks for this tip!
Andrea
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing your hard work. We will be starting SOTW later this year so I am gathering resources now. This post is one I will add to the files:)
Jennifer
You said you couldn't find the recommended books for chapter 10 so can I suggest "The Frog Who Wouldn't Laugh" by Cecilia Egan (it's only a picture book but is a great re-telling of a traditional Aboriginal dreamtime myth) and "The Little Black Princess" by Mrs Aeneas Gunn. This one is a true story of a short period of the life of an Aboriginal girl living a semi-traditional life. It was written in 1902 by her white foster-mother. You can find a brief excerpt and review of it here: http://equipacademy.blogspot.com/2008/05/little-black-princess.html.
~ Sharon from Equip Academy
PS I haven't visited your blog for a while, but I'm glad mom24 reminded me to come back again!
Thank you, thank you , thank you! We are starting this too, your list will help me out a lot.
Wow, what a truly amazing blessing!! We will be venturing through SOTW 2 this year and your list will be a wonderful resource for me, thanks!
JOYfully in Him,
Kelli
Thank you so much for this list!
Thank you for this list...just what I needed!
(muffinmom from WTM)
I want to say thanks for putting this together. I just found it and it is perfect for what we need. We ran late with SOTW 1 so just starting 2. I work full time so I can't do as much as I want on my own and appreciate all of the hardworking homeschooling parents out there that are willing to share.
Evamarie
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