Recommended Resources

A former classroom teacher, I currently homeschool using a literature-rich curriculum. I also believe stories shape imaginations and affections. So, I often find myself in conversations about children’s books. If we were chatting in person, I might mention some of my family’s current favorite books and bookish resources:

Picture Book Authors/Illustrators

  • Barbara Cooney
  • Robert McCloskey
  • Tasha Tudor
  • Beatrix Potter
  • Graeme Base
  • Thomas Locker
  • Jerry Pinkney
  • Arnold Lobel
  • Cynthia Rylant
  • Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
  • Alice Dagliesh

Picture Books

Early Chapter Books

  • E.B. White’s books
  • Paddington
  • The Little House books
  • Pooh Bear
  • Little Bear
  • Frog and Toad
  • James D. Witmer’s books

Middle Grade

  • Narnia
  • E. Nesbit’s, especially The Railway Children and The Treasure Seekers
  • Little White Horse
  • The Wilderking Series
  • The Casey Grimes books
  • The Green Ember series
  • The Wind in the Willows
  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
  • Little Pilgrim’s Progress
  • Understood Betsy
  • Hero Tales (Jackson)
  • The Phantom Tollbooth
  • Roger Lancelyn Green’s books
  • GA Henty’s books
  • Watership Down graphic novel, ill. by Joe Sutphin

Older Middle Grade/Young Teens

  • The Prydain Chronicles
  • Ashtown Burials, all ND Wilson books
  • The Wingfeather Saga
  • Watership Down
  • Christine Cohen’s books
  • Leave it to Psmith and other Wodehouse books
  • The Princess and the Goblin
  • Rosemary Sutcliff’s books
  • God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew
  • John Buchan’s Richard Hannay series

AudioBooks

  • Pooh Bear, narrated by Peter Dennis
  • The Lord of the Rings, narrated by Rob Inglis
  • Swallows and Amazons
  • Paddington, narrated by Stephen Fry
  • Anne of Green Gables
  • The Story of the Treasure Seekers

Bookish Podcasts

Help for Young Writers

Poetry for Kids

  • A Child’s Book of Poems (we like the version illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa)
  • A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson (ill. by Fujikawa or Tasha Tudor)
  • The Hundred Favorite Poems
  • Edward Lear
  • Kipling
  • Christina Rossetti
  • A.A. Milne
  • Cindy Rollins’ Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love has great poetry recommendations