One of the biggest things I want to improve for school next year is an increase in the number of books we read, particularly books related to the time period we’re studying in history.
Next year, we’ll be studying The Mystery of History, Volume 2: The Early Church and The Middle Ages — which spans, roughly 30 AD to 1450 AD. (Or EC or whatever the toodles it is now.) My kids will be ages 11, 8 and 5 and I want to find books that they can read and look at on their own, read together, and have read to them. I want living history type books that add to our history story, while expanding our knowledge and appreciation of literature.
I have a tendency to want things pretty specific and just so.. HEY.. I know what I want. ;0)
So I’ve scanned the table of contents, I’ve googled and found a few other book lists, I’ve searched Amazon, and I’ve made my own list of books to buy/borrow for the school year. Here’s it is:
Corresponding Literature for The Mystery of History, Volume 2 for Elementary and Junior High
QUARTER 1: AD 29 – 476
Kindergarten & Early Elementary
I Wonder Why the Romans Wore Togas: and Other Questions About Ancient Rome
Elementary
Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House, No. 13)
Augustine the Farmers Boy of Tagaste
Late Elementary & Early Junior High
Aztec, Inca, and Maya (DK Eyewitness Books)
*Saint Patrick: Pioneer Missionary to Ireland
QUARTER 2: c. 500-871
Kindergarten & Early Elementary
If You Lived In The Days Of The Knights
Who Were the Vikings Internet-Linked (Starting Point History)
Elementary
*The Making of a Knight: How Sir James Earned His Armor
*Beorn the Proud (Living History Library)
Late Elementary & Early Junior High
*Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess
Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children (Yesterday’s Classics)
Empress of China, Wu Ze Tian: Written by Jiang Cheng an ; Illustrated by Xu De Yuan
Tales of King Arthur (Usborne Classics Retold)
QUARTER 3: 874-1192
Kindergarten & Early Elementary
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Classic Starts)
Elementary
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Crusader!: A War You’d Rather Not Fight
*The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century
Late Elementary & Early Junior High
Macbeth (Shakespeare Made Easy)
Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, France, 1136 (The Royal Diaries)
QUARTER 4: 1210-1456
Kindergarten & Early Elementary
Elementary
*Adventures of the Treasure Fleet: China Discovers the World
You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Great Wall of China!: Defenses You’d Rather Not Build
Late Elementary & Early Junior High
Ink on His Fingers (Louise a. Vernon Historical Fiction Series, 12)
Adam of the Road (Puffin Modern Classics)
That’s a ton of books!! Obviously we’ll try to find as many as we can at the library, or used book stores. I’ve included plenty of options because we may not be able to find some of them locally and I don’t want to buy them all. 😉 The ones with asterisks are the ones I’d really like to own.
Other Resources:
I’ll up date with additional resources as I come across them.
Roman History – History for Kids
Middle Ages for Kids
The Vikings – History for Kids
Medieval Russia – History for Kids
All About King Arthur
The World of the Samurai
Also, here’s a link to our coordinating book list for geography.
[…] Literature relevant to this time period. (Here’s a link to our book list.) […]
I am going to have to take a serious look at these later, as we are also doing MOH2 next year. Thanks!
Thanks! This is very helpful. We’re also doing Volume 2 next year and I’ve been looking through the lists in the book trying to determine what we’ll read next year. I see some on your list that I want to check out.
wow!!!!!!!!! I’ll never understand when you fellow HS moms find time to blog, but soooo thankful you DO! Thanks for sharing the booklist – we’ll be on our 2nd year of MOH as well and I truly appreciate not having to do this leg work with my 4, 5, 6 and 9 yr. olds in tow!
Blessings!
[…] by the book list I’ve created for history next year, I’ve gone ahead and made a reading list for the […]
[…] there’s more!! I’ve already shared a list of books for Geography and History… and now I’m going to share a list of books for MATH! Yes, […]
Love MOH2!! We used MOH1 and MOH2 last year in our co-op. We had a lot of fun and I blogged about what we did. Our Medieval Feast was really neat. http://www.paceathome.com/content.php?221-Powerline-Community-Church-World-History-I-Co-op-The-Mystery-of-History
[…] year. That year I simply searched for “Mystery of History Vol. 2 book lists” and found several like this. (NOTE: I HIGHLY recommend the book Masada, on this list. I couldn’t believe I’d never […]
Very excited to find this. Thanks!
Just found you via Google searching for historical fiction books for MOH Vol. 2. Thank you so much for posting your list!
I found a series called ‘The Roman Mysteries’ by Caroline Lawrence that my kids and I are enjoying. The ones we read/are reading are “The Thieves of Ostia” & “The Secrets of Vesuvius” set in A.D. 79. Some other titles are “The Pirates of Pompeii”, “The Gladiators From Capua” and “The Assassins of Rome”. I think their are about 10 books in this historical fiction series.
four years later and your list is still a blessing to people. thank you.
Thank you. =)
Thank you for sharing your hard work with us, Amber! Will you be sharing something like this with the other volumes of Mystery of History? I have followed your blog for years now and took forward to meeting posts in my inbox. 😉
You HAVE been a reader for years!!
I would LIKE to do this for other volumes.. maybe someday soon?.. =)