This reading list will wrap up all four of the Claritas cycles!  I’m so excited to have all 4 reading lists completed, but also a bit shocked that we’re coming up on our fourth year with Claritas!  Where does the time go?!

This list correlates to Story of the World, Volume 3.  We’ll be studying early modern times this year, which will also include American History through the Revolution.  I love studying American history, so you’ll see I went a little overboard on my title selections.  I will not be able to read all of the listed books from week to week, but I like having options to choose from throughout the year.  My selections are also fairly heavy on the weeks we’re studying China, because of our connection to Chinese culture.  I always love any opportunity to offer my children a richer understanding of their birth culture.

Generally, I’ve meant these books to be read aloud, so most will work for a wide range of students. For reference, my children currently range in age from 13 to 6, so there is a lot of wiggle room with these titles. We read aloud together about 3-4 times a week, and everyone participates regardless of whether we’re reading a picture or chapter book. I keep quiet activities available (playdoh, legos, coloring, stickers, etc.) for the children who want something extra to do during that time.

I typically buy all of the books from Amazon, but I try to get used copies and pay as little as possible for them. As you can imagine, we’ve amassed quite a library over the years! And the fun part is that we’ll be using many of them over again this year after studying most of these subjects a few years ago. I firmly believe in having a large variety of books available in my home, and I think of it as an investment. I know this isn’t for everyone, but it’s something I personally feel strongly about.

All Weeks
Anne of Green Gables (audio)
The Courage of Sarah Noble (audio)
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (audio)
The Story of Frankenstein
American Tall Tales
American Tall Tales (Jim Weiss audio)
The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry Basics
Janice VanCleave’s Chemistry for Every Kid
DKEyewitness Chemistry
Illustrated Dictionary of Chemistry
What’s Chemistry All About?

Week 1
The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots
The Netherlands: Countries of the World
Rembrandt: Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists
Scotland: Festivals of the World
The Sea Beggar’s Son
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (audio)
The Wheel on the School

Week 2
Don’t Know Much About the Kings & Queens of England (chapter on James)
Our Island Story Vol 3: James I and Guy Fawkes to Queen Victoria (audio)
What’s the Matter in Mr. Whisker’s Room?

Week 3
The Colony of Virginia
The Jamestown Colony: Cornerstones of Freedom
Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker
James Towne: Struggle for Survival
The New Americans: Colonial Times
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
The Landing of the Pilgrims
Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch Military Leader
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
The Thirteen Colonies
Exploration & Conquest: The Americas After Columbus
Samuel Champlain
Picture History of Great Explorers (chapters on Samuel Champlain and Henry Hudson)

Week 4
Commodore Perry in the Land of Shogun
Heart of a Samurai (audio)
Japan
A Samurai Castle
Sword of the Samurai
The Samurai’s Daughter
The Samurai’s Tale
What is the World Made Of?

Week 5
The Jamestown Colony: We the People
Kings and Queens of Southern Africa
The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo (preview first)
If You Lived When There Was Slavery in America
To Be a Drum
The Village That Vanished
Amos Fortune, Free Man

Week 6
Cardinal Richelieu (World Leaders Past & Present)
Johannes Kepler
Great Events That Changed the World

Week 7
Don’t Know Much About the Kings & Queens of England (Charles I, Cromwell, Great Fire)
London
Antoine Lavoisier

Week 8
Great Events That Changed the World (Moghul Dynasty)
Look What Came From India
The Taj Mahal
Jahanara, Princess of Princesses
Rama and Sita: A Tale From Ancient Java

Week 9
The Great Plague: The Diary of Alice Payton (audio)
All About the Great Fire of London, 1666
The Black Death and Other Putrid Plagues of London

Week 10
The King’s Day: Louis XIV of France
Inside-Outside Book of Paris
Ten Kings and the Worlds They Ruled (Louis XIV)
Three Muskateers
The Man in the Iron Mask (audio)

Week 11
Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and the Unification of Germany
Bach and Baroque Music
George Handel
Where Are Prussia, Gaul, and the Holy Roman Empire?
Changing Matter

Week 12
Diary of Sally Wister
Don’t Know Much About Kings & Queens of England (William & Mary)
The Indian Wars
Kids In Colonial Times
People Who Made History: Native Americans
William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania
Iroquois: A First Americans Book

Week 13
The Enlightenment
Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion
Galileo and the Stargazers
The Magic School Bus Plays Balls
How to Think Like a Scientist

Week 14
Farm: Eyewitness Books
A Farm Through Time: The History of a Farm From Medieval Times to the Present
Early Farm Life
Atoms and Molecules

Week 15
Peter the Great
Peter the Great and Tsarist Russia
Ten Kings and the Worlds They Ruled (Peter the Great)
Eyewitness: Russia
The Sea King’s Daughter: A Russian Legend
The Tale of Tsar Sultan
The Elements Book

Week 16
The Barbarossa Brothers
The First Tulips in Holland
The Ottoman Empire
Turkey: Cultures of the World
The Contest
The Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions

Week 17
England and India: People at Odds
India: Enchantment of the World (section on Britain in India)
Just So Stories (audio)
The Jungle Book (audio)

Week 18
Ancient China (sections on Qianlong)
Chinese Portraits: Images Across the Ages
Life in Ancient China
Art in China
Long is a Dragon
Look What Came From China!
The People of Vietnam
Welcome to Myanmar
The Dalai Lama
Mongolia: Festivals of the World
A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China
The Khan’s Daughter
The Last Dragon
The Elements Book

Week 19
What Was the Boston Tea Party?
The Boston Massacre
Liberty!  How the Revolutionary War Began
The Declaration of Independence
Betsy Ross
Sam the Minuteman
Johnny Tremain
The 4th of July Story
Time for Kids: Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
The Revolutionary John Adams
Great Events That Changed the World
African Americans in the Revolutionary War
Lexington and Concord
Paul Revere’s Ride
Victory at Sea: John Paul Jones and the Continental Navy
Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?
Thomas Paine: Common Sense and Revolutionary Pamphleteering
Mr. Revere and I
We the People: The Story of Our Constitution
George Washington
Shh!  We’re Writing the Constitution
Founding Fathers DVD
The Bill of Rights: A True Book
Atoms and Molecules
Molecules

Week 20
You Wouldn’t Want to be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution
Getting to Know France and French
Great Events That Changed the World
Les Miserables
The Little Prince
The Fall of the Bastille
Who Was Marie Antoinette?
Paris 1789

Week 21
The Industrial Revolution
Kids During the Industrial Revolution
The Bobbin Girl
Smokestacks and Spinning Jennys
Eli Whitney
Life on a Plantation
The Journal of Sean Sullivan
The Steam Engine
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Week 22
Seaman’s Journal
Lewis and Clark Expedition
What Was the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Who Was Sacagawea?
Louisiana Purchase
Johnny Appleseed

Week 23
Napoleon
Who Was Napoleon?
The Navy That Beat Napoleon
Lyrical Ballads
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Andrew Jackson
The Town That Fooled the British
The Star-Spangled Banner
The War of 1812
Mr. Madison’s War
My Napoleon

Week 24
Amistad Rising: A Story of Freedom
Abolitionists: A Force for Change
African Americans in the Thirteen Colonies
William Wilberforce: The Freedom Fighter
Escape North!  The Story of Harriet Tubman
Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth
A Good Night for Freedom
Chemical Reactions

Week 25
Cherokees
Only the Names Remain
The Trail of Tears
Soft Rain
Nat Turner and the Virginia Slave Revolt
Black Abolitionists and Freedom Fighters (chapter on Nat Turner)
The First Strawberries

Week 26
What Was the Alamo?
Voices of the Alamo
Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman
The Mexican-American War
The Mexican War: How the U.S. Gained Its Western Lands
The Rourke Guide to State Capitals
Susanna of the Alamo
The Boy in the Alamo
Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time

Week 27
Ancient China: See Through History
Confucius: The Golden Rule
The Analects
Houses of China
People’s Republic of China (section on 18th-century China)
The Junior Thunder Lord
The Making of Monkey King
Kubla Khan: A Pop-Up Version of Coleridge’s Classic
Kubla Khan: The Emperor of Everything
Tales From Within the Clouds
A Time of Golden Dragons

Week 28
The California Gold Rush
The Oregon Trail
Daily Life in a Covered Wagon
If You Were a Kid in the California Gold Rush
Gold!  Gold From the American River!
Fort Laramie
The Legend of Freedom Hill
Westward to Home
Acids and Bases

Looking for more Claritas reading lists? 

 

 

 

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