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Literature

Never underestimate the importance of fiction.  History is the study of what was and what may be again.  Literature is the study of what could have been and what can be. 

In order to save you money, and because the contents of a book are infinitely more important than the cover, I have chosen to carry the least expensive paperback version of each work of fiction, unless there was a compelling reason (such as the best translator or editor) to do otherwise.  There are grade recommendations given, but keep in mind that these depend largely on the understanding and reading-level of the child.  Remember that children can often understand book before they are capable of reading them.  For example, the Narnia books and the Little House series can be read to first graders.

I have endeavored to include as many great books as I could, and nothing but great books.

In order by title

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

# Titles Beginning with Numbers

A

	Across Five Aprils ~ Ships in 2-3 days Irene Hunt / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1991 The unforgettable story of young Jethro Creighton, who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War, by the Newbery Award-winning author of Up a Road Slowly. 7th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	Adam of the Road (Puffin Newberry Library) ~ Ships in 2-3 days Elizabeth Janet Gray, Robert Lawson (Illustrator) / Paperback /1987 The adventures of eleven-year-old Adam as he travels the open roads of thirteenth-century England searching for his missing father, a minstrel, and his stolen red spaniel, Nick. 5th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Mark Twain / Paperback / Published 1981 Enjoyable at any age, this book is, on the surface a story of adventures down the Mississippi.  Beneath the surface are statements about slavery and symbols of life.   A must read 7th Grade and Up Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	The Adventures of Robin Hood (Puffin Classics) ships in 24 hours. Roger Lancelyn Green/Paperback/1995 Recounts the life and adventures of Robin Hood, who, with his band of followers, lived as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest dedicated to fighting tyranny.  This is a classic version of the well-known tale, and all children should be familiar with some version of the story. 5th Grade and Up
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Mark Twain / Paperback / Published 1983 Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	Aeneid (Wordsworth Classics)  Usually ships within 24 hours. Virgil (translated by Robert Fitzgerald) Paperback/1997 Arma virumque cano: "I sing of warfare and a man at war." Long the bane of second-year Latin students thrust into a rhetoric of sweeping, seemingly endless sentences full of difficult verb forms and obscure words, Virgil's Aeneid finds a helpful translator in Robert Fitzgerald, who turns the lines into beautiful, accessible American English. Full of betrayal, heartache, seduction, elation, and violence, the Aeneid is the great founding epic of the Roman empire. Its pages sing of the Roman vision of self, the Roman ideal of what it meant to be a citizen of the world's greatest power. The epic's force carries across the centuries, and remains essential reading.  This book, along with The Iliad and The Odyssey, is necessary to a classical education. 10th Grade and Up Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	Aesop's Fables (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) ~ Ships in 2-3 days Aesop, Pat Stewart (Illustrator) / Paperback / Published 1994 Our Price: $0.80 ~ You Save: $0.20 (20%) Aesop, a Greek slave who lived in the 6th Century BC, told short stories using the lives of animals.  Each story has a simple but important moral.  These would be good stories for elementary students to read and then orally retell. 1st Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours W. Heath Robinson (Illustrator), W. Heath Rovinson / Hardcover / Published 1993 This beautiful edition is another good one for children to hear or read and then retell. 1st Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass ~ Ships in 2-3 days Lewis Carroll / Paperback / Published 1984 Read to:  2nd Grade.  Read: 4th Grade Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	All Creatures Great and Small ~ Ships in 2-3 days James Herriot / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1998 Here is the heartwarming true story of Dr. James Herriot, an English country veterinarian, whose humor and natural storytelling ability have captured the hearts of American readers in a very special way. 6th Grade and up Read more about this title...
	All-Of-A-Kind Family ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Sydney Taylor, Helen John / Paperback / Published 1980 There's something to be said for a book that makes you wish you'd been part of a poor immigrant family living in New York's upper east side on the eve of World War I. Sydney Taylor's time-honored classic does just that. Life is rich for the five mischievous girls in the family. They find adventure in visiting the library, going to market with Mama, even dusting the front room. Young readers who have never shared a bedroom with four siblings, with no television in sight, will vicariously experience the simple, old-fashioned pleasures of talk, make-believe, and pilfered penny candy. The family's Jewish faith strengthens their ties to each other, while providing still more excitement and opportunity for mischief. Readers unfamiliar with Judaism will learn with the girls during each beautifully depicted holiday. 4th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	All Quiet on the Western Front ~ Ships in 2-3 days Erich Maria Remarque, A.W. Wheen (Translator) / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1995 This book should definitely be read when your high school student is studying World War I.  It 's a bit hard to read emotionally, but it's important as it puts a human face on war. 9th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	Amata Means Beloved Sister Mary Catharine Perry, OP Amata Means Beloved is the fictional account of a cloistered Dominican nun written by a real-life cloistered Dominican nun.  Accessible to readers from adolescence on, the book is well-written and quite interesting.  The protagonist joins the community and discovers that the nuns are both loveable and fallible, praying, working, and joking together.  As she seeks to give everything to her Divine Spouse, she must learn to fogive her brother's killer through the very task she most dreads doing. I highly recommend this book, especially for anyone considering a vocation to the religious life.
	Animal Farm : A Fairy Story ~ Usually ships in 24 hours George Orwell / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1996 A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned--a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible. 8th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	Anna and the King of Siam ~ Ships in 2-3 days Margaret Landon, Margaret Ayer (Illustrator) / Hardcover/ Published 1997 This is the novel upon which the musical, The King and I, was based.   It is based on Anna Leonowitz's story of living in the Siamese court as tutor to the king's children, her struggles and moments of triumph.  Well worth reading. 9th Grade and Up
	Anna Karenina (Bantam Classic) ~ Ships in 2-3 days Leo Tolstoy, Joel Carmichael / Paperback / Published 1984 10th Grade and Up Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.

The Anne of Green Gables Series
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
As soon as Anne Shirley arrived at the snug, white farmhouse called Green Gables, she knew she wanted to stay forever... but would the Cuthberts send her back to the orphanage? Anne knows she's not what they expected -- a skinny girl with decidedly red hair and a temper to match. If only she could convince them to let her stay, she'd try very hard not to keep rushing headlong into scrapes or blurt out the very first thing she had to say. Anne was not like anybody else, everyone at Green Gables agreed; she was special -- a girl with an enormous imagination. This orphan girl dreamed of the day when she could call herself Anne of Green Gables.  Ages 9 and up will enjoy reading this.  This is a wonderful series to read aloud as a family in the evenings.

Anne of Green Gables (Book 1)~ Usually ships in 24 hours

Anne of Avonlea (Book 2)~ Usually ships in 24 hours

Anne of the Island  (Book 3)~ Usually ships in 24 hours

Anne of Windy Poplars (Book 4)~ Usually ships in 24 hours

Anne's House of Dreams (Book 5)~Usually ships in 24 hours

Anne of Ingleside (Book 6)~ Ships in 2-3 days

Rainbow Valley (Book 7)  Ships in 2-3 days

Further Chronicles of Avonlea ~ Usually ships in 24 hours

Complete Anne of Green Gables (8 book boxed set)~ Usually ships in 24 hours

 

	Antony and Cleopatra ~ Ships in 2-3 days William Shakespeare, David M. Bevington / Paperback / Published 1988 The queen of the Nile meets her match in Marc Antony, and the lovers destroy each other--yet triumph in ruin--in this great romantic tragedy 10th Grade and Up Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	Around the World in Eighty Days ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Jules Verne, George M. Towle / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1990 On a wager with his chums at the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg attempts the trip described in the title of this classic adventure novel.   5th Grade and Up Read more about this title...
	As You Like It ~ Usually ships in 24 hours William Shakespeare, David M. Bevington / Paperback / 1988 8th Grade and Up Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	Augustine Came to Kent (Living History Library (Warsaw, N.D.).) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Barbara Willard, Mary Beth Owens (Illustrator) / Paperback / Published 1997 It is 597 and young Wolf has journeyed many miles from Rome. He witnesses the historic meeting between the King of Kent and the man who would be known as St. Augustine of Canterbury, an event that would replant the cross in English soil. Read to: Second Grade  Read: Fifth Grade

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	Ben and Me : A New and Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin As Written by His Good Mouse Amos ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Robert Lawson / Paperback / Published 1988 Read more about this title...
	Beowulf (Dover Thrift Editions) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Robert Kay Gordon (Translator) / Paperback / 1992 The earliest existing poem in English, Beowulf was composed 400 years before the Norman Conquest. As a social document, this great epic poem reflects a feudal, newly Christian world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory and death. As a work of art, it rings with a beauty, power, and artistry that have kept it alive for more than twelve centuries.
	Beowulf the Warrior ~ Ships in 2-3 days Ian Serraillier, et al / Paperback / Published 1997 This is a version of the classic for children.  Laura Berquist recommends it for the 8th grade.
	The Best of Shakespeare (Iona and Peter Opie Library of Children's Literature.) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours E. Nesbit, William Shakespeare / Hardcover / Published 1997 This is a children's version of 10 of Shakespeare's best-loved plays written by the author of The Railway Children upon request from her own children. Read more about this title...
	Big Red ~ Ships in 2-3 days Jim Kjelgaard / Paperback / Published 1992 Read more about this title...
	Billy Budd Sailor and Other Stories (Bantam Classic) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Herman Melville, et al / Paperback / Published 1982 I recommend reading Moby Dick instead if one is to read only one work from Melville (and one absolutely must read Moby Dick), but these tales of the sea also delve deeply into human nature and are worth a read as well Read more about this title or place this book in your shopping cart.
	The Black Arrow ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Robert Louis Stevenson / Mass Market Paperback / 1998 A fierce war rages between two bitter rivals: on one side the House of Lancaster; on the other the House of York. The prize is the crown of England. Young Richard Shelton finds himself torn in his loyalties. He must decide wisely, for his fate and that of England hang in the balance in this classic and unabridged portrait of England during the War of the Roses. Read more about this title...
	Black Like Me ~ Ships in 2-3 days John Howard Griffin / Mass Market Paperback / Published 1996 This book is about the experiences of a black man before civil rights.  Even though many things have changed for the better, this book still confronts us with the realities of racism.   The author tells of what happens after he darkened his skin for a trip through the south. Read more about this title...
	Black Beauty (Children's Thrift Classics) ~ Ships in 2-3 days Anna Sewell / Paperback / Published 1993 This is an abridged version of the beautiful story of the life of a horse, from the horse's perspective. Set in the Victorian era, it is a wonderful, though often heart-wrenching, story that your children and you will love. Read more about this title...
	Black Ships Before Troy : The Story of the Iliad ~ Ships in 2-3 days Rosemary Sutcliff, et al / Hardcover / Published 1993 This is a children's version of the Iliad. Read more about this title...
	Blue Feather's Vision : The Dawn of Colonial America (Adventures in Colonial America) ~ Ships in 2-3 days James E. Knight, George Guzzi (Illustrator) / Paperback / 1998
	The Boxcar Children (Boxcar Children, No 1-4) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Gertrude Chandler Warner / Paperback / Published 1990 Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny are orphans. Determined to make it on their own, they set out to find a safe place to live. They discover an old, red boxcar that provides shelter from a storm. Against all odds, they make it into their home--and become the Boxcar Children!. Read more about this title...
	The Boxcar Children (The Boxcar Children Series, No 5-8) ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Gertrude Chandler Warner / Paperback / Published 1991 Read more about this title...
	Brave New World ~ Usually ships in 24 hours Aldous Huxley / Paperback / Written during the first half of the 20th century about the current times, this book is frighteningly true to life.  This fictional work, while still definitely fictional, accurately predicted the demise of the family and many other modern tragedies.
	Bulfinch's Mythology : The Age of Chivalry and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance in the Middle Ages ~ Ships in 2-3 days Thomas Bulfinch, Norma Lorre Goodrich / Paperback / Published 1995 Bulfinch's mythologies are classics.  Every child should know these stories that, as a group, are the foundation of our culture.

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	Emma ~ Ships in 2-3 days Jane Austen / Paperback / Published 1984 Read more about this title or place in your shopping cart.
	Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays (Dover Thrift Editions) James Jennings / Paperback / Published 1995

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