The following list of classics, juvenile fiction, and fiction selections are a small sample of the recommended reading we encourage at Regina Angelorum Academy. Many of these books have stood the test of time as morally sound and have an enduring quality about them. These stories support children’s moral development, feed their imagination, and fill them with a desire for noble living. Many of these books we read help children understand themselves and others. These classics and fiction selections help them to identify the consequences of vices like greed, selfishness, and dishonesty and to celebrate and prefer the honor in doing right by others, being of service, and being truthful, all while enjoying the adventure of being immersed in a great book.
THE CLASSICS
Grades Preschool–2
Andersen, Hans Christian | The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier
Burton, Virginia Lee | Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Carle, Eric | The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Flack, Marjorie | Angus and the Ducks
Gag, Wanda | Millions of Cats
Galdone, Paul | The Elves and the Shoemaker, retold
Grahame, Kenneth | The Wind in the Willows
Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales
Holling, H.C. | Minn of the Mississippi
Keats, Ezra Jack | The Snowy Day
Kipling, Rudyard | Rikki Tikki Tavi
Lang, Andrew | The Blue Fairy Book; The Red Fairy Book, etc.
Leaf, Munro | The Story of Ferdinand
Magic Tree House Series
Martin, Bill | Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Milne, A.A. Winnie the Pooh Series
Moses, Will | Johnny Appleseed: the Story of a Legend
Numeroff, Laura Joffe | If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Piper, Watty | The Little Engine that Could
Rey, Hans A. | Curious George Series
Sendak, Maurice | Where the Wild Things Are
Sharmat, Marjorie Weinman | Nate the Great Series
Slobodkina, Esphyr | Caps for Sale
Viorst, Judith | Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Grades 3–5
Bennett, William J., ed. | The Book of Virtues—A Treasury of Great Moral Stories
Cooney, Barbara (adaptor) | Chanticleer and the Fox
Dalgliesh, Alice | The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
D’Aulaire, Edgar Parin & Ingri | Book of Greek Myths; Christopher Columbus; Leif the Lucky; George Washington
Dickens, Charles | A Christmas Carol
Dixon, Franklin W. | The Hardy Boys Series
Holling, H.C. | Paddle-to-the-Sea; Tree in the Trail
Hurwitz, Johanna | The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein
Irving, Washington | Rip van Winkle
Lawson, Robert | Ben and Me
Lewis, C.S. | The Chronicles of Narnia Series
McCloskey, Robert | Homer Price
Nesbit, Edith | Five Children and It
Reit, Seymour | Guns for General Washington
Stevenson, Robert Louis | Kidnapped
Twain, Mark | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
White, E.B. | Stuart Little
Wyss, Johann David | Swiss Family Robinson
Yates, Elizabeth | Amos Fortune, Free Man
Grades 6–7 Books We Read
Armstrong, William | Sounder
Freedman, Russell | Lincoln: A Photobiography
Keith, Harold | Rifles for Watie
London, Jack | The Call of the Wild; White Fang
MacCauley, David | Castle; City, Pyramid; The Way Things Work
Perry, Armstrong | Call It Courage
Pyle, Howard | The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; The Story of King Arthur & His Knights
Rawlings, Marjorie | Kinnan The Yearling
Speare, Elizabeth | The Bronze Bow
Tolkien, J.R.R. | The Hobbit
Grade 8 Books We Read
Fredrick Douglas | Narrative of the Life of an American Slave (1845)
Charles Dickens | A Christmas Carol(1843)
Esther Forbes | Johnny Tremain (1944)
Nathanael Hawthorne | The Ambitious Guest (1835)
Thomas Hughes | Tom Brown’s School Days (1857)
Washington Irving | Old Christmas (1819), Rip Van Winkle (1819), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820)
Edgar Allen Poe | The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), The Masque of the Red Death (1842), The Gold Bug (1843), The Cask of Amontillado (1846)
Harriet Beech Stowe | Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Harper Lee | To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)