Sentence to Paragraph Reading List
Recommended for Ages 12 - 14 Jr. High and High School level course: Grades 7 - 9 (The Write Foundation Writing Curriculum)
Why read quality literature? It matters what you read.
- The best readers are the best writers.
- What you read is a major factor determining who you will become.
- Quality literature encourages reading, because it is hard to put a good book down.
- Reading is not just for fun. Reading plays a major role in brain development.
Do you want to raise your students’ reading level? Read out loud to them.
Do you want to improve your students’ listening skills? Read out loud to them.
Reading Guidelines:
- Read books to students. The more you read to them, the higher their level of reading and comprehension climbs. Read books out loud to them that they would not find easy to read on their own, but also read easier books out loud for sheer enjoyment.
- Listen to audio books. When you are going places in the car or just relaxing at home, listening to a good book captivates and entertains.
- Encourage students to select books to read independently. Have them read books on their own that are on their easy-to-read level and that interest them.
- Discuss what is read. Instead of book reports, talk to them about what they are reading. As they enjoy books, they will want to talk about them.
Book List Organization and Point System:
- The point groups are determined by length and reading level.
- Books are mostly listed in alphabetical order by title.
- If several books are by one author or a series by various authors, then they are included in the alphabetical order by the author’s name, series title or a group title such as historical fiction.
- Books are not listed in a particular reading order.
Avoid an “easy-to-read” version of any of the books, such as those by Great Illustrated Classics. When students read dumbed down versions of books, they miss out on the depth of the story and the enjoyment of reading the book is watered down.
Many of these books can probably be found at your public library. Amazon is a convenient way to find out more about these books through their descriptions and reviews.
The goal is to encourage the reading of quality books that all will approve of and enjoy. Investigating these books that range from modern to classical to forgotten works of art will hopefully be an enjoyable adventure.
Sentence to Paragraph Reading List
4 Point Books
Aladdin and Other Favorite Arabian Nights Stories – Philip Smith, Editor
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain – Alice Dalgliesh
The Big Wave – Pearl S. Buck
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
The Courage of Sarah Noble – Alice Dalgliesh
George Washington Carver – Eva Moore
History – Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Lief the Lucky
Columbus
Pocahontas
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln
Buffalo Bill
The Hundred Dresses – Eleanor Estes
Li Lun, Lad of Courage – Carolyn Treffinger
Little Pear – Eleanor Frances Lattimore
The Little Riders – Margaretha Shemin
The Minstrel in the Tower – Gloria Skurzynski
Norse Myths – Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Book of Trolls
Children of the Northlights
Book of Norse Myths
Jessie Stuart Stories
The Beatinest Boy
A Penny’s Worth of Character
Red Mule
The Rightful Owner
Rip Van Winkle – Washington Irving
Sarah Whitcher’s Story – Elizabeth Yates
Shoes for Everyone – Barbara Mitchell
Stone Fox – John Reynolds Gardiner
The Whipping Boy – Sid Fleischman
The White Stallion – Elizabeth Shub
8 Point Books
The Apprentice – Pilar Molina Llorente
Baby Island – Carol Ryrie Brink
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Barbara Robinson
Boxcar Children – Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Cabin Faced West – Jean Fritz
Castle Diary – Richard Platt
Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrims Progress – Oliver Hunkin
Favorite Father Brown Stories – G.K. Chesterton
Grandma’s Attic Series – Arleta Richardson
In Grandma’s Attic
More Stories from Grandma’s Attic
Treasures from Grandma
Other books in this series are fine.
Hank the Cowdog Series – John R. Erickson
The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
Murder in the Middle Pasture
It’s A Dog’s Life
The Almost Last Roundup
Other books in this series are fine.
Helen Keller’s Teacher – Margaret Davidson
The Story of my Life – Helen Keller
Henry Huggins Series – Beverly Clearly
Henry Huggins
Henry and Ribsy
Ribsy
Other Henry Huggins books are fine.
How to Eat Fried Worms – Thomas Rockwell
Jungle Books (not Disney) – Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
The Kite Fighters – Linda Sue Park
The Lion in the Gateway – Mary Renault
Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Atwater
Mountain Born – Elizabeth Yates
Saint Isaac and the Indians – Milton Lomack
Sarah Plain & Tall Series – Patricia MacLachlan
Sarah Plain & Tall
Skylark
Caleb’s Story
More Perfect than the Moon
Grandfather’s Dance
Socks – Beverly Clearly
The Sword in the Tree – Clyde Robert Bulla
Sugar Creek Gang Series – Paul Hutchens
The Swamp Robber
The Killer Bear
The Lost Campers
The Secret Hideout
Other books in this series are fine.
The Terrible Wave – Marden Dahlstedt
A Tree for Peter – Kate Seredy
Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
The Year of Miss Agnes – Kirkpatrick Hill
12 Point Books
The Adventures of Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi
All of a Kind Family Series – Sydney Taylor
All of a Kind Family
More All of a Kind Family
All of a Kind Family Uptown
All of a Kind Family Downtown
Ella of All of a Kind Family
And the Word Came with Power – Joanne Shetler
A Beatrix Potter Treasury – Beatrix Potter
Benjamin West and His Cat Gimalkin – Marguerite Henry
Born in the Year of Courage – Emily Crofford
The Breadwinner – Deborah Ellis
The Broken Blade – William Durbin
Bud Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis
Building on the Rock Series (Short Stories) – Joel R. Beeke & Diana Kleyn
How God Stopped the Pirates
How God Used A Thunderstorm
Other books in this series are fine.
Call it Courage – Armstrong Sperry
Charlotte's Web – E.B. White
The Children Who Stayed Alone – Bonnie Bess Worline
Clubhouse Mysteries – Sharon M. Draper
Lost in the Tunnel of Time
The Buried Bones
The Space Mission Adventure
Other books in this series are fine.
The Cricket in Times Square – George Selden
Dear America Series – Historical Fiction, Various Authors
Standing in the Light
A Picture of Freedom
Across the Wide Open Prairie
I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
Behind the Masks
Any other books in this series are fine.
Detectives in Togas – Henry Winterfeld
The Mystery of the Roman Ransom (sequel)
The Door in the Wall – Marguerite De Angeli
Faith Like Potatoes – Angus Buchan
A Gathering of Days – Joan W. Blos
God's Adventurer: Hudson Taylor – Phyllis Thompson
The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Paterson
The Heart Reader – Terri Blackstock
Hind’s Feet on High Places – Hannah Hurnard
Holes – Louis Sachar
Homesick – Jean Fritz
Homer Price – Robert McCloskey
Horses and Healing – Kim Meeder
Hope Rising
Bridge of Hope
Horse Stories – Marguerite Henry
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
King of the Wind
Misty of Chincoteague
White Stallion of Lipizza
Humbug Mountain – Sid Fleischman
The Incredible Journey – Sheila Burnford
Just David – Eleanor H. Porter
Leonardo Da Vinci – Emily Hahn
The Little Duke – Charlotte Mary Yonge
Little Lord Fauntleroy – Frances H. Burnett
A Long Way from Chicago Series – Richard Peck
A Long Way from Chicago
A Season of Gifts
A Year Down Yonder
Madeleine Takes Command – Ethel C. Brill
Men of Faith Series – Various Authors
John Newton: The British Slave Trader
George Muller: Man of Faith and Miracles
Samuel Morris: The African Boy God Sent
Other books in this series are fine.
Old Yeller – Fred Gipson
Otto of the Silver Hand – Howard Pyle
Peter Pan – James M. Barrie
Pollyanna – Eleanor H. Porter
Pooh Books (Original not Disney) – A. A. Milne
Winnie the Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
Red Sails to Capri – Melissa Weil
Shades of Gray – Carolyn Reeder
Shiloh Quartet – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Shiloh
Shiloh Season
Other books in this series are fine.
Snow Treasure – Marie McSwigan
Stink Alley – Jamie Gilson
Tales of Robin Hood – Tony Allan
Toliver's Secret – Esther Wood Brady
The Twenty–One Balloons – William Pene du Bois
Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington
The Wright Brothers – Quentin Reynolds
14 Point Books
Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Amos Fortune Free Man – Elizabeth Yates
Anne of Green Gables Series – L. M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of the Island
Anne of Avonlea
Other books in this series are fine.
Archimedes and the Door of Science – Jeanne Bendick
Bound for Oregon – Jean Van Leeuwen
Bud and Me – Alta Abernathy
By the Great Horn Spoon – Sid Fleischman
Catherine Called Birdie – Karen Cushman
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Christian Heroes, Then and Now Series – Janet and Goeff Benge
Gladys Altwood: The Adventure of a Lifetime
David Livingston: Africa’s Trailblazer
Other books in this series are fine.
Follow My Leader – James B. Garfield
Freedom Train (Harriet Tubman) – Dorothy Sterling
The Good Master– Kate Seredy
The Singing Tree (sequel)
Gone Away Lake – Elizabeth Enright
Heidi – Johanna Spyri
Henry Reed Series – Keith Robertson
Henry Reed, Inc.
Henry Reed’s Journey
Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle
The House of Sixty Fathers – Meindert Dejong
In Search of Honor – Donna Lynn Hess
The Journeyman – Elizabeth Yates
Kildee House – Rutherford George Montgomery
Life Experiences Books – Patricia St. John
Star of Light
The Tanglewood’s Secret
The Secret at Pheasant Cottage
Rainbow Garden
Treasures of the Snow
Where the River Begins
Three Go Searching
Little House Series – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Other books in this series are fine.
Love Comes Softly Series – Janette Oke
Love Comes Softly
Love’s Enduring Promise
Love’s Long Journey
Love’s Abiding Joy
Other books in this series are fine.
The Magna Charta – James Daugherty
Miracles on Maple Hill – Virginia Sorenson
Mother Carey’s Chickens – Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Mouse and the Motorcycle – Beverly Clearly
Runaway Ralph (sequel)
Number the Stars – Lois Lowry
Penderwick Series – Jean Birdsall
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale
The Penderwicks at Gardam Street
Other books in this series are fine.
The Pink Motel – Carol Ryrie Brink
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm – Kate Wiggin
Science – John Hudson Tiner
Exploring Planet Earth
Exploring the History of Medicine
Exploring the World of Biology
Exploring the World of Chemistry
Science Fiction – Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days
Master of the World
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
A Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Mysterious Island
Sign of the Beaver – Elizabeth G. Speare
The Spirit Flyer Series – John Bibee
The Magic Bicycle
The Toy Campaign
The Only Game in Town
Other books in this series are fine.
Theras and His Town – Caroline Dale Snedeker
The Trumpeter of Krakow – Eric P. Kelley
The Younguns Series – Thomas L. Tedrow
The Younguns of Mansfield
Frankie and the Secret
The Circus Escape
The Legend of the Missouri Mud Monster
Understood Betsy – Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Warrior of the Son – Samuel Schiller
16 Point Books
Air Raid, Pearl Harbor – Theodore Taylor
Black Horses for the King – Anne McCaffrey
Blackthorn Winter – Douglas Wilson
Susan Creek (sequel)
The Borrowers – Mary Norton
The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth G. Speare
Bruscho – Bruce Olsen
Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink
Magical Melons (sequel)
Calico Bush – Rachel Field
The Cay – Theodore Taylor
The Chestery Oak – Kate Seredy
Chronicles of Narnia Series – C. S. Lewis
The Magicians Nephew
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Cross and the Switchblade – David Wilkerson
Daughters of the Faith Series – Wendy Lawton
The Tinker’s Daughter: Mary Bunyan
The Captive Princess: Pocahontas
Ransom’s Mark: Pioneer Olive Oatman
Courage to Run: Harriet Tubman
Other books in this series are fine.
Elsie Dinsmore Series – Martha Finley
Elsie Dinsmore
Elsie’s Holiday at Roselands
Elsie’s Girlhood
Elsie’s Womanhood
Other books in this series are fine.
Five Little Peppers Series – Margaret Sidney
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Five Little Peppers Abroad
Five Little Peppers Midway
Other books in this series are fine.
God King: A Story in the Days of King Hezekiah – Joanne Williamson
The Great and Terrible Quest – Margaret Lovett
Greek Mythology – Rosemary Sutcliff
Black Ships Before Troy: Iliad
The Wanderings of Odysseus: Odyssey
The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt Day – Scott O’Dell
Hittite Warrior – Joanne Williamson
I Am David – Anne Holm
Indian Captive – Lois Lenski
Kingdom’s Dawn Series – Chuck Black
Kingdom’s Dawn
Kingdom’s Hope
Kingdom’s Edge
Kingdom’s Call
Other books in this series are fine.
Little Pilgrim’s Progress: From John Bunyan’s Classic – Helen L. Taylor
A Little Princess – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mad Scientists’ Club Series – Bertrand R. Brinley
The Mad Scientists’ Club
The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club
The Big Kerplop
The Big Chunk of Ice
The Big Egg
Other books in this series are fine.
My Side of the Mountain – Jean C. George
Nature Study Series – Holling Clancy Holling
Minn of the Mississippi
Paddle-to-the-Sea
Pagoo
Tree in the Trail
Seabird
Orphan Train Adventures – Joan Lowery Nixon
A Family Apart
Caught in the Act
In the face of Danger
A Place to Belong
A Dangerous Promise
Keeping Secrets
Circle of Love
The Phantom Toll Booth – Norton Juster
Rani Adventure Series – Ron Snell
It's a Jungle Out There!
Life is a Jungle
Jungle Calls
Rascal – Sterling North
Rachel’s Tears: The Spiritual Journey – Beth Ninmo, Darrell Scott
Sarah Bishop – Scott O’Dell
Shadows on the Sea – Joan Hiatt Harlow
Shepherd of the Hills – Harold Bell Wright
The Silver Pencil – Alice Dagliesh
They Loved to Laugh – Kathryn Worth
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls
Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Graham
18 Point Books
Across Five Aprils – Irene Hunt
Adam of the Road – Elizabeth Janet Gray
Buffalo Bill – Shannon Garst
Will Rogers: Immortal Cowboy - Shannon Garst
Big Red – Jim Kjelgoard
Calico Captive – Elizabeth G. Speare
Carry On Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham
Cheaper by the Dozen – Frank B. Gilbreth
Crown and Covenant – Douglas Bond
Duncan’s War
King’s Arrow
Rebel’s Keep
Discovering God’s Plan for America for Young Readers – Peter Marshall
The Light and the Glory
From Sea to Shining Sea
Sounding Forth the Trumpet
Drew Farthering Mysteries – Julianna Deering
Death by the Book
Rules of Murder
Dressed for Death
Murder at the Mikado
Dutch Tales – Meindert Dejong
Dirk’s Dog Bello
Far out the Long Canal
The Wheel on the School
The Escape – A. Vander Jagt
Fairy Tales: Original Versions (Warning – Grimm’s can be dark.)
Andersen’s Fairy Tales – H. C. Andersen
Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales Second Series
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Diversion Classics)
The Galway Chronicles – Brock and Bodie Thoene
Only the River Runs Free
Of Men and Of Angels
Ashes of Remembrance
All Rivers to the Sea
The Gammage Cup – Carol Kendall
God’s Smuggler – Brother Andrew
The Golden Goblet – Eloise Jarvis McGraw
If I Perish – Esther Ahn Kim
Lad: A Dog – Albert Payson Terhune
Lassie, Come Home – Eric Knight
A Lantern in Her Hand – Beth Streeter Aldrich
Little Britches Series – Ralph Moody
Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers
Man of the Family
The Home Ranch
Mary Emma and Company
The Fields of Home
Other books in this series are fine.
Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries – Dorothy Sayer
Clouds of Witnesses
Strong Poison
Unnatural Death
Other Sayer mysteries about this length are fine.
Mara, Daughter of the Nile – Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Miss Marple Mysteries – Agatha Christie
The Murder at the Vicarage
The Moving Finger
Other books in this series are fine.
Missionaries
Jungle Pilot (Nate Saint) – Russell T. Hitt
End of the Spear – Steve Saint
Through the Gates of Splendor – Elizabeth Elliot
Shadow Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot - Zondervan
Pilgrim’s Progress Today – Lael Arrington
Redwall Series – Brian Jacques
Redwall
Mossflower
Mattimeo
Other books in this series are fine.
Roll of Thunder,Hear My Cry – M. D. Taylor
Let the Circle Be Unbroken (sequel)
The Roman Britain Trilogy – Rosemary Sutcliff
Eagle of the Ninth
The Silver Branch
The Lantern Bearers
The Secret Garden – Frances H. Burnett
The Shining Company – Rosemary Sutcliff
Snow in the River – Carol Ryrie Brink
Stowaway – Karen Hesse
Summer of the Monkeys – Wilson Rawls
Swift Rivers – Cornelia Meigs
Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Prince and the Pauper
20 Point Books
Alas, Babylon – Pat Frank
Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery – Eric Metaxas
Anna and the King of Siam – Margaret Landon
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
Born Again – Charles Colson
Buffalo Coat – Carol Ryrie Brink
Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express
And Then There Were None
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Other books in Hercule Poirot mysteries are fine.
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain
The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage – Alfred Lansing
Father Brown – G. K. Chesterton
Father Brown: The Essential Tales
The Best of Father Brown
The Favorite Uncle Remus – Joel Chandler Harris
The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence – Jane Stuart Smith & Betty Carlson
The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Boom
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
In the Presence of My Enemies – G. Burnham
Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
Kon-Tiki – Thor Heyerdahl
Catherine Marshall
Julie
A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskill
The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
Gene Stratton Porter
Girl of the Limberlost (Sequel to Freckles)
The Harvester
Laddie
The Ramsay Scallop – Frances Temple
Rifles for Watie – Harold Keith
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel DeFoe
Robin Hood – Roger Green
Run Baby Run – Nicky Cruz
Dorothy L. Sayers - (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries 200-400 pgs.)
Clouds of Witnesses
The Five Red Herrings
Murder Must Advertise
Strong Poison
Other books this length can are fine.
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Elusive Pimpernel
The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Sir Percy Leads the Band
Other books in this series are fine.
Sea of Glory – Ken Wales & David Poling
The Shiloh Legacy – Bodie Thoene
In My Father’s House
A Thousand Shall Fall
Say to This Mountain
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights – Howard Pyle
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers – Maria Augusta Trapp (Sound of Music)
Jessie Stuart Stories
Daughter of the Legend
Hie to The Hunters
The Thread That Runs So True
Swiss Family Robinson – Johann D. Wyss
Tales From Shakespeare – Charles Lamb
To Kill a Mocking Bird – Harper Lee
A Walk Across America – Peter Jenkins
The Walk West (sequel)