Search Database

Books: Reading Lists

Jump to:

  • Printed Materials: Books

    Books Children Love
    This book is a series of booklists for children, which include relevant information about the books, suggested grade levels, and short descriptions. The books are listed by categories (e.g., "animals," "biography," "humor," etc.). The short descriptions of each book familiarize parents with plot and contents.
    Books for the Gifted Child
    Volume two continues the work covered in the 1980 volume. Comprises a bibliography with 195 entries, exhaustively annotated, of books published from 1980 to 1987. Titles are arranged alphabetically by author, title, reading level, and subject indexes. The books are for preschool through grade six children, and reading levels are designated as beginning, intermediate, or advanced.
    Great Books for Boys
    One of the things many boys give up on their way to manhood is a love of reading. This thoughtfully compiled annotated bibliography gives parents, teachers, and librarians strategies to help prevent this. Titles are organized by reader age and genre. Each entry provides a bibliographic citation, suggested age range, and brief annotation. Odean urges adults to provide boys with literature that reflects the widest possible range of emotions and experiences, from swashbuckling adventure to peaceful daydreaming. A list of magazines for young readers acknowledges the importance of other reading material.
    Great Books for Girls
    These books contain strong female characters, "girls and women who are creative, capable, articulate and intelligent, solving problems, facing challenges, resolving conflicts and going on quests. This resource book is divided by age group/difficulty level. They are not sidekicks or tokens waiting to be rescued; they are doing the rescuing." Nor are they waiting for a male to provide a happy ending; they are fashioning their own stories and their own endings.
    Great Books of the Western World
    This collection of books represents a large portion of the Western canon: Homer, the Athenian playwrights, the early Greek philosophers, Rome, early Christianity, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, early American political philosophy, and Victorian literature up until the end of the 20th century. This series provides extensive original documents on science, mathematics, government, philosophy, literature, and much more.
    Once Upon a Heroine: 400 Books for Girls to Love
    Using recommendations from librarians, teachers, book reviews, and their own experiences as mothers, the authors have compiled a list of classic and current titles from almost every genre that provides girls with positive role models.
    Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Pre-School to High School
    This book by Judith Wynn Halsted, M.S. offers a list of recommended books for gifted students from preschool through high school. The author describes how to use books as bibliotherapy to provide support, guidance, and insight. This is an in valuable resource for parents looking for books to recommend to gifted readers not only to enjoy, but also to gain perspective on themselves and others. Click here to read a review of this book.
    Twisted True Tales From Science - Prufrock series
    Mummies made of honey, needles stuck in eyeballs, and murderous fog. It sounds like a science-fiction movie, but these are all true stories found in the Twisted True Tales From Science series for kids ages 9–12. Learning about science has never been so gross, or so much fun. Books in this series include "Disaster Discoveries", "Explosive Experiments", "Insane Inventors" and "Medical Mayhem".

  • Websites & Other Media: Commercial

    Gifts for Learning
    Gifts for Learning is a place where anyone who has, or suspects they have, a gifted child can find books and toys that gifted children are sure to love. Visitors can also find information about gifted kids and some tips for making the most of toys and books.
    Terry Deary House of Books
    This site offers the most complete source for Terry Deary's books. It contains fiction, non-fiction, science books, ghost stories, thrillers and funny books in addition to Horrible Histories.

  • Websites & Other Media: For Educators

    The Great Books Foundation
    The Great Books Foundation offers people of all ages an exciting way to read and discuss outstanding works of literature. As a nonprofit educational organization, the foundation publishes reading series for children and adults, and conducts training in the shared inquiry method throughout the U.S. and abroad.

  • Websites & Other Media: Informational

    1000 Good Books List
    This site offers a bibliography with 1,000 titles for K-12 students. Maintained by the Classical Christian Education Support Loop, this list was originally created by homeschooling mothers.
    2017-2018 "Reading Beyond" book lists
    Here are 75 books chosen by the ALA-CBC (American Library Association & Children’s Book Council) Joint Committee to provide guidance to parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and anyone interested in discovering books for children who read at an advanced level and are seeking more challenging, but still age-appropriate, books.
    A Mighty Girl
    A Mighty Girl is a website of books, toys, movies, and music for parents, teachers, and others dedicated to raising smart, confident and courageous girls.
    Author Jacqueline Woodson
    Author Jacqueline Woodson writes stories for young adults and middle grades. Her latest book "Show Way", based on her own family history, tells the story of her maternal ancestors who were quilters, artists and freedom fighters.
    Book Concierge - National Public Radio (NPR)
    The Book Concierge compiled by staff members at National Public Radio (NPR) lists the top books for each year starting in 2008. Categories include: kids' books; young adult; book club ideas; biography and memoir; comics and graphic novels; cookbooks; family matters; for music lovers; for history lovers; historical fiction; "it's all geek to me"; poetry; science fiction and more.
    Books on IQ and Human Intelligence
    Hosted by the Learn in Freedom website, this page provides a comprehensive list of IQ and human intelligence.
    Center for Women's Studies (TX)
    This site offers a culturally diverse, annotated reading list and resource guide for middle school teachers, librarians and students. It features books about girls' and women's lives in literature, social studies (Texas history, world history and U.S. history), the arts, sciences and math.
    ChildLit Wiki
    The ChildLit Wiki is a resource for recommending books to children, based on the books they have already enjoyed. In addition, it is a resource for information about, and professional review and discussion of, children's books, authors, illustrators, and publishers, written by its readers. The site is a wiki, meaning that users can edit almost any article on this page.
    Children's Literature Web Guide
    The Children's Literature Web Guide is a website that gathers together and categorizes the growing number of Internet resources related to books for children and young adults. Much of the information that you can find through these pages is provided by others: fans, schools, libraries, and commercial enterprises in the book world.
    Classic Reader
    This website offers a large collection of 3,077 free classic books online. Users can search for a book, read it online and even add personalized annotations to any of the books. The website is free however some functions require free registration.
    Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature
    The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature (DAWCL) has more than 4,500 records from 56 awards across six English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Ireland). The user should be a librarian or a teacher intervening for a child-reader, although anyone may make use of it to find the best in children's literature including parents, book store personnel, and children and young adults.
    List Muse
    This website provides reading, movie and music lists for educational and entertainment purposes. Some of the reading lists are of fiction and nonfiction books, including The 100 Best Science Books of All Time.
    LitPick
    LitPick’s mission is to help preteens and teens develop a lifelong love of reading by empowering young readers to share their opinions in a social community. The organization seeks to change the way students interact with literature and help them become leaders in the growing intersection of education and technology. LitPick Student Book Reviews reaches out and engages students in a social community based on literature where their opinions are valued. Additionally LitPick is a community where educators and parents can find out what preteens, teens, and young adults actually think about books written for these age groups, enabling them to guide their students’ growth as readers.
    Novel Book Ratings
    Novel Book Ratings is a website that provides a search engine to help users find books by categories and content. Their rating system can assist parents with finding age appropriate books for their children to read.
    Reading Lists: Newbery Medal and Honor Books
    This website provides titles and authors of the Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor Books since 1922. The Newbery Awards are presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
    Recommended Books on Entomology
    This webpage offers a list of entomology books recommended by the San Diego Natural History Museum. Many of these books are available from the Museum store or from Amazon.com.
    Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Booklists
    This website offers an extensive list of young adult books, including various current and previous award-winning titles. It also includes a link to “Outstanding Books for the College Bound” for children who read at an advanced level. The mission of the Young Adult Library Services Association is to advocate, promote and strengthen service to young adults as part of the continuum of total library service, and to support those who provide service to this population.