Good Books

For my top 10, click here.
For my top 10 in various categories, click here.
To find me on the goodreads website, click here.

Scroll down for kids’ book recommendations!

Christian
Valley of Vision – edited by Arthur Bennett
God Is the Gospel – John Piper
The Weight of Glory – C.S. Lewis
If – Amy Carmichael
The Loveliness of Christ – Samuel Rutherford
Spurgeon’s Sorrows – Zack Eswine
Messy Grace – Kaltenbach
None Like Him – Jen Wilkin
The Holiness of God – R.C. Sproul
Because He Loves Me – Elyse Fitzpatrick
Who Put Jesus on the Cross? – A.W. Tozer
A Sacred Sorrow  – Michael Card
Women of the Word – Jen Wilkin
Humble Roots – Hannah Anderson
Spiritual Depression – Martyn Lloyd Jones
Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands – Tripp
When Helping Hurts
Delighting in the Trinity – Michael Reeves
Images & Idols – Terry & Lister

Biography
The Ralph Moody Series – Ralph Moody
To the Golden Shore (about Adoniram Judson)
Ann Judson’s Memoirs
It’s a Jungle Out There – Ron Snell
Through Gates of Splendor – Elisabeth Eliot
A Chance to Die – Elisabeth Elliot (on Amy Carmichael)
Until the Day Breaks – Patricia St. John (on Lilias Trotter)

Food and Health
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto – Michael Pollan

Books I Enjoyed Growing Up
Viking Quest Series – Lois Walfrid Johnson
The Bronze Ladder – Malcolm Lyon
The Fallacy Detective
The Thinking Toolbox
The Pastor’s Daughter – Lousia Payson Hopkins
Endurance – Alfred Lansing
The Princess Bride
Anne of Green Gables Series – L.M. Montgomery
The Ralph Moody Series – Ralph Moody
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baroness Orczy

Fiction
A Tale of Two Cities – Dickens
They Loved to Laugh – Kathryn Worth
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Last Sin eater – Francine Rivers
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
The Emperor’s Winding Sheet – Jill Paton Walsh
Quo Vadis – Henryk K Sienkiewicz
Viking Quest Series – Lois Walfrid Johnson
The Bronze Ladder – Malcolm Lyon
The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Princess Bride – S. Morgenstern
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman trilogy – Brian Jacques
Hostage Lands – Douglas Bond
The Door on Half-Bald Hill (Sorenson)

Worldview and Education
Mathematics: Is God Silent? – James Nickel
Amusing Ourselves to Death – Neil Portman
Music Through the Eyes of Faith – Best
The Law – Bastiat
Who’s (Whose) Grammar Book is This, Anyway? – C. Edward Good
Money, Possessions, and Eternity – Randy Alcorn
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (and others) – Richard J. Maybury
The Deadliest Monster – J.F. Baldwin
For the Children’s Sake – Susan Schaeffer McCaulay
From Beirut to Jerusalem – Thomas L. Friedman

Womanhood/Motherhood
The Hidden Art of Homemaking– Edith Schaeffer
Women and God – Kathleen Nielson
Keep a Quiet Heart – Elisabeth Elliot
The Ministry of Motherhood – Sally Clarkson
Desperate – Sally Clarkson, Sarah Mae
Treasuring Christ When Your Hands are Full – Gloria Furman
Parenting – Paul Tripp
Holy Labor – Aubri Smith
Real Food for Pregnancy – Lily Nichols
Secrets of the Baby Whisperer
Mom Enough – Desiring God

Marriage
When Sinners Say I Do – Harvey
This Momentary Marriage – Piper

 

 

Kids’ Book Recommendations

Board Books

Tickle My Ears – Jorg Muhle
It’s Time to Sleep
Little Blue Truck
Big Red Barn
Goodnight Moon
Corduroy
Are You a Cow? (S in general likes Sandra Boynton books, though they sometimes drive Ezra and I crazy with how nonsensical they are)
Any by Caroline Jayne Church – all her illustrations, but S especially loves I Love You Through and Through and Ten Tiny Toes (and any of her song ones).
Boats Go
Let There Be Light
Muddle and Match from Usborne

Picture Books

For New Big Siblings
– Hello Baby
– I’m a Big Sister (Joanna Cole)*
– When You Were Inside Mommy (Joanna Cole)*
– In the Womb (National Geographic)*
– Peter’s Chair (Ezra Jack Keats)*
– On Mother’s Lap (Scott, Coalson)

• Nine Months Before a Baby is Born (Paul)**

Nature
Hurry and the Monarch
Counting Birds (Alice Melvin)*
Dianna Aston – esp A Seed is Silent, (no evolution)
In the Sea (Elliott & Meade)**
Bird Talk (Jonas)*
Over in the Meadow (Ezra Jack Keats)**
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt (Messner) – all of hers like this
Can I Eat That? Stein/Rothman
Judy Allen’s books (some evolution in notes in back)
Julia Rothman’s Anatomy books (some evolution in Ocean one)
Wonders of Nature (Golden Books)*
Kevin Henkes’ season books
On Duck Pond (Yolen)**
Gail Gibbons**
Fun but not top: The Busy Tree, Insect Detective, The Golden Glow, The Apple Pie Tree, The Apple Pie that Papa Baked, Apple Trees to Cider, Please

Art
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane (Book of Kells/Illumination)
Marguerite Makes a Book
Katie Meets the ImpressionistsCharlie Needs a Cloak
I Spy – Micklewaith
Pelle’s New Suit (Beskow)
Come Look with Me (Blizzard)

Bible/Theology

The Big Picture Storybook Bible
The Biggest Story
The Ology Love Made*
Tales that tell the truth series (especially God’s Very Good Idea, Goodbye to Goodbyes, and The Garden The Curtain and the Cross)
God Made Me and You
God Made Me Unique
God Made Boys and Girls

Personal Safety
Good Pictures, Bad Pictures
God Made All of Me
God’s Design for Sex Series

Music

Zin Zin Zin a Violin
Meet the Orchestra
Anna Celenza’s books

Fun
Tale of Two Princes*
Roxaboxen***
Miss Rumphius***
Green Eggs & Ham
Are You my Mother***
The Quiltmaker’s Gift***
Paddington
The True Princess – Hunt*
Dogs – Emily Gravett
Thunder Cake, The Bee Tree, Someone for Mr. Sussman, The Mermaid’s Purse, Chicken Sunday (Patricia Polacco)**
Lentil/Make Way for Ducklings/Blueberries for Sal/Burt Dow -McCloskey**
The Great Gracie Chase (Rylant)
10 Little Fingers and 10 Little Toes
James Heriot’s A Treasury for Children*
There is a Carrot in My Ear
Sven Nordqvist’s Pettson and Findus series
The Snowy Day*
On Market Street (Lobel)
Miss Maple’s Seeds
Flossie and the Fox (McKissack)*
A Visitor For Bear (Becker) and others**
What Do People Do All Day?**
Vincent Comes Home – Bagley
Tea Party in the Woods (Miyakoshi)
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge*
Ocean Meets Sky (Fan)***
Urso Brunov – Brian Jacques
Tomie de Paola – Erandi’s Braids, The Knight and the Dragon, The Good Samaritan and other Parables, The Clown of God, The Popcorn Book
My Grandfather’s Coat (Aylesworth)
Dreams (Ezra Jack Keats)***
How Much is a Little Girl Worth (Denhollander)
Yertle the Turtle (Seuss)
Three Bears in a Boat
Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)
A.A. Milne’s Poetry for children
Brambly Hedge
Pelle’s New Suit (Elsa Beskow)
Home in the Woods (Eliza Wheeler)
Fun but not top: Imogen’s Antlers (Small), The Red Prince (Roscoe),

History:
Modern Middle East: Silent Music, Stepping Stones (Ruurs, Badr), The Journey – Sanna
Gingerbread for Liberty
A Child Through Time
Shackleton’s Journey – Grill
Thirty Minutes Over Oregon (Nobleman) WWII

Middle Ages:

Saint George and the Dragon*
The Kitchen Knight**
The White Cat and the Monk – Bogart (for Celtic)
Marguerite Makes a Book
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane
(Magic in the Margins)

Reformation
Jeanne D’Albret, Princess of the Reformation
Katherine Von Bora: The Morning Star of Wittenberg (Strackbein)

Geography:

How to make an apple pie and see the world
Children Just Like Me
Sasek, “This is… (City)” series
Maps Mizielinska
Snow in Jerusalem
Adele & Simon
Mama Panya’s Pancakes
People – Spier
West Coast Wild
Goha the Wise Fool*
Wee Gillis
Yoko’s Paper Cranes
How My Parents Learned to Eat

Spanish
Abuela
What can you do with a Rebozo/Paleta?
Perro Grande, Perro Pequeno
Eight Animals on The town – Susan Middleton Elya
First 1,000 Words in Spanish
Carle – El Canguro Tiene Mama?
Diez Deditos

Thanksgiving
Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast – Kate Waters
The Pilgrims of Plimoth – Marcia Sewall (older)*
The Story of the First Thanksgiving – Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese
Squanto – Eric Metaxas*
The Thanksgiving Story Dagliesh
Cranberry Thanksgiving – Devlin*
Squanto’s Journey – Bruchac

Christmas
Three Christmas Journeys*
The Nutcracker (The one illustrated by Hague is our favorite for the “whole story” but Valeria Docampo’s is most similar to the ballet).*
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree (Gloria Houston/Barbara Cooney)
Christmas in the Barn (Margaret Wise Brown)
The Little Drummer Boy (Ezra Jack Keats)
Fear Not, Joseph – Stiegemeyer
A Christmas Carol, ill Brett Helquist

Easter

The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross*
Peter’s First Easter (Wagnerian)*
Easter – Jan Pienkowski
Easter in the Garden – Pamela Kennedy*

Favorite Illustrators:

Ezra Jack Keats
Barbara Cooney
Patricia Pollacco
Robert McCloskey
Tomie dePaola
Meilo So
Arnold and Anita Lobel
Helen Oxenbury
Krommes
Barbara McClintock

Almost always a hit:
Steve Kellogg
Ezra Jack Keats
Poetry for Young People
Patricia Polacco (some more mature)
Robert McCloskey
Barbara Cooney
Sven Nordqvist
Anna Celenza
Tomie DePaola
Richard Scarry
Diana Aston
Kim Lewis
Lobel
Shirley Hughes
Gail Gibbons
Barbara McClintock
Elsa Beskow
Atinuke