ABU DHABI, U.A.E. (Catholic Online) - I am not a teacher by profession and neither am I an expert on children's literature. I am a homeschooling mother of four children. I have a keen interest in children's literature.  I believe wholeheartedly, with Michael D O'Brien, author of "A Landscape With Dragons", when he calls the children's literature scene a battle for our children's minds. 

Much of the content of children's literature these days is filled with what I call poison for their young and impressionable minds.  I am distressed by the books that young children are required to read in schools.  I am also alarmed by the fact that too many parents do not have a clue about what their children are reading.

Whenever someone recommends a book to me, I go straight to Amazon and read the one and two star reviews.  Many times I have found reviews written by Catholic homeschooling mothers who point out exactly what I want to know about the books I'm going to hand to my children (or NOT, as the case often turns out to be).

I have compiled the list from various sources, including some books that I have.  I have not read many of the books on the list.  I have relied heavily on Catholic bookshops and publishers that I trust - especially for the books for older children and young adults. I trust anything that is published by Bethlehem Books and Ignatius Press.  I have also looked at three different Catholic homeschool curriculum booklists.  I also consulted the book I mentioned above, "A Landscape With Dragons", which contains a list of recommended reading. 

Many of the books that I have listed are typical for homeschooling book lists.I assigned the books to a grade level, but each novel is suitable for a range of ages. The grade levels are really only a rough guide and I used a combination of the publishers' recommendations and the homeschool curriculum book lists to determine the grade levels. Ultimately it is up to the parents to decide, of course, what is suitable for their family. I have to get this email away to you now because I am surrounded by children, badgering me about this, that, or the other and waiting for me to get on with "school". 

I actually live in Abu Dhabi, so Sunday is a school day (our weekend is Friday and Saturday and incidentally, the Arabian Vicariate has special permission to have obligatory Masses on Friday as well as Sunday). Thank you so much for Catholic Online and for your tireless work for the glory of God.  Thank you also for Catholic Online's support of homeschooling.

Grades 1 - 2

The Squire and the Scroll, Jennie Bishop
The Princess and the Kiss, Jennie Bishop
The Errant Knight, Ann Tompert
Take It to the Queen: A Tale of Hope by Josephine Nobisso
The Weight of a Mass: A Tale of Faith by Josephine Nobisso
My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannet
Elmer and the Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannet
The Dragons of Blue Land, Ruth Stiles Gannet
The Hundred Dresses, Eleanor Estes
The Sword in the Tree, Clyde Robert Bulla
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Alice Dalgliesh
The Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dalgliesh
Magic Treehouse Series, Mary Pope Osborne
A Day on Skates, Hilda Van Stockum
Betsy-Tacy, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Family under the Bridge, Natalie Savage Carlson
My America Series, Various Authors, Scholastic

Grade 3

Homer Price, Robert McCloskey
Philomena, Kate Seredy
The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Beverley Cleary
Mrs Piggle Wiggle Series, Betty MacDonald,
A Penny for a Hundred, Ethel Pochocki
Happy Times in Noisy Village, Astrid Lindgren
Little House Series, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Bantry Bay Series, Hilda Van Stockum
Mr Popper's Penguins, Richard Atwater
The Children at Green Meadows, Enid Blyton
Pollyanna, Eleanor H. Porter
The Story of Dr Doolittle, Hugh Lofting
Charlotte's Webb, E.B. White
Egyptian Diary : Journal of a Young Scribe, Richard Platt

Grade 4

The Mitchells Series, Hilda Van Stockum
My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George
The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes
Pinky Pye, Eleanor Estes
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Robert C. O'Brien
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, Rumer Godden
Daughter of the Mountains, Louise Rankin
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
The Fairchild Family Series, Rebecca Caudill
Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
The Small War of Sergeant Donkey, Maureen Daly
Secret Agents Four, Donald Sobol
Hitty - Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry

Grade 5

Letzenstein Chronicles, Meriol ...