Welcome to our family’s list of favorite picture books for Medieval to Modern world history (along with astronomy, English grammar, and fine arts). After investing in many books over the past several years, we’ve decided to let you in on what our favorites have been! We’ve selected the following books as personal family favorites because they’re beautiful and rich in content. (We have reasons for selecting each one. Perhaps I will be able to come back and write a description for each, which I would love to do if I can find the time to do so!)
I usually preface these types of posts with all sorts of disclaimers like…
- Plan does not equal reality. (Not in our home, anyway.)
- We read a lot but sometimes do not get around to doing everything I plan (and sometimes that happens more often than sometimes).
- It is not necessary to correlate any of our reading with memory work. These books would be great books to read at any point with your children.
- The links here are affiliate links, which means we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. We use affiliate links to help support the costs associated with maintaining and improving this part of our website while also supporting world missions. Your purchases through these links also help support our homeschool family while allowing us to continue to provide the service of this website. (Believe it or not, it’s a full-time job for two people to update and maintain this website!) So, if you ever shop through our links, our family deeply appreciates it! Thanks for supporting Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood when shopping at Amazon!
- A printable Cycle 2 Picture Books list is included in our CC Cycle 2 Planner with Planning Resources packet.
With that, here are our personal picture books for the coming school year….
(These books correlate with the Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Foundations program.)
Illustrated Picture Books
(which are stored in the Book Bin for afternoon reading time)
Week 1
Caedmon’s Song
The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur
Saint George and the Dragon
Ish by Peter Reynolds
Week 2
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Comic Strip
Stephen’s Feast (re: Good King Wenceslas; a family favorite at Christmastime, too)
Built to Last (Castle)
Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse
I And You And Don’t Forget Who: What Is a Pronoun?
Draw Europe
One Small Square: Backyard by Donald Silver. Great book for tie-in to ecology memory work for multiple weeks.
Week 3
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Crusader!
The Squire and the Scroll: A Tale of the Rewards of a Pure Heart
The Making of a Knight: How Sir James Earne…
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (A Math Adventure) (Additional titles for math + history tie-in.)
The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book (ALA Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards))
Week 4
The Magna Carta: Cornerstone of the Constitution (great book with lots of Cycle 2 history tie-ins! Plus, it can be used again for Cycle 3!)
Robin Hood And The Golden Arrow
Chanticleer and the Fox
The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art
Week 5
Joan of Arc by Dianne Stanley (long picture book that may be used as a weekly read aloud)
Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence
A Medieval Feast (to wrap up the Middle Ages, we’re hoping to enjoy a medieval feast as a family or community)
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Week 6
William Shakespeare & the Globe by Aliki
Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare
Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Michelangelo by Diane Stanley
Nicolaus Copernicus: The Earth Is a Planet
You Wouldnt Want to Work on a Medieval Cathedral
Week 7
Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed The World
Built to Last (Cathedral)
Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations (4th Edition memory work)
Week 8
A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme
Maps & Globes (Reading Rainbow)
Exploration and Conquest
Week 9
Peter the Great
Brilliant Brits: Henry VIII (but only if you’re dying to study Henry VIII. If you want a book about him, this one is entertaining, but it goes into his wives and the reasons he divorced or beheaded them. It’s just not wholesome goodness, ya know?)
The King’s Day: Louis XIV of France
Good Queen Bess : The Story of Elizabeth I of England
Week 10
Russia ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Russia or R is for Russia (both of these are great – one uses illustrations and the other photos)
The Littlest Matryoshka (Still looking into other books about Russian folktales)
There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System
Week 11 & 12
Stone Soup
Napoleon: The Story of the Little Corporal (longer picture book that is better used as a read aloud)
My Napoleon
The Heroic Symphony. Beethoven is determined to write a great symphony in honor of the heroic deeds of Napoleon. But… he later becomes disenchanted with the former hero. Includes audio CD.
Look to the Stars by Edwin Aldrin
Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations (5th Edition science activity)
The Moon Book
Moonfinder
Week 13
Smokestacks and Spinning Jennys
The Bobbin Girl
Art Fraud Detective: Spot the Difference, Solve the Crime!
You Wouldn’t Want to be on Apollo 13!
Week 14 & 15
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear
Christmas in the Trenches
Shooting at the Stars
Where Poppies Grow: A World War I Companion
In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem
Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is An Adverb?
Week 16 & 17
Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World
The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
To Root, to Toot, to Parachute: What Is a Verb?
Claude Monet: The Painter Who Stopped the Trains
Week 18
Christmas from Heaven
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot
A Mink, a Fink, a Skating Rink: What Is a Noun?
Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion (Inventions and Discovery)
Week 19
Peacebound Trains
A Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!
Week 20
The Wall (Reading Rainbow Books)
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (A Math Adventure)
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (A Math Adventure)
Beethoven Lives Upstairs Audio CD
The Heroic Symphony
Week 21 & 22
Christmas from Heaven
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot
The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain
But and For, Yet and Nor: What Is a Conjunction?
Week 23
George Bush: Forty-First President 1989-1993 (Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents) by Venezia
Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is An Adjective?
Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music & the Composers Who Wrote the Music!
Week 24
The Soccer Fence: A story of friendship, hope, and apartheid in South Africa
Peaceful Protest: The Life of Nelson Mandela
So You Want to Be President?
Cool! Whoa! Ah and Oh!: What Is an Interjection?
Readers (for Grade 2-4 to read aloud):
I received a specific request for leveled readers that correlate with Cycle 2. Although I’ve not had a chance to put together this in a list format, I have put together a list of Who Was… What Was… Where Was… books. In addition to our children’s favorite Imagination Station series, we have the following leveled readers or short chapter books on hand. Check out a more complete listing of our Cycle 2 Leveled Readers to be published in Summer 2019.
The Minstrel in the Tower (Stepping Stone)
The Sword in the Tree (Trophy Chapter Book)
Joan of Arc (Step into Reading)
The King of Prussia and a Peanut Butter Sandwich
The Three Musketeers
Space Heroes: Amazing Astronauts (DK Readers)
Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon
DK Readers: D-Day Landings
DK Readers: The Story of Anne Frank
DK Readers: Spies!
If you’re interested in the Magic Tree House, visit our Magic Tree House and Imagination Station World History Book List (Cycles 1 & 2).
A most important thing:
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of finding books that your child enjoys reading. If their favorite books don’t line up with memory work, who cares? What’s important is that they grow in their love for reading. So let them read Hank the Cowdog if that’s what they enjoy. (After all, those are great books!) If you aren’t to a point of enjoying reading yet with your children, it’s okay. Starting out, all I’ll challenge you with is to read out loud to your children 10 minutes every day. I truly believe it will grow into something much greater if you select topics that interest them.
Our second son taught me tons about letting go and letting God guide us instead of sticking to my plans. Just three years ago, that child told me how much he hated reading. Now, he picks up unabridged classics as a 10-year-old and reads them in his spare time because he enjoys it. He is the one who asks me to read more every time I read out loud. (He can spend an hour or more listening to me read non-stop – until my voice gives out and I’m hoarse.) And he requests more and more audiobooks to listen to in the car.
The longer I homeschool, the more I see God’s power and grace in my life and in our home. The fact remains, I fail all the time. But He blesses our homeschool in spite of me.
Praise Him from Whom all blessings flow!
Other related posts:
Our Cycle 2 Reading Plans
Our Cycle 2 Reading Plans from 3 years ago
Our Cycle 2 Read Aloud Selections
Our Cycle 2 Booklist