So, I've been doing a lot of research and planning for our next school year, focusing especially on Ambleside Online's Year-7 since, as always with my eldest daughter, it will be my first time using this beautiful though extensive book-list to cover the Medieval Age at a decidedly higher level than Our Island Story and Discovery of New Worlds, both of which we completely adored! Using resources like Nothing New Press's All Through the Ages, the recommended Free Reading List on the AO's site, and my own experiences with the literature of those lovely Dark and Middle Ages, I've compiled this Free Reading List for my own daughter and thought I'd share it with you, too.
For ease of use and in order of importance, my humble opinion alone, I broke the books down into three categories--Literature, Historical Fiction, and Miscellaneous--and placed them into my best burning-the-late-night-oil chronological order.
Also, if you're uber-familiar with AO and notice their absence, I'll be using Beowulf (daughter said, "Cool!") and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for poetry during Term-1.
Oh, and if you're NOT uber-familiar with Ambleside Online, Free Reading is basically a pile of books my daughter may read on her own throughout the school year, without any required narration or telling back as with her subject core books.
With the pile of these uber-yummy books growing, neither my daughter nor myself can wait to dig in! I've attached links to Google Books, Project Gutenburg, and such, just in case you wanna take a wee peek or jump in with your own literary shovel and join us. :)
Literature:
- Mabinogion, translated by Lady Charlotte Guest (Celtic Mythology & Welsh Tales)
- Parzival, by Wolfram von Eschenbach (Arthurian Legend of the Grail)
- Legends of Charlemagne: Bulfinch’s Mythology
- Song of Roland translated by Dorothy Sayer (Legend of France)
- Nibelungenlied translated by D.G. Mowatt (Norse Epic of the Ring Saga)
- The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald, anonymous Icelandic epic
- Tale of the Warrior Lord: The Cid, translated by Merriam Sherwood
- Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving (Legends & Fairy Tales of Moorish Spain)
- Reynard the Fox by Goethe (Fable, satire of the Middle Ages; online)
- Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, translated by N.J. Wood (Classic Arabian, Islamic medieval folklore)
Historical Fiction:
- Rolf and The Viking Bow by Allen French
- Edwy the Fair by A.D. Crake (Britain at the time of Dunstan; 1st of the Aescendune trilogy)
- Alfgar the Dane by A. D. Crake (Edmund Ironside; 2nd of the Aescendune trilogy)
- The Rival Heirs by A. D. Crake (The Norman Conquest; last of the Aescendune trilogy)
- Hereward the Wake by Charles Kingsley (The Norman Conquest)
- Betrothed, by Sir Walter Scott (Border feud in Wales, 1187; Henry II of England)
- Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott (England and Third Crusade; Richard I & Saladin)
- Runnymede and Lincoln Fair, by J.G. Edgar (King John, 1215; signing of Magna Charta)
- Otto of the Silver Hand, by Howard Pyle (Germany; 13th century feudal barons)
- Castle Dangerous, by Sir Walter Scott (Scotland's war w/England)
- Fair Maid of Perth, by Sir Walter Scott (Scotland, 1396-1402; reign of Robert III)
- Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle (England, 1399-1413; reign of Henry IV)
- Feats on the Fiord by Harriet Martineau (Norway)
- The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Wars of the Roses)
Miscellaneous or Summer Reading:
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King (Fantasy)
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (Humorous Fiction)
- When the Tripods Came; The White Mountains; City of Gold and Lead; and Pool of Fire by John Christopher (Science Fiction)
- The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill (Modern Fiction)
- The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Fantasy)
- The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett (ILL)
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Semi-Autobiography)
- Penrod AND Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington
Are there any I missed?!
Oh, this sounds so incredibly exciting! We have read both Otto and Men of Iron as family read alouds in the past year and adored both. Roll on Year 7! We've got a ways to go though :)
ReplyDeleteJeanne, I started my eldest daughter a wee later with Ambleside. She was plugging away with Truthquest, whose booklists I LOVED, but required too much planning on my part--especially now! Plus, it made too many of the connections for her, which I didn't LOVE. Boo!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I held back all the Middle Ages gems for just the right moment. I hope she enjoys them as much as we already have! Haha!
Poor thing. ;)
This is awesome. These books you have listed are amazing. I am new to Ambleside...not C.Mason though. Wow. You opened up a whole new world for this mom of hungry boy readers. OK. So I go to Nothings New Press...cool. I need lots of help, so bear with me!
ReplyDeletePassionate: Thanks! I get excited about finding good books, too. My own experience with AO started during my daughter's third year of home school. After finishing a boxed kindergarten program of study, we both knew that there must be another way. Since she was young enough, I chucked the grammar, spelling, science, and history textbooks and just started heating up my library card, reading tons of classic children's literature and studying insects and invertebrates that next year, since that's where her interests lay.
ReplyDeleteDuring her second year we did the same pattern of study: great kids' lit with birds and mammals, adding classical music and some books about select artists, but when her third year began, I was running out of ideas for out-of-doors and did a google search for, "nature study." Lo and behold--what do you think I found?! A whole community of loonies JUST LIKE ME. And, although I'm not the kind of gal who's afraid of rowing against the current, it has been an utter blessing to read and glean all that I can to make our experience that much more rich.
So, all this to say, "Welcome & enjoy!" :D