State-by-State Reading List

This list covers a wide variety of ages and genres. All were recommended by Catholic homeschoolers, but parents should be aware that there are different opinions regarding the choosing of books within the Catholic homeschool world. Please help us fill in the gaps in the list by e-mailing us with additional suggestions. Following the state-by-state list is a province-by-province reading list for stories that take place in Canada. We will be happy to place it on its own page when it is more extensive.

Alabama

  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Waxtons go to Birmingham by Christopher Curtis (also Michigan - recommended with caution)

Alaska

  • Balto, the Bravest Dog Ever
  • The Call of the Wild by Jack London (also Canada)
  • This Old House by Joanne Wild
  • Water Sky by Jean Craighead George

Arizona

  • Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry
  • We Live in the Southwest by Lois Lenski

Arkansas

  • Cotton in My Sack by Lois Lenski

California

  • By the Great Horn Spoon
  • The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
  • Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
  • Vallejo and the Four Flags by Esther J. Comstock
  • Blue Willow by Doris Gates
  • Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (picture book) also covers Japan
  • The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp by Barry Denenberg
  • The Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
  • Wait for Me, Life of Father Junipero Serra Sister Mary Helen Wallace, FSP
  • Westward the Bells (biography of Junipero Serra) Marion F. Sullivan
  • California Missions edited by Ralph B. Wright
  • The Decoration of the California Missions Norman Neuerburg
  • Saints of the California Missions by Norman Neuerburg
  • San Francisco Boy by Lois Lenski
  • Patty Reed's Doll by Rachel Laurgaard
  • Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
  • The Story of The Pony Express by R. Conrad Stein
  • The Miner Was a Bishop :The Pioneer Years of Patrick Manogue William Breault S.J.
  • Winter of Entrapment A New Look at the Donner Party Joseph A. King

Colorado

  • Beany Malone series by Lenora Mattingly Weber
  • Little Britches by Ralph Moody
  • The Home Ranch by Ralph Moody
  • Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World by Frances Parkinson Keyes (Vision)

Connecticut

  • 26 Fairmount Avenue Series by Tomie de Paola
  • The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
  • Flight into Spring by Bianca Bradbury
  • Flood Friday by Lois Lenski
  • Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
  • The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Delaware

 

Florida

  • The Cross in the Sand by Michael Gannon
  • Secret Agents Four by Donald Sobol
  • Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
  • The Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings

Georgia

  • The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis
  • Turn Homeward, Hannalee by Patricia Beatty (also Indiana)

Hawaii

  • Father Damien and the Bells by Arthur and Elizabeth Sheehan
  • The Quiet Light: Mother Marianne of Molokai by Eva K. Betz (Catholic Treasury Series)

Idaho

  • Bonanza Girl by Patricia Beatty
  • Louly by Carol Ryrie Brink
  • Year Walk by Ann Nolan Clark

Illinois

  • From Slave to Priest: A Biography of Reverend Augustine Tolton, First Black American Priest of the U.S. by Sister Caroline Hemesath
  • Molly American Girl Stories

Indiana

  • Turn Homeward, Hannalee by Patricia Beatty (also Georgia)
  • Floating House by Scott Sanders (also Ohio)
  • Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter
  • Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
  • Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter

Iowa

 

Kansas

Kentucky

  • Becky Landers, Frontier Warrior by Constance Lindsay Skinner
  • The Happy Little Family and the rest of the Fairchild Family Series by Rebecca Caudill

Louisiana

  • Bayou Suzette by Lois Lenski
  • The Louisiana Purchase (Landmark)
  • Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World by Frances Parkinson Keyes (Vision)

Maine

  • Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
  • Calico Bush by Rachel Field
  • One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
  • The Secret of Pooduck Island by Alfred Noyes
  • The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
  • Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey
  • The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzeo
  • L is for Lobster by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds
  • Keep the Lights Burning Abbie by Peter Roop and Connie Roop
  • Birdie's Lighthouse by Deborah Hopkinson
  • Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
  • Island Boy by Barbara Cooney
  • A Penny for a Hundred by Ethel Pochocki

Maryland

  • Charles Carroll and the American Revolution by Milton Lomask
  • Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity (Vision)
  • The Story of the Star Spangled Banner, (Cornerstones of Freedom) by Natalie Miller
  • Kat Finds A Friend, a Mother Seton Story by Joan Stromberg
  • Captain Kate by Carolyn Reeder

Massachusetts

  • Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (also New Hampshire)
  • And then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz
  • Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
  • The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
  • Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs
  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • Puritan Adventure by Lois Lenski
  • Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
  • Downright Dency by Caroline Dale Snedeker
  • The Charlotte Years (Little House Series) by Melissa Wiley

Michigan

  • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Curtis (recommended with caution)
  • The Legend of Mackinac Island by Kathy-jo Wargin
  • The Legend of the Sleeping Bear by Kathy-jo Wargin
  • The Legend of the Loon by Kathy-jo Wargin
  • M is for Mitten: A Michigan Alphabet by Annie Appleford
  • Paddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy Hollings
  • Thomas Edison: Young Inventor by Sue Guthridge (CFA)
  • The Waxtons go to Birmingham by Christopher Curtis (also Alabama - recommended with caution)
  • We Live in the North by Lois Lenski

Minnesota

  • Betsy-Tacy Series by Maud Hart Lovelace
  • Kirsten American Girl Stories
  • On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Mississippi

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 

Missouri

  • Katie John Series by Mary Calhoun
  • Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea MacBride
  • Little Farm in the Ozarks by Roger Lea MacBride
  • In the Land of the Big Red Apple by Roger Lea MacBride

Montana

  • San Domingo: the Medicine Hat Stallion by Marguerite Henry
  • To Yellowstone: A Journey Home by Robert McKinnon

Nebraska

  • A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather (high school / adult)

Nevada

  • Mustang, Wild Spirit of the West by Marguerite Henry

New Hampshire

  • The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet
  • George the Drummer Boy by Nathaniel Benchley
  • The Great Stone Face by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (also Massachusetts)

New Jersey

  • Cheaper by the Dozen by Gilbreth
  • The Edison Mystery by Dan Gutman
  • Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi
  • The Story of Baseball by Lawrence A. Ritter
  • Abigail Takes the Wheel by Avi
  • The First Air Voyage in the United States: the story of Jean Pierre Blauchard by Alexandra Wallner
  • New Jersey Timeline: a chronology by Marsh
  • Priest on Horseback by Eva K Betz
  • Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the U.S. by Collen
  • The Village: Life in Colonial Times by Knight

New Mexico

  • Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (high school)
  • Josefina American Girl Stories
  • Tree in the Trail by Holling Clancy Holling
  • We Live in the Southwest by Lois Lenski

New York

  • Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz
  • The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
  • Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • High-Rise Secret by Lois Lenski
  • Karen by Marie Killilea
  • The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds
  • My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
  • St. Isaac and the Indians
  • The Moffats by Eleanor Estes
  • Kateri Tekakwitha by Evelyn Brown (Vision)
  • Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World by Frances Parkinson Keyes (Vision)

New York City

  • The Chosen by Chaim Potok
  • The Copper Lady by Alice Rosee and Kent Ross
  • Lou Gehrig: One of Baseball's Greatest by Guernsey Van Riper
  • The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
  • In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
  • All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
  • From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
  • The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegard H. Swift and Lynd Ward (picture book)
  • Samantha American Girl Stories
  • Shadow of the Bear and Black as Night by Regina Doman
  • The Story of the Statue of Liberty (Cornerstones of Freedom Series)
  • They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth
  • Thomas Finds a Treasure by Joan Stromberg
  • Lily and Miss Liberty
  • The Orphans Find a Home: A St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Story by Joan Stromberg
  • A Cricket in Times' Square

North Carolina

  • Blue Ridge Billy by Lois Lenski

North Dakota

 

Ohio

  • Homer Price and Centerberg Tales by Robert McCloskey
  • Kit American Girl Stories
  • Lentil by Robert McCloskey (picture book)
  • Floating House by Scott Sanders (also Indiana)

Oklahoma

  • Boom Town Boy by Lois Lenski
  • Where the Red Fern Growns by Wilson Rawls

Oregon

  • Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary
  • Henry Huggins series by Beverly Cleary
  • To Be a Logger by Lois Lenski
  • The Year of the Black Pony by Walter Morey

Pennsylvania

  • Addy American Girl Stories
  • The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin by James Cross Giblin
  • The Battle of Gettysburg by Bruce Catton
  • Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia (Landmark)
  • Brady by Jean Fritz
  • The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
  • Gettysburg by MacKinlay Kantor
  • The Iron Spy by Joan Stromberg
  • Katie: The Young Life of St. Katherine Drexel by Claire Mohan Jordan
  • St. Katharine Drexel by Ellen Tarry (Vision)
  • Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Gettysburg - older teen or adult)
  • The Many Lives of Benjamin Franklin by Mary Pope Osborne
  • Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
  • A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David A. Adler
  • The Riddle of Penncroft Farm by Dorothea Jensen
  • Shh! We're Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz
  • Shoo-fly Girl by Lois Lenski
  • Silver for General Washington by Enid Lamonte Meadowcroft
  • The Skippack School by Marguerite de Angeli
  • The Story of the Declaration of Independence by N. Richards
  • The Story of William Penn by Aliki
  • Thee Hannah! by Marguerite de Angeli
  • Thunder at Gettysburg by Patricia Gauch
  • What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz
  • The Winter at Valley Forge by VanWyck Mason

Rhode Island

 

South Carolina

  • The Swamp Fox of the Revolution by Stewart H. Holbrook (Landmark)

South Dakota

  • Prairie School by Lois Lenski
  • Little Sioux Girl by Lois Lenski
  • By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Old Sam: Dakota Trotter by Don Alonzo Taylor
  • These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Tennessee

  • Daniel's Duck by Clyde Robert Bulla (easy reader)
  • The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
  • White Bird by Clyde Robert Bulla

Texas

  • Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
  • Savage Sam by Fred Gipson
  • Texas Tomboy by Lois Lenski
  • Wilderness Pioneer by Carol Hoff
  • The Wind Blows Free by Loula Grace Erdman

Utah

  • The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald

Vermont

  • Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry
  • The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp
  • Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Virginia

  • Felicity American Girl Stories
  • George Washington by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
  • The Story of George Washington
  • Misty by Marguerite Henry
  • Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
  • Willy Finds a Victory by Joan Stromberg

Washington

  • Young Mac of Fort Vancouver by Mary Jane Carr
  • Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World by Frances Parkinson Keyes (Vision)

Washington D.C.

  • The Mitchell's: Five for Victory by Hilda Van Stockum

West Virginia

  • The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills (picture book)
  • Coal Camp Girl by Lois Lenski
  • When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (picture book)

Wisconsin

  • First Farm in the Valley: Anna's Story by Anne Pellowski and others in the Polish American Girls Series
  • Caddie Woodlawn and Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink
  • Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Rascal by Sterling North
  • Father Marquette and the Great Rivers by August Derleth (also Illinois, Michigan et al.)

Wyoming

  • My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara 

 

CANADA:

British Columbia

  • Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades
  • I Heard the Owl Call my Name by Margaret Craven

Alberta

  • Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman

Saskatchewan

  • Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat

Manitoba

 

Ontario

  • Paddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy Holling
  • Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
  • Olden Day Coat, Lawrence
  • One Hundred Shining Candles by Janet Lunn

Quebec

  • Blessed Marie of New France: The Story of the First Missionary Sisters in Canada by Mary Fabyan Windeatt
  • Canadian Summer by Hilda Van Stockum
  • Friendly Gables by Hilda Van Stockum
  • The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
  • The King's Daughter by Suzanne Martel
  • Madeline Takes Command
  • Maria Chapedelaine by Louis Hemon
  • Kateri Tekakwitha (Vision) (also New York State)
  • With Pipe, Paddle and Song by Elizabeth Yates
  • Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather (high school)

Newfoundland

 

New Brunswick

  • Charlotte by Janet Lunn

Nova Scotia

 

Prince Edward Island

  • Anne of Green Gables Series by L.M. Montgomery
  • Evangeline

Yukon Territory

 

Northwest Territory

  • Dangerous River by R. Patterson

Nunavut