Books for 2018-2019 School Year

This week was a nice quiet summer week. One of my chores this week was sorting through all of our books. I am pretty sure I touched every single book we own. I removed about 100 from our collection that were no longer needed. They have been passed on to others. I also pulled all of the books we will be using next year. I must admit, I became a bit overwhelmed by the piles of books I wanted to share with my kids next year. We just can't do it all, and truthfully, we are all slow readers in this house-hold. I am also a firm believer that a great deal of learning goes on away from books, so we will not become chained to this list of resources. However, I love having a wonderful pile of living books at my fingertips. By the term living books, I mean books that teach about life, character and the human spirit. They are the opposite of boring books. For example, living books bring history to life by telling the stories behind the history, whether through biographies, historical fiction, and classics, be they in picture book style, unabridged format, or anything in between.

I am not saying that we will read all of the books in the below list cover to cover. Some of them may only have certain units or short stories that we use, while others will be read in their entirety. I don't want to be tethered to any curriculum, schedule or book next year. I want our learning to be rich, relevant and meaningful, not turn into a checklist to be finished. 

1. The Useful Book by Sharon and David Bowers
2. Eat Your Way Through the USA by Loree Pettit
3. How to Build a Fire by Erin Bried
4. A Young People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
5. Who is Malala Yousqfzai?
6. Who is Sitting Bull?
7. The Barrier Reef and Northeast Australia (DVD)
8. Asheville A Postcard History Vol. 1 by Sue Greenberg
9. Turning Points in History ~ People Who Changed the World
10. Heroes of History Clara Barton Courage Under Fire by Janet and Geoff Beige
11. Alexander Hamilton the Outsider by Jean Fritz
12. Shh! We're Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz
13. The Story of the World  Vol. 4 by Susan Wise Bauer
14. The Story of the World  Vol. 4 workbook by Susan Wise Bauer
15. Great Colonial American Projects
16. Last Dinner on the Titanic by Rick Archbold
17. The Geography Drawing Series ~ Drawing Around the World ~ USA
18. Where Is Machu Picchu?
19. A Slice of Pie by Liz Strachan
20. Money Matters for Teens Workbook by Larry Burkatt
21. Conceptual Physics (Prentice Hall) by Paul G. Hewitt
22. Basic Physics a Self-Teaching Guide by Karl F. Kuhn
23. The Story of Science: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakin
24. Student Quest Guide for The Story of Science by Joy Hakin
25. The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Larry Burkett
26. Who Was Einstein
27. 101 Things To Do Before You Grow Up
28. Narration of the Life of Frederick Douglas
29. Frederick Douglas for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities
30. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
31. Little Men by Mary Alcott
32. Christy by Catherine Marshal
33. Beyond the Western Sea by Avi
34. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
35. Geography Through Art
36. Learning Language Arts Through Literature American
37. Everything You Need to Ace English in One Big Fat Notebook
38. Use It! Don't Lose It! Daily Language Practice
39. American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
40. Word Roots: Learning the Building Blocks of Better Spelling and Vocabulary
41. The Old Man and The See by Ernest Hemingway
42. Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?
43. To Kill a Mockingbird and 24 More Videos
44. Living Mathematically: Home Improvement
45. Survival Math Skills
46. Math in Everyday Life
47. Math in Everyday Life (teacher guide)
48. Scope Magazine ~ Scholastic
49. Choices Magazine ~ Scholastic

We will also be using several resources for our monthly poetry tea. This year we hope to cover Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams and Langston Hughes.

That is a long lineup and I am sure that other books will slip in and out of our lives through the year, but this is what I have on hand to add richness to our days.

Blessings, Dawn