Recommended Reading (overview)

Reading list

In 1997, when Al Young Studios was first featured in Victoria Magazine, an editor asked whether we had a list of books we could recommend for reading aloud as a family.  The question sparked our first attempt to list the titles we had enjoyed reading for nearly 20 years.  That list was integral to this Internet site, which we launched in the fall of 1998.  Then, in 2000, we started publishing The Storybook Home Journal, focused on bringing the stories home as part of daily life.  As of September 2018, the list features 203 titles by 84 authors.

Alcott, Louisa May
   Eight Cousins
   Jack and Jill
   Little Women
   An Old-Fashioned Girl
   Rose in Bloom
Atkinson, Eleanor
   Greyfriars Bobby
Arnim, Elizabeth Von
   The Enchanted April
Austen, Jane
   Emma
   Mansfield Park
   Northanger Abbey
   Persuasion
   Pride and Prejudice
   Sense and Sensibility
Baum, L. Frank
   The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth
   Little Witch
Blackmoore, R. D.
   Lorna Doone
Bowen, Catherine Drinker
   John Adams and the American Revolution
   Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
   The Christmas Hirelings
Brink, Carol Ryrie
   Caddie Woodlawn
Brontë, Anne
   Agnes Grey
   The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Brontë, Charlotte
   Jane Eyre
   Shirley
   Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily
   Wuthering Heights
Buchan, John
   Salute to Adventurers
Buff, Conrad and Mary
   The Apple and the Arrow
Burnett, Frances Hodgson
   A Little Princess
   Little Lord Fauntleroy
   The Secret Garden
Cather, Willa
   Death Comes for the Archbishop
Collins, Wilkie
   The Moonstone
Coolidge, Susan
   Clover
   In the High Valley
   What Katy Did
   What Katy Did at School
   What Katy Did Next
Davies, Valentine
   Miracle on 34th Street
Defoe, Daniel
   Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles
   A Christmas Carol
   A Tale of Two Cities
   Bleak House
   Christmas novellas
   David Copperfield
   Little Dorrit
   Nicholas Nickleby
   Oliver Twist
   Our Mutual Friend
   The Pickwick Papers
Dodge, Mary Mapes
   Hans Brinker
Doyle, Arthur Conan
   The Hound of the Baskervilles
   The Return of Sherlock Holmes
   Sherlock Holmes
   The Sign of the Four
Dumas, Alexandre
   The Count of Monte Cristo
Eliot, George
   Silas Marner
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
   Understood Betsy
Forbes, Kathryn
   Mama's Bank Account
Gaskell, Elizabeth
   Cranford
   North and South
   Wives and Daughters
Goldsmith, Oliver
   The Vicar of Wakefield
Grahame, Kenneth
   Dream Days
   The Golden Age
   The Reluctant Dragon
   The Wind in the Willows
Greenaway, Kate
   Illustrated Anthology of Nursery Rhymes
Haggard, H. Rider
   King Solomon's Mines
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
   The House of the Seven Gables
Hoffman, E. T. A.
   The Nutcracker
Hugo, Victor
   Les Misérables
Hutton, James
   Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Irving, Washington
   Old Christmas
Jerome, Jerome K.
   Three Men in a Boat
   Three Men on the Bummel
Jewett, Sarah Orne
   Deephaven
   The Country of the Pointed Firs
Kastner, Erich
   Emil and the Detectives (trans.)
   Lisa and Lottie (trans.)
Keller, Helen
   The Story of My Life
Kipling, Rudyard
   Captains Courageous
   Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
   The Jungle Book
   Just So Stories
   The Second Jungle Book
Knight, Eric
   Lassie Come Home
Larsson, Carl
   A Family
   A Farm
   A Home
L'Engle, Madeline
   A Wrinkle in Time
Lewis, C. S.
   Prince Caspian
   The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
   The Silver Chair
Lovelace, Maud Hart
   Betsy and Joe
   Betsy and the Great World
   Betsy In Spite of Herself
   Betsy-Tacy
   Betsy was a Junior
   Betsy-Tacy and Tib
   Betsy's Wedding
   Carney's House Party
   Emily of Deep Valley
   Heaven to Betsy
   Winona's Pony Cart
Manzoni, Alessandro
   The Betrothed (trans.)
Mason, A. E. W.
   The Four Feathers
McCulley, Johnston
   The Mark of Zorro
Mayer, Mercer
   East of the Sun and West of the Moon
   Sleeping Beauty
Milne, A. A.
   Essays
   The House at Pooh Corner
   Now We Are Six
   The Red House Mystery
   When We Were Very Young
   Winnie the Pooh
Montgomery, Lucy Maud
   Anne of Avonlea
   Anne of Green Gables
   Anne of the Island
   Anne of Windy Poplars
   Anne's House of Dreams
   Chronicles of Avonlee
Moore, Clement Clarke
   A Visit From St. Nicholas
Morris, Elisabeth Woodbridge
   The Jonathan Papers
   More Jonathan Papers
Nesbit, E.
   My School Days
   The Deliverers of Their Country
   The Enchanted Castle
   The Lark
   The Red House
   The Railway Children
   The Story of the Treasure Seekers
   The Wonderful Garden
   The Wouldbegoods
Norton, Mary
   The Borrowers
Orczy, Emma
   The Scarlet Pimpernel
Patton, Frances Gray
   Good Morning, Miss Dove
Porter, Eleanor H.
   Just David
   Miss Billy
   Miss Billy's Decision
   Miss Billy Married
   Pollyanna
   Six Star Ranch
Porter, Gene Stratton
   Freckles
   A Girl of the Limberlost
   The Harvester
   Laddie
Porter, Jane
   The Scottish Chiefs
Potter, Beatrix
   Tales
Pyle, Howard
   The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
Rankin, Carroll Watson
   Dandelion Cottage
Ransome, Arthur
   Swallows and Amazons series
Rogers, Anne
   Musicians of Bremen (trans.)
Scott, Walter
   Ivanhoe
Shakespeare, William
   Plays
   Sonnets
Smith, Dodie
   The One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Smith, Nora
   A Biography of Kate Douglas Wiggin as Her Sister Knew Her
Speare, Elizabeth George
   Calico Captive
   The Sign of the Beaver
   The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Spyri, Johanna
   Heidi (trans.)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
   David Balfour (Catriona)
   Kidnapped
   The Black Arrow
   Treasure Island
Streatfeild, Noel
   Ballet Shoes
   Movie Shoes (The Painted Garden)
   The Family at Caldicott Place
Thomas, Dylan
   A Child's Christmas in Wales
Tolkien, J. R. R.
   The Hobbit
   The Fellowship of the Ring
   The Two Towers
   The Return of the King
Travers, P. L.
   Mary Poppins
Trollope, Anthony
   Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
   Ayala's Angel
   Barchester Towers
   Can You Forgive Her?
   Doctor Thorne
   Framley Parsonage
   The Last Chronicle of Barset
   Rachel Ray
   The Three Clerks
   The Warden
   The Duke's Children
Turner, Ethel
   Seven Little Australians
   The Family at Misrule
Twain, Mark
   Life on the Mississippi
   The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
   The Prince and the Pauper
Ullman, James Ramsey
   Banner in the Sky
Warner, Gertrude Chandler
   The Boxcar Children (original novel)
Webster, Jean
   Daddy-Long-Legs
   Dear Enemy
   Just Patty
   When Patty Went to College
White, E. B.
   The Trumpet of the Swan
   Charlotte's Web
Wiggin, Kate Douglas
   The Birds' Christmas Carol
   Mother Carey's Chickens
   My Garden of Memory
   New Chronicles of Rebecca
   The Old Peabody Pew
   Penelope's English Experiences
   Penelope's Experiences in Scotland
   Penelope's Irish Experiences
   Penelope's Little George Washington
   Penelope's Marm Lisa
   Penelope's Postscripts
   Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
   The Romance of a Christmas Card
   Rose O the River
Wilde, Oscar
   The Happy Prince
   The Selfish Giant
Wilder, Laura Ingalls
   Farmer Boy
   Little House in the Big Woods
Wordsworth, Dorothy
   Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals

Tags: 2021, Overview, Recommended reading