This post is part of the iHomeschool Network’s 10 in 10 link up. Today’s topic is top 10 favorite books. I’m taking a living books approach and listing my ten favorite public domain titles for a Charlotte Mason homeschool.
These are books are untainted by modern political correctness and are rich in advanced vocabulary. Best of all, because they are in the public domain, they are all free. Many of these titles can be found at various spots online such as Main Lesson, Gutenberg, Heritage History, Archive.org, Librovox.org (audio) and Google Books. Each spot will have a different format, so if you don’t like or can’t use the format which I’ve linked to, simply search for another version of it.
I did not include in this list any of the books that are in the Top Ten Charlotte Mason Must Haves even though there are some public domain books in that list as well. All of these titles are ones that I have actually in our homeschool. They are all highly recommended.
1. Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit
at Main Lesson; at Archive
2. Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb
Numbers one and two are both retellings which make Shakespeare’s plays accessible to elementary aged learners. Don’t “save” Shakespeare for high school. Go ahead and enjoy him now with these stories.
3. Alfred Church’s Greek Classics retold for Boys and Girls: The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid
at Main Lesson; at Librivox
There is a reason these three classics are called epics — they are still as enjoyable today as they were in the days of ancient Greece or Rome. Again, a simplified retelling makes these easier to grasp than the more advanced translations your children might read in high school or college. (Heritage History sells attractively formatted and affordable eBook versions of these as well as providing the entire texts, free online.)
4. Thornton Burgess’s Nature Stories
at Main Lesson; at Librivox
Sheer delight. Burgess’s animal stories have a beautiful way of weaving in facts about nature in a way that is not distracting from the tale but rather enhances it.
An Excerpt from Famous Men of the Middle Ages
5. John H. Haaren’s Famous Men Series: Greece, Rome, Middle Ages, Modern Times
at Main Lesson; at Librivox
These four volumes can be used as history spines or supplements. They take a biographical approach to history, telling narratives of men from the time period. This is the interesting way to learn history. (Heritage History sells attractively formatted and affordable eBook versions of these as well as offering the entire text free online.)
6. Poems Every Child Should Know by Mary E. Burt
at Main Lesson; at Gutenberg
If you need a poetry spine for daily poetry study or for a unit of study, this free book is a good option. Of course, there are no funny poems from Jack Prelutsky, but all of the classics are included.
An Excerpt from Grammarland
7. Grammarland by M. L. Nesbit
at Google Books; at Librivox; PDF at Homeway Press
This may be the single book that takes a narrative approach to grammar. In Grammarland, children meet the parts of speech as they are personified in unique characters. The book includes grammar exercises to reinforce each chapter. This book sounds strange, and it is, but it is also interesting and engaging.
Illustration from Number Stories of Long Ago
8. Number Stories of Long Ago by David Eugene Smith
at Google Books; at Archive
Like Grammarland, Number Stories takes a narrative approach to an topic that rarely gets that kind of treatment –math. It is really a math history primer, taking the reader through the major civilizations of history and finding how each one dealt with numbers and computation. This was one of those books that my daughter was always happy to listen to.
9. The World’s Great Men of Music by Harriette Brower
at Google Books; at Many Books
I like to add a biographical sketch to our composer studies, and The World’s Great Men of Music is a free alternative to a book like The Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers (without the Christian content, of course). I keep this one on my Kindle and refer to it occasionally.
An Illustration from Pilgrim's Progress
10. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
at Archive; at Many Books
Of course, I assume that your home has a Bible. That is the supreme public domain book that you can use in your homeschool and life. But it really goes without saying, so I didn’t include it in the top ten. Instead I will remind you of a spiritual classic that has stood alongside the Bible for centuries –Pilgrims Progress. Read it for literature, for discipleship, or create an entire unit study. It should be included in your homeschool schedule at some point in the 12 years of education.
I’d love to hear what books you would add to this list if we extended it to 20 or more. Please leave a comment.
This post is linked up at Angie’s Top Ten Tuesday.
If you want to join in, post a top ten post of any topic and link up there.
More Posts Like This One:
- Charlotte Mason for Elementary Years
- Charlotte Mason Q & A
- Charlotte Mason Carnival
- Charlotte Mason Homeschool
Hi and welcome! I'm Jimmie and this is my online collage of our Charlotte Mason homeschool. Taking just a little more time to document our learning shortens the learning curve for other busy homeschool moms.
Feel free to browse around my posts and freebies. My aim is to bless each reader with something useful. 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
How funny–I linked up with Many Little Blessings today and two of our picks are graphic novels based on Shakespeare and classic legends like The Odyssey and Beowulf. I so agree that these stories should be shared with elementary aged children, they are so filled with such vivid imagery and sometimes require that suspended disbelief that is so much easier in childhood!
Now I want to check out more of the books on your list!
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June 12, 2012 at 4:40 pm
OH, Jimmie, I LOVE Grammar Land and Math Stories from Long Ago…I’ll head over and check out the others! Love the way you keep growing my home!
What a great list! I am bookmarking it until I have time to go download them. Thanks for sharing!
Jana recently posted Funnix.
There’s nothing better than free books.
I am wondering about the Famous Men series. What would you say is a good age for that? (Is it more middle school or will by young elementary kiddos enjoy reading it together?)
kim sorgius recently posted top 10 favorite chapter book series.
Great books. I’ll have to check out Grammarland…never heard of that one
Kerry recently posted Top 10 Favorite Read Alouds from Homeschool Grads.
I just realized we don’t have any of these books {except for #11 of course}! Now my Amazon shopping cart has 10 MORE books. Thanks for sharing a great list! =}
Jen ~ Gricefully Homeschooling recently posted Moving Our Homeschool to the Country ~ Tips to Get Started.
Hi, Jimmie! Off the top of my head, I’d add Howard Pyle’s King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table selections. We loved those!
Ellen, the Bluestocking Belle recently posted A Poem.
Most of these titles are available free for Kindle as well. It’s easy to download a free Kindle app to your Mac or PC and then you are set to go. Nice to have a big screen to read from.